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 Foster's Whist/^anual c 
 
 BRENTANO'S 
 
 

 FOSTER'S 
 
 AMERICAN LEADS 
 
 AND HOW TO LEARN THEM 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF 
 
 FOSTER'S WHIST MANUAL 
 
 BRENTANO'S 
 
 NEW YORK CHICAGO WASHINGTON 
 1894 
 
 (All rights reserved) 
 
ssytf 
 
 GrV\?. 
 
 .Ft 
 
 Copyright, 18Q4, 
 
 BY 
 
 BRENTANO'S 
 
 
AMERICAN LEADS. 
 
 The term, " American Leads," is somewhat 
 vague, the name being often applied to leads 
 that were in common use long before the expres- 
 sion came into vogue. Generally speaking, Am- 
 erican Leads are all those which have for their 
 chief object the indication of the number of 
 cards in the suit, and they are governed by the 
 following four rules, three of which I quote from 
 an article by Mr. JT. B. Trist. in Harper's, for 
 March, 1891; the fourth being my own statement 
 of a rule not yet formulated by the apostles of 
 these leads: — 
 
 1st. When you open a strong suit with a low 
 card, lead the 4th-best. 
 
 2nd. When you open a strong suit with a high 
 card, and next lead a low card, lead the original 
 4th-best. 
 
 3rd. When you remain with two high indiffer- 
 ent cards, lead the higher, if you opened a suit 
 of four ; the lower, if you opened a suit of more 
 than four. 
 
 4th. Never lead a King if you have more than 
 four cards of the suit. 
 
 The first rule seems to have had its origin away 
 back in the days of "Cam," who led the- lowest 
 
4 FOSTER 8 AMERICAN LEADS 
 
 but one of five, long before Cavendish had written 
 his first edition. General Drayson claims the 
 invention of the second ; and the third was sug- 
 gested by Cavendish, in 1875, in connection with 
 the lead from A Q J and others. The term 
 "American Leads" did not come into use for 
 any system of leading until ten years later, when 
 in 1885 Cavendish published his " Whist Devel- 
 opments," using the name as a sub- title. This 
 work contained nothing new in the way of leads, 
 its chief novelty being what is called the un- 
 blocking game, or the plain-suit echo. The 
 fourth rule was not even hinted at. 
 
 It must therefore be obvious that none of the 
 leads covered by the first three "maxims," as 
 they are called, have any right to the title 
 "American " having been all suggested by Eng- 
 lishmen, and all being in more or less common 
 use long before the term was applied to them. 
 They have now so long been an integral part of 
 the common system of leading that they are 
 given in all text-books on whist as a matter of 
 course. 
 
 It is when we come to the fourth rule that we 
 reach the peculiar and distinguishing character- 
 istic of the system of leading which we recognize 
 as " American." I have repeatedly called atten- 
 tion to the fact that the name is a misnomer, and 
 that these should be called the " anti-King leads." 
 
AND HOW TO LEAEN THEM. 5 
 
 Their enthusiastic advocates are in the habit of 
 claiming that "all the best players have adopted 
 American Leads," which is quite true with regard 
 to the first three rules, but quite false with regard 
 to the fourth. The leads covered by the first 
 three having nothing peculiar about them, and 
 being those which are given in full in " Foster's 
 Whist Manual," it is not my purpose to repeat 
 them here, but to confine our attention to the 
 leads which are specifically recognized as " mod- 
 ern," or "American," although they appear to 
 have had their origin in England also, their con- 
 ception being clearly traceable to four paragraphs 
 of doubtful logic on page 83 of the first edition 
 of " Whist Developments." 
 
 It is remarkable that a writer of the calibre 
 and caution of Cavendish should have allowed 
 himself to become responsible for the far-reaching 
 consequences of a rather hasty and very incom- 
 plete analysis of the results of unblocking on a 
 King led ; and it is to be regretted that instead 
 of correcting his error, and recommending a har- 
 monious and universal system of unblocking on 
 all high cards, he should have attempted to force 
 two wrongs to make a right, by suggesting to 
 change the whole system of leading from high 
 cards, in order to avoid the necessity of acknowl- 
 edging his error. 
 Having the ear of the public, and being the 
 
6 FOSTERS AMERICAN LEADS 
 
 recognized authority on the subject throughout 
 the world, his statement of the case was taken 
 without question. Compilers of text-books on 
 whist and contributors to the press copied it 
 without comment, and in the course of time 
 Cavendish embodied the proposed changes in the 
 leads in his "Laws and Principles of Whist," 
 twentieth edition. While this had no apparent 
 eif ect on the players in England, where the system 
 recommended had been pretty thoroughly tried, 
 and its defects recognized, it became quite a fad 
 in America, chiefly, I believe, if not wholly, on 
 account of the patriotism inspired by the name 
 given to it, "American" leads. 
 
