Sept. 12, 1881] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



227 



(Bnv ZM)i^t Coliinm. 



By Five of Clubs. 



THE LAST TRICKS. 



SKILL at 'Whist is chiefly shown as the last few tricks are made. 

 The steady conduct of the hand according to sound principles, 

 and with careful attention to the fall of the cards, leads to a satis- 

 factory (or the best available) position at the close, and the atten- 

 tive player can usually tell precisely what that position is. But 

 to take advantage of good points in the position, or to avoid 

 threatened loss, requires other qualities than (as a rule) have been 

 suificient for the earlier conduct of the hand. The play is now like 

 that of a doublo-duramy game. (Jnly a trick or so may perhaps 

 depend on correct strategy at this stage ; but a game^or a rubber 

 may depend on that trick. 



The chief points arising at the close of a game are these : — (1) 

 The right of choice of cards to throw away to winning cards either 

 of the enemy or of your partner ; (2) placing the lead; and (3) 

 what may bo regarded as a combination of both points, the recog- 

 nition of the necessity which sometimes arises for throwing away 

 a winning card or an extra trump — playing what is called (after 

 Deschapelles) the grand cnnp. 



Necessity for care in choosing the right card or cards to throw 

 away to tricks won by partner or the adversaries, may arise in 

 several ways, and a case of this kind may be simple or difiicnit 

 according to circumstances. Thus you have a card which would be 

 a certain winning card if yon had to lead it, which yet is of no 

 value to you because the suit is certain not to be led. In this case 

 you throw it away without hesitation. Again you may have to 

 choose between throwing away a trump (to a suit already trumped 

 higher by the enemy) or a certain or possible winning card in a 

 plain suit, yet though this seems like the grand coup the question 

 may be one of extreme simplicity, from the consideration that the 

 trump will certainly be of no use to you (being at once drawn by 

 the enemy if retained) while the good plain-suit card may take a 

 trick. Again the choice between two good cards to throw away 

 may be a little more diflBcult, because you may be in doubt which 

 of the two suits will be eventually led ; or of two second-best 

 cards, you may doubt which to throw because while you are certain 

 that one or other of the best cards to those suits must be discarded 

 by the enemy you cannot tell which it will be. Or lastly, the ques- 

 tion may be of discarding guarding cards, and you may be in doubt 

 which of two suits must be most carefully guarded. 



It is impossible to lay down rules here, since each case must be 

 dealt with as it arises, and the number of cases is legion. Nothing 

 but great care and attention can save you from losing tricks at the 

 end of several of the hands played in the course of an evening by 

 discarding from the wrong suit. But when, by carefully following 

 the fall of the cards, you know where the command in each suit 

 lies, and also where small cards which will have to be led are 

 situate, you generally have a tolerably easy problem towards the 

 end of the game, in selecting which cards to throw away and which 

 to retain. 



Skill in throwing the lead is akin to Whist memory, in that it 

 comes to be instructive with practice. A good player feels, when 

 he holds a major tenace, for example, that he must throw the lead 

 so that the holder of second best guarded shall have to play before 

 him ; while when the major tenace is against him he feels, without 

 any occasion for thinking about it, that the holder of that tenace 

 must, if possible, be made to play before him. 



There are often simple cases of throwing the lead, in which, 

 nevertheless, the average player frequently blunders, if not on 

 every occasion which arises: — Thus leader holds the major tenace 

 and a small card against the minor tenace and a small card, in 

 trumps or in a plain suit after trumps are extracted. In nine cases 

 out of ten the average player, even though he has seen enough to 

 know how the matter stands, leads nevertheless the best card, 

 transferring the adversary's minor tenace into major tenace, 

 through which he has to lead, losing therefore both the remaining 

 tricks. It is so obvious that in such a position the small card 

 should be led, that it seems hardly worth while to notice the point ; 

 yet we see tricks lost in this way repeatedly ; of course, by leading 

 a small one, even though the trick may be made by the adversary's 

 small one, yet as he has to lead from his minor tenace you make 

 two tricks. 



