96 



KNOW^LEDGB ♦ 



[February 1, 1888. 



(Bur WiWt Column. 



By "Five of Clues." 



MATHEWS ON WHIST. 

 Ruffing and Foecing. 

 {('tintinned from p. -17.) 

 HEN your partner shows a weak game, force him, 

 whether or not you would otherwise be right in 

 so doing. It is seldom right to refuse a ruti' 

 when j'our partner, if a good plaj'er, visibly 

 intends you should do it ; if he is a bad player 

 your own hand should direct you. 



Should your partner refuse to trump a certain 

 winning card, try to get the lead as soon as you 

 can, and play out trumps immediately. 

 When 3'our partner plays a thirteenth card, and most of the 

 trumps are unplayed, he generally means you should put a high 

 1 rump to strengthen his own hand. [Either leave the card alone, 

 to draw a trump from fourth hand, or trump with }"our best.] 

 I'LAY OP Teumps. 

 Take every opportunity (when sufficiently strong) to show your 

 partner that you can command the trumps. In that case he will 

 keep his own strong suit entire ; whereas if the strength of trumps 

 were with the adversaries, his play would be to keep guard on 

 their suits, and to throw away from his own. [We have here, 

 again, the true principle of the discard as determined by the 

 posiiion of trump strength.] If you have, as fourth player, to win 

 a small trump, and you hold a sequence of three or more, win with 

 the highest and play the lowest afterwards [thus informing your 

 partner of your strength] Keep the trump card as long as you 

 can when your pariner leads trumps [or when you are strong in 

 trumps yourself] ; the contrary if an adversary leads them. Thus, 

 in the former case, if the eight is turned up and you have the nine, 

 throw the nine [when one or other of the two is to be played] ; in 

 the latter case, play the card turned up, even though you have the 

 seven and six. 



It is equally advantageous to lead up to as through an ace ; less 

 advantageous to lead up to a king turned up ; and disadvantageous 

 to lead up to the queen. 



It frequently happens when you have Jed from six trumps, that 

 after your second lead you remain with three or four cards, the 

 best being in an adversary's liand. In such situations play a small 

 trump. This has two advantages — first, it prevents the stopping of 

 your partner's suit; and secondly, it gives you the tenace in what- 

 ever suit the adversary may lead. This, mutatis mutandis, will 

 show that it is bad play to lead the best trump, leaving others 

 in the hands of your adversaries. It may do good to 

 keep it in hand, as you may be able to stop an adversary's 

 suit with it ; and it can answer no good purpose whatever 

 to play it out. [The last statement is, however, too general, 

 and is indeed flatly contradicted by Mathews's own statement 

 in another place, where he says] If, however, they both have 

 tiumps and your partner none, it is right to take out two for one 

 [though this in turn is too general, for often you play the enemy's 

 game in so doing. Nothing but practice and experience can show 

 what is best in particular cases. Still the general rule remains 

 sound.] If you remain with the best trump, and one of your adver- 

 .>^aries has three or more, do not lead your trump, as it may stop 

 the suit of your other adversary. 



Moderate players have generally a decided aversion to part with 

 the best trump, though single, thinking that as they cannot lose it, 

 and it can make but one trick, it is immaterial when it does so 

 [and misled also in many cases by the hope of drawing two trumps 

 from the enemy with it, if they can lead it instead of rutfing with 

 it.] This is a dangerous fault [though in cases, of course, it may 

 lie judicious, never essential; usuall)'] When your adversary plays 

 out his strong suit, ruff it immediately rather than give his partner 

 an opportunity to ihrow off his losing cards. Do not, however, go 

 into the contrary extreme, or trump with the best trump, with small 

 ones in your hand, for fear of being over-trumped. This is a nice 

 part of the game, and can only be understood by practice and 

 attentive reasoning. 



The last trump is often of most material advantage to a good 

 pl.ayer. Thus, A has the thirteentli trump, with the ace and four 

 small ones of a suit not yet played, of which the adversary leads the 

 king and queen ; by passing them both, A probably makes three 

 tricks in tlie suit, but had he won the king he could not possibly make 

 more than one. He might safely win the C|ueen, however, and take 

 out a third round, trusting to his thirteenth trump to bring in the 

 remaining two, which would then probably be long cards in the 

 suit. Without the thirteenth or a sure trump re-entering card A could 

 not probably in any play make more than one trick in the suit. 