 The result has been that many American whist- 
 players have almost entirely lost sight of the 
 original object of the game, which was to win as 
 many tricks as possible, and have substituted 
 another object, to give as much information as 
 possible, regardless of loss or gain, so that by 
 many persons Whist, properly so called, is no 
 longer played. 
 
 Information, and not tricks, being the object 
 of the game, it follows that it is no disadvantage 
 for the information to be published to the whole 
 table, and that whether it is of any practical use 
 to the partner, or of less use to him than to his 
 adversaries, is not the question. According to 
 one of the best-known apostles of this system of 
 
AND HOW TO LEARN THEM. 7 
 
 play, "the best players are those who afford the 
 most information by their play." 
 
 It may be contended that the ultimate object 
 of the giving of this information is to secure an 
 advantage in tricks. I admit that that is the 
 theory ; but a theory that does not agree with 
 the ascertained facts must be false, and in every 
 instance where the experiment has been tried, it 
 has been proved that " information ' ' is a trick- 
 losing game. It was tried for three years by the 
 various clubs in Philadelphia, and in every in- 
 stance the old leads defeated the new. See Phil- 
 adelphia Inquirer, 1889 to 1891. Four of the 
 best players in America tried a set match to 
 decide on the merits of the anti-King leads, and 
 their advocates lost it by thirteen tricks. See 
 " Whist," April, 1893, p. 166. When it was 
 announced that the two great high priests of the 
 anti-King leads, Cavendish and N. B. Trist, were 
 to play together as partners at the Third Amer- 
 ican Whist Congress in Chicago, it was generally 
 supposed that they would annihilate any two 
 players that could be opposed to them. So far 
 from that being the case, they met with uninter- 
 rupted defeat in every match in which they took 
 part, although the players opposed to them had 
 no claim to being in the first class. All these 
 matches were at duplicate whist. 
 
 It is in response to the requests of numerous 
 
8 Foster's American leads 
 
 pupils, and to the demands of my publishers 
 that I have undertaken the task of arranging 
 a simple method of learning this new form of 
 game, which I call ''Information," on the same 
 general principles as those which have proved so 
 successful in "Foster's Whist Manual." 
 
 GFNFBAL PRINCIPLES OF INFOR- 
 MATION. 
 
 I wish to call attention to a very common error 
 with regard to the anti-King leads, which is con- 
 tained in the statement made by their advocates 
 that any person learning what they call the 
 "old" system of leads will have to "unlearn" 
 it in order to acquire the new. But no one can 
 play the "new" leads with less than five cards 
 of the suit in his hand ; so, in order to play the 
 much more common four-card suits, every one 
 must learn the " old" system, which is still con- 
 sidered by the best judges as the better of the 
 two. Before any person can acquire, or even 
 understand, the "new" leads, they must be 
 familiar with the system given in "Foster's 
 Whist Manual." 
 
 The fundamental principle to be kept in view 
 by the "Information" player is that the weak- 
 
AND HOW TO LEARN THEM. 9 
 
 ness or strength of his hand, the ever-varying 
 abilities of his partners and opponents, the state 
 of the score, and the turn-up card, must have no 
 influence whatever in determining his opening 
 or original lead, or his play in the adverse suits. 
 These must be settled by purely mechanical rules, 
 of sufficient exactness to guide the most brain- 
 less automaton. 
 
 These rules are as follows : 
 
 1st. The strongest suit must invariably be 
 selected for the opening lead ; numerical strength 
 being usually the point considered. 
 
 2nd. Time is no object. So that the desired 
 information has been conveyed before the thir- 
 teenth trick is played to, the play of the hand 
 is to be commended. It follows that if a player 
 could give an amount of information on the first 
 trick, which we shall call equal to 4, and on the 
 tenth trick could add to it, making its total value 
 equal to 5, he would not be so good a player as 
 one who gave no information until the tenth 
 trick, and then gave some of the total value of 6, 
 That is to say, if on the first trick of the hand 
 you can show your partner that you have a suit 
 of at least four cards, with sufficient trump 
 strength and cards of re-entry to justify you in 
 expecting to make something of it, with reason- 
 able help from him, and on the tenth trick you 
 have added nothing to this information except 
 
10 Foster's American leads 
 
 that your suit is safe, thanks to his having been 
 encouraged to play a forward game, you are not 
 so good a player as one who can show his partner 
 nothing on the first trick except that the card 
 led was one of the thirteen dealt to him, but by 
 the tenth trick has shown that he had six cards of 
 the suit originally led, and that he had no trumps 
 to support it, no cards of re-entry to bring it in, 
 and that his partner' s frantic sacrifices of his 
 own hand to protect this six- card suit were a sad 
 waste of energy. 
 
