The player who has to play last has an advantage over the other players. If
this last player hold the king and one other card of a suit, he is certain
to make a trick with the king, unless it be trumped. If this last player
hold ace, queen of a suit, he is certain to make them both, unless one or
the other is trumped. Towards the end of a hand, and when a fairly correct
estimate may be formed of where certain cards are located, it is of the
utmost importance to place the lead either to the right or left, according
as you wish your partner or yourself to be led up to as last player. Some
simple examples such as the following will illustrate these cases.
A player, Y, holds the king and one other trump (spades), and one trick is
required to win the game; he holds also a winning heart. His partner Z
plays a thirteenth diamond, which is not trumped by the second player, who
discards a heart. The ace and queen of spades are in hand somewhere, and
may both be held by an adversary. Y must therefore play his winning heart
on the thirteenth diamond, when the left adversary, after trumping, must
lead up to the king of spades guarded, when consequently the king must win
a trick, and the game. Simple {215} at this proceeding is, bad players will
frequently fail to grasp the situation, and will indulge in vain
imaginations, such as that their partner has played this thirteenth card in
order to ask for the best trump to be played on it. Or that the partner
holds the ace of trumps, and fears to play it out, lest he might catch his
partner's king, not perceiving that, if that is so, the game is a certainty
in any case. Such singular ideas are by no means uncommon with the bad
player.
Each time a player leads a fresh suit in which he is weak, he is playing a
dangerous game, inasmuch as he is giving an adversary the advantage of
being last player. It is a common error of the bad player to change the
suit at random, when he finds his partner possesses little strength in the
one originally led by him. He thus continues to sacrifice his partner, and
loses trick after trick. The following is an example from actual play. A
held queen, eight, five, and two of spades, ten, eight, and three of
diamonds (trumps), knave, eight, five, and two of clubs, the six and four
of hearts.
B, his partner, held king, and two small spades, king, and two small
diamonds (trumps), king, and three small clubs, king, and two small hearts.
A led two of spades, B played king third in hand, which was captured by ace
in the fourth (Z's) hand.
Z returned a spade, which A won with the queen.
A now led two of clubs, B played king, which was also captured by Z with
ace. Z returned a small club, which Y, his partner, won with queen.
Y then led a small heart, which Z won with queen, and returned ace, then a
small heart. A trumped the small heart, and B's king fell. A, after due
{216} consideration, now led one of his two remaining trumps. B's king was
captured by the ace; and thus, by his partner's changes of suit and
trumping, B, with four kings, did not win a trick with any one of them.
It is an old and well-known maxim, that a player should be cautious how he
changes suits. If the adversaries hold the best cards of a suit, they must
make these, and it is far better to let them do so by playing a third round
of that suit, and thus placing the lead in the hand of one of the
adversaries, than to open another suit in which no high card is held.
The following examples of placing the lead are useful, and should be
remembered, because either exactly such cases or others which are very
similar are perpetually recurring towards the end of a hand.
You hold the losing trump--one other in against you and to your left
(trumps being spades)--the ace, queen of clubs, the ace, queen of hearts.
The king of clubs and the king of hearts are somewhere in the other three
hands. Three tricks are required to win or save the game. The diamonds are
all out. To make a certainty of winning three tricks, play the losing
trump; you must then be led up to either in clubs, or hearts, and must win
three tricks out of your own hand.
It is sometimes advisable to throw away what would be the best card in your
hand in order to place the lead, or at least to attempt to place it. The
following is an example of such a case.
You hold four cards, the ace, queen of spades (trumps), the king and one
other heart. The king of spades was turned up to your right, and you know
{217} another trump guards the king; no trumps are in the other hands.
Your left adversary leads the ace of hearts; when he leads another heart
you must win with the king and must lead up to the king of trumps, when you
win only two tricks. If you throw your king of hearts on the ace, you avoid
obtaining the lead, and your partner may hold the queen, and your ace,
queen of trumps will then both win tricks. Should your partner not hold the
queen, you lose nothing by this play, as you must make your ace, queen of
trumps if you have not the lead, and if you retained the king of hearts you
could not by any possibility win more than two tricks.
Sometimes one holds what is called a trump too many; such a case is the
following. You hold ace, queen, and one small trump (spades), and a losing
diamond; your partner holds the best diamond. The king of spades is on your
right and is guarded, and this adversary has but two trumps. Your partner
has no trump, and leads the ace of hearts. If you discard your diamond on
this ace of hearts, you must trump the best diamond, and must then lead up
to the king of trumps, when you win only three tricks out of the four. If,
however, you trump your partner's ace of hearts, and lead the diamond, you
again transfer the lead to your partner, and you make all four tricks, as
the king of trumps cannot win.
In order to thoroughly master these simple problems, it is advisable to
place the cards on the table before you, and examine such cases. They
frequently occur, and are, more frequently than not, quite overlooked by
bad players, who would think {218} it quite absurd to trump a partner's
ace, and who omit to notice the importance of placing the lead.
It is by the manner in which the last four or five cards in a hand are
played that skill in Whist is shown; two and sometimes three or four tricks
are lost by bad play, when only five or six cards remain in each hand.