(5) Fix firmly in your memory not only the trump suit but the trump card, then
(6) Give your undivided attention to the table, it is there and not in your hand the game is played;
(7) See every card played in the order it is played;[4]
(8) When you deal, place the trump card apart from the rest of the suit, that you may know at once which it is.
N.B.—Knowing is always better than the very best thinking, and generally much more easy: by these simple means you get rid at once and for ever of all such childish interruptions as “draw your card!” “who led?” “what are trumps?” “show me the last trick!” and so ad infinitum, which, by their constant repetition, not merely worry and annoy the rest of the table, but tend to destroy any clue to the game that you yourself might otherwise possess.
It is a good plan to sit clear of the table, and then if you are constrained to drop a few cards, they at any rate fall on the floor, where they cannot be called.
So far, I have assumed your object to be Whist; if your end and aim is Bumblepuppy, you need do none of these things; you can learn the leads and the recognised play—more or less imperfectly—in a few years by practice, or you can leave them unlearned;
“Build by whatever plan caprice decrees,
With what materials, on what ground you please.”
Cowper.