WHIST.
As Mr. ARNAUD'S Maxims are generally derived from the worst pre- vailing practices, a correction of them will serve as a correction of most popular errors.
"(Play) Trumps under any of the following circumstances : "If you have six or more of them, (or five, should an honour be among them,)—on the supposition that P.* has a long or a strong suit,—unless you are entirely deficient in one suit, or have occasion to play a close game.
"Payne tells us never to trump out with a had hand, though strong in trumps, as it is only serving the adversaries' good cards. Certainly you should not if you have a chance of a saw; but otherwise no possible harm can be done by leading trumps, while it insures to you the power of reintro- ducing P.'s long suit, (for he must have one,) after you have brought out the trumps."
"For he must have one ! "—Why must he have a suit? What ne- cessity of good fortune holds good at whist ? How idle to frame rules on such purely arbitrary assumptions! He next says- " If you have a very long or very strong suit yourself, or if generally strong in your hand, though weak in trumps,—in hope P. may command trumps, especially if he dealt—unless playing a close game."
Trumping out for one suit is unjustifiable play, unless the strength in trumps is so great as to promise the exhaustion of the adversaries' ; a condition not premised by the author. The third maxim is yet more objectionable :—Play trumps, it says, "if you have a single small trump, and no chance of a ruff. Part- ner's return will bring out two for one." Among good players of mortal frailty, partner's return would be extremely apt to be the candlestick at player's head. The play recommended is entirely exploded among skilled persons, except in the case of three good suits. The exposure of weakness much more than countervails the advan- tage of drawing two for one. Worldly wisdom holds good at whist, and a worse evil than poverty is the discovery of it. In the leads to be avoided, we find "an unguarded ace." How an ace can properly be said to be " unguarded," we do not understand; but we know the author Means an ace single, or unaccompanied ; and there are many cases in which the lead may be prudent. If for your sins you have a partner who is likely to play so ill as to put on the single guarded king second, (as Mr. ARNAUD advises) you should play your unaccompanied ace as soon as possible, to prevent the fall of the two grand cards together!
* Partner. " It is good," says our authority, " to lead through a king, and more particularly through queen or knave, especially if you are strong in the suit ; and bad to lead up to them."
What ! bad.to lead up to a knave ? It is surely far better to lead up to him, than through him. With terce-major, he says, " begin with the highest that you may not deceive your partner." The better practice is to begin with the king, that you may inform him, and keep your adversaries in doubt of the place of the ace. When your partner sees the king make, the fair inference in his mind is that you have the ace ; and if you think it prudent to stop after playing the queen, he knows the ace is in your hand. Now if you played ace, then king, and stopped, he would have no reason to infer that the queen, the next commanding card, was in yours. All knowledge conveyed to a partner, and kept from the adversaries, is an advantage in the game ; nor is the knowledge of the precise place of a commanding card an insignificant point of information ; while, on the other side, it is well to keep your adversaries in doubt whether it is in your hand or your partner's. But your partner, says the objector, may have none of the suit of your terce-major, and may trump your king led out.—He may do that, or any other enormity, but such outrages scarcely enter into any human calculations. Laws may be necessary against parricide, but hardily against trumping partners' kings. : What must he have who leads a king, and who does not need the cares of a nurse ?—Either ace-king or king-queen. If he have the first, we have shown the policy. If he have the second, the king should be passed, the ace should be forced out upon it, and way thus made for the queen. How could your partner ever make his queen while you were trumping the suit ? Always favour the opening of your partner's strong suits. What will be said of the science of a player who advises "a single card lead," if weak in frumps! If you have feeble teeth, show a disposition to bite—that is the parallel. Strength in trumps is the apology for single card leads, which are the delight of all unexperienced players.* With five trumps the ruff may be challenged. With regard to the single-guarded king in the second hand, Mr. ARNAUD says- " Honour once guarded, play king invariably if turned up, and generally in trumps, and for the most part in other suits also. "This has always been considered a doubtful point. Mr. Payne says it should at all times be passed ; but the following considerations seem to lead to the conclusion that the king should in most eases be put on : First, the lead must be either from queen, &c. from sequence, from a numerous suit, from ace, or from a single card. If from ace or single card, it is plain it would have been better to have put on king first round, and if from either of the other suits, Lt with ace-queen, or ace-knave, would probably finesse against you. Secondly, as you have only two of the suit, somebody must be more or less strong in it. If P., then you should decidedly have played kiwi, both to strengthen his game and to prevent your stopping his suit. If either adversary's strong suit, then, as you cannot retain the command of it your- self, you should do your best to enable P. to do so. Finally, should the lead have been from a single card, L. and P. must have no less than 10 cards of that suit between them ; in which case it is of the last consequence to draw the strength out of L.'s hand at once, anti to preserve it to P. Upon the whole, it seems decidedly proper in most cases to play out a once-guarded king second-hand."
Speculative error is excusable on this point, because it is one of ex- treme nicety ; but the practice of good players is not to put on the king second in any suit but in trumps, and in trumps to do it invariably, because risk must be run for the chance of stopping that important suit when favourable to the antagonist's object. MATHEWS, if we re- member rightly, recommends the king second, because it is good play when calculating on bad play. Bad players, he remarks, and there are more bad than good players in the world, generally lead from an ace ; your king second will therefore make against them. It is weak, however epigrammatic, to shape rules to the worst practice ; and, speaking from our own experience, we should say that the king refused second, has made in the proportion of three times out of five. And this is one instance in which the short whist players show less disposition to the snapdragon practice than the long. The comparison brings us back to the difference between the existing game and that which lives all excellent in tradition and the talk of our grandfathers. "There is no play," they say, "in short whist :" but what we never, could understand is, how the short whist, in which "there is no play, differs from long whist at a score of five all. We have put this query to the laudatores of longs, and they have actually shaken their heads at us, and gravely maintained there was a very material difference, though minds debauched by short practice could not discover it. The short game, however, in fact requires at once more care and more daring, more circumspection and more dash, to follow up ad- vantages which attentive sagacity has perceived. The game, it must not be denied, has its faults; which proceed from applying the long rules and scheme to the reduced score. Honours are of too overpowering a force. We agree with Mr. ARNAUD, that they should count as two and one, instead of four and two. The penalty of the revoke, too, is disproportionately heavy, if it be adequate in the long game ; but we are rather disposed to doubt that point.
* If the single card be a "stiff" one—as a queen, a knave, or a ten, it maybe led with prudence, and good effect ; for it may support your partner's hand, and your adversaries may suppose it a lead from a long low suit or a sequence. But if you wait till the suit is led, and your stiff card falls to a high one played by your partner, or your adversary en the right, the state of your hand is indicated to the enemy, a thing always to be avoided.
t Left-hand adversary.
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