Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-03-25

CREATION TAKE A BACK SEAT.
Whatever John T. Mitchell, of Chi
cago, has to say on the game is worth
attention. The following is his latest
expressions on the subject of forced
leads: when you are not the original
leader you are not governed by the
rules for leading to anything like the
same extent as when you are. Your
best suit may have been started by
the adversaries, or you may. have no
great strength in any suit. Your part
ner may have shown a suit which is
in all probability stronger than any
suit you have, or the fall of the cards
may have indicated that one or other
of the suits which have not yet been
led is your partners suit. In any of
these cases you would be justified in
leading from short suit or making
what is technically known as forced
Lead When you lead from suit of
less than four you regulate your play
according to the rule for returned
leads. That is to say, you go on the
principle that your partner has shown
you his long suit, if only by implica-
ton, and you return him the highest.
This is done not only to save the high
cards in his hand, but also to show
him the nature Of the lead. If you
lead the highest you have, the cards
in his hand, or those that are played
by the adversaries, disclose the fact
that you could not have had any of
the combinations which would have
justified the lead as an original open
ing, and he is, therefore. not misled by
your play. With king and queen, and
two small, the Indications must be
pretty strong that it is your partners
suit before you lead it, but with the
king or queen and one small, the pre-
sumption need not be so great, as ii
he has either of the other honors, you
would be most likely to lose it any,
way. With ace and one or two or
be made without hesitation. If the
card you lead wins the trick you fol-
low with the next highest. The gen.
eral rule, when in doubt as to what to
lead, is to lead through the strong
hand up to the weak, and this rule is
good one after trumps are exhaust
ed, but in the early part of the deal it
is better to play for probable suit
in your partners hand than to run the
risk of establishing the adversarys
suit by continuing the lead. If you
have a very weak hand yourself, it is
sometimes better to lead up to the
strong than through it, especially if
you can lead card which forces the
fpurthj hand to win the trick, as he is
then in doubt as to the ACCESSIBILITY of
continuing the suit, and you may in
duce the advantageous lead of a new
suit up to your partner"
Except the most immoderate of the
short suit contingent all agree that a
good long suit is worth playing for
1t is extremely doubtful if any except
the veriest beginner at the game now
adays opens an utterly worthless long
suit just to show his partner that he
has more cards in that suit than in
any other. A bright player not long
ago in speaking of this matter said:
what is the good of gossiping about
a hand unless you can do something
with it? If the best the hand contains
is suit Of four or five headed by the
nine or even the ten, and with neither
trumps nor re-entry cards it is con-
ceded by all who have given the sub
ject moments thought that it is bet
ter to leave the long weak suit alone
and do the next best thing, which is to
lead something in the hope of helping
the partner. With no indications as
to the lay of the land this must of Ie-
cessity be rather in the nature of
leap in the dark, and one runs the
chance of doing the very thing cal
culated to aid the enemy. 1t must he
remembered that the conscientious
player who opens short could not take
many tricks no matter what his open
ing might be and he is trying to do
what will effect the least harm to his
partner. The rabid short-suiter of a
few years ago who always played for
ruff no matter what the component
part sof his hand might be is rapidly
dying out, and has been replaced by a
more reasonable being who no longer
despises the advantages of establish
ing and bringing in a long suit when
it can be done. Learning the game
theoretically Is part OF every players
early whist education, but, once
grounded in the principles of whist.
the most fixed rules give way to the
drop of the cards, and to the percep-