 3rd. The exact number of cards in the suit led 
 must be indicated as far as possible, and this 
 must be considered as more important than any 
 indication of the general strength or weakness 
 of the hand. In order to do this it may be nec- 
 essary entirely to disregard the reasons which 
 formerly obtained for first leading certain cards 
 from certain combinations, and to arrange the 
 original leads solely with a view to the second 
 lead, which may be necessary in order to make 
 the first intelligible. 
 
 i 4th. The exact number of cards held in the 
 adversaries' suits must be indicated with scrup- 
 ulous exactness, in order that your partner may 
 be enabled to count what you have or have not 
 in that and other suits. For instance : If your 
 left-hand adversary leads the Club ace, and you, 
 haying Queen Jack only, throw the Queen to in- 
 
AND HOW TO LEARN THEM^ 11 
 
 duce him to change the suit or to lead trumps, 
 either of which will exactly suit your hand, and 
 will probably result in a gain in tricks if the 
 stratagem succeeds, you are not so good a player 
 as one who entirely disregards the trick-making 
 possibilities of his hand, but carefully indicates 
 to his partner that he has King Queen, or Queen 
 alone, or no more Clubs, or in any case, that ten 
 at least of his remaining cards are not Clubs. 
 
 5th. Frequent defeat, even at duplicate whist, 
 is no criterion of good play. If you have whist- 
 players for opponents, who give no exact indica- 
 tion of the number of cards in their suits, and 
 who mercilessly humbug you by playing false 
 cards in yours, so as to render the information 
 you seek to give and to receive from your partner 
 utterly worthless and misleading, that does not 
 detract from your merit as a player. " The best 
 players are those that afford the most informa- 
 tion" ; not those that receive it, iior those that 
 use it. 
 
 It will be noticed that in the "new" leads no 
 provision is made for giving any information as 
 to whether or not there is any probability of the 
 leader being able to establish, defend, or bring 
 in the suit he originally leads, which would be 
 most useful in directing the partner to play an 
 offensive or a defensive game. That would be 
 an indication of the trick-taking possibilities of 
 
12 
 
 FOSTER S AMERICAN LEADS 
 
 the hand, which is Whist, not Information. The 
 student who is interested in the possibilities of 
 such a system of communication, and the many 
 charming varieties of the game to which it leads, 
 is referred to "Foster's Whist Strategy," where 
 it is fully explained. 
 
 THE NEW LEADS. 
 
 The student of Information, who is supposed 
 to be already familiar with the usual system of 
 leading at Whist, has only the four following 
 combinations to study afresh : 
 
 1*1 
 No. 1. 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 No. 3. 
 
 No. 4. 
 
 The leads from these four combinations are 
 governed by the fourth rule of American Leads : 
 
AND HOW TO LEARN THEM. 13 
 
 " Never lead a King if you have more than four 
 cards of the suit." 
 
 This rule being merely negative, I have found 
 it necessary to give my pupils some further 
 guide, which I have formulated thus : 
 
 When you have a combination from which you 
 would lead the King but for the number of cards 
 in the suit, begin with the lowest of the sequence 
 of high cards. 
 
 The student must bear in mind that in the new 
 leads, the ten and all cards below it are regarded 
 as small. 
 
 Take an ordinary pack of cards and lay these 
 four combinations out on the table. Then apply 
 these two rules with a view of ascertaining what 
 you would lead from any one of them, either in 
 trumps or plain suits. 
 
 In the first place, from none of them would 
 you lead the King, so that card may be disre- 
 garded as a possibility. 
 
 From the first combination, the Jack being 
 the lowest of the sequence of high cards should 
 be first led. 
 
 From the second combination, the Queen being 
 the lowest of the sequence of high cards should 
 be first led. 
 
 From the third combination, as the King must 
 not be led, the Ace is the only remaining card of 
 the high sequence, and should be first led. 
 
14 FOSTER'S AMERICAN LEADS 
 
 From the fourth combination, the King being 
 unavailable, the Queen should be first 'led. 
 
 For practice, take a pack of cards from which 
 all below the nine have been discarded, and give 
 yourself several hands of thirteen at a time. 
 Sort them into suits, and determine what you 
 would lead if any of these four combinations 
 come into your hand. 
 
 JPZAYIWG ON PABTJVEM'S LEADS. 
 
 Let us now imagine that you are the partner 
 of a player that adopts this system of leading, 
 and let us see how it would affect your play as 
 third hand. 
 
 ACE LED. 
 
 Sort your pack of cards into suits, separating 
 them. Then take any one of these suits and 
 place on the table opposite you, as if led by your 
 partner, the Ace. Place some small indifferent 
 card, to represent the play of the Second Hand, 
 on your right. From the remaining eleven cards 
 take into your hand, one at a time, each of the 
 combinations here given, and ask yourself: 
 
AND HOW TO LEARN THEM. 15 
 
 "From what combination of cards did my part- 
 ner lead that Ace % " 
 
 No. l. K Q J 3 
 
 No. 2. K Q 7 3 
 
 No. 3. K J 7 3 
 
 No. 4. K 7 6 3 
 
 No. 5. Q J 4 2 
 
 No. 6. Q 6 4 2 
 
 No. 7. J 6 4 2 
 
 No. 8. 8 6 4 2 
 
 It must be constantly kept in mind that your 
 partner has not always a suit of five cards to lead 
 from, and that when you hold either the 4th or 
 8th combination allowance must be made for the 
 fact that he may be leading from a suit of three 
 or four only ; such as A Q J alone, or A Q J and 
 one small card. But it may be taken for granted 
 that if you hold either Q or J he is leading from 
 a suit of at least five cards, whether with or 
 without the King you cannot tell unless you hold 
 it yourself ; so that you have no indication as to 
 whether the command of the suit is with or 
 against him. 
 
