American or standard whist

Contents

Page

Introduction vii

Preface to Sixth Edition xiii

Technical Terms 27

The Laws 35

Original Trump Lead 45

Original Lead in Plain Suits 49

Second Hand 66

Third Hand . . . '. 59

Fourth Hand 60

"Cavendish" XXV., English Play 65

1 'Cavendish" XXV., American Play 68

Inferences 72

Underplay 155

False Cards 156

The Eleventh 157

The Twelfth 158

The Thirteenth 159

Finesse 160

Trumps 107 vi Contents.

Game of " J. C." and Overplay 201

Hand I. of "Cavendish" . . 208

Hand of "Cavendish," Overplay 210

Hand XXXVIII., "Cavendish" 214

Hand XXXVIII., " Cavendish," Overplay . . 217

Laws and Principles of Whist 219

Examples at Close of Games 228

" Card Essays, Clay's Decisions, and Card Table

Pole . 250

Walker 258

Drayson 263

Introduction

Whist is the best game of mingled skill aud chance ever devised. All others, by comparison, are within narrow bounds. Brief practice and slight acquaintance with rules easily learned, will enable men to play them. Whist is limitless. It is always presenting new situations. It is a theme for constant study. "Whist is a language, and every card played an intelligible sentence " to those who will work out its problems and understand its regulations that are as guides to the betrayal of its interesting possibilities.

Something of the extent of its great variety will be apparent when we consider that, if we play ten thousand games, no one of all the hands held is like to any other, and that each is full of its own suggestions and appeals to the exercise of our observation and ingenuity. The smallest card of a plain suit led at the commencement of a game says : " This hand has not five trumps, nor has it five cards of any suit. It has not an ace and king, viii Introduction.

nor a king and queen, nor a tierce to a queen or knave." At another time, the same card says : " There were five of this suit, of which one has been played, and it is now strong for service." And again it says : " Play a trump to this hand, for it will take the responsibility of the game." And yet again: "There were four trumps here when you called, and two remain to help you." Not one of all the fifty-two cards that has not information to give, various but definite, in accordance with the occasion that demands its use.

To read this language; to thwart the thus expressed purpose of antagonists ; to advance his own forces in conformity with most orderly tactics and ingenious strategy, and to assist the plans of his partner determined on victory, is the business of the model whist-player, and it calls into action, in a remarkable manner, his ascendency of memory, judgment, and skill.

The Game of Whist, as played about a century since, was, in value of count, ten points, to be gained by tricks taken and "honors" held. We learn, from a treatise by a prominent member of an existing club, why this count was changed in England : " Lord Peterborough having one night lost a large sum of money, the friends with whom

Introduction. xi as principle in play, repudiating acquaintance with gambling and its attendant evils, for these would harm their intellectual entertainment at the social and the literary clubs and by their household fires,

Preface

TO THE SIXTH EDITION,

"American Whist" was originally planned and written for the edification and use of a coterie of fine players who loved the game for its own intrinsic merit. Of their own volition they had thrown aside the rules which were applicable to a hurried use of cards that did not demand concentration of thought so much as dependence upon luck. They repudiated Short Whist, which was a contraction of original Long Whist, and which retained the " honors " at their full valuation. Long Whist had been played in America without the " honors " for many years, and the status of the game was fixed at seven points ; but when the seven points were made, the game was over. It will be remembered that the old game in England was one of ten points; and in one hand six of these could be made by cards and four by honors. At that time the deuces were not used in play. These were afterward introduced, and the u odd xiv Preface to Sixth Edition.

card " became a matter of reckoning. The game of Long Whist, without honors, in America was made seven points, because in one hand a game might be won by the taking of every trick. The only difference in manner of count between this Long Whist and the Long Whist, or American Whist, of to-day is, that games, and not points, were essential ; that is, the number of games won or lost were named, while the actual number of points that were made and lost in each rubber played were not kept as the evidence of result. In American Whist every card of every hand is played. A and B may make six by cards in one hand, and then six more, it may be, in the next, and count twelve points to their credit, and but one game.

