Don’t let an alley owner use pins that are worn out. Don’t think you can sandpaper a ball without injuring it. It takes an expert mechanic to true up a lignum-vitæ ball. Don’t lay a lignum-vitæ ball away DRY, if you don’t want it to crack. GENERAL LAWS, FOR ALL CARD GAMES. Very few games have their own code of laws, and only one or two of these have the stamp of any recognised authority. In minor games, questions are continually arising which could be easily settled if the players were familiar with a few general principles which are common to the laws of all games, and which might be considered as the basis of a general code of card laws. The most important of these principles are as follows:-- _=Players.=_ It is generally taken for granted that those first in the room have the preference, but if more than the necessary number assemble, the selection must be made by cutting. A second cut will then be required to decide the partnerships, if any, and the positions at the table, the latter being important only in games in which the deal, or some given position at the table, is an advantage or the reverse.
No. 4 contains four fifteens in addition to the four runs of three and two single pairs, and is therefore worth 24 points. The best combination that can be held in hand or crib is three Fives and a Jack, with the Five of the same suit as the Jack for a starter. We have already seen that the four Fives by themselves are worth 20, to which we must add the four extra fifteens made by combining the Jack with each Five separately, and one more point for his nobs, 29 altogether. If the Jack was the starter, the combination would be worth 30 to the dealer, but his heels would have to be counted before a card was played. _=Flushes.=_ In addition to the foregoing combinations, if all four cards in the hand are of the same suit the player can peg four points for the flush; if the starter is also the same suit, five points. A flush does not count in the crib unless the starter is the same suit, and then it counts five points. Flushes are never made in play. _=Laying Out for the Crib.
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TEXT BOOKS. Bridge, and How to Play It, by A. Dunn, Jr., 1899. Foster’s Bridge Manual, by R.F. Foster, 1900. Foster on Bridge, by R.F. Foster, 1900.
If he claims to be single, the ♡ J. If your client is a woman, the ♡ Q will do for blondes, the ♣ Q for brunettes. Do not ask if she is married, and take no notice of rings. Having obtained the necessary twelve cards, the more you know about the consultant’s history, hopes, and prospects, and the better you can judge her character, the less attention you need pay to the cards, and the more satisfactory the result of the consultation will be. It is not necessary to stick too closely to the meanings of the cards, nor to their combinations; the great thing is to tell your client what she wants to hear. In order to confirm the truth of the pleasing story you have built upon the twelve cards, they must be gathered together, shuffled, presented to be cut with the left hand, and then divided into four packets of three cards each. The first packet is for the Person, the second for the House, the third for the Future, and the fourth for the Surprise. Each packet is successively turned up, and its contents interpreted in connection with the part of the questioner’s life which it represents. In case there should be nothing very surprising in the last pack, it is well to have a few generalities on hand, which will be true of a person’s future six times out of ten. The expert at fortune telling has a stock of vague suggestions, supposed to be given by the cards, which are so framed as to draw from the client the drift of her hopes and fears.