A player may have no desire to prevent any particular adversary from getting the lead; but may be anxious simply to carry out a certain line of play. In order to do this it may be essential that he should have some direction of the course of the hand. This is impossible if his play is confined to following suit helplessly, whatever is led. He must be able to assume the lead himself in order so to change the course of the play as to better suit his game.
Let us suppose that he has a dangerous hand in plain suits, but is safe in hearts, and decides that his best chance is to lead hearts at every opportunity; or that he has a certain safe suit which it is manifestly to his advantage to have led as often as possible. The other players, being the ones who are to suffer from this line of play, will of course prevent it if possible; and in order to carry out the plan in spite of their opposition, it will be necessary for the individual player to gain the lead a certain number of times, and so force his game upon them.
Again, a player may know that he can load a certain adversary if he can get in and lead a certain suit or card; or he may know that by giving one player the lead, that player can load another. In such cases commanding cards must be held or retained, in order to give the player a certain control of the lead.
When a player is attempting to take all thirteen hearts, the control of the lead, especially in the end game, is very important; because the design of each of the other players will be to get the lead into some other hand, in the hope that they may load the player having it, and so at least divide the pool.
THE DISCARD. One of the most important elements in heart play is the discard. The beginner is too apt to discard hearts at every opportunity; but a little experience will teach him that even a 3 in a plain suit may be a better card to part with.
The most important thing in discarding is to reduce the odds against your winning the pool. Let us suppose that you have the A K Q of a plain suit. It is 5⅛ to 1 that you get a heart if this suit is led a third time. If you can get a discard, the odds are at once reduced to 2 to 1 in your favour, that being the probability that you will escape, even if you have to win two rounds. This is a very large percentage, and should never be lost sight of. If you have a choice between two discards, one being from the K Q J 2 of hearts, and the other from the K Q J of a plain suit, select the plain suit. You can improve your chances little or none in the hearts, while you not only bring the odds to your side in the plain suit, but secure a chance of discarding on the third round of it.
Following the same principle, it is evidently good play to discard from a suit which has been led once or twice, if you have a dangerous card or cards in it. Even if you have a safe tenace in a suit, such as 4 and 2, the 5 and 3 being still out somewhere, it is better to discard from it if there is the slightest danger of your getting the lead. Tenaces are only safe when led up to.
In Howell’s settling, the object is not so much to load the others as to escape yourself. It is never advisable to attempt to take all thirteen hearts, because there are no Jacks; but there are many cases in which it is better deliberately to take three or four, in order to avoid the chance of taking six or eight. For an example of these tactics adopted by two players, see Illustrative Hand, No. 3. On the same principle, there are often cases in which it is advisable to take a trick with one heart in it, in order to get rid of a dangerous card, which might bring you in several hearts later on. The general principles of leading and discarding are the same as in Sweepstake Hearts; but it is not necessary to take such desperate chances to escape entirely.
THREE-HANDED HEARTS is more difficult to play than any other form of the game, partly because there are so many rounds of each suit, and partly because the moment one player refuses, the exact cards of that suit in the two other players’ hands are known to each of them.
There is usually a great deal of cross-fighting in the three-handed game, during which one player escapes by getting numerous discards. When all three have refused, each a different suit, the end game becomes a question of generalship, and the preservation of one or more commanding cards, with which to control and place the lead, is usually the key to the situation. A player who has no high cards for the end game, unless he is quite safe, is almost certain to be loaded in the last few tricks.