WHIST FAMILY LAWS. While the code of laws drawn up by the American Whist League, and finally approved and adopted at the Third Congress, [in Chicago, June 20th to 24th, 1893,] refers exclusively to the parent game of Whist, its general provisions equally apply to all members of the whist family of games. The author believes it will save much repetition and confusion to interlineate the exceptions which are necessary in order to cover the special features of such important variations as Boston, Cayenne, and Solo Whist. Where no exceptions are made, the law applies equally to these games and to Whist. The unnumbered paragraphs show the inserted laws. It is a common practice for the framers of laws to insert rules which are simply descriptive of the manner of play. The author believes in adhering to the proper definition of a law, which is a rule carrying with it some penalty for its infraction, or defining the rights of individual players. Such a statement as that the Dummy player may not overlook his adversary’s hand is not a law, because there is no penalty if he does so. The author is not responsible for the peculiar grammar employed in both the American and English Laws. THE GAME.
The elder hand should risk a good deal if he has a fair chance to make a pic or repic, which will often settle the game. If there is any choice as to what to keep of two nearly equal chances, always preserve the combination that will be most likely to secure the count for cards. In _=Leading=_, it is best to begin with the point, unless you know that you are leading up to tenace, or to high cards that will bring in a long adverse suit. The piquet player soon learns the importance of tenace and fourchette, and can sometimes see how things must be managed for five or six tricks ahead, so as to secure the odd trick. Tenace is the best and third-best of any suit, such as A Q, while a fourchette is any two cards within one of each other, such as K J, or Q 10, and the lead from such combinations should always be avoided. If you have the odd trick in hand, make it at once, before you risk anything else, because the only difference between the odd trick and eleven tricks is the count for each card led in the tricks. _=The Dealer.=_ The first thing to guard against is a long run of winning leads from the elder hand, which might make the odd trick, or even capot. As there are no trumps it is very important for the dealer to keep guarded Kings and twice-guarded Queens. The principal thing for the dealer to remember is that if he cannot stop a long suit in the elder hand, he will have to provide in advance for a certain number of discards, and these must be so planned that guards will be preserved in the other suits.
The dressing process and cleaning boots preceded school. (_c_) This game is well known, and played in almost all parts of England. It is always played in the same way. There is so little variety in the different versions that it appears unnecessary to give more than one here. In the many versions sent the only variants are: In Sporle, Norfolk, Miss Matthews says the game is sometimes called _Ivy_ Bush, or _Ivory_ Bush; and Mr. C. C. Bell, of Epworth, sends a version, Here we go round the Mulberry _Tree_ In Notts it is called Holly Bush (Miss Winfield). A version given in the _Folk-lore Record_, iv. 174, is called the _Gooseberry_ Bush, and Halliwell (_Popular Nursery Rhymes_, p.
_=Order of Playing.=_ The coup finished, and all bets paid, the cards which have been used are all thrown into the waste basket, and the stakes are placed for the next coup. The banker deals again, from the top of the stock, without any further shuffling or cutting of the cards. If the player on the right won the first coup, the banker deals to him again; but if he lost, the banker deals to the next player beyond him; that is, the second from the banker, on his right. The same with the player on the left. If the player on the right or left wins the second coup, the cards are dealt to him again for the third coup; if he loses they are dealt to the next player beyond him, and so on, until all five players have held cards and have lost a coup, after which the banker deals to the one nearest him again. It will thus be seen that there are in each coup only two active players, and that all stakes made upon the game are made upon the result of their hands. _=Suggestions for Playing.=_ In justice to those backing him, the player is supposed to draw or not to draw, according to the laws of probabilities, which are exactly the same as in Vingt-et-un. If he has four points, which would be 5 below 9, he should draw; just as he would if he had 16 at Vingt-et-un, which would be 5 below 21.
A cross, x, placed after the piece moved shows that it captured something, and the letters following the cross do not give the square to which the piece is moved, but show the piece that is captured. K B x Q P, for instance, would mean that the adversary’s Queen’s Pawn was to be taken from the board, and the King’s Bishop was to occupy the square upon which the captured Queen’s Pawn had stood. Beginners usually have some difficulty in following the moves of the Knights, because it frequently happens that the same square can be reached by either of them. The Bishops cannot be confused in this way, because they never change the colour of the square they stand upon. In some sets of chessmen the Knights are distinguished by putting a small crown on the King’s Knight, but this is never done in the regulation Staunton model. The beginner will find it very convenient, when following out the play of published games, to screw off the bottom of one white and one black Knight, and to exchange the bases. The white King’s Knight will then have a black base, and the black King’s Knight will have a white base, and they can be easily identified at any period of the game. _=GERMAN NOTATION.=_ Many of our standard chess books, and some of the best edited chess columns, are in German, and the student should be familiar with the German notation, which is much simpler than the English. The white men are always considered as the side nearer the player; the vertical columns are designated from left to right by the letters a b c d e f g h; and the horizontal rows by the numbers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, beginning at the bottom, or white side.
Fire, Air, and Water The players seat themselves in a circle. One of the players has a ball, to which a string is fastened. He holds the string that he may easily draw the ball back again after it is thrown. The possessor of the ball then throws it to one in the circle, calling out the name of either of the elements he pleases. This player must, before ten can be counted, give the name of an inhabitant of that element. When Fire is called, strict silence must be observed or a forfeit paid.--Cork, Ireland (Miss Keane). The players were seated in a half-circle, and the possessor of the ball faced the others. There was no string attached to the ball, but it was necessary that it should hit the child it was thrown to. When Fire was called, Salamander and Ph[oe]nix were allowed to be said.
In exchange for this, but without seeing it, the partner gives the best card in his hand to the lone player, passing it to him face down. If he has not a trump to give him, he can pass him an ace, or even a King. Even if this card is no better than the one discarded, the lone player cannot refuse it. If the dealer plays alone, he has two discards; the first in exchange for his partner’s best card, and then another, in exchange for the trump card, after seeing what his partner can give him. In this second discard he may get rid of the card passed to him by his partner. If the dealer’s partner plays alone, the dealer may pass him the turn-up trump, or any better card he may have in his hand. Any person having announced to play alone, either of his adversaries may play alone against him; discarding and taking partner’s best card in the same manner. Should the lone player who makes the trump be euchred by the lone player opposing him, the euchre counts four points. It is considered imperative for a player holding the Joker, or the right bower guarded, to play alone against the lone hand, taking his partner’s best; for as it is evident that the lone hand cannot succeed, there is a better chance to euchre it with all the strength in one hand than divided. If any player, in his proper turn, announces to play alone, and asks for his partner’s best, the partner cannot refuse; neither can he propose to play alone instead.
_=Irregularities in the Deal.=_ If the pack is proved to be imperfect, or if a card is found faced in the pack there must be a fresh deal by the same dealer. If a player deals out of turn, he must be stopped before the cards on the table are turned face upward. A misdeal loses the deal. It is a misdeal if the pack has not been cut, or if the cards are shuffled after the pack has been properly cut; or if the dealer deals a card incorrectly, and fails to remedy it before dealing to the next player; or if he deals too many or too few cards to any player or to the table. If a card is exposed during the deal, an adversary may claim a fresh deal. If, after the cards on the table have been faced, a card is exposed by the dealer, or is found faced in the pack, the player to whom it would be dealt may reject it, and it must then be placed in the middle of the stock, and he must be given the top card. If a card is exposed in the last round, the dealer must take it, and must allow the player to whom it would have been dealt to draw a card from the dealer’s hand, face downward. If he draws the exposed card, he must keep it. If the dealer gives any player an incorrect number of cards in any round after the first, and does not detect and correct the error before he deals to the next player, the dealer cannot count anything that hand.
” Build up on these aces in sequence and suit to kings. On the layout, build in descending sequence, red on black, black on red, turning up the top card when any pile is left without a faced card upon it. If there is more than one card face up on any pile, they must be removed together or not at all. Spaces may be filled only with kings. The stock is run off three cards at a time, and any card showing can be used. The pack can be run through in this manner until no cards showing can be used, but there must be no shuffling or rearrangement of the cards. Sometimes it is the rule to run through the pack once only, turning up one card at a time. The object of the game is to see how many cards can be built on the ace row. A better average can usually be obtained when the pack is run off three at a time with the privilege of running through again and again as long as any card can be used. FORTUNE TELLING.
Any person who is observed to hold three or four small hearts every time he deals, should be carefully watched, and it will usually be found that he gathers the small hearts from the hands of the other players while the pool is being divided. Marked cards are of little use to the greek at hearts, because so much depends on what a player holds, and so little on his play. VARIETIES OF HEARTS. Before proceeding to suggestions for good play, it will be better to describe some of the variations of the game in common use, because what would be good play in one variation would not be in another. _=TWO-HANDED HEARTS.=_ The two players having cut for the deal, thirteen cards are given to each, one at a time, and the remainder of the pack is left on the table, face down. The dealer’s adversary, usually called the pone, begins by leading any card he pleases, and the dealer must follow suit if he can, as in the ordinary game. The winner of the trick takes it in, but before leading for the next trick he draws one card from the top of the pack lying on the table, restoring the number of his cards to thirteen. His adversary then draws the next card, and the cards are played and drawn in this manner until the pack is exhausted. The thirteen cards remaining in the hands of the two adversaries are then played, and after the last trick has been won, each turns over his cards and counts the number of hearts he has taken in.
+----+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | No.| Scotland (Chambers). | Lanarkshire. | Biggar. | +----+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 1.|A-dis, a-dis, a green |A-dis, a-dis, a green |A dish, a dish, a | | |grass. |grass. |green grass. | | 2.| -- | -- | -- | | 3.
(6.) Ornamental and various other buttons, such as regimental, official, mounted and engraved in flowers, and other designs according to arrangement, up to 20 points. See Banger, Cots and Twisses. Buzz and Bandy A local name for Hockey, which was formerly a very popular game among the young men of Shrewsbury and Much Wenlock. Called simply Bandy at Ludlow and Newport.--_Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 525. Cache-pole The game of Tennis. --Jamieson. Caiche The game of Handball.
Greek, (grec) a card sharp. Guarded Cards, cards which cannot be caught by higher cards unless they are led through. Hand, the cards dealt to one player; the distribution of the cards in any one deal. A “remarkable hand” might be the play of an entire deal at Whist, for instance. Heading a Trick, playing a better card than any already played to the trick, but not necessarily the best in the hand. Heeled Bets, bets at Faro which play one card to win and another to lose, but do not win or lose double the amount if both events come on the same turn. Hinterhand, G., the last player on the first trick, (Skat). His Heels, the Jack turned up for a starter at Cribbage. His Nobs, Jack of the same suit as the starter at Cribbage.
_=Markers.=_ The game may be scored by paying and taking in counters, each player being provided with about fifty at the beginning of the game, which are purchased from a banker; but the better way is to keep account of the gains and losses of the single player in each deal, in the manner already described in connection with Skat, balancing the account at the end in the same way. _=Players.=_ Calabrasella is played by three persons, two of whom are partners against the third in each hand. If four play, the dealer takes no cards, but shares the fortunes of those who are opposed to the single player, just as in Skat. The players on the right and left of the dealer are known as the pone and the eldest hand respectively. _=Cutting.=_ The players cut for seats and deal, the lowest card having the first choice and dealing the first hand. A player exposing more than one card must cut again. _=Stakes.
|Marigold leaves and | -- | -- | | |daisies. | | | |12.|One rush, two rush. |One o my rush, two o |One in a rush, two in | | | |my rush. |a bush. | |13.| -- | -- | -- | |14.|Pray thee, fine lady, |Please, young lady, |Pretty my lady, pop | | |come under my bush. |creep under the |under the bush. | | | |_briar_ bush.
Over-tricks if any, and honours, if played, are always paid at the uniform rate of five white counters each. If the caller fails, he must pay each adversary the amount he would have won if successful, with the addition of five white counters for every trick that he falls short of his proposal. For instance: He bids nine hearts, and wins six tricks only. He must pay each adversary 115 white counters. 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.
46. The player who makes the final declaration[9] must play the combined hands, his partner becoming dummy, unless the suit or no trump finally declared was bid by the partner before it was called by the final declarer, in which case the partner, no matter what bids have intervened, must play the combined hands. 47. When the player of the two hands (hereinafter termed “the declarer”) wins at least as many tricks as he declared, he scores the full value of the tricks won (see Law 3).[10] 47_a_. When the declarer fails to win as many tricks as he declares, neither he nor his adversaries score anything toward the game, but his adversaries score in their honour column 50 points for each under-trick (_i.e._, each trick short of the number declared). If the declaration be doubled, the adversaries score 100 points; if redoubled, 200 points for each under-trick. 48.
Take out any aces showing, and place them in a row by themselves for “foundations.” Build up on these aces in sequence and suit to kings. On the layout, build in descending sequence, red on black, black on red, turning up the top card when any pile is left without a faced card upon it. If there is more than one card face up on any pile, they must be removed together or not at all. Spaces may be filled only with kings. The stock is run off three cards at a time, and any card showing can be used. The pack can be run through in this manner until no cards showing can be used, but there must be no shuffling or rearrangement of the cards. Sometimes it is the rule to run through the pack once only, turning up one card at a time. The object of the game is to see how many cards can be built on the ace row. A better average can usually be obtained when the pack is run off three at a time with the privilege of running through again and again as long as any card can be used.
It is usually bad play to finesse when there are nine cards of the suit between the two hands, dealer’s and Dummy’s, because there is a good chance that the card you wish to finesse against may fall. When it will be necessary to take two finesses in the same suit, the lead must come twice from the weaker hand. Suppose the dealer holds A Q J and others. If the first finesse of the Jack wins, he should put Dummy in again, so as to take a second finesse of the Queen. Suppose the dealer holds A J 10, and finesses the ten the first time. If it falls to the Queen, he should get Dummy in again, so as to take the second finesse with the Jack. The idea is to take advantage of the fact that the odds are against both King and Queen being in one hand. If they are both on the right, one of them will be played on the small card led from Dummy, and then the dealer can win it with the Ace and force out the other high card with his Jack, which will have become one of the second and third-best of the suit. _=Re-entry Cards.=_ After a suit has been _=cleared=_, or established, it will be necessary to get into the lead with it.
II. Hunting we will go, brave boys, Hunting we will go; We ll catch an old fox And put him in a box, For a-hunting we will go. Halt! shoulder arms! fire! --Horncastle, North Kelsey, Lincoln (Miss Peacock). III. O have you seen the Shah, O have you seen the Shah? He lights his pipe on a star-light night, O have you seen the Shah? For a-hunting we will go, A-hunting we will go; We ll catch a fox and put him in a box, A-hunting we will go. --Epworth, Doncaster (C. C. Bell). (_b_) The players march two by two, all singing. The first pair let go hands, separate, and skip widely apart, still singing.
_=MARKERS.=_ There are no suitable counters for Scotch Whist, and the score is usually kept on a sheet of paper. _=PLAYERS.=_ Any number from two to eight may play. When there are five or seven players, the spade 6 must be removed from the pack. In some places this is not done; the thirty-fifth card being turned up for the trump, the thirty-sixth shown to the table, and then laid aside. _=CUTTING.=_ Whatever the number of persons offering for play, the table is formed by cutting from the outspread pack for partners, seats, and deal. When two play, the one cutting the lowest card has the choice of seats and cards, (if there are two packs). When three play, the lowest deals, and chooses his seat and cards.
Should the turn-up be a Nine, the exchange may still be made and scored; and if one player has already exchanged a Nine for the turn-up, the second Nine may still be exchanged for the first, and scored. A player cannot score dix and any other combination at the same time. For this reason a player whose time is short will often forego the dix score altogether unless the trump card is valuable. _=Irregular Melds.=_ If a player announces a combination which he does not show, such as fours when he has three only, which he may easily do by mistaking a Jack for a King, his adversary can compel him not only to take down the score erroneously marked, but to lead or play one of the three Kings. A player may be called upon to lead or play cards from other erroneous declarations in the same manner, but if he has the right card or cards in his hand, he may amend his error, provided he has not drawn a card from the stock in the meantime. _=The Last Twelve Tricks.=_ When the stock is exhausted all announcements are at an end, and the players take back into their hands all the cards upon the table which may remain from the combinations declared in the course of play. Should a player take up his cards before playing to the last trick, he may be called upon to lay his entire hand on the table. The winner of the previous trick then leads any card he pleases; but for the last twelve tricks the second player in each must not only follow suit, but must win the trick if he can, either with a superior card or with a trump.