"American Whist " was put into general circulation by its publishers, and, as a text-book and authority, five editions have been exhausted. Since its publication, four years ago, whist has made advances. One of the marked improvements is the now universal practice of the lead of the fourth card in the suit from the ace if the lead of that suit is made the second time, the ace having first been played. The English players were very slow to adopt American leads, but they have at last been obliged to do so.

Preface to Sixth Edition. xv

Another improvement is the recognition of the value of the 9, formerly a meaningless card when led, but now the only one used as an original lead which can have but a single meaning. Drayson, of London, in a recent letter to the "Field/' claims the credit of making the play of the fourth card an original lead. The lead of the penultimate under certain conditions of the hand held, and the lead of the fourth card from the ace, the ace having been first thrown, are of American origin, and, like many other improvements in the play of Whist which were discovered and adopted here, have been forced upon the English practice. Drayson may as well claim the new and excellent finesse, the third-hand play of the 10 when king and one or two small cards are held, or the lead of the 9 when king and knave are held.

Another improvement is the refusal of second hand to play an honor, not a sure taking card, upon an honor led. The English players were very reluctant to obey this important regulation ; but they have put in print, not that American players have shown them their mistake, but that "recent investigations have proved that queen second, or king second, on knave led, is not the best play."

xvi Preface to Sixth Edition.

The best players, of course, desire to play American Whist; and the knowledge and practice of that game is constantly on the increase. But Whist without honors and for five points is played at the clubs because at tables formed of six players the rubbers of American Whist are much too long. For the same reason the English score is kept, the game closing at five points. To this five-point game the leads and play and very many of the rules of American Whist may be applied, to the great advantage of the participants. It is only a question of time as to the introduction into the English clubs of a new set of laws. The Baldwin rules are outgrown, and were ever of poor selection. Taken mainly from Deschapelles, but without due consideration of -their bearing upon the French game, and separated from the context, they have furnished opportunity for " decisions " without number. But when the code is newly made, it must be framed, as now, for the benefit of men who play Whist, not for the delight and recreation that the game itself affords, but for the money that is staked upon its result.

Attention is called to comments upon certain parts of the text of this and former editions of "American Whist."

Preface, to Sixth Edition. xvii

A, p. 3. The fifteenth edition of u Cavendish " is out, differing very slightly from those preceding it. He has accepted American leads in his letters to the " Field," in his lectures at the Whist-rooms, and in a book that he has recently published ; but in his last edition of his one informatory work he refrains from a mention of " N. B. T.," of New Orleans, to whom for many original ideas, not only "Cavendish," but the Whist world, are so greatly indebted.

B, p. 5. Five-point Whist has come into vogue with many clubs for several reasons. First, a great many players are not able as yet to play the better game; second, the natural disposition to do all things in a hurry will not be rebuked by rational enjoyment ; third, a fifth or a sixth player, or both, wait to make up the new table; and, fourth, the five-point game does not insist upon silence, and so partakes somewhat of the freedom that is used at any game of cards with which the players may be familiar. Add to this the veneration of certain Americans for the opinions of people on the other side of the water, and the reasons are given for five points that are Anglicized over seven points that are Americanized.

C, p. 1G. The third reason above given is that xviii Preface to Sixth Edition.

most commonly in use by good players at the clubs of the five-point game. These players do not conform altogether to the English laws, but adapt, as well as they can make them fit, the regulations of Long Whist. Although they do not play out all the cards, nor in any wise obtain from the play of the last ones held the very best issues of which Whist is capable, still they do not follow, in certain positions of the game, the directions of the Short Whist play.

D, p. 42. When three cards in all plain suits and four trumps are held, the queen, the best of any three, is a good lead.

E, p. 43. This, of course, in the absence of ace and queen.

F, p. 50. Having thrown king and knave, the new American play when you continue the suit is : Ace, if you have no more of the suit below the knave ; queen, if you have more. Your partner will understand the state of your hand by this play.

