The San Francisco call., 1906-09-16

ton entirely Ito leads from Nigh
cards. the ten or better. End TO
those which are made by the orig
inal leader, or eldest hand. All such
leads are called blind leads because
they are made in ignorance of every
thing but the declaration and the score.
But there are certain combinations of
high cards in which nothing can be ac-
complished by leading a high card for
the first trick. These combinations are
those which contain neither the best
of the suit, nor both second and third
best. Tor three honors. They may be gen.
orally described as honors which are
and ] 9. The combinations of A Q and
are undesirable ones to lead from
If there are not more than four cards in
the suit. but the objection to them
must be left for future article. For
the present the beginner should be sat
ished with the General principle that
If he leads suit which contains the
but not the K the A should always be
led. This does not mean that he sneuld
pick out suit headed by the ace, but
If that is the suit selected the ace is
the card to lead. Hundreds of tricks
are lost by leading a small card from
ace and others when playing against
declared trump.
We have found that from any suit
headed by two or more honors in Sc
quence an honor should be led when
playing against a declared trump. But
if there is no such suit the eldest hand
must still adopt some system in his
blind lead or his partner will not un-
derstand the possibilities of the hand,
its strength or its weakness.
We have seen in the last article
that when the player did not hold the
third best. he should lead the fourth
best of those originally held.
The same rule applies to the orig
inai lead when the higher combina
items fail, Lead the fourth best
If you have not the best or winning
cards of the suit, the A, or the A and
K: nor the second and third best.
which would be the K and @; nor three
honors, which would be X ] 10, or @ ]
10 you must begin with your fourth
best, counting from the top of the suit.
Sort the suit in order, from the high
est card to the lowest and the fourth
from the top is the fourth best In
the following combinations, for in
stance. the fourth best card would be
the five in each case:
KISS J9
X 10 6 5 10s7
Q 10 1872 s76
This card was originally called the
penultimate of FIVE and then ante
penultimate of six, and the object in
leading 1t at whist was TO show wheth-
ha o~iy haA fna.r IF "a
suit or more than four. Apart from
that 1t had no meaning. Mr.. N. B. Trist
of New Orleans suggested to the Field
that, instead of calling it the penulti-
mate aud the ante-penultimate, reck-
oning from the bottom Of the suit, 1t
would be simpler to count from the top,
and this soon became the general Gus
tom.
In the year 1881, while I was study
ing the various combinations of cards
that could be held against a player who
led his fourth best at whist, it struck
me as peculiar that whenever partic-
ular card was led, such as the Z. the
number of cards out against the leader
was always the same, no matter what
the cards were. This led me to inves-
tigate the matter more fully, and l
found that the difference between the
number OF spots on the card led and
eleven always represented the number
Of cards out against the leader higher
than the card he led.
This led me to formulate the rule
that if the spots on the card led were
deducted from eleven it would inva-
riably and infallibly give the number
os cards higher than the one led which
were not in the leaders hand
For number of years l taught that
rule to my pupils in whist, but 1 did
not publish il until 1889, although !
had explained it to "Cavendish' and
other authorities at a much earlier
date. After its publications. in Eos
ters Whist Manual II came into al
most universal use, and was known to
whist players as Fosters Eleven Rule
When bridge came into vogue, about
1898, this eleven rule was found TO be
even more useful than ii lad been in
whist, because of the possibility of
counting two hands as soon as dummy's
cards were laid down. The rule is now
used by every one with any pretensions
to being player.
The method Of using the eleven rule
is as follows:
When the eldest hand leads any card
which is not an honor deduct the spots
on it from eleven. From the remainder
thus found deduct the number of cards.
higher than the one led, which are in
your own hand or in durnmy's, in that
suit. 1nlS Hnal remainder is the num-
ber of cards in the dealers hand which
are higher than the card led.
The principal thing to remember is
that 1t is only the cards higher than the
one led which you need trouble about
1t does not matter about the smaller
cards, IL your partners cards are all
higher ones.
One or two illustrations will make
the application of this rule clear. Sup
pose you are third hand and your
partner leads the seven OF clubs. Sort
out suit OF clubs; nothing fixes any,
thing in the memory like the use of
the actual cards in the hand Dummy
lays down the @ 9 g. and you hold the
A 8. You deduct seven from eleven
and find 1t leaves four. These four
cards, higher than the seven, are all
in sight; the Q in dummy, the A J.
in your own hand; therefore the deal
er cannot have any card higher than
the seven.
If you will lay out the rest of the
suit, giving your partner such cards
as will make the seven his fourth best.
you will see that it is impossible for
the dealer to have anything higher.
Take another example. The card led
is the of clubs. Leave dummy the
@ 8 2 as before, but give yourself the
x 4. Take 6 from IL and you have s.