 It is your duty as his partner to keep the low- 
 est card you have of the suit when you have four 
 exactly, no matter what they are; but with more 
 or less than four you should play your lowest 
 card on your partner's Ace led. In trumps, the 
 usual system of echoing must be followed, which 
 will be found fully explained in "F. W. M.," 
 p. 114. 
 
16 FOSTER'S AMERICAN LEADS 
 
 KINO- LED. 
 
 Sort out another suit, and lay the King and a 
 small card on the table as before. From the 
 eleven remaining cards of the suit take any com- 
 bination, and ask yourself : "From what did my 
 partner lead that King?" The first answer to 
 this must always be : " From a suit of not more 
 thai_ four cards." As this must be one of the 
 regular whist leads, he must have either Ace or 
 Queen; see "F. W. M.," p. 29. 
 
 In Information, you must always play your 
 lowest card of the suit to a King led by your 
 partner, no matter what or how many you hold, 
 so as to give him as little information as pos- 
 sible. W his ^-players echo, or unblock, on a 
 King led when they have four or more of the 
 suit, as they think it very important that a 
 player leading from such strong combinations as 
 are usually indicated by a King should have 
 every possible indication of how the small cards 
 of the suit are distributed. 
 
AND HOW TO LEAKN THEM. It 
 
 QUEEN LED. 
 
 Now lay out the Queen and a small card, and 
 give yourself any of the following combinations, 
 asking yourself what your partner probably led 
 from : — 
 
 No. 1. A K 4 2 
 No. 2. A 6 4 2 
 No. 3. K 6 4 2 
 
 No. 4. A J 5 3 
 No. 5. J 7 5 3 
 No. 6. 7 5 4 3 
 
 If you hold the first combination, you know 
 that he has led from Q J and one small card, or 
 from Q J 10 with or without others. If the lat- 
 ter, he may have only three in the suit ; or he 
 may have eight. If you hold the second com- 
 bination, he may have led from a short suit or a 
 long one ; from a suit headed by the King or by 
 the Queen. You know little or nothing, except 
 that he has led a Queen. If you hold the third 
 combination, you know he has led from Q J, with 
 or without the 10, perhaps from a short suit, 
 perhaps from a long one. If you hold the fourth 
 or fifth combinations, you know he has led from 
 K Q, with at least five cards in the suit, unless 
 he is one of those who believe in leading 
 "strengthening Queens." [When Information 
 players have no suit of five cards they do funny 
 
18 Foster's American leads 
 
 things.] If you hold the sixth combination, you 
 know nothing except that he has led a Queen. 
 The Ace is so frequently held up by the adver- 
 saries on a Queen led, if they are Whist-jAayers, 
 that it is not safe to draw any inferences from 
 this lead, not even if it wins the trick. When 
 a IF^^-player leads a Queen, it is a certainty 
 that he has no higher card of the suit in his hand, 
 and it is perfectly useless for the adversaries to 
 try to deceive his partner by holding up the Ace. 
 
 It is your duty as the partner of a player lead- 
 ing a Queen, to remain perfectly passive and to 
 await developments. If you have none of the 
 suit you must not trump the Queen, no matter 
 how many or how few trumps you have, unless 
 the Second Hand covers it. If you have exactly 
 four cards of the suit, no court card among them, 
 keep the lowest of your four. If you have a 
 court card, play the lowest, whatever the number. 
 
 Whist-players, when they have none of the suit, 
 trump a Queen led by their partners, unless 
 they are certain that they can make at least three 
 tricks by allowing the adversaries a chance to 
 make two with the Ace and King. 
 
AND HOW TO LEARN THEM. 19 
 
 JACK LED. 
 
 Now lay out the Jack and a small card, and 
 take any of the following combinations into your 
 hand : 
 
 No. 1. AKQ2 
 
 No. 2, A K 4 2 
 
 No. 3. K 6 4 2 
 
 No. 4. K Q 7 3 
 
 No. 5. K 7 5 3 
 
 No. 6. Q 7 5 3 
 
 No. 7. A 7 5 3 
 
 No. 8. 8 7 5 3 
 
 Holding any of the first six of these, and in 
 every case in which the second player covers the 
 Jack with any card but the Ace, it must be 
 obvious that the lead is forced. If you hold 
 either of the last two, the lead may be from 
 KQ J with at least five in suit. If you hold the 
 eighth, it may be from A K Q J, with at least 
 five in suit. The location of the Ace is always 
 doubtful with Information players, that card 
 being so frequently held up as a card of re-entry, 
 or to deceive the partner of the leader as to the 
 command of the suit. When a Whist-jjlsLyer 
 leads a Jack it is a certainty that he has not the 
 Ace, so it is of no use to attempt to deceive his 
 partner by holding it up. 
 
