Card suit

“ With regard to the American system, when opening your strong suit with a low card, those who have already adopted the penultimate lead from suits of five cards, will have no difficulty in again discovering the germ of a principle of play. The fourth-best card of your suit is led from suits of four cards, and from suits of five cards. ”

“ Should any one not be able to follow suit, he may either play a card from another suit, or give one of the trump suit, and may possibly, by adopting the latter method, secure the trick for himself and his partner from the hands of their adversaries. ”

“ With a suit declaration, if there is no chance of letting the weak hand make a trump by ruffing, it will generally be the dealer’s aim to discard the losing cards in the declaring hand either to high cards or to the cards of an established suit in the other hand, sometimes after the adverse trumps have been taken out, but often before, there being no time for drawing trumps. With no card of any value in a suit in one hand, the lead should come from that hand, but it is better, if possible, to let the adversaries open the suit. ”

“ It will be observed that the trump suit will always be one card more than one-fourth of all the cards in use, and the three side suits (not trump) will always be one card less than three fourths of all the cards in use—ten trumps and twenty-six suit cards. Thirteen points constitute the full game. ”

“ When one of the adversaries has shown a long suit, it is frequently possible to prevent its being brought in by a device, such as holding up a winning card, until the suit is exhausted from his partner’s hand, or playing in other suits so as to give the player the lead whilst his partner his a card of his suit to return, and to give the latter the lead when he has no card to return. The dealer should give as little information as possible as to what he holds in his own hand, playing frequent false cards. ”

“ When all the six cards in hand are of the same suit, the owner of them can lay claim to a score of thirty, though this combination is not a very common one, because flushes of the duplicated suits do not count. The most likely time to secure a flush is when not many of the same suit have been already played. ”

“ If you hold a red and a black suit, of equal length, especially if the “no-trump” declaration has been made by the dummy, give the preference to the red suit, inferring that the dealer is weak in red cards.
When you are opening from a long weak suit, and especially when you hold no re-entry card, endeavour to inform your partner that your long suit is weak. Don’t encourage your partner to return your lead unless there is a fair chance to establish and make your suit. ”

“ If your partner has declared a suit, lead the best card you hold of it, regardless of number, unless you have an ace-king suit of your own, in which case lead the king first and have a look at dummy. If partner has not declared anything, lead your own suit. With high cards not in sequence, such as ace-queen, king-jack, or even queen-ten, in every suit but trumps, lead the trump. ”

“ If all have not been able to follow suit, the dealer turns up the top card of what is left of the pack, and the highest card of that suit which has been played wins the trick. If all players have followed suit, the dealer waits for an opportunity, when all have not followed suit, to turn up the trump card. When no trumps have been played, the highest card of the suit led wins the trick. ”

“ With four cards or fewer of your partner’s suit, the highest card should always be returned. This is done in order that the suit may not be blocked, and also to show your partner what high cards are held by the dealer. When it is evident that you and your partner hold an entire suit with the same number of cards in each hand, it is well to arrange the lead on the last round of the suit according to whether you would prefer to lead up to weakness or to have your partner lead through dummy’s strength. ”

“ In the Book of Thoth, that strange document which has descended to man at his present stage of evolution as a deck of playing cards, we find a very wonderful symbolism. Of all the suits of cards, that of the spade is the only suit in which all the court cards face away from the pip. In all the other kings and queens, the faces are looking at the little marker in the corner of the card, but in the spade suit, they look away from it. ”

“ As an illustration (Fig. 10) of the suit signs of Southern Europe, we take a card from a Portuguese pack of 1610, the "Cavalier de Bâtons" (Clubs) ; the other suit signs are Swords, Coins, and Cups. The anatomy of the charger and the self-satisfied aspect of the Cavalier are striking; and as to the former, we are reminded of the bizarre examples of hippic adornment which, [Pg 82] on a summer Bank Holiday, may be seen on the road to Epping Forest.
FIG. 11.
Among the secondary uses to which playing cards have been applied, we find them as political weapons. ”

“ Further, if your hand is weak, you naturally return a suit in which you infer that your partner is strong. You then return a strengthening card to get a high card of your partner's strong suit out of his way, and you enable him to finesse if he thinks proper, and so to keep the command of his suit in his own hand. ”

“ In the suit of your own choosing, you are presumably stronger than your partner; it is therefore undesirable at once to part with your high cards. Hence it is best, in general, to lead the smallest. Your partner, actuated by a desire to assist in establishing your strong suit, will play his highest card to your lead (see Play of Third Hand, p. 92) , and, if he fails to win the trick, will, at all events, force a higher card from the fourth player, and so help to clear the suit for you. ”

“ Having described what is perhaps the oldest pack of cards which have been preserved, attention must be drawn to another—or rather a fragment of a pack—which is very little, if any, younger than the set already studied. These cards can be traced back to the same period as the first, and are identified by the costumes of the court. They bear great similarities to the modern cards, and are supposed to have been the Adams and Eves of the card world. These are absolutely the first specimens of the French suit cards ”

“ When the original Third Hand returns a suit opened by his partner, he should lead the winning card, if he hold it. If without the best card, when the lead is against a No-trump declaration, it is far more important that a high card should be led through strength, and also that the holder of the length should be accurately advised as to his partner's high cards, than that he should be told the exact number of small ones. ”

“ If your partner opens a suit, late in a hand, with a high card, your play, third hand, will depend on your judgment of the character of the lead. If it is probable that your partner has led from a weak suit, you will often be right to finesse king, knave, &c., or to pass his card altogether, so as not to give up the entire command of the suit. ”

