The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-08-06
APoUNp THE WHIST TABLE.
.v<,oE. TrNAcE HAND As AFfHC1HD
"A hA' r,,r hING'S POSITION.

.d from nm Examination of
Hsrn" ~, ,n 400 Ueals-The Trump OPEN
Inc N.ri.tions-Best General hule
% All such Hands A Whist frooie"'
,.,.a,, the article published on July ~.
ne or,oinal leader holds rnnjor-tenace
wh'" 'u.l hc an even chance which OF the
.''s ~ thor hands viii hold the king. Ihere 10
'hree rhy +, should he in one position
NJ t,.ouor,ly than another. but IN The
-. IN 0uD dea,s II so happens that the KING
.o.oIl, distributed. there belnR only
,, d,al4 IN which II IL In the hand OF the
wv, whom the original leader holds no pam
-, NOR, than tour cards. and that suit Is
h.ad.d by III" MAJOR tonace. I'll
nee ,,,o,,t mat (, We knew that the king
,,, r,r,I.,rs hand the suit might he
.l,l az t,rnc'lcnliy established. ana played
'-,,., iron, tle start. the only question being
-s.,baro or not t. lead trumpe. win euincient
ras,,rv s.rpagrN his would be matter OF
.,,rso 40 the strong plain suit would DO prac-
t,rs,l, headed by u
10. m old axiom In whist that the only good
,...,rs Tor going on with an established suit
70 give your partner discards or 10 force
-sly.raary As neither NJ these ccholtlons
.v,st IN 'he original lead. there 10 notnine
hs ,,,,.d Nv opening hand with an estab-
tab sl.' 'lii'eSS you hIt luhtihe IVA ''eh
a.. rho r-opcr thing 70 do lie to make some
.,,.,,r. 10 defend the suit, or at least TO show
:, -, ,ov- r,rtner and see whether or not he
Won on, with u. In the case before US
ri.,ct Known Al the outset whether the suit
a. o.,,lushad or not on the contrary. the odds
.,u,.o one that II Is not and that the king
4. AGAINST the ender What we are trying to
rrd (. sore general rule which will apply to
.r,h hands no matter where the king Is. and
hitch will work equally we'll whether that
..r5l. in the partners hand or not.
Tn. arv.two deals already referred to have
han carefully analysed. and the general re-
.ul, NJ the various openings, trumps. plain
.uI.s and tenace suits has been found to be as
fellows In forty-tour OF them. the remaining
eight being pianos:
Original LEAD " trumps yields .-....27e tricks
original lead Of tenace suits IVY tricks
Original lead Of other plain suits .-..z72 tricks
Thi, shows en- advantage Of twelve tricks In
forty four deals In favor OF the tenace open
ing. or about one fourth OF a trick deal. whom
the king is in the partners hand. Taking all
the positions Of the king together. we get the
following results from the vartous openings
for 10 hands, in which the leaders best plain
suit was one OF four cards. headed by the
major tenace:
Original lead Of trumps Yields tricks
Original lead Of tenAce suits LOIS tricks
Original lead Of other plain suits. 1o2 tricks
The actual number Of deals In which the
king was in given position not being equal to
the theoreti cal number. 1t will be Instructive
70 look at the percentages for each position
which 60 to make UP the total loss OF eighty
eight tricks In ITO hands:
when the king is the left the percentage Of loss
from leading away from the tenace .571.
when tn. king IS on the right, .971.
when the king ia IN tho partners hand the per
ctntRge OF gain Ia 2T2.
This gives us a grand average Of .423. OF
about forty-two tricks In every 100 deals lost
Nv leading away from four-card tenace suits.
a. compared TO leading trumps originally.
This would seem to show that there Is not
enough advantage in the cases In which the
king Is in the partners hand to balance the
disadvantage ~ opening such suits when the
king is in the hand Of either adversary. The
small percentage OF gain which is found when
getting first force on the adversary, or to the
fact that the tricks are made in the tenace
suit before either adversary gets any chance tc
discard it In analyzing these hands II was
mad" an nvariable rule for the third hand tC
return his partners suit unless he was stronR
kent At the suit originally opened unless he
saw y would .prce both adversaries. allowing
one 10 trump and the other to discard.
Many OF the hands in which the trump omen.
Ing proved disastrous were. nevertheless, such
AS would be opened in that way by nine player,
N the subject, Take the following. for in.
utnc". No 1903. recorded by W. G. Hosea OIL
tncnnati in which Z dealt and turned the
heart 3: