Any suit rebid on the second round, without waiting for the partner’s assistance, shows six or seven sure tricks in hand. Never bid a hand twice, unless its strength is greater than indicated by the first bid. Having bid a club on ace king alone, that is the end of it. If you have an outside ace, which the club bid did not show, you can assist your partner once on that trick, but no more. Having assisted your partner’s suit bid with three tricks, do not bid again unless you have a fourth trick in hand, but if he rebids his suit without waiting for you, you may assist on one trick, especially a high honour in trumps. Do not double unless you have a certainty and are not afraid of a shift. Do not give up a fair chance for going game yourself just to double an adversary, unless you are sure of 200 in penalties at least, and do not give up the rubber game for less than 300. Always remember that a double may enable an adversary to go game, and will often show the declarer which hand to finesse against. _=Free Doubles=_ are opportunities to double when the declarer will go game anyhow if he makes his contract, but they should never be made if there is any chance that he may shift. _=Free Bids=_ are anything better than a spade by the dealer, or anything that over-calls a previous bid, because no one is forced to bid on the first round.
We proffer them, not as a finished set of rules, but as material for anyone who chooses to work over them, in the elaboration of what we believe will be a far more exciting and edifying Kriegspiel than any that exists at the present time. The game may be played by any number of players, according to the forces engaged and the size of the country available. Each side will be under the supreme command of a General, who will be represented by a cavalry soldier. The player who is General must stand at or behind his representative image and within six feet of it. His signalling will be supposed to be perfect, and he will communicate with his subordinates by shout, whisper, or note, as he thinks fit. I suggest he should be considered invulnerable, but Colonel Sykes has proposed arrangements for his disablement. He would have it that if the General falls within the zone of destruction of a shell he must go out of the room for three moves (injured); and that if he is hit by rifle-fire or captured he shall quit the game, and be succeeded by his next subordinate. Now as to the Moves. It is suggested that: Infantry shall move one foot. Cavalry shall move three feet.
RAILROAD EUCHRE. Railroad Euchre is the name given to any form of the four-handed game in which every expedient is used to make points rapidly. _=Cards.=_ A pack of twenty-five cards is used, all below the 9 being deleted, and the Joker added. The Joker is always the best trump. _=Players.=_ There are four players, two being partners against the other two. Partners, deal, and seats are cut for as in the ordinary game. _=Dealing.=_ The cards are distributed as in the ordinary game; but it is usual to agree beforehand upon a suit which shall be the trump if the Joker is turned up.
Fiddler: They must come to, they shall come to, And tell them I say so. The cushion-holder then goes to the girl he fancies most, and drops the cushion at her feet. She kneels down with him on the cushion, and he salutes her, and they then rise and dance round and round to the fiddler. The girls then go through the same thing, saying, young men, and then a young man, &c., until the whole company have gone through the same ceremony, which concludes with all dancing round three times, as at the commencement. The Norfolk and London versions are reduced to a simple Kiss in the Ring game, with the following verse:-- Round the cushion we dance with glee, Singing songs so merrily; Round the cushion we dance with glee, Singing songs so merrily; Yet the punishment you must bear If you touch the cushion there. --Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews). (_c_) Selden, in his _Table Talk_, thus refers to this game:-- The Court of England is much altered. At a solemn dancing first you have the grave measures, then the Cervantoes and the Golliards, and this is kept up with ceremony. At length to Trenchmore and the _Cushion Dance_; and then all the company dance, lord and groom, lady and kitchen-maid, no distinction.
Should any player in his turn refuse to straddle, no other player on his left can straddle. _=18. The Ante.=_ After the cards are dealt, each player in turn, beginning with the one to the left of the age, or to the left of the last straddler, if any, must either abandon his hand or put into the pool twice the amount of the blind, or of the last straddle. When it comes to the turn of the age, and the straddlers, if any, they must either abandon their hands, or make the amount they have in the pool equal to twice the amount of the blind, or of the last straddle, if any. _=19. Raising the Ante.=_ Each player, when it is his turn to come in, may add to the amount of the ante any sum within the betting limit. This will compel any player coming in after him to equal the total of the ante and the raise, or to abandon his hand; and it will also give such following player the privilege of raising again by any further amount within the betting limit. Should any player decline to equal the amount put up by any previous player, he must abandon his hand, together with all his interest in that pool.
