4th. By being able to take tricks with cards which are not the best of the suit, the player who holds better cards having already played smaller. This B will do with the ♡10 if A leads trumps, and Y does not play either Q or J. If B leads trumps he will lose this advantage.
These four methods of winning tricks suggest four systems of play, which are those in common use by experts at the present day:
1st. Playing high cards to the best advantage, so as to secure the best results from such combinations as may be held. This is the basis of all systems of leading.
2nd. Leading from the longest suit, in order that higher cards may be forced out of the way of smaller ones, leaving the smaller ones “established,” or good for tricks after the adverse trumps are exhausted. This is called the long-suit game.
3rd. Trumping good cards played by the adversaries. This is called ruffing. When two partners each trump a different suit, it is called a cross-ruff, or saw.
4th. Taking advantage of the tenace possibilities of the hand by placing the lead with a certain player; or by avoiding the necessity of leading away from tenace suits. For example: A player holds A Q 10 of a suit, his right hand adversary holding K J 9. These are known as the major and minor tenaces. Whichever leads makes only one trick; but if the holder of the major tenace can get the suit led twice, he makes all. This is called the short-suit game, or finesse and tenace. Its resources may be added to by finessing against certain cards. For example: Holding A Q 3 of a suit led by the partner, to play Q is a finesse against fourth hand having the King.
Each of these systems has its advantages, and almost every hand will offer opportunities for practice in all of them.
The most important thing to impress on the beginner is that whist cannot be played by machinery. Some authorities would have us believe that certain theories alone are sound; that certain systems of play alone are good; and that if one will persevere in following certain precepts, in such matters as leading, management of trumps, etc., that the result will be more than average success at the whist table.
Nothing can be further from the truth. As in all other matters largely controlled by chance, there is no system, as a system, which will win at whist. One cannot succeed by slavish adherence to either the long or the short-suit game; by the invariable giving of information, or the continual playing of false cards. The true elements of success in whist lie in the happy combination of all the resources of long and short suits, of finesse and tenace, of candour and deception, continually adjusted to varying circumstances, so as to result in the adversaries’ losing tricks.
HOW TO STUDY WHIST. Any person, anxious to become an expert whist player, may attain to considerable proficiency in a short time, if he will content himself with mastering the following general principles one at a time; putting each into practice at the whist table before proceeding to the next.