It is usually considered a safer lead than a high card of a plain suit, even if you have only three of the suit. If your only heart is the 5, and you propose to lead it, the chances that the 2, 3, and 4 are not each in separate hands are about 19 in 25, or 19 to 6 against it, which is about 3 to 1. If you lead the 5, the odds against your winning the trick decrease as the number of hearts you hold with the 5 increases. If you have four hearts, the 5 being the lowest, the odds against its winning the trick, if you lead it, are about 29 to 11. If you have eight hearts, the 5 being the lowest, it is about an even chance. If your only heart is the 6, it is about an even chance that it will win the trick; but the odds against you increase rapidly with the number of additional hearts that you hold. If you propose to lead the 7, the chances that it will win the trick are 2 to 1 under the most favourable circumstances, which are when it is your only heart. These odds against you increase rapidly with the number of additional hearts that you hold. _=LEADING PLAIN SUITS ORIGINALLY.=_ It will often happen that you will have to decide between the lead of a comparatively dangerous heart and a risky plain suit.
=_ It is usual to give two prizes for each table in play; one for the highest number of points won during the evening, and one for the smallest number; the latter being usually called the “booby” prize. _=Suggestions for Good Play.=_ It is very risky to bid seven without the Joker, the odds being 11 to 1 against finding it in the widow. A bid of ten should not be made without both Joker and Right Bower, and all the other cards winners and trumps. To bid twenty, a player should have a practically invincible hand, with at least five winning leads of trumps. The first bidders are always at a disadvantage, because they know nothing of the contents of the other hands; but after one or two players have made a bid, those following them can judge pretty well how the cards lie. For instance: The seven players are _=A=_ _=B=_ _=C=_ _=D=_ _=E=_ _=F=_ _=G=_. _=A=_ deals, and _=B=_ bids 2 in hearts. _=C=_ and _=D=_ pass. _=E=_ bids 3 in clubs; and _=F=_ says 4 in hearts.
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Gilty-galty. Gipsy. Gled-wylie. Glim-glam. Gobs. Green Grass. Green Gravel. Green Grow the Leaves (1). Green Grow the Leaves (2). Gully.
The declarer will give your partner enough to puzzle over without your adding to the confusion. There are some exceptions in trumps. For instance: You have K Q x; Dummy has A J x x, and your partner leads. Unless Dummy plays Ace, you should put on the King, and change the suit. If you hold Ace and others in a plain suit, partner leading Jack, pass it if Dummy has no honour. Perhaps by winning the second round you can give the invited force. With any other honours than the Ace, pass a partner’s Jack led. If partner leads you a suit of which he knows, or should know, you have not the best, he must have a good finesse in the suit which he does not lead, and you should take the first opportunity to lead that suit to him. In returning partner’s suits, some modification may be suggested by the condition of Dummy’s hand. For instance: With K x x; Dummy having A Q J x; if you win, third hand, on Dummy’s finesse, you may be sure your partner’s lead was a weak suit.
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XI. Please, mother, buy me a milk-can, A milk-can, a milk-can, Please, mother, do. Where s the money coming from, Coming from, coming from, What shall I do? Sell father s feather bed, Feather bed, feather bed, Please mother, do. Where shall the father sleep? Sleep in the servants bed. Where shall the servants sleep? Sleep in the pig-sty. Where shall the pig sleep? Sleep in the washing-tub. What shall I wash in? Wash in a thimble. The shirts won t go in. Wash by the river side. Supposing if I fall in? Good job too! --Hartley Wintney, Winchfield, Hants (H.