 It must be obvious to the attentive student 
 that on the first round of a suit the "new" leads 
 give about as little information as possible, and 
 
20 Foster's American leads 
 
 that it would be folly for the third hand to risk 
 an attacking game, as by leading or calling for 
 trumps, unless his own hand justified it, apart 
 from any indications from his partner. The 
 usual policy of Information players is to wait 
 for the second round of the suit to explain the 
 first. This second round may follow at once, 
 presently, or not until the hand is practically 
 over. In any case it is too late to begin a call in 
 a suit which will have to go round three times to 
 complete it. The system always reminds me of 
 the English practice of remitting money by cut- 
 ting bank-notes in half, waiting for the receipt 
 of the first half to be acknowledged before send- 
 ing the other ; the two halves meanwhile being 
 absolutely valueless to either party in the trans- 
 action. 
 Let us turn our attention to the second half. 
 
 THE SECOND HOUND OF THE SUIT. 
 
 Let us suppose that you won the first round of 
 the suit you selected for your original lead, and 
 that you have to go on. Lay out these four 
 combinations again : — 
 
AND HOW TO LEAEN THEM. 
 
 21 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 No. 3. 
 
 No. 4. 
 
 * 
 
 o o 
 
 
 
 o o 
 
 The general rule for continuing a suit, suppos- 
 ing it to be desirable to continue it, is to go on 
 with the best card of it if you hold it. Having 
 several, equally the best, the Information player 
 follows this rule : — 
 
 Make the long jump for the short suit, and the 
 short jump for the long suit. The jumps are 
 counted from the card first led, which, as we have 
 already seen, is always the lowest of the high 
 cards. 
 
 Let us examine these four combinations in 
 order, beginning with the first. 
 
 The shortest suit with which it is possible to 
 play the "new" leads is one of live cards. The 
 longest jump you can make in the first combina- 
 tion is from the Jack, which is first led, to the 
 
22 FOSTER'S AMERICAN LEADS 
 
 Ace. With the second combination, the longest 
 jump you can make is from the Queen to the Ace. 
 With the third combination, the only winning 
 card left in your hand after leading the Ace is 
 the King. With the fourth combination, if the 
 Queen forces the Ace out of your way, the only 
 winning card to go on with is the King. If the 
 Queen wins the first trick you are supposed to 
 take it for granted that the Ace is in your part- 
 ner's hand, and to follow the second rule of 
 American Leads: "When you open a strong suit 
 with a high card, and next lead a low card, lead 
 your original fourth-best." See "Cavendish," 
 nineteenth edition, p. 282. 
 
 Many Information players do not follow this 
 rule exactly, but ignore the King, and count the 
 4th-best from the Queen originally led, which, 
 in the combination before us on the table, would 
 be the 3. Mr. Trist gives as a reason for this 
 that the higher card is supposed to be known (a 
 grave error), and that the lead of the 4th-best 
 from the Queen would indicate that there are 
 two other small cards, but higher than the one 
 now led, still in the leader's hand. It is worthy 
 of note that Cavendish, after advocating it for 
 years, does not now think the second rule of 
 American Leads sound, and refuses to embody it 
 in his Laws and Principles. 
 
 Let us add a card to each of our combinations, 
 
AND HOW TO LEARN THEM. 
 
 23 
 
 and we shall find that the only ones in which any 
 change in the second lead is possible are the 1st 
 and 2nd. 
 
 No. 1. 
 No. 2. 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 %%$%] 
 
 
 * * 
 
 * * 
 
 * * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o -o 
 
 * * 
 
 * * 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 ~ In the first combination, your suit is one card 
 longer, and you accordingly make your jump one 
 card shorter, from the Jack to the King, instead 
 of to the Ace. 
 
 In the second combination, your suit being one 
 card longer the jump must be one card shorter, 
 from the Queen to the King, instead of to the 
 Ace. 
 
 The possibilities of the first combination are 
 not yet exhausted. We may add another 
 card : — 
 
 
 
 
 *M 4 
 
 
 
 * * 
 
 
 * * 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 stilt) 
 
 
 
 
 
 * + 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 *_+ 
 
 
 4. * 
 
 
 _*_ 
 
 The suit being now two cards longer than the 
 normal, which is five, the jump must be two 
 cards shorter, from the Jack to the Queen. 
 
 When the student has mastered these leads 
 he will be in full possession of all the theory and 
 practice of "modern" whist. 
 
24 FOSTER'S AMERICAN LEADS 
 
 PLAY OF THE THIRD HAND. 
 
