Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-08
BRIDGE TALKS
~ MRS. JOHN 4uNcr, IN.

Continuing the discussion Of the
playing Of the hand, we will now take
up what is known IS false carding.
Whenever you are selecting card from
sequence, 1t is customary, or conven-
tional, to lead the highest. but to play
the lowest. The first card played 70
each or any trick is the card which Is
led; the three following cards are called
played cards. Whenever any player
fails to lead high and play low, 1t Is
done for the purpose OF deceiving his
opponent. It is known as false carding.
Experience has proven that 1t Is usu.
ally better to give accurate information
to your partner, which, Of course, you
give to declarer at the same time, than
to try and deceive declarer and at the
same time deceive your partner.
Declarer, of course, Is not bothered
by any such considerations, as he should
play in every way possible to deceive
his opponents, as dummy is not seeking
information, and there is no necessity
OF giving valuable information to his
opponents. Whenever the closed hand
contains the king and queen 1t is con-
Sidered good false carding for the de-
clarer to play the king when following
to the lead of the suit, instead of the
queen, and If he is obliged to lead that
suit from his own hand he would lead
the queen instead Of the king. In other
words, declarer has the privilege of re-
verSing the rules given for the adver-
sarieS. The adverSaries play with the
idea OF giving each other information
and declarer has all the information
that the two hands contain before him.
This same rule applies when the closed
nano contains an ace and king, and
has to lead the suit. He would start
with the ace. Many times 1t Is neces-
Sary to shift the suit after one trick,
and had the king been led 1t would have
given the information to the adverSaries
that the closed hand contains the ace,
but by leading the ace, the adverSaries
get no information at all. The play Of
what Is known as false card by de-
clarer from any sequence Is considered
a good play.
Declarer in playing small cards from
his dummy should play them, If pos
sible, IN such a way as to confuse his
adverSarieS. For instance, If holding
the 9-Spot, 7-spot and 3-spot in the
dummy, instead Of playing them In the
ordinary way, the lowest first, which
would be the 3-Spot, then the 7-spot
and next the 9-spot, he may play them,
the 7-spot, the 9-spot and the 3-spot,
as this may mislead his opponents.
When card has been led that de-
clarer has a good reason to believe is a
singleton, often a false card from the
closed hand will confuse the winner and
discourage him in returning the lead OF
this suit to his partner. OF course, a
false card so played often will prevent
the leader from being able to ruff, or use
his small trumpS. For example, If a three
spot Of suit were led and dummy
contained the queen, 10-spot, 8-spot and
6-spot; third hand, leaders partner,
holds the ace, 5-spot, 4-spot and 2-spot,
and closed hand contains the king, jack,
9-spot and 7-spot; If on third hands
ace declarer should play the king third
hand might think the jack, 9-spot and
7-spot were in his partners hand, and
realizing that If this should be the case
continuation Of this suit would enable
the closed hand to make two discards,
he might not return the lead. This
would certainly be a case of false card
ing and playing to deceive the oppo-
nents by the declarer.