When all the trumps are out, if you have the commanding card 

 of your adversary's suit, you may play your own suit as if you held 

 the thirteenth trump. 



If the trumps remain divided between you and your partner, and 

 you have no winning card yourself, it is good play to lead a small 

 trump, to put the lead in his hand that he may play off any leading 

 cards he may have, and so give j'ou an opportunity to throw away 

 leading cards. For ir^st.ince, A remains with two or more trumps 

 and two losing cards; B, his partner, with a better trump and two 

 winning cards. It is evident that if A plays a losing card he will 

 make merely his own trumps ; but if he plays an inferior trump, 

 and so puts the lead into his partner's hands, B will play his 

 winning cards, while A throws away his losing ones. [The ques- 

 tion is only of one trick if A only holds two trumps and two losing 

 cards ; but if A holds three trumps and two losing cards, his partner 

 also holding two losing cards in the same suit or suits, A loses two 

 tricks if he leads a losing card.] 



SCIENCE IN WHIST. 



Mr. Ram writes to us again as follows : — 



" If a whister, who claims to play a game which may be legiti- 

 mately styled 'srientific,' were atter, say, the fourth round of each 

 game, to put in black and white a list of the cards which he opined 

 were in each of the other three hand*, and were at the same lime 

 to make a forecast in detail of what the play of each of the four 

 players for the remainder of that game would in his opinion be ; 

 and at the end of the said game were to com|:iare the document 

 with a coresponding statement which had been made by a fifth 

 person who had actually seen the cards, how long would he con- 

 tinue to style his play ' scientitic ' ? ' Five of Clubs ' allows that 

 ' bad ' play may be successful against ' good ' play for daj-s 

 together ! In what proportion of games would a bad chess-player 

 beat a good player ? Is not the play in whist necessarily always a 

 mere muddling along ? " 



Whist is no " mere muddling along," as Mr. Ram would find if he 

 knew anything of the game. Since he evidently does not, it would 

 be idle to attempt to convince him. As to his question, I simply 

 reply that the experiment he suggests, if tried at a table where all 

 the players knew the game, would quickly shew even those who 

 know little of whist the value of scientific play. Where two 

 partners play scientilically again.«t two who know little of whist, 

 the infiuence of science is increased, though the power of reading 

 all the hands is diminished. Alheit, it very seldom happens that 

 among even the best players the first four rounds show the position 

 of all the chief cards. Usually nearly all is learned by about the 

 middle of the hand, after which nearly everything depends on 

 strategy. But sometimes the position of several important cards 

 remains hidden nearly to the last. Even then, however, the 

 scientific player can tell the relative chances that such and such 

 cards lie in such and such hands ; and if he then plays according to 

 his estimate of the chances, he is playing scientifically, and will 

 come out right in the majority of instances. 



When whist is mere muddling along, as, doubtless, all the whist 

 Mr. Ram has ever played has been, the game is wearisome in the 

 extreme. I do not care to sit down myself to play whist when even 

 one of the four players is ignorant of the language and science of 

 the game. With two such players as opponents, and a good partner 

 I should be sure of winning heavily in the long run But it is 

 infinitely pleasanter to be so matched by good play as not to win 

 heavily or at all, in a series of games sufBciently long to eliminate 

 llip effects of chance. 



N.B. — Mr. Ram can never tell the difference between scientific 

 whist and bumblepuppy till he has played as one of a whist party, 

 all four of whom are sound players. 



Contents op No. 27. 



PACK 



T'ae Stream of Life 49 



MooQ Lore and Eclipse Supersti- 

 tions. By " Stella Occidens " . . .51 



Tricks of Memory 52 



Edison's Phonograph 54 



Collisions at Sea. By W. B. Robinson 5.5 



Material of the Universe 5G 



Large Tole?copes 58 



Eoval Victoria Hall SO 



The Southern Skies 61 



The One-Scale Atlas C2 



PACK 



Coal. By "W. JIattku Williams . . B3 



Amateur Photographic Exhibition (14 



Darwin's Life and Letters 6.'> 



Trick with Paper Rings «i7 



Reviews tiS 



The Face of the Sky for January 



1888. By F.R.A.S 7J 



Our Whist Coliunn. By "Five of 



Clubs" 71 



Our Chess Column. By " Me- 



phisto " 72 



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