=_ Mort is played by three persons; but the table is usually composed of four. If there are more than four candidates, the methods described in connection with whist are adopted for deciding which four shall play the first tournée. The table being formed, the cards are again shuffled and spread to cut for partners and deal. _=TIES=_ are decided in the same manner as at whist. _=CUTTING.=_ If there are three players, the one cutting the lowest card takes dummy for the first game; he also has the choice of seats and cards, and may deal the first hand for himself or for Mort, as he pleases; but having once made his choice, he must abide by it. The player cutting the intermediate card takes dummy for the second game; and the player cutting the highest card takes it for the third game; each in turn having the choice of seats and cards. These three games finish the rubber or tournée, each having once had the advantage or disadvantage of playing with Mort. It is obligatory to finish the tournée, no player being allowed to withdraw and substitute another without the consent of the other players. In Mort it is very unusual for one person to take dummy continuously.
TABLE No. 1. ----------------------+--------+-----------------+---------+ | | The trump being | | | No +-----+-----+-----+ Extra | | trump. | ♣♠ | ♡ | ♢ | tricks. | ----------------------+--------+-----+-----+-----+---------+ Boston, five tricks | | 10 | 20 | 30 | 5 | Six tricks | | 30 | 40 | 50 | 5 | Little misère | 75 | | | | | Seven tricks | | 50 | 60 | 70 | 5 | Piccolissimo | 100 | | | | | Eight tricks | | 70 | 80 | 90 | 5 | Grand misère | 150 | | | | | Nine tricks | | 90 | 100 | 110 | 5 | Little spread | 200 | | | | | Ten tricks | | 110 | 120 | 130 | 5 | Grand spread | 250 | | | | | Eleven tricks | | 130 | 140 | 150 | 5 | Twelve tricks | | 150 | 160 | 170 | 5 | Slam, thirteen tricks | | 400 | 450 | 500 | | Spread slam | | 600 | 700 | 800 | | TABLE No. 2. In America, the last two items are usually reduced, and are given as follows:-- | | ♣♠ | ♡ | ♢ | | Slam, thirteen tricks | | 250 | 300 | 350 | | Spread slam | | 350 | 400 | 450 | | ----------------------+--------+-----+-----+-----+---------+ Why a player should be paid more for spreads than for eleven or twelve tricks while the trick bid outranks the spreads, is difficult to understand; but we have no authority to change the tables. Misère Partout wins nothing but the pool. If partners play, it is usual for the losers to pay the adversaries on their right; or, if partners sit together, to pay the adversary sitting next. _=THE POOL.
It is 4 to 1 against improving a four-card straight flush open in the middle, or at one end only; the odds against getting the straight flush being 46 to 1. There are several minor or speculative draws which may be of interest. Drawing to an ace and a King, it is 3 to 1 against making a pair of either. It is 4 to 1 against making a pair of aces by drawing four cards to an ace; and 12 to 1 against making aces up, or better. It is 24 to 1 against making a straight by drawing to three cards of it, open at both ends. It is 12 to 1 against making either a straight or a flush by drawing to three cards of a straight flush, open at both ends. _=HOW TO WIN AT POKER.=_ There have been many alleged infallible receipts for winning at Poker. Proctor thought that refusing to go in on less than triplets would prove a certainty; but in the same paragraph he acknowledges that the adversaries would soon learn the peculiarity, and avoid betting against the player. Triplets before the draw occur about once in every 45 hands.
IV. Where are these great baa-lambs going, Baa-lambs going, baa-lambs going, Where are these great baa-lambs going? My fair lady. We are going to London Bridge, London Bridge, London Bridge, We are going to London Bridge, My fair lady. London Bridge is broken down, Broken down, broken down, London Bridge is broken down, My fair lady. [Then verses follow, sung in the same way and with the same refrain, beginning with--] Mend it up with penny loaves. Penny loaves will wash away. Mend it up with pins and needles. Pins and needles they will break. Mend it up with bricks and mortar, Bricks and mortar, that will do. [After these verses have been sung--] What has this great prisoner done, Prisoner done, prisoner done, What has this great prisoner done? My fair lady.
