tricks: if any trumps remain against you, the long cards may be made powerful weapons of offence by forcing them out; so that in either case the system of play will be advantageous for you. Next comes the question, What card should you lead from your long suit? To answer this fully would involve more detail than we purpose to go into here, but there are some prominent considerations that will serve as guides for general practice. As an abstract principle, it is not good to part with your high cards at first, as it is very desirable to retain the complete command of the suit at a later period. Suppose, for instance, you hold ace, king, and three small ones: the most advantageous lead (if it were not for a consideration we shall enter into by and by) would be a small one; for on the second round you would have the complete command with your ace and king, being able probably thereby to draw all the others and pursue your suit to the end. When you have such command, your suit is said to be established, and it is evidently advantageous for you to get this effected as early as you possibly can. This principle would, therefore, dictate that your first lead should generally be the lowest of your suit. But there is a circumstance which considerably modifies the application of this principle in practice that is, the risk of the suit being ruffed by the adversaries ;-on which account it is advisable to depart in some measure from it for the sake of making your winning cards early. Thus in the above hand of ace, king, and three small ones, if you were to begin with the smallest, reserving your two high cards for the second and third rounds, you would probably have one of them trumped; for which reason it is good policy to play them out first, at the risk of delaying the establishment of your suit. The first-named principle will, however, always apply for leading trumps, and also for plain suits when trumps are out, as the motive for the departure from it then no longer exists. There is also another kind of exception from beginning with the lowest, but which directly tends to promote the early establishment of your suit; namely, when you have a high sequence, such as Q. Kn. 10, at the head of your hand. In this case your endeavor should be to force out the higher cards, for which purpose you lead the highest of your sequence, say the queen, which will be almost sure to force out either the ace or king; if the other is also against you, you may, on another round, bring it out with the knave, leaving you then with the best card and probably with the entire command. Directions how these principles may be applied in leading from particular combinations of cards, are usually given in the detailed rules of play. Return of the Lead. Hitherto we have only spoken of your own proceedings in leading. But it is now desirable to consider your partner's duty, i.e., how he is expected to help you in regard to the play of your long suit. It is not enough that he simply return your lead; the efficiency of his aid will much depend on what cards he plays. The key to this lies in the fact that, as you hold more than the average number of cards in the suit, he will probably hold less; i.e., if it is a long suit with you, it will be a short one with him. If you, for example, hold five, the chances are much against his holding more than three. And it follows from this, that the best thing he can do for the joint benefit is to play his cards rather with reference to your hand than his own, i.e., to give you the more important part of the play in reference to the suit in question. And there are two principles deducible at once from our theory, which will serve for his guidance in this particular. The first is, that he must get rid of the command of your suit; for we have already stated it to be eminently desirable you should get this early into your own hand, in order to establish your suit as soon as possible. Thus, whenever he finds he holds the best card in it, he must play it out, in order to get it out of your way. And then, secondly, he must adopt, in this suit, what is called strengthening play. The meaning of this term is often misunderstood, but it is exceedingly simple. Whenever a high card is played, its withdrawal promotes (in military parlance) all the lower cards of that suit still existing in the various hands, i.e., it raises each of them a step in rank; what was formerly the third best becoming now the second best, and so on. And as it is evident that the longest hand will be most likely to benefit by this proceeding, this hand is said to be strengthened thereby, so that, when your partner plays out high cards of your long suit, even though he may not make tricks with them, their withdrawal will strengthen, and thereby benefit you. This is an important reason for the well known rule to play highest third hand; you having led from your long suit, your partner plays the highest he has, not only to do his best towards getting the trick, but also, if he loses it, to strengthen your hand by getting high cards out of your way. This last object is entirely lost sight of by those silly people who feel mortified at 'having their high cards taken,' as well as by those, not much less silly, who, when strong in trumps, object to 'lead up to an honor.' For this reason also your partner must not finesse in your long suit, except with ace and queen the first time round, which, provided he gets rid of the ace soon afterwards, is considered allowable. The principle of strengthening play must also guide your partner in returning your lead; for if he is short in the suit (i.e., if he held not more than three cards originally), it will be very advantageous to you that he should return the highest he has left, and not the lowest; he may thus either save a high card of yours, or may afford you a good finesse, or at all events he will strengthen your hand, and aid you in establishing your suit. Thus if your partner originally held king, knave, and a small one, and has played out his king to your first lead, when he returns the suit he must lead the knave, and not the small one. This duty of returning the highest of a weak suit is so imperative, that it has now, by universal consent of the best players, become a conventional rule, by adhering to which your partner may show you the state of his hand. If, for example, he had originally ace, five, and four of your lead, after winning with the ace he must return the five and not the four. It matters nothing to him, but it may be all important to you, and violation of the rule may lose the game, It is of course possible that your partner may hold originally more than three of your suit. In this case |