The San Francisco call., 1906-09-30

Some of these are undesirable combi-
nations to lead from, and should be
avoided II possible, such as A Q 10 and
10, but the beginner need nottrou-
BILE himself with such exceptions at
present.
The card to lead from each of these
will be the same as that which would
be selected for play against trump
declaration, and the rules for the con-
tinuation of the suit will be the same.
In other words, the leads at no trump
and with trump are Identical when
the player holds three honors in the
suit.
1t is when we come to suits headed
by two honors only that the great DIFF
ference between the two systems of
opening the hand is apparent. With a
declared trump, you always lead an
honor If you have two of them in Sc
Quence. At no-trump you never do SO.
unless you hold seven cards of the suit.
There are two reasons for this: First,
If you have as many as seven cards in
one suit there is strong probability that
all the high cards will fall in two
rounds Second, with so many in your
own hand your partner may be SO short
that he can never lead the suit to you
again. If you have not SO many as
seven cards, the chances of dropping
the high cards are less and you should
first trick, or at least leave him with a
card to return to you.
An illustration will make this clear
because 1t is very important In playing
against no-trumpers that the adversa-
ries should make the most of what re-
sources they have and get all the tricks
they can out of their one suit If they
have such thing. The dealer usually
goes no-trumps with a weak spot in his
armor, but the adversaries too often
throw away the chance of defeating
him by their own bad management of
their single weapon.
If you have five cards Of suit, head
ed by A K, and you lead the K and
then the A and do not catch the O. you
must lead third round to get the suit
cleared, because if you do not clear 1t
there is nothing more in it. Now, un-
less your partner held four cards in the
suit originally he will have none to
return to you after This third clearing
round.
You must get into the lead yourself
or your suit is useless. But If you be-
gin with small card it does not mat
ter If the dealer does win the trick nor
what he wins it with, your partner will
be able to return your suit to you if he
gets in before you do, unless he had a
singleton in the first place. On the
second and third rounds your two win
ming cards will very likely clear the
suit for you. just as if you had three
winning leads in the first place.
It is always Of the greatest advan-
tage for either adversary to be able
to continue a suit, no matter which of
them gets the lead, and the knowledge
that such is the situation will often
force the dealer to give up possible
advantages in other suits and cause
him to lose tricks which he would
otherwise have played for and made.
Nothing has such denRoralizing effect
on a dealer as to feel that no matter
which adversary gets in suit will be
run down against him.
In playing against a trump declara-
ton, it would be very dangerous to
lead a small card with both A and K in
your hand, because either the A or K
or both OF them might be trumped If
they were not led originally. In a no
trumper, this danger does not exist,
and the leader can so arrange his
game that his high cards will be of
assistance In making his smaller cards
good for tricks without any fear of
losing these high cards by their being
trumped.
AS an Illustration Of the difference
in the method of opening suit against
a no-trumper, take the following
simple position of the cards, in which z
has declared no trumps at the score
of love-all.