The Second Hand
In the first round of a suit, you should generally,
6. Play Your Lowest Card Second Hand
You presume that the first hand has led from strength, and, if you have a high card in his suit, you lie over him when it is led again; whereas, if you play your high card second hand, you get rid of a commanding card of the adversary’s suit, and, when it is returned, the original leader finesses against you. Besides this, the third player will put on his highest card, and, if it is better than yours, you have wasted power to no purpose.
If, however, you have a sequence of high cards, you should put on one of the sequence second hand, for, if you pass the trick altogether, the third hand may win with a very low card, or, with his low card, may force a high one from your partner. The chief objection to playing an unsupported high card does not apply, as the leader cannot successfully finesse against you in the next round.
With a moderate sequence, such as queen, knave—knave, ten—ten, nine—you play the lowest of the sequence if you are numerically weak; but, with more than three cards of the suit, you pass a small card led, agreeably to the principle already discussed—that in weak suits you play to strengthen your partner, but in strong ones you leave him to help you. For instance: the leader (A) has king, ten, nine, eight, seven of a suit; the second player (Y) has queen, knave, and one small one; the fourth player (Z) has ace and two small ones. A leads a small card; Y should play the knave; if he does not, the card led forces Z’s ace. It is true that this happens also if Y passes with queen, knave, and two small ones; but Y, in this case, has a guard to his queen and knave, and is left with the two winning cards after the second round of the suit.
With a sequence lower than ten, nine, there is no advantage in putting on one of the sequence; so the lowest should then be played second hand, in conformity with the general principle.
7. Play the Lowest of a Sequence
When you do not head a trick, you throw away your lowest card to economise your strength. Thus, with queen and two small ones, you would not throw the queen to king led. It is an error to suppose that it is of no consequence which card you play when you hold only small cards or cards in sequence. It is not of much consequence as regards merely the chance of making tricks; but it is of great importance in affording information to partner.
Thus, suppose the players to be as before, A, Y, B, Z. A leads the three of a suit, Y plays the five, B the four. It ought to be certain that B has no more of the suit, it being presumed that he, not being able to head the trick, throws away his smallest. If he afterwards plays the two, and it turns out that he previously played the four through carelessness, his partner loses confidence, and gives up all hopes of drawing correct inferences from his play.
The principle applies equally to cards in sequence. Thus, say queen is led, and you (second hand) hold ace and king; if you put on the king, your partner gains the very important information that you have the ace also. For queen is not led from ace, queen, &c., so the leader cannot have the ace; the third hand cannot have it, or he would win the king; and the fourth, not having it himself, infers that you have it. If you put on the ace, not only could he not tell that you hold the king, but would assume that it lay with the leader’s partner. The principle, though stated for the sake of convenience in respect of the second hand, applies to the third and fourth hands also. (For a fuller examination of this point see Section 12.)
Analysis of Play of Second Hand in Detail
(See Note on Analysis of Leads, p. 64.)
Ace, King, Queen, &c.
Play lowest of ace, king, queen sequence.
Ace, King, Knave, &c.
Play king (but see p. 89).
On the second round of the suit, it becomes a matter of judgment whether you should play ace or finesse knave. No positive rule can be laid down.
Ace, King, &c.
Play king.
In trumps it is sometimes right to pass, leaving the chance of the first trick to your partner.
Obvious alterations on account of the trump card are omitted. It is clear that, with ace, king, &c., if your partner has turned up the queen, you should play a small one; and that, with ace, king, knave, if your right hand adversary has turned up the queen, you should play the knave; and so on for other cases.
Ace, Queen, Knave, &c.
Play lowest of queen, knave sequence.
Ace, Queen, Ten, &c.
In trumps, play ten, or with cards in sequence, the lowest of the ten sequence.
In plain suits, if strong enough in trumps to lead them, play ten, or lowest of sequence; if weak in trumps, play queen (but see p. 89).
With ace, queen, ten only, play ten, whether strong in trumps or not.
Ace, Queen, &c.
Small card led.
In trumps, play a small one.
In plain suits, with five in suit, play a small one if strong in trumps; the queen if weak in trumps.
Knave led.
Play ace. It is useless to cover with the queen, as the leader cannot hold the king (see Analysis of Leads).
These instructions assume ordinary original leads from strength. If ace or queen is turned up, some players lead knave, from king, knave, ten. If you know this is the practice of your right hand adversary, you should exercise your judgment as to covering with ace or queen.
Also towards the close of a hand, knave might be led from king, knave for various reasons, perhaps as the best chance of saving or winning the game or a point, or as a false card. No rule can be laid down for such cases.
Ten or nine led.
Play queen.
Ace, Knave, Ten, &c.
In trumps, play ten, or with cards in sequence with the ten, the lowest of the sequence.