Ore sometimes hears a weak player explain that he could not 

 lead a particular card because he knew an adversary would take 

 the trick, though this may be just what he should have done to 

 save the game. You know, suppose, that the player to your left 

 has the winning Spade, the second best and two small Clubs, you 

 holding a small Heart, the major tenace in Clubs, and a small 



Spade (trumps all out) ; you know, further, that your partner has 

 the best Heart and three small Clubs, the adversary to yonr rio-ht 

 having only small cards, so that he can get no lead. You want 

 three tricks to save or to win the game. Under these circum- 

 stances if you lead a Heart, your partner makes a trick in Hearts, 

 and must then lead a Club through your tenace ; you make a trick 

 in Clubs, and the remaining two tricks go to the enemy. But now 

 suppose that you had led a Spade. I'our adversary to the left 

 takes the trick, by which you lose nothing, as he must have taken 

 it anyhow. But now he has to lead a Club ; and, however he leads, 

 you make two tricks in Clubs, lead your small Heart, and give a 

 third trick to your partner. 



The grand coup consists in throwing away a trump or a winning 

 card in order that yon may not escape a lead, where leading would 

 lose you a trick. Suppose for instance in the case just considered, 

 that your opponent to the left either knew his partner had the 

 second best Spade, or else that the game could not be saved unless 

 he had that card. Then if before the ninth trick he had thrown 

 away his winning Spade, retaining say a small Heart or Club — it 

 matters not which — he would have played the grand coup, savin" 

 the game if his partner could make the Spade trick, and in any 

 case taking the only course to save it. For now, if you lead the 

 Spade and the trick falls to opponent on your left, then whether 

 he leads a Club or a Heart your tenace in Clubs must be led through, 

 and the guarded second best Club on your left must make another 

 trick. Even it it so turns out that you yourself have the best 

 Spade after yonr opponent on the left has" discarded his winning 

 one, he loses nothing. He makes a trick in Clubs, anyhow. 



Put yourself in his position, and see how the grand coup in this 

 case comes to be played ; — 



B holds 

 Diam.—S. Clubs— 5, 4, 2. 



Clubs— Kn, 7, 3 

 Hearts — 5 

 Spades — Q 



r 



holds 



Hearts Q. 

 f Diam 



Z 

 holds 



Diam.— Q. 



A holds 

 Clubs— Q, 9. Hearts- 



Kn 



Clubs— 6 

 Hearts— 6, 3 

 Spades — 9 or 



-i. Spades — 8 or 9. 



You are Y; Diamonds are trumps; A leads Diamond Q ; and you 

 know how the above cards lie, all but the position of the Eight and 

 Nine of Spades. How shall you play ? If you discard Heart Five, 

 or Club Three, A leads his small Spade, you make the trick, and 

 make no more. If on the contrary you discard the winning Spade, 

 then, however A plays, your Club Knave will eventually make, bo 

 that you have lost nothing; while if A holds the smaller Spado of 

 the two left, you gain a trick, and your partner wins the trick, 

 (since A cannot escape leading his Spade). 



The grand coup is commonly understood to mean thejithrowing 

 away of a useless trump, either by under-tramping your partner, or 

 by trumping a trick which he has already won. If you have the 

 major tenace and a small card in trumps, and a plain card (winning 

 or not), while your right-hand adversary has the minor tenace only, 

 or the second best guarded in trumps, the possession of that small 

 trump may force you to lead from your major tenace, in which case, 

 of course, the adversary will make a trick. But if you can part with 

 that small trump, without losing a trick in doing so, your tenace 

 will be load up to, and every trick be made. 



The games which have appeared in past numbers of Knowledge 

 illustrate many interesting cases of end-play, coups, &c. 



*,* The instructions for play which have appeared in past 

 numbers of K\owr,EPi;E will shortly be published in book-form for 

 reference ; and hereafter about two games monthly will be published 

 in these columns. 



The MoscjfiTo's IxsTRf.MEXT OF Torture. — It appears that in 

 the" bill "ot the little beast alone there are no fewer than fire 

 distinct surgical instruments. These are described as a lance, two 

 neat saws, a suction-pump, and a small Corliss engine. It appears 

 that when a " skeeter" settles down to his work upon a nice tender 

 portion of the human frame, the lance is first pushed into the tlesh, 

 then the two saws, placed back to back, begin to work up and down 

 to enlarge the hole, then the pump is inserted, and the victim's 

 blood is siphoned up to the reservoirs carried behind, and finally, 

 to complete the cruelty of the performance, the wretch drops a 

 quantity of poison into the wound to keep it irritated. Then the 

 diminutive fiend takes a fly around just to digest your gore, and 

 makes tracks for a fresh victim, or if the first has been of unusual 

 good quality he returns to the same happy hunting-ground. The 

 mosquito's marvellous energy, combined with his portable operating 

 chest, make him at once a terror and a pest. — Sportsman. 



