58 



KNOWLEDGE 



[January 1, 1890. 



trump lead. If he had opened his diamonds in the ordinary 

 way, AB must have won the game and would probahly 

 have obtained the odd trick. 



Trick 4 — Z dare not finesse, for he does not know that 

 B's lead to trick 3 was not from great strength in trumps. 



Trit'li 5. — If Y trumps here, he must continue with a 

 diamond. Supposing him to lead a small one (the most 

 fa\-ourable case), Z, after winning with the queen, could do 

 no better than give him another force in hearts, and the 

 only other card YZ could make would be the ace of 

 diamonds, which would only give them the odd trick. 



Trick 6. — At this point, B plays correctly, we think, in 

 returning the club suit instead of opening the diamonds, 

 as it is desirable to throw the lead into A's hand. 



Trick 9. — But here A, in his turn, throws away the 

 game. B can have nothing but diamonds, and the Imave 

 would almost certainly be a very useful card to him. It 

 would clearly have been better to lead through Y than to 

 let him lead through B. As the cards actually lay, a 

 diamond lead must have won the game for AB ; for, even 

 if Y had held up the ace and B had finessed, Z on getting 

 in with the queen could have done no better than to lead 

 the long heart ; A would have trumped of course, and Y, 

 after over-ruffing, would have had no opportunity of rid- 

 ding himself of his small diamond. 



Elementary Explanation of the Play. 



Trick 1. — A opens his strongest suit. The card led 

 being a small one, it is clear that he is not leading from a 

 weak suit of three or less, in which case he would have led 

 the highest. Consequently all the players infer that A has 

 at least four clubs. 



Trick 2. — Similarly, all the players now infer that Z has 

 at least four hearts, of which three are better than the six. 

 A plays the seven instead of the five, to save his jsartner's 

 hand, in case Y should prove very weak in the suit. This 

 is not intended as a call for trumps, but it is so likely to 

 be taken in that sense that it is rarely safe to play so low 

 a covering card as the seven unless fairly strong in trumps. 

 As A holds four trumps to two honours, he is justified in 

 running the risk that B may think he has " called." 



Trick 8. — B has good diamonds, and the second-best 

 heart twice guarded, and his partner has shown strength 

 in clubs. He therefore leads his single trump. But he 

 would, no doubt, have done better to open his long suit. 



Trick 4. — Y returns his partner's lead. It is clear to 

 liim from this trick that the knave of hearts is with A or 

 B, for if Z had held it he would have played it instead of 

 the king, in accordance with the rule that a trick should 

 always be won with the lower of two indifferent cards. 



Trick 5. — Y discards a club, in preference to trumping 

 the trick. The student should observe that nothing is lost 

 by this ; for Y at the same time disposes of a losing card 

 in A's strong suit. If Y had trumped, ]> would have held 

 up his knave, and Z's suit would not have been cleared. 



Trick 6. — B returns his partner's lead with the higher of 

 two remaining. A, in accordance with the rule just ex- 

 plained, wins with the knave. The ace is now marked in 

 his hand ; whereas, if he had played the ace, no one at the 

 table could have told where the knave was. 



TricliS 7 and 8. — A responds to his partner's trump lead 

 by drawing two rounds. B's discards show that his other 

 cards are all diamonds. For Z must have the remaining 

 heart (see note to Trick 2) ; and, as B, after returning the 

 seven of clubs (Trick 6), now plays the deuce, he can only 

 have held three originally. Unless Z's ten of spades is a 

 false card (which is not likely), it is now clear to A that Y 

 holds the nine and the six, while Y, on his part, can place 

 the eight with A. 



Trick 9. — A leads the club to force a trump from Y ; but, 

 as it is certain that Y, after drawing the eight of trumps, 

 will lead diamonds through B, it would have been much 

 better to open the diamond suit at once with the knave, so 

 as to assist 15 as much as possible. The remainder of the 

 play is fully explained in the note appended to Trick 11. 



Wiiist'-'- is the brief but sufficient title of a neat little 

 book by Dr. Pole, which has just been reprinted from the 

 new edition of l^ohn's Handlxiok of (jawcx. It aims at 

 giving a rmtnie of the leading maxims of play laid down by 

 Hoyle, Payne, Mathews, Clay, and " Cavendish," together 

 with illustrations of their application, selected from the 

 treatises of the same authors and of General Drayson. 

 The idea of bringing into a single volume all that is best 

 worth preserving in the earlier works, together with a 

 description of the more exact methods of modern times, is 

 in itself an excellent one ; and the experience and ability 

 of the compiler are a guarantee that it has been carried 

 out with care and discrimination. It is well known that Dr. 

 Pole is a disciple of the " modern school " ; but he wisely 

 refrains from discussmg at any length, or unduly insisting 

 upon, its peculiar dogmas, and the "plain-suit-echo" is 

 not even mentioned. The book, in fact, is addressed to 

 learners, and in that light we proceed to criticise it. 



The means of conveying information are di\ided into 

 four classes — namely, "ordinary rules," " imiformity 

 of play," " irregular play," and "conventions"; but the 

 principles on which the distinctions are drawn are not 

 always quite cleiir. Why, for instance, should the play 

 of king, third in hand, when holding ace also, be assigned 

 to the first class, and the play of four, from both four and 

 five, to the second '? Surely both cases are examples of the 

 general convention that the lower of two indifi'erent cards 

 should always be played by everyone except the leader. The 

 signal for trumps and the American leads are classed as 

 " conventions." It might be contended that every rule of 

 play is a convention ; but, since other headings are given, 

 we should certainly have expected the signal for trumps to 

 appear imder " irregular play," and the American leads 

 under "uniformity of play." The signal for trumps con- 

 sists essentially in the play of a false card, and can only 

 be justified in theory as an unlimited extension of an 

 obvious artifice for deceiving the adversaries. The 

 American leads, on the other hand, are usually supported 

 on the ground that they substitute a uniform and scientific 

 code for a number of previously isolated dogmas. It is 

 difficult, again, to understand why the natural lead of 

 queen from a tierce major in trumps should be described 

 as irregular play, while the inference that the leader of a 

 king in plain suits has also either ace, or queen, or both, 

 is set down among the ordinary rules, and the lead of ace 

 before king from those two cards alone is included with 

 the "conventions." 



The maxims are arranged in the chi'onological order of 

 the books from which they are taken ; but it would, we 

 think, have been better, in the interests of the student, 

 to group them systematically. There is a risk of his 

 becoming confused, or at least wearied, in the endeavour 

 to master a number of miscellaneous precepts between 

 which there is no apparent cohesion. He may also be 

 perplexed, in the absence of any explanation, at seeming 

 inconsistencies in the advice ofi'ered. Thus, on page .59, 

 Dr. Pole quotes from Clay as follows : — " Do not play false 

 cards. The habit, to which there are many temptations, 

 of trying to deceive your adversaries as to the state of your 



Whist. By Dr. W. Pole, F.R.S. London : George Bell & Sons. 1889. 