THE COUNTRY (1) The Country must be arranged by one player, who, failing any other agreement, shall be selected by the toss of a coin. (2) The other player shall then choose which side of the field he will fight from. (3) The Country must be disturbed as little as possible in each move. Nothing in the Country shall be moved or set aside deliberately to facilitate the firing of guns. A player must not lie across the Country so as to crush or disturb the Country if his opponent objects. Whatever is moved by accident shall be replaced after the end of the move. THE MOVE (1) After the Country is made and the sides chosen, then (and not until then) the players shall toss for the first move. (2) If there is no curtain, the player winning the toss, hereafter called the First Player, shall next arrange his men along his back line, as he chooses. Any men he may place behind or in front of his back line shall count in the subsequent move as if they touched the back line at its nearest point. The Second Player shall then do the same.
There are two things which the beginner should master before sitting down to the table for actual play: the hands on which it is right to stand, or play without proposing, and those with which it is right to refuse, or play without giving cards. These are called stand hands, or _=jeux de règle=_, and the player should be able to recognize them on sight. In the following paragraphs the words _=dealer=_ and _=player=_ will be used to distinguish the adversaries at Écarté. The principle underlying the jeux de règle is the probable distribution of the cards in the trump suit, and the fact that the odds are always against the dealer’s holding two or more. There are thirty-two cards in the Écarté pack, of which eight are trumps, and one of these is always turned up. The turn-up and the player’s hand give us six cards which are known, and leave twenty-six unknown. Of these unknown cards the dealer holds five, and he may get these five in 65,780 different ways. The theory of the jeux de règle is that there are only a certain number of those ways which will give him two or more trumps. If the player holds one trump, the odds against the dealer’s holding two or more are 44,574 to 21,206; or a little more than 2 to 1. If the player holds two trumps, the odds against the dealer’s holding two or more are 50,274 to 15,506; or more than 3 to 1.
The last trick counts two, and the capot forty. Pic and repic are reckoned as in the ordinary game. _=Scoring.=_ Instead of playing 100 points up, six deals is a game, each player dealing three times. The lower score is then deducted from the higher, and 100 points added to the difference to determine the value of the game, which is usually played for so much a point. If the result of the six deals is a tie, two more deals must be played. If they also result in a tie, the game is void. _=Rubicons.=_ If either or both players fail to reach 100 points in the six deals, the one having the most is the winner, and adds to his own score all the points made by the loser, with 100 in addition for game. For instance: A has 113 scored, and B 80.
Mr. Newell (_Games_, p. 73), in describing a game with a similar rhyme, mentions a version which had been sent him from Waterford, Ireland. He says, We learn from an informant that in her town it was formerly played in this peculiar manner. Over the head of a girl who stood in the centre of a ring was held a shawl, sustained by four others grasping the corners. The game then proceeded as follows-- King William was King George s son, From the Bay of Biscay O! Upon his breast he wore a star-- Find your way to English schools. Down on the carpet you must kneel; As the grass grows in the field, Salute your bride and kiss her sweet, And rise again upon your feet. Then followed the game-rhyme, repeated with each stanza-- Go choose you east, go choose you west, apparently the same as last four lines of Sheffield version. King William is then supposed to enter-- The first girl that I loved so dear, Can it be she s gone from me? If she s not here when the night comes on, Will none of you tell me where she s gone? He then recognises the disguised girl-- There s heart beneath the willow tree, There s no one here but my love and me. He had gone to the war, and promised to marry her when he came back.
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.=_ Instead of playing 100 points up, six deals is a game, each player dealing three times. The lower score is then deducted from the higher, and 100 points added to the difference to determine the value of the game, which is usually played for so much a point. If the result of the six deals is a tie, two more deals must be played.