G, p. 52. From this double tenace, if it can properly be avoided, no lead should be made, especially if there is reason to believe the suit will be led on the left. If the ace is led, it determines that trick; but if either queen or 10 is led, you remain with a tenace which the ace lead, of course, would break.

Pre/act to Sixth Edition. xix

H, p. 53. The head, unless the ace, of any sequence is the best card to lead, and the lowest of any sequence is the best card to follow.

I, p. 54. The 9, as an original lead in trumps or plain suits, signifies king and knave. It is perhaps the best lead that can be made from any hand ; it makes its proclamation, and opens the game at once for partner and opponent. The lead of the lowest card from ace, knave, and two small ones; of king when queen, 10, etc., are held; of knave when king, queen, and two others are held; and of queen at head of sequence, — are all good openings.

J, p. 56. Consulting the score in American Whist is of far less importance than in the Short, or five-point, game, because you play for all that you can make. There are times when the state of the score may justify hazardous play. True, you play for all the points; but the beauty of good Whist consists in the manner of making these, and you may risk a loss to make a gain when the gain will turn a pretty evenly balanced scale.

K, p. 72. The score is again alluded to, and for the same reason as that given above. Although the parties are playing for points first of all, the game that makes the rubber finishes xx Preface to Sixth Edition.

that count, and there will be endeavor made to get it.

L, p. 73. We have already explained the play of ace, queen, and 10. The English play does not admit of the 10 as the lead at the head of a sequence, but that card may be utterly hampered if it cannot be so played. The 10 in Short Whist may be led as lowest of a sequence. The 9 in Short Whist is not considered of account ; it may mean something or nothing. It is truly a card of too much importance for us not to give it a proper place.

M, p. 140. The practice of trump signalling is not as much respected as it formerly was. Many players have two good reasons to give why they do not use it, — first, they can manage to get in and lead trumps if they want them played; second, they want to play higher cards second hand than they would dare to do if a signal by such play was to be suspected. Some very good players have yet another reason. They intend to give out by their play, not to be understood by the opponents, if they care to have trumps led, — for instance, through a king or queen turned on the right ; and a good partner can so understand good play. It is not at all because the play is a signal, that it meets objection ; but because it is,

Introduction, ix he was playing proposed to make the game five points instead of ten, in order to give the loser a chance, at a quicker game, of recovering his loss. The new game was found to be so lively, and money changed hands with such increased rapidity, that these gentlemen and their friends, all of them leading members of the clubs of the day, continued to play it." We are not informed how Lord Peterborough personally was pleased with the new game, since, because of the dimidiative process, he might have been more speedily than before deprived of his guineas ; but it matters not. So that money changed liands rapidly, the Englishmen were delighted.

The great English player, " J. C," when defending his system, made comparison : " French players are dangerously addicted to false cards, and the Americans rarely play the right card, if they have one to play which is likely to deceive everybody." His comments were only too true, and their severity was felt by the clubs, who took counsel and determined no longer to deserve it. Players applied themselves to the learning of English and French Whist, read what they could obtain of Deschapelles and his school, and became familiar with the creeds of " J. C." and " Cavendish," as contrasted with those of Hoyle and Matthews. They let x Introduction.

fall the dogmas once held in regard, and adopted the choicest maxims of the English code. But they had an undercurrent system of their own, and in its working they placed confidence. Their game was Long Whist, and they would not relinquish the satisfaction afforded by a well-fought battle that might demand an hour of continuance. They had not a monetary inducement to hasten such a game.

Every English book upon Whist treats of betting and gaming. Players in America, who had studied the game and loved it for employ of intellectual strength, were disgusted with this desecration, for they knew that, if properly understood and played, it would, by virtue of its intrinsic merit, take precedence of all description of genuine card amusement. They also saw, despite the well-planned theories for fine play, that at times the English game possessed the elements of finish before it was begun, and decided that "honors," so-called, should have no place in their reckoning, and that, in order to win a game by playing of a single hand, every trick must be taken. Giving all credit to the master player and compiler, " Cavendish/' for his exhaustive work, inventive and directive, they accepted such instructions and adopted such rules as were consistent with what they designated