Those persons who desire to become whist-players, and not mere players at
Whist, should bear in mind that Whist is a combination of well-established
rules, which should be obeyed; of observation, which is usually misnamed
memory, and of reason, which is one of the most essential items towards
becoming a whist-player. In order to put as little strain as possible on
the reasoning powers, it is advisable to {220} become acquainted with
certain maxims which can be committed to memory like proverbs, and can then
be acted on during the game. The following will be found useful:--
1. Note whether you hold a sufficient number of winning cards in your hand
to make certain of saving the game. If you do, you may run risks in order
to win it.
2. Be very careful that you do not make a mistake and imagine that the game
cannot be lost, when, by some unusual combination of cards, it _may_ be
lost.
3. Immediately your partner leads a card, examine the cards of the suit in
your own hand, and form a preliminary opinion of the strength of the suit
from which he led. For example, your partner leads the six of spades; you
hold ace, queen, and five. The second hand plays the two, you play the
queen, fourth hand plays the seven. You thus find the three and four have
not been played. Where are they? If the fourth player hold either, he is
calling for trumps. You return the ace of spades, the then second player
plays the ten, your partner plays the three, and the last player plays the
eight. You ought now to know just as well as if you had seen it, that your
partner led from king, knave, nine, six, four, and three, and started with
the fourth best card. To take a third round of this suit would be childish,
as one adversary would make a small trump, the other get rid of a worthless
card, and thus show his partner his weak suit.
4. If very strong in two suits, and your partner lead from the third suit,
in which you are weak, lead him a trump immediately you gain the lead,
although you hold only one or two small trumps. {221}
5. Never hesitate to give your partner the _chance_ of a ruff, unless he
has led trumps, or has "called." To refuse to give him this chance merely
because you are weak in trumps, is to play a losing game.
6. At the end of a hand, consider the importance of placing the lead. For
example, you hold the losing, your partner the winning, trump (clubs), and
you hold ace, queen, ten of diamonds. Right-hand adversary leads a small
diamond, you play your ten, and it wins the trick; there are other diamonds
in your partner's hand, the value of which you do not know. Lead your
losing trump, and your partner wins this and returns a diamond, and you win
all four tricks. If the king of diamonds be to your right, you would lose a
trick by playing ace then queen of diamonds. Feeble players, however, would
be certain to lead the ace of diamonds, hoping that their partner would
trump the queen, and that thus the trumps would make separately. They give
up a certainty for a chance, and consider it safe play to do so.
7. Do your best to help your partner, not to play in opposition to him.
Thus, if your partner call for trumps, lead him your best if you have less
than four, your lowest if you hold four, and your fourth best if you hold
more than four--the exception being when you hold the ace, which always
lead to your partner's call. Do not refuse to lead a trump to your
partner's call merely because there is a chance of your ruffing a suit.
This is selfish play, and usually results in a loss, the suit you wish to
trump not unusually being your partner's strong suit.
When your partner, by his discard (or otherwise), has declared strength in
one suit and weakness in another, lead the best card of the suit in which
he {222} has declared strength. It is a criminal act to lead his weak suit,
unless you hold all the winning cards of that suit.
It is towards the end of a hand that bad players display the greatest
ingenuity in selecting cards, which, when led or played, can alone lose the
game. Also revokes are more commonly committed by a player who holds only
two or three cards, than they are when he has in his hand seven or eight
cards. Never dash out a card, after you have won a trick, without examining
the card that both you and your partner have just previously played.
When you have the game in your hand, play as calmly as though you had a
difficult hand to play. Time is rarely, if ever, saved by throwing down
your cards. The adversaries examine these deliberately as their only
chance, and too often it is found that, had the player played in the usual
manner, he must have won the game, but, in consequence of his cards being
called, he has just missed winning it.