“ In the last hand of the next rubber, my partner had four trumps; so had I; he had, besides a very long suit; hence he extracted the trumps, and we were left with the last two between us, mine being the better. I got the lead, of course, exactly at the time I did not want it; although everyone else knew where the smaller trump was, I did not, so I drew it from my partner's hand, and then led him a card of which he had none in the suit; this card, as ill-luck would have it, belonged to an enormously long suit, of which one of the adversaries had entire control. ”

“ It is in general unsound to finesse against a card that must be unguarded. From a hand short in cards of re-entry, winning cards should not be led out so as to exhaust the suit from the partner’s hand. Even a trick should sometimes be given away. For instance, if one hand holds seven cards headed by ace, king, and the other hand hold’s only two of the suit, although there is a fair chance of making seven tricks in the suit, it would often be right to give the first trick to the adversaries. ”

“ When you can make the pass in a dextrous manner, it is preferable, on many occasions, to the long card, which obliges you to change the pack frequently; for otherwise it would be observed that the same card is always drawn, and doubtless suspicion arise.
288 TO TELL THE CARDS BY THEIR WEIGHT. Ask a person to cut the pack as often as he likes, undertaking by weighing each card for a moment on your finger, not only to tell the colour, but the suit and number of spots, and, if a court card, whether it is king, queen, or knave. ”

“ When a suit declaration has been doubled, a singleton is always an advantageous opening. The lead of a high card is also advisable for the purpose of taking a look. If the leader be without either a singleton or high-card lead, his partner's suit is unquestionably his wisest opening. ”

“ If you know that the adversary has two high cards of your long suit, especially when your card of re-entry has been taken out, abandon your suit, and endeavour to help your partner by leading the suit which you infer must be his. ”

“ Already they had to find out in that obscure medium what suit was led, who led it, and how each card fell. Now, they have in addition, to track to their lair several missing minor cards, and when they have succeeded in doing so, to decide whether they indicate a signal, a nine suit, the lowest of a long head sequence, or the lunacy of the leader. If their happiness is to be taken into consideration one important extension of principle must be added to the list. ”

“ Two trumps and three cards of one plain suit should not be played unless the plain suit is headed by a court card.
2. One trump and a tierce major is too weak, unless the fifth card is a court card. With similar hands weaker in the tierce major suit, accept unless the fifth card is a queen.
3. One trump and four cards of a plain suit is too weak to play. ”

“ The soldier continued as follows, if your worship observe again, you will find in the first place, there are four suits in the card, that intimate the four quarters in the year; then as there are thirteen cards in each suit, that is just as many as there are weeks in the quarter; there are also as many lunations in a year as there are cards in a suit; there are twelve court cards which intimate the twelve months of the year, and the twelve signs of the zodiack thro’ which the sun fleers its diurnal course during the spice of one whole year ”

“ Holding ace, ten, and a small one, your partner leading the nine of the suit, pass it; for if he holds an honour you make two tricks, counting your ace for a certain trick.
With king, queen, or queen and knave, and another play one of the high cards in all cases when you are second hand. With an average remainder of trumps and good cards, having one certain loser, throw it away at your first opportunity; it may enable your partner to make his second best of the suit. When your partner does not trump a winning card you may be quite sure that he means you to play trumps. ”

“ The senior hand may make trumps of any suit he chooses, and this he signifies by leading one of the suit he selects. It will thus be seen that the first card played in each deal decides the trumps for that deal. ”

“ With great length or considerable strength in your long suit a high card should be led, but unless you can reasonably expect to catch all of the remaining cards, your partner should be given an opportunity to win the first trick in the suit. ”

“ Continue doing this until the pack is finished. Then shuffle all the discarded cards together, until you have 21 cards or more on the table. If 3 cards of any suit appear, or 3 cards of the same value, they must all be taken.
A card must now be selected to represent the inquirer. If she be fair of complexion she selects Diamonds; if medium fair, Hearts; if of brown hair, she selects Clubs; and if very dark, Spades. A man selects the King and a woman the Queen. This representative card is shuffled with the others and taken out when it is the highest of its suit. ”

“ The very greatest care is necessary in arranging the cards for this trick, as in the event of one card being misplaced, the whole trick will be spoiled. To [165] arrange the pack sort the suits of spades, clubs, and diamonds in numerical sequence, and the suit of hearts in the order of seven, ace, queen, two, eight, three, jack, four, nine, five, king, six, ten; place the hearts face uppermost so that the seven is at the bottom and the ten at the top. ”

“ Place the suit of spades on the top of the suit of diamonds, so that the ace of spades is immediately atop of the king of diamonds. Work in together the two half-packs so formed by placing the seven of hearts under the ace of diamonds, and then take one card alternately from the bottom of each pack, so that when completely arranged the top faced card will be the king of spades, and the second card the king of clubs. The cards are then ready to be brought forward for the trick to be performed. ”

“ In the case of a lady, the key card is the queen of the suit shown by the card which she picked from the pack at the outset. When it is a man who is seeking his fortune, the key card is the king of the suit indicated by the card he picked originally.
Having found the key card in the lay-out, count nine, eighteen, twenty-seven, thirty-six and forty-five spaces from it, and pick up the cards so placed. Remember that in counting, a line must be always begun from the right; also that it may be necessary to revert to the first or subsequent rows in order to obtain the full set of four cards. ”