The San Francisco call., 1906-10-07

tho opening lead against no-trumper
arc: Begin with the longest suit and
select suit that is headed by three
honors if YOU have it, No matter what
else you have in your hand you can
always afford to make at least one lead
from a sequence of A K @. as it will
enable You to see dummy's cards be-
fore going on. Any three honors at
the head Of suit make it very de-
sirable one to open, as it will probably
be easy to establish it,
In the opening lead against no
trumper, remember this simple rule
With three honors in suit always lead
one of them; but with only two honors
never lead either of them unless you
have seven cards In the suit.
Even if your suit is headed by both
A and *, do not lead a high card
unless you have FIVE small ones with
the A K. Suits headed by single hon
ors are usually bad leads, unless you
have five or more cards in the suit,
but they cannot always be avoided.
If there is any choice of suits, such as
between two of equal length, the
weaker suit should be given the prefer
ence in the opening, because the
stronger will probably be more useful
for re-entry purposes.
Suppose that you have a suit of five
headed by the @ 10, and another of
Ave headed by the A X. II you begin
with the A X suit, you will probably
never take trick in the other, but II
you start with the @ 10 suit, and con-
tinue 1t when you get in with your
K suit, you will very likely make
tricks in both suits.
Correct opening leads are much more
important against no-trumpers than
against trump declarations, not only
because the partners assistance is or
greater value and can be secured only
by his absolute confidence in the lead
er's methods, but because the dealer
makes every effort to deceive the ad-
versaries as to the true position of the
cards.
1t is a good rule at mo- trump to be-
lieve your partner and to pay no at
tention to the dealers play Your part
ner can be relied upon, but it is the
dealers business ia play you false.
The beginner should be early i'm
pressed with the fact that opening the
hand on conventional lines secures
double advantage 1t is the best way
to make the most out of the cards
themselves, and to protect the player
from possible loss, and 1T enables the
partner to help him along, either by
getting out of his way or by showing
him how the dealers cards may be pre-
vented from winning tricks
| The third hand must thoroughly
| understand the difference between the
leads at no-trump and with trump,
and he should be so familiar with them
that any high card will Immediately
suggest the combination from which 1T
is led. This is a matter of practice,
like learning a language; but the time
| it takes to master it will probably be
greatly shortened If close attention be
paid to it at the beginning. The third
4 hand should never let card be led
without asking himself what 1t means,
! and what cards are probably out
against the leader. The habit of atten-
tion grows and strengthens the mem
ory to a wonderful degree.
The eleven rule is the most useful
key to the situation that the third
hand can use when small cards are led,
because small card leads are the more
common at notrump. The practice of
comparing dummys cards with your
own and applying the eleven rule
should be persisted in until its appli-
cation becomes automatic
The conventional play of the third
hand apart from any differences, is
comparatively simple, and may be di-
vided into two distinct parts-when he
tries to win the trick and when he
makes no attempt to do SO.
The cases in which he attempts to
win the trick may be dismissed with
the remark that he should always do
his best to win it, and that he should
win it as cheaply as possible BY doing
his best to win it is meant playing
| the best card he holds, or one in Sc
quence with it. Holding Q play the
A, not the @, if the K is not In the
dummy. Some players have an idea
that they are doing something clever
If they succeed In taking trick with
the @, third hand, forgetting that as
the leader must have the K, 1t does not
make the slightest difference which
card is played, A or Q. Every time
that the dealer has the K and third
hand plays the @, holding the A also,
1 the Q is thrown away.
When two or more cards are In Sc
quence, always play the lowest of the
sequence when you try to win a trick
third hand. Get the trick as cheaply
as possible With A K, play the X;
1 with K Q play the @; with Q J, the j.
! If you play the K with the Q in your
hand you simply deceive your partner,
who will imagine that Q is against him,
and will carefully avoid leading that
suit again.
The most important part of the third
hands duties come when he makes no
attempt to win the trick. There is no
need for the down-and-ou echo in
notrumpers, because that is used to
show when you can ruff suit and
there are no trumps TO ruff with now.
But the same method of playing the
cards in a conventional manner may
be used to make what Is called the
"plain-suit echo" Your partner leads,
and says to you, II have such and
such combination of nigh cards.
You ''echo," and say to him, I have
SO and so many small cards in your
suit"
In playing against no-trumpers,
when you make no attempt to win the
first trick in the suit your partner
opens, follow this simple rule, to
which there is no exception:
Il Always play the second best Of those
you hold, counting from the top OF the
suit.
4 If your partner can depend upon you
to follow this rule strictly, he Will be
able to place the cards much more &C
curately than would be possible under