The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1928-03-23
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EASY LESSONS IN
AUCTION BRIDGE
By PAUL. H. SEYMOUR
Author of "Highlights on Auction Bridge
Article Sixteen.
The Play
Copyright. by Hoyle, Jr.)

IN TAKING up this part Of the sub
i ject we shall consider the play
of the adversaries first and then that
of the declarer.
During the bidding we designate the
players as dealer, second, third, ana
fourth hands; but when the bidding
closes the player winning the DID
becomes the declarer, his partner Is
the dummy and the other two play
ers are called the adversaries' or OPP
ponents.
For the sake Of convenience in
describing the play, each adversary
has been given special name. The
one on the declarer's left who opens
the play by leading first is called
senior" and his partner is called
Junior" and these names will be
used in the remainder Of the present
articles.
Seniors Play to a Declared
Trump
Seniors first lead to trump Dec
laratiOn may be from suit In which
his partner has shown strength by
bidding; or he may open suit OF
his own. No rule can be given as to
which of these he should do except
to say that he should start the suit
in which he thinks there is the great
est probability of their winning sew
eral tricks. If he has a good suit
of his own, especially when holding
fho oh WI
that.
Against a declared trump-which
we are now considering adver-
saries seldom make more than their
aces and kings because the plain
suits so often are trumpet by the
declarer on the third round. There
fore, a suit of three or four cards
headed by Ace and King makes
much better opening than a longer
suit headed by King or Queen. 1t is
difficult to say in a few words just
which card to lead from all OF the
multitudinous combinations which oc-
cur. Many Auction Bridge books give
a long list which the student is ex-
pected to follow.
Inasmuch as it Is particularly hard
FOR beginners to learn such list, we
shall give a few simple rules which
will be of great assistance, and then
a short list of combinations in the
order of their desirability.
When holding the highest cards of
suit, they should of course be led be-
cause there could be no possible rea-
son for leading low; but when not
holding the high ones, one often
should lead low in an effort to bring
them out and make a King or Queen
good. In general we may say to lead
high when holding Ace or any three
honors; but to lead low from most
other combinations. In a declared
trump the Ace always should be led
first if it is present in the suit which
is to be opened This is because the
declarer may hold but one Of that
suit in one of his two hands, or he
may be able to discard several cards
so that when the ace is led later in
the game he can trump 1t. This lead
is hot made when playing no trump;
therefore it will bear repeating in
another form never underlead an
ace in a declared trump"
When holding three honOrs not in
Guiding the ace lead the top of
sequence like King-Queen-Jack, or
Queen-Jack-Ten If they are not in
sequence lead the top of the two that
are touching; that is, from King-Jack-
Ten, lead the Jack. or from King
Queen-Ten, lead the King
For the Ace-King combination there
is a special convention or agreement,
according to which the king should be
led first, then followed by the Ace
when holding others in the suit: but
the Ace should be led first and fol
lowed by the King when holding no
others in the suit. The object of this
Is to inform your partner in the lat
ter case that you have no more of
that suit and would like to have him
lead it to you if he can before your
trumps have been extracted, so that
you may trump it.
When holding Ace, King and Queen,
lead King first and follow with the
queen. This procedure is just as sure
Of taking the first two tricks and in
addition it tells your partner that
you hold the Ace; while if you lead
the Ace second you would not convey
any information regarding the Queen.
In a declared trump the lead also
should be high when holding two
honors not including the Ace pro-
vided those two are in sequence: thus
from King, Queen and small ones the
King should be led; from Jack, Ten
and others the jack is the proper lead.
When not holding Ace or two hon.
ors in sequence low card should be
led, and when leading low the fourth
best card is always chosen.
The reason for its being the fourth
best rather than the lowest or any
low card is because we can apply
rule called the Rule of Eleven to
the lead of the fourth best card which
will give us information regarding
the other cards of that suit. The
rule of eleven is: eff the number of
spots on the card led Fourth best
Of leaders suiD be subtracted from
oIo,o,, e. will foil tho pumhor Of 90 rdc