If you have to commence the game against a misere, it is wise to lead from
your shortest and weakest suit, and to lead a medium card if you have
one--such as six or seven--and certainly not to commence by leading a
deuce, unless, indeed, it is a single card, and even then it is not always
advisable.
Against other declarations it is well to commence with your longest suit.
When you and your partner sit side by side, you should never finesse in a
lead coming from him if he be sitting on your right, and if your partner
and then an adversary have to play _after_ you, you should win the trick
with the highest of a sequence; _i.e._ holding king, queen, put on the
{155} king, otherwise your partner will think the king is against you.
It is much better that your lead should be up to your partner than through
him; although, should you be proposing and accepting, the latter
contingency should not prevent your leading trumps.
It is a general principle in propositions and acceptances that trumps
should be used to draw trumps in order to establish plain suits.
Never force your partner to trump if you are weak in trumps yourself. If,
however, a cross ruff looks probable, go on with it, and do not change to
the more orthodox game.
Except under extreme circumstances do not lead trumps against a solo call.
But if the caller refuses to lead trumps, an adversary should, if possible,
put the lead with the player on the caller's right, to give him an
opportunity of leading trumps through him.
As a general rule, your discards should be from your weakest and shortest
suits. You should not, however, leave a king unguarded, and it is dangerous
to leave a queen only singly guarded. With a long plain suit headed by ace,
king, queen, it is sometimes advisable to inform your partner of the fact
by first discarding the ace. In other cases, your _first_ discard should be
from your weakest suit. Subsequent renounces convey no information, as they
may be from strength.
While returning your partner's suit is generally a wise thing to do, you
should be careful to act as far as possible upon the good old maxim of
playing through the strong hand up to the weak one.
It it soon learned by experience that the safest {156} places in which to
call are as first or last player, while a long way the most dangerous place
is when you are the second player. Many a second hand that seemed at first
sight of almost commanding strength has been cut up by a clever or lucky
initial lead.
There are two varieties of the game that must be just mentioned before
dismissing the subject. These are Solo Whist for five players, and Solo
Whist for three players.
Where the table consists of five, one man stands out every round, the
person chosen being he who sits to the dealer's right. The person standing
out neither pays nor receives on that round.
Solo Whist for three players is not quite so simple. There is in this no
proposal and acceptance, the solo being the lowest call. There are two very
good ways of playing, the best being to throw out the twos, threes, and
fours from the various suits, and to turn up the fortieth card as trump,
but not regarding that card as belonging to any individual. The tricks, of
course, consist of three cards each. The other plan is to play with three
suits only, leaving the fourth suit out altogether. The former method,
however, makes the more scientific game.[43]
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