The sun., 1899-09-10
AROUND THE WHIST TABLE.



Mathews Maxims and Modern Practice
Some Effects Of Second Hand Play
Hands to illustrate Sound Principles.
There 10 probably no other part OF whist
strategy that has undergone such q change
during the past few years az the play OF tho
second hand. In the old days when long-sut
openings were the inyariable rule all the play
OF the second hand was based upon the theory
that the original lead OF any high card showed
certain other high cards in the leaders hand
and that any small card led was certainly
fourth best. showing that a certain number OF
higher cards were out against the leader.
The old masters attached more Importance
to second hand play than 10 any other part Of
the game. and II we may believe the accounts
which have come down to us OF the play OF
Deschapellss II was that for which he was
chiefly famous. one writer describing It as
terrific" An examination OF the old text
books will show that they devote q good deal
OF spaoe to the oonsideratlon OF the various
situations In which the second hand will prob
ably find himself In difficulties and need ad-
vice. Mathews. in his Advice to the Young
Whist Player" devotes more OF his maxims to
second hand play than to any other subject,
and his remarks. although made 100 years
ago are well worthy OF our consideration to-
day. and show that his ideas agreed very
closely with tho best modern practice. Tho
principal points he gives are the following:
With only three cards In the suit led. put an
honor on an honor. but pass II you hold four OF
the suit. except that ace should be put on the
jack. It will be observed that he does not
mention the exceptional cases in which tho
four cards contain an imperfect fourchette. the
importance OF which will be seen from the play
OF one OF the hands published to-day.
With king and one small. good players some
times put IL on second hand. and sometimes
not. II it Is a trump 1t should generally be
played. and always II IL 10 turned up The
queen or Jack should never be played from
queen and ono small or jack and one small OK
cept in trumps whom superior card has been
turned up on the right.
With ace, queen and others play the mall
card unless the jack IL led through you. in
which case play the ace invariably. With
king queen aud others play tho queen when a
small card is led. With queen. jack and one
small play the jack. but with two small cards
play the smaller. With ace. queen. ten
Mathews recommends the ten. and says moth
Ing about the general weakness. which sug-
Gests to the modern player that 1t would be
safor to go in with the queen.
The modern school OF common sense players
holding A . J second hand. or A 10. invari-
ably fa'se-card the queen from the first and
the Jack from the second. so as to conceal the
tenace from the adversary and induce him to
believe that one more lead will clear his suit.
Mathews saws that with A ] 10 Of trumps we
should play the ten. but should play small in
plain suits. He gives as the reason for passing
In trumps that they are 90 often led low from
both king and queen. while In plain suits the
high cards would be led He says II one OF
the high cards must be behind you, as In
plain suit. It 10 useless to put in ihe jack or
ten second hand. II Ia difficult to zee why tho
samo reasoning docs not apply to trumps.
from which it is very common to lead with a
single honor
Mathews makes ono rather peculiar e1cep-
tion to the almost universal rule OF playing i'm
perfect fourehettes. In his 9th maxim he
SAYS: II the queen Is led ON my right and l
hold king. ten and small or ace. ten and small.
/ invariably pass II. and for the following
reason: BY passing 1t. II partnsr has the higher
card. clearly lie tenace and the leader cannot
possibly make a trick In the suit, which he
must do II win the flrst trick as he would then
lie tenace over my partner. II your partner
has tho jack. you lose trick. but the odds are
greatly against this"
This exact position occurs In the second
hand pubishtd to-day: the partner has not the
jack. yet the play loses three tricks
with ace. king and two others OF a suit led
Mathews says there are two ways to play II you
are strong In trumps. Either pass the first
trick altogether. or put on the ace and play the
suit on in hopeA Of forcing your partner. II you
are weak In trumps. put on the ace, but do not
continue the suit. Almost all the old masters
will be found to recommend this system Of
false -cardng the ace when holding both ace
and king second hand. but none OF them call
attention to the obvious inference that when
second hand plays the king he cannot hold the
ace. or he would fslse-card It. and that when
he plays tho he IN hayA tho king or q
II you have the best card OF the adversaries'
suit. with small one. the first round having
been won by the player, on your right. WHO
i'm med !ntely returns 1t. always play the email
will probably make 1t il the adversary on your
lsit is a good PLAYER, Il he 10 bad player.
coup. because such persons never lnosse
when they should do so.
II. on the first round Of a suit. the player on
your right plays either a jack or queen third
yoHr VIM wh the oEd
Il when the suit i. led through you again
il the fourth player win. tho nrst round q
through you. put UP the hest card you have.
especially II you have led from king and the
Mat hews lays down as one OF the few uni
adhered to-. tha. You should never run an un,
in trumps. He advises US to follow this rule
even when we know. that partner holds the
sSd Icttns he partner into the state q he
statement as to trump strength, and leayes the
beginner under the impression that with eight
trumpH; which 10 certainly strength. 1t would
be advisable to pass doub btful trick.
In tho modern game We have several rules
which are not TO be found in any Of the old
the Whist Manual; when you hold
any com birati2p Of, high cards. from
which you would lead high card. II you
hnd TO open The suit. rlny ono q these
mon sense game this rule ia extended to cases
Of ace and four others. evon when one OF the
interior cards is the queen. Many common
sense plGyers put in the king second hand
whom they hold king, and three or four small
cards and have a good lead with which to fol-
low IT,. This often works very well when op-
posed to those that lead low from ace to hve
Perhaps the most striking change In modern
practice has been the recognition Of the I'M
portance Of covering with imperfect four
chettes. An imperfect iourchstte is the card
above and the one next but one below the
one led such as X 10 over q queen, or 30 over
Jack. Many persons make the nIistake OF
CALI X 10 an imperfect tourchette over a
Jack, or Y 9 over ten, but these are not true