SOME PARTICULAR RULES.

1. If you have ace, king, and four small trumps, with a good suit, play three rounds of trumps, otherwise your strong suit may be trumped. with 2. If king, queen, and four small trumps, a good suit, trump out with the king, because when you have the lead again, you will have three rounds of trumps.

3. If king, queen, ten, and three small trumps, with a good suit, lead the king, in expectation of the knave falling at the second round; and do not wait to finesse the ten, for fear your strong suit should be trumped.

4. If queen, knave, and three small trumps, with a good suit, trump out with a small one.

5. If queen, knave, nine, and two small trumps, with a good suit, lead the queen, in expectation of the ten falling at the second round; and do not wait to finesse the nine, for the reason assigned above in case 3.

6. If knave, ten, and three small trumps, with a good suit, trump out with a small one.

7. If knave, ten, eight, and two small trumps, with a good suit, trump out with the knave, in expectation of the nine falling at the second round.

8. If ten, nine, eight, and one small trump, with a good suit, play the ten.

PARTICULAR GAMES,

1. SUPPOSE you are elder hand, and your game to consist of king, queen, and knave of one suit; ace, king, queen, and two small cards of another; king and queen of the third suit, and three small

trumps. Begin with the ace of your best suit, which informs your partner that you have the command of it; then do not proceed with the king of the same suit, but play a trump next; and if your partner has no strength in trumps, and that your adversary plays to your weak suit, viz. the king and queen only, in that case, lead the king of the best suit: and if you observe a probability of either adversary being likely to trump that suit, play the king of the suit of which you have king, queen, and knave. If it should so happen that your adversaries do not play to your weakest suit, though apparently your partner cannot help you in trumps, then trump out as often as the lead comes into your hand; by which means, supposing your partner to have but two trumps, and that your adversaries have four each, by three rounds, there remain only two against you.

II. ELDER HAND.

Suppose you have ace, king, queen, and one small trump, with a sequence from the king of five in another suit, with four other cards of no value. Begin with the queen of trumps, and pursue the lead with the ace, which demonstrates that you have the king: and as it would be bad play to follow trumps the third round, till you have first gained the command of your great suit, by stopping thus, it likewise informs your partner that you have the king, and one trump only remaining; because if you had ace, king, queen, and two trumps more, and trumps went round twice, you could receive no damage by playing the king the third round. lead When you sequence, begin with the lowest, that if your partner has the ace he may play it, which makes

room for your suit. And since you have let your partner into the state of your game, as soon as he has the lead, if he has a trump or two remaining, he will play trumps to you, with a moral certainty that your king clears your adversaries'

hands.

III. SECOND PLAYER.

Suppose you have ace, king, and two small trumps, with a quint-major of another suit; in the third suit you have three small cards, and in the fourth suit one. Your adversary on your right hand begins with playing the ace of your weak suit, and then the king: in that case throw away a losing card; and if he proceeds to play the queen, throw away another losing card; and do the like the fourth time, in hopes your partner may trump it, who will in that case either play a trump, or to your strong suit. If trumps are played, go on with them two rounds, and then play your strong suit; by which means, if there happens to be four trumps in one of your adversaries' hands, and two in the other, which is nearly the case, your partner being entitled to have three trumps out of the nine; your strong suit forces their best trumps, and you have a probability of making the odd trick in your own hand only; whereas if you had trumped one of your adversaries' best cards, you had so weakened your hand as probably not to have made more than five tricks.

4. Suppose you have ace, queen, and three small trumps; ace, queen, ten, and nine of another suit; with two small cards of each of the others: your partner leads to your ace, queen, ten, and nine; and as this game requires rather to deceive your adversaries, than to inform your

partner, put on the nine, which naturally induces the adversary to play trumps, if he wins that card. As soon as trumps are played to you, return them to your adversary, keeping the command in your own hand. If your adversary, who led trumps to you, puts up a trump which your partner cannot win, and if he has no good suit of his own, he will return your partner's lead, imagining that suit lies between his partner and yours: if this finesse succeeds, you will be a great gainer by it, but scarcely possible to be a loser.

5. Suppose you have ace, king, and three small trumps, with a quart from a king, and two small cards of another suit, and one small card to each of the other suits; your adversary leads a suit of which your partner has a quart-major: your partner puts on the knave, and then proceeds to play the ace you refuse to that suit by playing your loose card; when your partner plays the king, your right hand adversary trumps it, suppose with the knave or ten, do not overtrump him, which may probably lose you two or three tricks by weakening your hand: but if he leads to the suit of which you have none, trump that, and then play the lowest of your sequence, in order to get the ace either out of your partner's or adversary's hand; which accomplished, as soon as you get the lead, play two rounds of trumps, and then your strong suit. Instead of your adversary playing to your weak suit, if he should play trumps, do you go on with them two rounds, and then proceed to get the command of your strong suit.

CERTAIN OBSERVATIONS, WHEREBY YOU ARE ASSURED THAT YOUR PARTNER HAS NO MORE OF, THE SUIT PLAYED EITHER BY YOURSELF OR

HIM.

1. SUPPOSE you lead from queen, ten, nine, and two small cards of any suit, the second hand puts on the knave, your partner plays the eight: you holding queen, ten, and nine, it is a demonstration, that he can have no more of that suit. Therefore play your game accordingly, either by forcing him to trump that suit, if you are strong in trumps, or by playing some other suit.

2. Suppose you have king, queen, and ten of a suit, and you lead your king, your partner plays the knave, this demonstrates he has no more of that suit.

3. Suppose you have king, queen, and many more of a suit, and begin with the king, in some cases it is good play in a partner, when he has the ace, and one small card in that suit only, to win his partner's king; for suppose he is very strong in trumps, by taking his partner's king, he trumps out, and after clearing the board of trumps, returns his partner's lead; and having parted with the ace, has made room for his partner to make that whole suit, which possibly could not have been done if he had kept the command in his own hand. And supposing your partner has no other good card besides that suit, nothing is lost by the ace taking the king; but if you have a good card to bring in that suit, you gain all the tricks made in the same, by this method of play. And as your partner has taken your king with the ace, and trumps out upon it, you have reason