Cayenne and Bridge introduce the first changes of importance. In Cayenne, the dealer and his partner have the privilege of changing the trump from the suit turned up; in Bridge they name the trump suit without any turn-up, and play the hands as at dummy. In Boston, and Boston de Fontainebleau, in addition to making the trump suit instead of turning it up, further departures are introduced by naming the number of tricks to be played for, allowing the player to take all or none without any trump suit, and by ‘spreading’ certain hands, without allowing the adversaries to call the exposed cards. French and Russian Boston are simply varieties of Boston. Solo Whist is an attempt to simplify Boston by reducing the number of proposals and the complications of payments, and eliminating the feature of ‘spreads.’ Scotch Whist introduces a special object in addition to winning tricks--catching the ten of trumps; that card and the honours having particular values attached to them. This variety of whist may be played by any number of persons from two to eight; and its peculiarity is that when a small number play, each has several distinct hands, which must be played in regular order, as if held by different players. Humbug Whist is a variety of double-dummy, in which the players may exchange their hands for those dealt to the dummies, and the dealer may sometimes make the trump to suit himself. German Whist is played by two persons, and introduces the element of replenishing the hand after each trick by drawing cards from the remainder of the pack until the stock is exhausted. Chinese Whist is double-dummy for two, three, or four persons, only half of each player’s cards being exposed, the others being turned up as the exposed cards are got rid of in the course of play.
The ship had moved to a second planoform. The stars were different. The Sun was immeasurably far behind. Even the nearest stars were barely in contact. This was good Dragon country, this open, nasty, hollow kind of space. He reached farther, faster, sensing and looking for danger, ready to fling the Lady May at danger wherever he found it. Terror blazed up in his mind, so sharp, so clear, that it came through as a physical wrench. The little girl named West had found something--something immense, long, black, sharp, greedy, horrific. She flung Captain Wow at it. Underhill tried to keep his own mind clear.
The numerator will be the number of times that the combinations occur which contain a figure larger than 3, in addition to the 6. This will be found to be 74, and the probability will therefore be 74/166. DISTRIBUTIONS. TIMES IN 1000. 8 2 2 1 2 8 3 1 1 1½ 8 3 2 0 1 8 4 1 0 ½ 8 5 0 0 0 7 2 2 2 5 7 3 2 1 19 7 3 3 0 3 7 4 1 1 4 7 4 2 0 3 7 5 1 0 1 7 6 0 0 0 6 3 2 2 57 6 3 3 1 35 6 4 2 1 47 6 4 3 0 13 6 5 1 1 7 6 5 2 0 6 6 6 1 0 1 5 3 3 2 155 5 4 2 2 106 5 4 3 1 130 5 4 4 0 12 5 5 2 1 32 5 5 3 0 9 4 3 3 3 105 4 4 3 2 215 4 4 4 1 30 _=MARTINGALES.=_ Many gamblers believe that as the science of probabilities teaches us that events will equalise themselves in time, all that is necessary is to devise some system that will keep a person from guessing, so that he may catch the pendulum as it swings; and to add to it some system of betting, so that he will have the best of it in the long run. Some content themselves with playing a “system” against banking games, which is merely a guide to the placing of the bets, the simplest example of which would be to bet always on heads if a coin was tossed a thousand times, or to bet on nothing but red at Roulette. Others depend more on martingales, which are guides to the amount of the bets themselves, irrespective of what they are placed on. The most common form of martingale is called _=doubling up=_, which proceeds upon the theory that if you lose the first time and bet double the amount the next time, and continue to double until you win, you must eventually win the original amount staked. If there was no end to your capital, and no betting limit to the game, this would be an easy way to make money; but all banking games have studied these systems, and have so arranged matters that they can extend their heartiest welcome to those who play them.
