The San Francisco call., 1906-11-04
Copyright, 1906, by r.. F. Foster.
No. III

Il.
He has two chances to get A in. He can
either risk everything on AS having
the ace of diamonds, which is trusting
to one card, or he can play A for either
or 10 of spades. Thinking this the
safer plan, as 1T is a two-card chance
he leads the ace of spades and picks
up dummy's king. and then plays the
small spade to make 1t look as if the
Q must be in AS hand. This will pre-
vent 2 from putting in the second
hand, and if A has the 10 he will get
the trick!
Unfortunately for this scheme, q
holds both ] and 10, and follows the
rule for second hand play, which is al
ways to put on one of the second and
third best cards of a suit if you hold
both.
q, getting unexpectedly in the lead,
runs off his club suit, playing it in
such a way that he shall be in the lead
at the end. B cannot give up the spade
@ while the is marked in rs hand,
but he should have kept diamond,
so as to take the other chance If he is
forced into the lead later on. This
part of rs strategy he evidently did
not anticipate.
At trick can count for the spade
@ and all the hearts but dummy's and
perhaps one in AS hand, so he puts
him In the lead, making him come up
to dummy's guarded king of hearts,
which gives the dealer the odd trick
and the rubber.
Now play this hand over again. and
let A lead the K of diamonds before
starting the hearts, an Alb must win
five by cards and 80 aces, no matter
what z does. This will score him
12O below the line and 80 above, with
100 added for the rubber, a total of
$50 points won. instead of which they
lose 124 less 80, a difference of $40
points against them.
1t is quite true that If B guesses
the diamond instead of the spade at
trick ., he will arrive at the same re-
suit, and that If he does not discard
both his diamonds he will save the
game and rubber. B took what ap-
peared to him to be the best chance
by giving his partner double oppor-
tunity to get into the lead on the sec
ond trick. instead of holding him down
to one only. He guessed, and he guess
ed wrongly when he might have guess
ed rightly, but. the point is that there
was no necessity for him TO guess at
all if A had opened with the K of dia-
monds.
The student will observe that If B
had been very close calculator he
would have credited u with the ace of
diamonds, but not both ace and king.
He could then have led a diamond and
let z make his ace, il he had 1t, and
five club tricks, after which A and B
must win all the tricks, even IL is
put in the lead with spade, because
If 3 keeps the second diamond to lead
to A, he must get the odd trick But
3 was not a mind-reader, and the hand
is given just as it was played to show
how simple and easy it might have
been for the partner If. A had shown
his diamond suit first.
One hand does not prove anything
of course. but it would seem that ex-
cept In the rare cases in which the
pone has none of the suit in which the
eldest hand holds A K and is also
forced to an embarrassing discard,
nothing can be lost by leading at least
one round of a winning sequence be-
fore leading a heart.
In England 1t is much more inn
portant for the eldest hand to show his
winning cards first, if he has any, be-
cause they do not always lead hearts
when the pone doubles. In fact, many
English authorities recommend the
lead of an ace, even without the king
just to get a look at dummy. This is
because the eldest hand is supposed to
guess at his partners strong suit, and
If he is in doubt a look at dummys S
cards may help him. The alternative
is to start right out with the weakest
or shortest suit in the hand. hoping it
is the partners longest. The system
enables the pone to double on many
hands in which his strong suit is not
hearts, or in which he does not want a
heart led. The heart convention pre-
vents the pone from doubling unless
his suit is actually hearts. or he is
willing to have a heart led to him SO
that he may get the lead
1t is usual in England before sitting
down to play for partners to ask each
other: What are they?" The general
form is: What are you. partner"
heart and strong, or weak and weak ~
This means do you lead hearts to a
doubled no-trumper and discard your
strong suit; or, do you lead your weak
est suit when your partner doubles and
discard weakness at no-trumps?
In the next article we shall have
something to say about leading to
doubled trump declarations, especially
doubled spades.