Whist

WHIST, a game of cards of English origin gradually evolved from several older games which succeeded each other under the name of triumph, trump, ruff an honour4, whist and swabbers, and finally whist. Whist was so called because of its requiring silence and close attention. It is believed that the earliest men tion of whist is by Taylor, in 1621. In the middle of the 18th century Edmund Hoyle and others published rules and maxims for playing. However, it remained for Dr. Henry Jones, of London, whose pen name was Cavendish, to work out a complete system for scientific play. His first code was published under the title of Whist Development in 1863. He further im proved the game and published several editions of his Laws and Principles of Whist and finally several editions of Cavendish on Whist, the 22nd being published shortly before he died.

Forming the Game.

Whist is played by four persons, two sides of two partners each, with a full pack of 52 cards, equally distributed. The partners are determined by cutting ; the highest two play against the lowest two, and the lowest has the choice of cards and seats. In cutting, ace is the lowest card. There should be two packs of cards of different coloured backs, one pack being shuffled while the other is being dealt. All must cut from the same pack. Before every deal the cards must be shuffled. The dealer must present the pack to his right hand adversary to be cut; the adversary must take a portion from the top of the pack and place it toward the dealer. At least four cards must be left in each portion ; the dealer must unite the two by placing the one not removed in cutting upon the other.

When the pack has been properly cut and reunited, the dealer must distribute the cards one at a time to each player in regular rotation, beginning at his left. The last card, which is the must be turned facc up before the dealer, where it must remain until it is his turn to play to the first trick. This card is known as the trump card and the suit to which it belongs is the trump the other three suits are known as the plain suits.

The eldest hand or player on the left of the dealer opens the game by placing one of his cards face upward upon the table. The three other players each play a card to it in rotation, commencing with the second hand, or player to the left of the leader, the dealer being the last to play. Each player must follow suit, that is, play the suit that was led, if he can. If he is void of that suit he may discard or trump. The

four cards thus played constitute a trick. The highest card of the suit led, or the highest trump takes the trick. The trick is taken in by the partner of the winner and placed face downward at his left hand on the table. The winner of the first trick becomes the leader to the next, and this routine is continued until all the cards are played, there being 13 tricks in all. The deal then passes to the next player on the left, and so on to each player in turn.

A game consists of seven points, each trick above six counting one upon the score. The cards in each suit are divided into two classes : "high" cards and "small" cards. The five high cards are ace, king, queen, jack and ten; the eight small cards are the nine to deuce inclusive.

The English

Leads.—Under the English system the high cards were led without regard to the number of cards in the suit. The king was led when accompanied by the ace or queen, or both. The queen was led from the top of sequence of queen, jack and ten, and the ten was led from the combination of king, jack, ten and small cards. Having no combination in hand from which a high card could be led, the hand was opened with a small card, the smallest from a suit of four, the penultimate from a suit of five, and the antepenultimate from a suit of six or more.

The American Leads.

One of the foremost authors and players of America was Nicholas B. Trist of New Orleans. He corresponded with Cavendish (Dr. Jones) a great deal about the game, and in the course of the correspondence suggested to Jones that instead of the penultimate and antepenultimate, when open ing the game with a low card, the fourth best, counting from the top, be led, and then when the card or cards smaller than the fourth best were played the number of cards originally held in that suit could be counted. Trist further suggested that they revise the high card leads to show the number in suit by the original leads as follows: from ace, king and others lead the king to show four, but lead the ace to show five or more ; from king, queen and others still lead the king to show four ; but lead the queen to show five or more. Cavendish approved these changes and named this new system the "American leads" in honour of the American author who suggested them. The American leads thus formulated and accepted on both sides of the Atlantic be came the standard of play for all whist clubs.