The Principle is to secure for certain cards a trick-taking value which does not naturally belong to them; either by getting higher cards out of the way of lower, or by placing the holder of intermediate cards at a disadvantage with regard to the lead.
If any person will take the trouble to deal out four hands, and after turning them face up on the table, count how many tricks each side will probably take with its high cards and trumps, he will find that the total will hardly ever be exactly thirteen tricks. Let us suppose the following to be one of the hands so dealt; Z turning up the ♡6 for trumps:—
On looking over this hand it would appear that A could only make one trick in Clubs, of which the second round would be trumped. His partner can count on five tricks: the two best and the fourth trumps; the ♢A, and the ♠K; a total of six tricks. On counting the adversaries’ probable tricks, Y should make one of his three trumps, and the ♠A. Diamonds will not go round twice without being trumped, so we cannot count on his ♢K. We cannot see any sure tricks for Z. Where are the five other tricks necessary to bring our total up to thirteen? They must be there, for there are thirteen tricks taken in every hand played.
If we play over the hand, we shall find that A-B may make six, seven, nine, or ten tricks, according to their good management, and the good or bad play of their adversaries. In Foster’s Whist Tactics, Illustrative Hand No. 13, may be found the various ideas of sixteen of the best players in the American Whist League with regard to the proper management of this hand. They played it in four different ways, and with very different results in the score.
This must show that the accidental distribution of the Aces, Kings, and trumps is not everything in whist, and that there must be ways and means of securing tricks which do not appear on the surface.
There are four ways of taking tricks at whist:
1st. By playing high cards, the suit of which the others must follow. This A does, in the example, on the first round of the Club suit.
2nd. By playing low cards, after the higher ones have been exhausted, and the adverse trumps are out of the way. This Y will do with his Diamonds, or A with his Clubs, according to circumstances.
3rd. By trumping winning cards played by the adversaries. This Y will do if Clubs are led a second time, or A will do if Diamonds are led twice.