One of the first principles in leads is to lead through
the strong up to the weak. At the first lead it is impossible to tell where the strength and where the weakness may be, except in trumps when an honour is turned up. After the first round of a suit, a fair idea may be formed as to the position of the strength and weakness.
When the original leader possesses two or more honours in a suit, the order in which these are led conveys important information to an intelligent partner. The second lead of the same suit will in some cases indicate the number of cards in the suit, from which the original card was played. For example, original leader plays knave of spades, which wins the trick. He follows with king of spades. The leader's partner now knows (see Table of Leads, post) that the original lead was from king, queen, knave, and at least two small spades; because leading knave, then king, shows five at least in the suit. If the leader held only four spades, he would have commenced with the king.
Another piece of valuable information may be gained by the lead of the knave from king, queen, knave, and two others, which is as follows. The leader's partner, if a good player, and holding the ace and one other spade only, will take his partner's knave with the ace, and will then return the small spade. He plays this ace to "unblock," or get out of the way of his partner. If, however, he does not play his ace on the knave, but does play it on the king, it may be assumed that he holds a third spade, and played his ace to prevent blocking his partner's suit. Only a very feeble player, with ace and one other, would fail to play this ace on the original lead of knave.
The leader will now know whether either adversary holds another spade. If he led from six spades, neither adversary holds a spade. If he led from five, one adversary may hold a spade, unless his partner originally held four; and, from the cards that fell from his partner's hand, he can tell whether three or four were originally held. The partner knows that, as he held, say, three originally, and the original leader showed five, one of the adversaries, after two rounds of the suit, cannot hold a spade. This is one among numerous cases proving the advantage of informing a partner, by the lead, of the number of cards in the suit from which the original lead was made. When the accepted leads are known and practised, a game of Whist proceeds like a well-oiled machine, the intelligence being employed to take advantage of the information given. When the leads are not known, and incorrect cards are played, there are perpetual catastrophes, losses and surprises, which usually culminate in losing a rubber which ought to have been won.
After the Laws of the game have been learnt, the next proceeding is to learn the leads. No man can ever hope to be more than a very indifferent player who does not know the leads; yet, from a long Whist experience, it can be stated that at least one-third of those who have played the game of Whist, probably during twenty or more years, have never become familiar with them.
The following Table gives the original leads now adopted, and the second lead:[[63]]—
| Holding, in plain suits— | First lead. | Second lead. |
|---|---|---|
| Ace, king, queen, knave | king | knave |
| Ace, king, queen | king | queen |
| Ace, king, and others | king | ace |
| Ace, king only | ace | king |
| King, queen, knave, with one small one | king | knave |
| King, queen, knave, and more than one other | knave | king, if five; queen, if more than five |
| Ace and four or more small | ace | fourth best of those remaining |
| King, queen, and others | king | if king wins, fourth best of those remaining |
| Ace, queen, knave, with or without one small one | ace | queen |
| Ace, queen, knave, with two or more | ace | knave |
| King, knave, ten, nine | nine | king, if ace or queen falls |
| King, knave, ten | ten | |
| Queen, knave, ten, nine | queen | nine |
| Queen, knave and one small | queen | |
| Queen, knave, and two or more | fourth best | |
| In trumps. | ||
| Ace, king, queen, knave | knave | queen |
| Ace, king, queen | queen | king |
| Ace, king, and five others | king | ace |
| Ace, king, and fewer than five small | fourth best |