Dripread - Book

nine, eight. In other cases the player should lead a small card; according to the usual convention, the fourth best. His partner, and also the dealer, can credit him with three cards higher than the card led, and can often place the cards of the suit: for instance, the seven is led, dummy holds queen and eight, playing the queen, the third player holds the nine and smaller cards; the unseen cards higher than the seven are ace, king, knave and ten of which the leader must hold three; he cannot hold both knave and ten or he would have led the knave; he must therefore hold the ace, king and either knave or ten. The "eleven" rule is as follows: the number of pips in the card led subtracted from eleven (11-7=4 in the case stated) gives the number of cards higher than the one led not in the leader's hand; the three cards seen (queen, nine and eight) leave one for the dealer to hold. The mental process is no shorter than assigning three out of the unseen cards to the leader, and by not noting the unseen cards much valuable information may be missed, as in the illustrative case given.

With a suit declared the best opening lead is a singleton, failing which a lead from a strong sequence. A lead from a tenace or a guarded king or queen is to be avoided. Two small cards may be led from, though the lead is objected to by some. A suit of three small cards of no great strength should not be opened. In cases of doubt preference should be given to hearts and to a less extent to diamonds.

To lead up to dummy's weak suits is a valuable rule. The converse, to lead through strength, must be used with caution, and does not apply to no-trump declarations. It is not advisable to adopt any of the recent whist methods of giving information. It is clear that, if the adversaries signal, the dealer's hand alone is a secret, and he, in addition to his natural advantage, has the further advantage of better information than either of the adversaries. The following signals are however, used, and are of great trick-making value: playing an unnecessarily high card, whether to one's partner's suit or in discarding in a no-trump declaration, indicates strength in the suit; in a suit declaration a similar method of play indicates two only of the suit and a desire to ruff,?it is best used in the case of a king led by one's partner.

The highest of a sequence led through dummy will frequently tell the third player that he has a good finesse. The lowest of a sequence led through the dealer will sometimes explain the position to the third player, at the same time keeping the dealer in the dark.

When on dummy's left it is futile to finesse against a card not in dummy's hand. But with ace and knave, if dummy has either king or queen, the knave should usually be played, partly because the other high card may be in the leader's hand, partly because, if the finesse fails, the player may still hold a tenace over dummy. When a player is with any chance of success trying to establish his long suit, he should keep every card of it if possible, whether it is a suit already opened or a suit which he wishes his partner to lead; when, however, the main object of the hand is to establish one's partner's suit, it is not necessary for a player to keep his own long suit, and he should pay attention to guarding the other suits. In some circles a discard from a suit is always understood to indicate strength in the suit; this convention, while it makes the game easier for inferior players, frequently causes the player to throw away one of his most valuable cards.

Playing to the Score.?At the beginning of the hand the chances are so great against any particular result, that at the score of love-all the advantage of getting to any particular score has no appreciable effect in determining the choice of suit. In the play of the hand, the advantage of getting to certain points should be borne in mind. The principal points to be aimed at are 6, 18, and, in a less degree, 22. The reason is that the scores 24, 12 and 8, which will just take the dealer out from the respective points, can each be made in a variety of ways, and are the most common for the dealer to make. The 2 points that take the score from 4 to 6 are worth 4, or perhaps 5, average points; and the 2 points that take the score from 6 to 8 are worth 1 point. When approaching game it is an advantage to make a declaration that may just take the player out, and, in a smaller degree, one that will not exactly take the adversaries out. When the score is 24 to 22 against the dealer, hearts and clubs are half a trick better relatively to diamonds than at the score of love-all. In the first and second games of the rubber the value of each point scored for honours is probably about a half of a point scored for tricks?in a close game rather less, in a one-sided game rather more. In the deciding game of the

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 / "Brescia" to "Bulgaria"