” But if a long series of events goes against him his bets become larger and larger, but he must keep up the progression until he gets even. If ten bets go his way he wins $55; if ten go against him he loses $145. It is said that Pettibone made a fortune playing progression at Faro, which is very likely, for among the thousands of men who play it the probabilities are that one will win all the time, just as the probabilities are that if a thousand men play ten games of Seven Up, some man will win all ten games. At the same time it is equally probable that some man will lose all ten. Some players progress, but never pinch, keeping account on a piece of paper how many bets they are behind, and playing the maximum until they have won as many bets as they have lost. Against a perfectly fair game, with no percentage and no limit, and with capital enough to follow the system to the end, playing progression would pay a man about as much as he could make in any good business with the same capital and with half the worry; but as things really are in gambling houses and casinos, all martingales are a delusion and a snare. It is much better, if one must gamble, to trust to luck alone, and it is an old saying that the player without a system is seldom without a dollar. It is the men with systems who have to borrow a stake before they can begin to play. Such matters as calculating the probability of a certain horse getting a place, the odds against all the horses at the post being given, would be out of place in a work of this kind; but those interested in such chances may find rules for ascertaining their probability in some of the following text books. TEXT BOOKS.
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=_ Sixty-six is played for so much a game, or for so much a point, the loser’s score being deducted from the winner’s. If the loser has not scored at all, it is usually counted a double game. _=Dealing.=_ The cards having been shuffled and presented to the pone to be cut, the dealer gives six cards to each player, three at a time, dealing first to his adversary. There are several ways of making the trump, one of which should be agreed upon before play begins. One way is for the pone to draw a card from the top, the middle, or the bottom of the talon, after the dealer has given each player his six cards. Another way is for the dealer to turn up the seventh card, after dealing the first round of three to each player. Another, and the one generally adopted in America, is for the dealer to turn up the thirteenth card for the trump, after giving six cards to each player. The trump card is left face upward on the table, and is usually placed under the remainder of the pack, which is slightly spread, face down, for the players to draw from. The general rules for irregularities in the deal are the same as in Binocle.
Eight. Nine.] When proper markers are not obtainable, many persons cut eight slits in a visiting card, and turn up the points. [Illustration: Visiting-Card Marker.] Whatever the apparatus employed, it should be such that every player at the table can distinctly see the state of the score without drawing attention to it. _=METHODS OF CHEATING.=_ Whist offers very few opportunities to the card-sharper. When honours are counted, he may be able to keep one on the bottom of the pack until the completion of the deal by _=making the pass=_ after the cards have been cut. A _=greek=_ who possessed sufficient skill to do this without detection would be very foolish to waste his talents at the whist table; for, however large the stakes, the percentage in his favour would be very small. When whist is played with only one pack, a very skillful shuffler may gather the cards without disturbing the tricks, and, by giving them a single _=intricate=_ shuffle, then drawing the middle of the pack from between the ends and giving another single intricate shuffle, he may occasionally succeed in dealing himself and his partner a very strong hand in trumps, no matter how the cards are cut, so that they are not shuffled again.
Nares _Glossary_, ed. 1872. Grose s _Dictionary_, 1823. _Notes and Queries._ _Reliquary._ English Dialect Society Publications. Folk-lore Society Publications, 1878-1892. BEDFORDSHIRE-- Luton Mrs. Ashdown. Roxton Miss Lumley.
There are two principal uses for trumps. The most attractive to the beginner is that of ruffing the adversaries’ winning cards; and the most important to the expert is leading trumps to prevent this. No matter how strong or well established a plain suit may be, it is of uncertain value as long as the adversaries have any trumps with which to stop it. A suit is established when you can probably take every trick in it. If a player with a good established suit is sufficiently strong to make it probable that he can, with his partner’s assistance, exhaust the adverse trumps, he should do so by leading trumps. If they are probably stronger than he, he must _=force=_ them, by leading the established suit which they will be compelled to trump, weakening their hands and gradually reducing their trump strength until it is possible to exhaust what remains by leading. It being to the advantage of the player with a good suit to exhaust the trumps, it must be desirable to his adversaries to keep theirs, if possible, for the purpose of ruffing this good suit. Trumps are also useful as cards of re-entry, when a player has an established suit, but has not the lead; their most important use, however, is in defending or stopping established suits. _=Rules for Leading Trumps.=_ With five or more trumps, the beginner should always begin by leading them, regardless of the rest of his hand.