In plain suits, play a small one.
The reason for the difference is that, in trumps a small card may be led from king, queen, &c.; but in plain suits, not. Hence as, in plain suits, the king or queen must be in the third or fourth hand, your strength would be wasted by covering.
Ace and Small Ones
Play a small one.
As before observed, the original lead of a small card from strength is assumed.
If, after several tricks have been played, you particularly want the lead, or you suspect the possibility of a lead from a single card, or one trick is of importance, you would often be right to play the ace. Again, no rule can be laid down.
King, Queen, Knave, &c.
Play the lowest of the king, queen, knave sequence.
King, Queen, &c.
Small card led.
Play queen.
In trumps it is sometimes right to pass, unless you hold ten also, or only three in suit.
Knave led.
The usual practice is to cover with the queen. But, it can be shown by calculation that, if the lead is from knave, ten, nine, and small, more is gained than lost, in the long run, by passing.
The best lead from knave, ten, nine, &c., is disputed; and so also is the question of covering.
King, Knave, Ten, &c.
Play the lowest of the knave, ten sequence.
Queen, Knave, Ten, &c.
Play ten, or lowest of sequence.
Knave, Ten, Nine, &c.
Play nine, or lowest of sequence.
Queen, Knave, and Small; Knave, Ten, and Small; Ten, Nine, and Small
Play as directed at pp. 82-3.
Covering or Passing Second Hand
If an honour is led, and you have the ace, as a rule play the ace.
If an honour is led, and you hold an honour, not the ace, pass as a rule.
It was formerly the practice to cover an honour with an honour, if numerically weak. Calculation shows more is gained than lost, in the long run, by passing. But, if a strengthening card is led, late in a hand, it would often be right to cover. No positive rule can be laid down for the play of the second hand under such circumstances. When you have the fourchette it is almost always right to cover. Thus, if knave is led, and you hold queen, ten, &c., put on the queen.
If a ten is led, and you hold queen and one small one, play queen. The lead is probably from king, knave, ten, &c., and the queen may save your partner’s ace. With queen and two small ones, or with other combinations not enumerated as those with which a high card should be played second hand, pass.
If a nine is led, and you hold king and one small one, play king. The leader must have opened an ace suit (either ace, queen, ten, nine, or ace, knave, ten, nine), assuming him to have led from a suit of four cards. The same applies if you hold king, nine, and eight is led.
If a medium card is led from a suit of at least four cards, three being higher than the card led, and you hold cards that (together with the leader’s cards) make up a sequence, cover with the lowest card you can. For example:—The original lead is an eight. You (second hand) hold ace, king, ten, with or without small ones. If the lead was from queen, knave, nine, eight, as is most probable, and the ten is put on, it will win the trick.
Again: the original lead is a seven. You hold ace, queen, knave, eight. If the seven is the lowest of a four card suit, the lead must have been from king, ten, nine, seven. Therefore, the eight put on will win the trick.
The same applies, if the leader of an ace follows with a medium card. For example:—Ace is led originally. The next lead of an American Leader is, say, the eight. You had originally king, queen, ten, four, and you played the four to the ace. The leader must hold knave, nine and small. You should, therefore play the ten. And, observe, the play would be the same, if the second lead of a player who does not follow the American system were the seven, as then he must hold knave, nine, eight.
If a small card is led, and you hold an honour and a small card, pass the trick as a rule; for by putting on the honour you expose your weakness, and enable the original leader to finesse against you on the second round. The principal general exception to playing a small card second hand, is when the circumstances of the hand cause you to seize any chance of getting the lead, as when you want to stop a lead of trumps, or to lead trumps yourself. Then it is often right to play a high card second hand, when unsupported by another high card.
Also, in trumps, if king or queen is turned up, and you hold it singly guarded (i.e., if you have only one other trump), it is generally advisable to put on the turn-up, second hand. And if you hold king or queen, singly guarded, and a superior honour is turned up to your right, you should play the king or queen.
In the second round of a suit, if you have the winning card, you should—in plain suits—generally put it on second hand, subject to a finesse that will certainly be successful; but in trumps there are many cases in which you should not, especially if you have numerical strength in trumps, and a good hand besides. Your winning trump must make, and, by passing the second round, you perhaps enable your partner to win with a third best trump—or even a smaller one—yourself retaining the command.
If, when led through in the second round of a suit, you conclude from the previous fall of the cards that the second best card is to your right, it is sometimes advisable to put on the third best. You thus save your partner’s hand if he holds the best. For instance: if knave is led in the first round, and your partner (then second player) puts on king, which wins the trick, it is clear (if the ten is your best) that your partner has the ace, for the third player could not win the king, and the leader could not have led from ace, knave. If your right-hand adversary afterwards returns the suit through you, you should put on the ten in order to save your partner’s ace.