 In the following exercises we shall suppose 
 that certain cards are led by your partner, and 
 certain others held by you. Our object is to 
 gain facility in drawing inferences from the 
 leads we are studying, and to practice affording 
 information in return. I wish again to call at- 
 tention to the fact that you are not now consid- 
 ering what use you are to make of this informa- 
 tion, but simply and only the mental satisfaction 
 to be derived from receiving and imparting it. 
 
 INFERENCES. 
 
 The cards given in full-faced type should be 
 taken into the hand ; those indicated as played 
 by others being placed in their proper positions 
 on the table. Some persons find it an advantage 
 to place a duplicate whist tray on the table, ar- 
 ranging the cards round it as if that game were 
 in actual progress. 
 
 The student should remember that the trump 
 signal being the exception, not the rule, all gen- 
 eral inferences should be drawn as if no such ar- 
 tifice existed. Make your own inferences before 
 reading mine. 
 
AND HOW TO LEAEN THEM. 25 
 
 K 7 4 2. A led; 6 2nd; 4 yours; 54th. Your 
 partner may be leading from a short suit, A Q J. 
 He should be able to place the 2 in your hand, 
 and know that you are echoing with four exactly. 
 Second round: 8 led; J 2nd; your K; 10 4th. 
 You and your partner should now be equal] y 
 certain that you hold the remainder of the suit 
 between you. 
 
 J 2. A led; 5 2nd; your 2; 4 4th. Your part- 
 ner must have at least live of the suit ; you hold- 
 ing J. He may or may not have the King. By 
 your 2 he knows you are not echoing. Second 
 round : 7 led ; K 2nd ; your J ; 6 4th. Your 
 partner had exactly live of the suit. The player 
 on your left, or your partner, has the Q; and one 
 or other of the adversaries has the 8, 9, or 10. 
 Your partner does not know that you have no 
 more ; neither can he locate the Q, unless he has 
 it ; but he knows that the 8, 9, or 10 is with the 
 adversaries, not with you. 
 
 J9 4 2. K led ; 5 2nd ; your 2 ; 3 4th. Your 
 partner has only four cards of the suit, one of 
 which is the A. You know that the adversaries 
 have three more between them, but your partner 
 knows nothing whatever. Second round : Q led ; 
 6 2nd ; your 4 ; 10 4th. You know that the 
 player on your left has no more, your partner 
 has the A, and either 7 or 8 is on your right, 
 alone, if your partner had four originally. Your 
 
26 FOSTEE'S AMERICAN LEAPS 
 
 partner still knows nothing. Had you echoed, 
 he could now place every card in the suit. 
 
 9 5 4 3. Q led ; 2 2nd ; your 4 ; 7 4th. It is 
 probable that your partner has A K, but A is 
 so often held up that it is not a reliable inference. 
 The wM^-player's lead of a Q gives absolute 
 information that both A and K are against. 
 Your partner cannot tell you are echoing. Second 
 round: A led ; 2nd trumps; your '5; 10 4th. 
 Your partner now knows you have the 9 and 3, 
 and that the J is on your left. You can locate 
 the J, for your partner would have begun with 
 it if he had it. Observe that the player on your 
 left knows the location of every card just as well 
 as you do. Your partner's leads showing no 
 more than five, you must have four, and he can 
 force his partner again with absolute safety that 
 you cannot overtrump. 
 
 J 7 5. Q led ; A 2nd ; your 5 ; 6 4th. Your 
 partner has at least five in suit, with the K ; but 
 neither you nor he have the slightest idea of the 
 distribution of the other cards. On getting the 
 lead again, he continues with the K ; 3 2nd ; 
 your 7 ; 10 4th. Still your partner knows noth- 
 ing ; not even that you are not echoing. You do 
 not know whether he had five or six in suit 
 originally. 
 
 A 3 2. Q led; 7 2d; your 2; 5 4th. You 
 cannot tell whether your partner is leading from 
 
AND HOW TO LEAEN THEM. 27 
 
 a short suit, Q high, or a long suit, K high. 
 He should assume that you have the Ace. 
 He knows you are not echoing, but does not 
 know that you have not four cards of the suit 
 with an honor among them. Second round : 4 
 led ; J 2nd ; your A ; 6 4th. Your partner has 
 continued with the 4th-best, ignoring the high 
 card, which he supposes you to know he holds. 
 So he held exactly five cards of the suit. You 
 know the 8, 9, or 10 is against him on your left. 
 He only knows that the second hand has no 
 more. 
 
 6 S. Q led ; 3 2nd ; your 5 ; 2 4th. Unless 
 your partner has the 4 he cannot tell you are not 
 echoing. Now that the 4th hand has played, it 
 looks as if the leader had A K Q ; but it would 
 have been very risky for you to begin a call on 
 that assumption if you had had trumps to sup- 
 port such a suit, as you cannot suppress a call 
 with two cards only. Second round : A led; 2nd 
 trumps; your 6; 4 4th. Your partner knows 
 nothing about your hand, and you know nothing 
 about the rank of his two small cards. The 
 player on your left, your adversary } knows every 
 card in your partner's hand, and knows you have 
 no more. 
 