--Jamieson. Cat s Cradle One child holds a piece of string joined at the ends on his upheld palms, a single turn being taken over each, and by inserting the middle finger of each hand under the opposite turn, crosses the string from finger to finger in a peculiar form. Another child then takes off the string on his fingers in a rather different way, and it then assumes a second form. A repetition of this man[oe]uvre produces a third form, and so on. Each of these forms has a particular name, from a fancied resemblance to the object--barn-doors, bowling-green, hour-glass, pound, net, fiddle, fish-pond, diamonds, and others.--_Notes and Queries_, vol. xi. p. 421. The following forms are those known to me, with their names.
9. [Illustration: _No. 9._ +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | ♛ | ♚ | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | ♕ | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | ♔ | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | ♜ | | | | | | | ] If the black Queen moves diagonally four squares, placing herself in front of the white King, and on the same horizontal file as the black Rook, it will be check-mate, because the white King cannot get out of one check into another by taking the Queen, which is protected by the Rook. For the same reason he cannot move, as the only squares open to him would leave him in check from the Queen, or move him into check from the black King. _=Stalemate.=_ If the King is not in check, but cannot move without going into check, and there is no other piece for the player to move, it is called a stale-mate, and the game is drawn. In Diagram No. 10, for instance, [Illustration: _No. 10.
_=Sequence.=_ Three or more cards of the same suit, if next in value to one another, form a sequence. The French terms are generally used to designate the number of cards in the sequence: Tierce, Quatrième, Quinte, Sixième, Septième, Huitième. Many English works on cards erroneously spell quinte without the “e,” and give “quart” for a sequence of four. If one is going to use the French language at all, it may as well be used correctly. Sequences outrank one another according to the best card, if they are of equal length; so that a quinte to a King would be better than a quinte to a Queen; but a longer sequence always outranks a shorter one, regardless of the high cards. The player holding the best sequence is entitled to score it, together with any inferior sequences he may hold in other suits. Should his adversary hold intermediate sequences, they are of no value. For instance: One player holds a quinte to the Jack in spades, a tierce to the Ten in hearts, and a tierce to the Nine in clubs; while the other holds a quatrième majeure (A K Q J) in hearts, diamonds, and clubs. None of the latter are of any value; but all those in the other hand are good.
_=Under-calling.=_ If a player holds an inferior sequence, quatorze or trio, which he knows is better than any his adversary can possibly hold, he may call it, and afterward score the better combination, provided he is correct in estimating the inferior one that he called as _=good against the cards=_. But if the adversary can demonstrate that the inferior announcement was not actually good against the cards, and that it was possible for him to hold a better, the score for the higher combination is lost. For instance: A player holds four Kings and three Aces, and on glancing over his hand and discards, sees that his adversary cannot hold any quatorze, so he declares the three Kings, instead of the four Aces. Suppose he mistook a Nine for a Ten, and overlooked the fact that his adversary might have had four Tens, the score for the four Kings would be lost, but the three Aces would be good if his adversary had discarded a Ten, and did not actually hold four. In the ordinary game, the higher combination is lost if it is not called. In play, every card led, whatever its value, counts one, and winning the trick counts one also. The last trick counts two, and the capot forty. Pic and repic are reckoned as in the ordinary game. _=Scoring.
Suppose the first throw is 4, 2, 1. The 1 and 2 will make 1, 2 and 3. Then the 4, 1, 2 will make 4, 5, 6 and 7. Each side continues to throw until it fails to score, when the box must be passed to the adversary. If a combination is overlooked by one side, the other may count it if it continues the sequence on their side. HELP YOUR NEIGHBOUR. Six persons play, with three dice, and five points is Game. Each player has a number, from 1 to 6, and is provided with five counters, and the first to get rid of them wins. Each player in rotation has one throw, and no matter what he throws, the player whose number appears on the upper face of any die thrown counts one point toward game. If No.
