Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-14
BRIDGE TALKS
Written Expressly for The Star By Miss Bessie
Allen OF Milwaukee.

Allen OF Milwaukee.
No. ID.
Playing Dummy on No Trumper.
The suit which the adversary leads is or
dtnarfly the one you should not pursue
when you are playing the dummy, as. II
they have the strength, It Is not often that
you can take many tricks In It, and by
leading off your strength In 1t you estab-
lish their length.
However. it sometimes happens that you
have just as many of that suit as the lead
er has, and occasionally even more, with
enough high cards to make the continuation
OF 1T profitable. In that case you should
play to win the first trick as cheaply as
possible in your own hand. reserving what
ever strength you may have so that either
now or later you may lead through the
leaders hand, thus placing his high cards
at disadvantage
Avoid. above all things, leading of the
winning cards Of any suit and establishing
the rest of that suit for your adversaries
Keep those winners till the end, until you
have established and made your long suit
then. having made the length of your suit,
do not let the lead escape from either hand
until you are sure there is noneood card
left there to make,
Many tricks are lost through carelessnesS
at this point, and the player suddenly
awakens to the realization that the lead is
III inc wrong mana Win no POSSIBILITY Ol
ever getting 1t back again.
Finesse.
The word 'fnesse" means taking a
chance" and the object OF the fnesse Is to
nullify good card in the adversary's hand
at your right. If that adversary has not
followed suit, there is no fnesse.
When you and the dummy together have
nine, nine or more cards in a suit, with ace and
king, 1t Is not wise to f1nesse, as the re-
manning four cards may be equally divided
between the adversaries and have to fall
on your two leads.
With fewer than nine cards you will prob
ably have to make some flnesse, unless the
suit is fully established OF "set up
Never hnesSe without considering what
Will be likely to happen If you lose. If one
adversary has an established suit ready to
make and his partner has no more. 1t would
be folly to chance any finesse which might
let the long suit In. Rather, play to lose, IL
necessary, to the partner who has no more;
he will have to open some other suit, prob
ably to your advantage. Always try 80 to
play that If the finesse loses you will lose
to that adversary who is less dangerous.
When holding a tenace, that suit should
be opened from the other hand and the
lower card of the tenace fnessed. If, In the
other hand there is a card as good as the
lower card of the tenace, lead that and
pass it. For example: Having ace and
queen at the head of a suit lead from tho
otiicT anu lilitSSe the queen, with JdCh
In the other hand, lead the Jack and pass 1t,
If 1t wins lead again and finesse the queen.
If jack loses the ace and queen are made
good.
With ace, jack and others in-one hand
and queen in the other, lead the queen and
pass 1t.
When holding ace, jack in one hand and
king in the other. or king, jack in one and
ace in the other. it is usually wiser not to
ffnesse the first time, there may be de-
velopment upon the first trick which will
suggest to you where the intermediate high
card lies. The first lead may come from
either side. but play so that the lone high
card wins. then the lead will be in the
hand to lead to the tenace at the second
trick.
In finessing the lead should generally be
the highest card in the weaker holding.
When you hold king and queen in one
hand and low cards in the other do not
lead the king to force the ace, but lead
low from the other hand up to the king and
queen If the ace lies in the second hand
you will either force 1t out at once, making
your king and queen good or you will make
the queen, whereupon you can put yourself
in on another suit and again lead through
the ace