 I J 10 9 2. Q led; 6 2nd; your 2; 8 4th. The 
 player on your left has no more if your partner 
 has A K. On your right can be only the 7, if 
 
28 Foster's American leads 
 
 any. Your partner is totally ignorant of any- 
 thing about any hand at the table but his own. 
 Second round: K led; 7 2nd; your 9; 4th trumps. 
 The player on your right, your adversary, knows 
 every card in both your hands. Your partner 
 knows nothing of the J and 10. 
 
 10 6 4 2. J led; 7 2nd; your 4; 5 4th. The 
 J winning should indicate AKQ; but the infor- 
 mation is too late to be of any use, for you had 
 to play before you knew it would win. Second 
 round: A led; 8 2nd; your 6; 4th trumps. Every 
 one at the table knows you are echoing ; for if 
 your partner had exactly five in the suit he can- 
 not have both the 2 and 3. Your left-hand ad- 
 versary knows his partner has still one more of 
 the suit, as he can count you and your partner 
 for exactly nine between you. 
 
 It must be obvious from the preceding exer- 
 cises that the case is correctly stated by Caven- 
 dish, on page 31 of the fourth edition of ' ' Whist 
 Developments" when he says: "The informa- 
 tion required by B [i. e. the third hand], is al- 
 ways afforded on the second round of the suit." 
 After eight cards have been played, and the 
 leader has announced the exact number remain- 
 ing in his hand, a good deal of information has 
 been " afforded" to every one at the table, and 
 usually by those who can least " afford" it. 
 
AND HOW TO LEARN THEM. 29 
 
 THE SECOND HAND. 
 
 The only object the second hand shonld have in 
 studying the new leads is to take advantage of 
 the information they afford. 
 
 Q 3 2. A led ; your 2 ; 6 3rd ; 9 4th. You know 
 the leader has at least five in suit. The location 
 of the K is known only to its holder. The 
 leader cannot tell whether or not his partner is 
 echoing ; if he is, your partner has no more. 
 Second round : K led ; your 3 ; J 3rd ; 10 4th. 
 You are the only player that can place the suit. 
 The leader had no means of indicating to his 
 partner that he had a six-card suit ; but only 
 that the command of it is now against him, with 
 which adversary neither he nor his partner 
 knows. 
 
 K 10 7 6. A led ; your 6 ; 4 3rd ; 5 4th. 
 The leader is the only player who can gain any 
 information from this trick. He should be able 
 to place the 2 and 3. Second round : Q led. 
 The leader announcing four cards only, cannot 
 have both 2 and 3 ; so his partner must be echo- 
 ing with four, and your partner has no more. So 
 you play your 7, allowing your partner to trump 
 and to leave you with tenace, K 10, over the 
 leader's J and small. 
 
 A J. K led ; your A ; 4 3rd ; 10 4th. You can 
 locate every card in the suit. The leader shows 
 
30 Foster's American leads 
 
 that he had only four, Q among them. His small 
 cards are the 2 and 3 ; your partner has no more ; 
 and there are still five cards of the suit on your 
 left. It is important to observe that should this 
 player on your left obtain the lead, and show a 
 suit of his own, you can count his entire hand, 
 thanks to his partner' s having exposed it. For 
 instance : Suppose you lead another suit, which 
 he wins, and he then shows a five-card suit. He 
 can have but one trump, if any ! This should be 
 very useful to you should trumps be led. 
 
 6 4. Q led ; your 4 ; 3 3rd ; 2 4th. They 
 command the entire suit, and third hand is not 
 echoing. Second round ; K led ; your 6 ; 7 3rd ; 
 5 4th. Leader has A 10 9 8. The J being doubt- 
 ful, you should pass with four trumps if the suit 
 is led again ; for if you partner has not the J 
 he will trump ; and if he has it, you will be over- 
 trumped by the third hand. 
 
 A J 9 2. Q led. With so many in the suit 
 you should play the Ace unless you have strong 
 reasons for retaining it; 8 3rd; 3 4th. The 
 leader had at least five cards of the suit. His 
 partner has the 10 or no more, and your partner 
 has either 10 and 4, or the 4 alone. You are the 
 only player at the table that knows anything 
 about the suit. The leader, does not know that 
 his partner is not echoing. The third hand does 
 not know whether the lead is from a long suit 
 
AND HOW TO LEAKN THEM: 31 
 
 headed by K Q, or from a short one, headed by 
 Q J. After the second round you will command 
 The suit with your J 9. 
 
 It is to be observed that if the leader begins 
 with a suit in which he shows five cards, as by 
 leading an A, you being able to place J or Q, 
 and for any reason changes the suit, and shows 
 four of another, you know nine cards of his 
 hand. 
 