This interval must not exceed five or four minutes, as may be agreed upon. (4) Guns must not be fired before the second move of the first player--not counting the putting down as a move. Thus the first player puts down, then the second player, the first player moves, then the second player, and the two forces are then supposed to come into effective range of each other and the first player may open fire if he wishes to do so. (5) In making his move a player must move or fire his guns if he wants to do so, before moving his men. To this rule of Guns First there is to be no exception. (6) Every soldier may be moved and every gun moved or fired at each move, subject to the following rules: MOBILITY OF THE VARIOUS ARMS (Each player must be provided with two pieces of string, one two feet in length and the other six inches.) (I) An infantry-man may be moved a foot or any less distance at each move. (II) A cavalry-man may be moved two feet or any less distance at each move. (III) A gun is in action if there are at least four men of its own side within six inches of it. If there are not at least four men within that distance, it can neither be moved nor fired.
4. The winner is the player who first accomplishes the main object of the game, which is to score 101 points by the “Cow-Boy method,” which is that the first 90 points may be scored by either carroms or the pocketing of one or more of the numbered balls, which shall count that number for the player; the scoring of a single carrom shall count 1, and a double 2. 5. On arriving at the exact number of 90 points, the contestant must next obtain 10 more points by carroms only; and having arrived at the score of 100, the last point must be obtained by playing the cue ball onto the No. 1 ball and thence into any pocket he may designate, without touching either of the other balls, however, and should the cue ball enter any other pocket, the hand is out and the run, if any, lost. 6. Any point made by a player and scored for him by either the marker or himself at the completion of any hand can never be lost; but should a player at any time make a scratch, miss or foul, any points previously made by him in that hand shall be lost and the hand shall pass. 7. At the completion of the first 90 points all the balls must come to rest on the table before the player makes his next stroke; otherwise the following stroke shall be a foul. 8.
net Transcriber s Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1955. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. The Game of Rat and Dragon By CORDWAINER SMITH _Only partners could fight this deadliest of wars--and the one way to dissolve the partnership was to be personally dissolved!_ Illustrated by HUNTER * * * * * THE TABLE [Illustration] Pinlighting is a hell of a way to earn a living. Underhill was furious as he closed the door behind himself. It didn t make much sense to wear a uniform and look like a soldier if people didn t appreciate what you did. He sat down in his chair, laid his head back in the headrest and pulled the helmet down over his forehead. As he waited for the pin-set to warm up, he remembered the girl in the outer corridor. She had looked at it, then looked at him scornfully.
You can heal many people. She shook her head. Only could do it because I love you, Billy Joe, she said. We ll teach you, I promised her. Would you like to learn? You ve heard of the Lodge, haven t you? Lordy! she gasped. You re as good as in it, I told her. Now tell me, what am I going to do tomorrow morning? She got up and started to pace the room, sniffling. Why would you do that? she said at length. You are going to the bank, first thing. You ve got all that money.
If the dealer exposes any of his own cards, the deal stands good. If he exposes any of his adversary’s cards, the non-dealer may claim a fresh deal, provided he has not seen any of his cards. It is a misdeal if the dealer gives too many or too few cards to his adversary or to himself. If the hands have not been seen, and the pone discovers that he has received more than five cards, he has the choice to discard the superfluous cards at hazard, or to claim a misdeal, which loses the deal. If the pone has received less than the proper number, he may supply the deficiency from the remainder of the pack, without changing the trump card, or he may claim a misdeal. If the dealer has given himself too many or too few cards, the pone may claim a misdeal, or he may draw the superfluous cards from the dealer’s hand, face downward, or allow him to supply the deficiency from the remainder of the pack, without changing the trump. If the cards have been seen, the pone, having an incorrect number, may supply or discard to correct the error, or he may claim a misdeal. If he discards, he must show the cards to the dealer. If the dealer has an incorrect number, the pone may draw from his hand, face downward, looking at the cards he has drawn, (as the dealer has seen them,) or allow him to supply the deficiency, or claim a misdeal. When any irregularity is remedied in this manner, the trump card remains unchanged.