 Advocates of the new leads sometimes realize 
 how much more important it is to show command 
 on the first lead, and they accordingly disregard 
 the fourth " maxim." In one of the earliest 
 hands played by Cavendish during his visit to 
 this country, he successively led two Kings, from 
 two suits of five cards each, headed by the A, to 
 the consternation of the many spectators, who 
 wanted to see some American leads. In illustra- 
 tive hand No. 20, in his twentieth edition, a 
 player with A K J 4 3 2 leads the King ! The 
 hand would be a farce, as an example of good 
 whist, if he led the Ace. I have seen a player with 
 seven clubs, K Q at the top, Q and a small dia- 
 mond, 10 9 8 of spades, and one small trump, 
 lead the K, to show the Q for one sure trick. 
 His two diamonds fell ; his spades could be 
 counted, and his partner, counting him for 
 four clubs only, placed four trumps in his 
 hand and lost three tricks. If you once begin 
 
32 Foster's American leads 
 
 "Information" you must stand by it, even if 
 you lose every game you play. If you " show 
 Rye" one hand, and show command another, 
 you will drive your partner mad. 
 
 If a game depends for its success upon the 
 accuracy of the information given and received 
 by the partners, one of the chief objects of the 
 adversaries must be to make that information as 
 unreliable and misleading as possible. With 
 this end in view many of the best players have 
 adopted a systematic course of false-card play 
 second and fourth hand. This feature was es- 
 pecially noticeable in the play of the Minne- 
 apolis team, which won the Forrest Trophy at 
 the Third Whist Congress in Chicago. When 
 they had three or four small cards of the adverse 
 suit they retained the smallest, rendering it im- 
 possible for the leader and his partner to draw 
 any reliable inferences. There is nothing so 
 effective at Whist as a false card, well played. ■• 
 
 The student who is interested in the policy 
 of deception is referred to " Foster's Whist 
 Strategy." 
 
AND HOW TO LEARN THEM. 33 
 
 ijst conclusion. 
 
 I trust that it is quite unnecessary for me to 
 say that I do not approve of Information and 
 American Leads as a game. Information is not 
 Whist, and American Leads are simply a mass 
 of contradictions. They are not American at all, 
 but English. Those who advocate them call 
 their rules "maxims"; but a maxim is "a prin- 
 ciple generally received or admitted as true," 
 which is very far from the case with these leads. 
 They are called "modern," but the principle of 
 them was first suggested 90 years ago. They are 
 called ' ' scientific ' ' ; but they will not stand the 
 most superficial comparative analysis. They are 
 said to give "fuller and clearer information 
 than the old leads ' ' ; but it has been conclusively 
 shown that they do not give as much. They are 
 said to be "the most perfect, harmonious, and 
 complete system of play ever invented;" but 
 every one of their advocates has some improve- 
 ment to suggest, especially in the Queen leads. 
 Their father and godfather cannot agree as to 
 whether the second ' ' maxim ' ' is unutterably good 
 or hopelessly bad. Cavendish, in the appendix 
 to the twentieth edition, seems to think it gives 
 too much information to the adversaries, especi- 
 ally in enabling them to finesse successfully. This 
 does not quite agree with his statement that : 
 
34 foster' a American leads. 
 
 " It seems unlikely that a player will be at a dis- 
 advantage, in the long run, because he imparts too 
 much information." — " Whist Developments," 
 fourth edition, p. 2. These leads are said to have 
 "been adopted by all the best players"; but 
 they have lost every match at duplicate whist in 
 which they have been explicitly opposed to the 
 old leads. The team that won the championship 
 for fours in 1892 and for pairs in 1893, absolutely 
 refuses to have anything to do with them. Their 
 high priest praises them simply because they are 
 conventions which give " fuller and clearer infor- 
 mation." This does not agree with his statement 
 that "no such conventions should be allowed in 
 Whist," and that: "Conventions for the pur- 
 pose of giving information only, are decidedly 
 objectionable."— Brooklyn Eagle, Nov. 20, 1893. 
 I do not for a moment believe that a system so 
 full of absurd contradictions would receive so 
 much attention in America were it not for its 
 name. But so strongly rooted in the American 
 heart are the virtues of patriotism and respect 
 for authority, that I believe if Cavendish were to 
 suggest that the trump suit should have no 
 especial value after the sixth trick, and should 
 call it "United States Whist," it would soon 
 supersede all other forms of the game, even its 
 latest and worst, "Information with American 
 Leads." 
 
R. F. FOSTER'S WORKS. 
 
 The Whist Manual 
 
 By the inventor of the Self-Playing Whist Cards. 
 
 i vol., cloth, gilt edges. ■ $1.00 
 
 ***This is not merely another treatise on whist, but a complete system of instruc- 
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 A handy-sized condensed treatise containing clear and concise state- 
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 1 vol., in cardboard covers $ .25 
 
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 Pack No. 1. First Series. (Out of print.) 
 
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 Sent prepaid by any Bookseller in the United States, on receipt of the price, 
 or by the Publishers, 
 
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