The dealer must put up an ante before the cards are cut. This ante may be any amount he pleases within the betting limit. No player can straddle or raise this ante until the cards are dealt. Beginning on his left the dealer distributes the cards face down, and one at a time, until each player has received three. Beginning with the age, [eldest hand,] each player in turn must put up an amount equal to the dealer’s ante, or abandon his hand. He may, if he chooses, raise the ante any further amount within the betting limit. All those following him must meet the total sum put up by any individual player, increase it, or pass out. In this respect Brag is precisely similar to the betting after the draw at Poker. If no one will see the dealer’s ante, he must be paid one white counter by each of the other players, and the deal passes to the left. Should any player bet an amount which no other player will meet, he takes the pool without showing his hand.
Only one meld can be scored at a time, so that a trick must be made for every announcement made, or the combination cannot be scored, and a fresh card must be played from the hand for every fresh meld. This is a very important rule, and little understood. Suppose a player holds four Kings and four Queens. The total count for the various combinations these cards will make is 220: two plain-suit marriages, 20 each; royal marriage, 40; four Kings, 80; and four Queens, 60. As only one combination can be scored for each trick won, and as the player must lay down at least one fresh card for each successive meld, it is evident that if he begins with the 80 Kings, and then marries each of them in turn, when he comes to the fourth Queen he will have to sacrifice the 20 for a marriage in order to score the 60 for the four Queens. He cannot score both, or he will not be complying with the rule about the fresh card from the hand for every meld. That is why four Kings and four Queens are never worth 240, but only 220. A player cannot meld cards which have already been used to form higher combinations in the same class; but he may use cards melded in lower combinations to form more valuable ones in the same class, provided he adds at least one fresh card from his hand. The principle is that cards may be _=added=_ to melds already shown, but they cannot be _=taken away=_ to form other combinations in the same class. For example: Royal marriage has been melded and scored.
_=CHEATING.=_ The methods of cheating at Écarté would fill a volume. There are many tricks which, while not exactly fraudulent, are certainly questionable. For instance: A player asks the gallery whether or not he should stand, and finally concludes to propose, fully intending all the time to draw five cards. Another will handle his counters as if about to mark the King; will then affect to hesitate, and finally re-adjust them, and ask for cards, probably taking four or five, having absolutely nothing in his hand. The pone will ask the dealer how many points he has marked, knowing perfectly well that the number is three. On being so informed, he concludes to ask for cards, as if he were not quite strong enough to risk the game by standing; when as a matter of fact he wants five cards, and is afraid of the vole being made against him. There are many simple little tricks practiced by the would-be sharper, such as watching how many cards a player habitually cuts, and then getting the four Kings close together in such a position in the pack that one of them is almost certain to be turned. Telegraphic signals between persons on opposite sides of the gallery who are nevertheless in partnership, are often translated into advice to the player, to his great benefit. Besides these, all the machinery of marked cards, reflectors, shifted cuts, wedges, strippers, and false shuffles are at the command of the philosopher, who can always handle a small pack of cards with greater freedom, and to whom the fashion of dealing in twos and threes is always welcome.
Frances). III. Here stands a lady on a mountain, Who she is I do not know; All she wants is gold and silver, All she wants is a nice young man. Choose you east, and choose you west, Choose you the one as you love best. Now Sally s got married we wish her good joy, First a girl and then a boy; Twelve months a ter a son and da ter, Pray young couple, kiss together. --Berrington (_Shropshire Folk-lore_, pp. 509, 510). IV. Stands a lady on the mountain, Who she is I do not know; All she wants is gold and silver, All she wants is a nice young beau. Take her by the lily-white hand, Lead her across the water; Give her kisses, one, two, three, For she is her mother s daughter.
What about the healing? I tried, feeling a trap slowly descending over me. She smiled at that. I guess I put that punishment on myself for what I done, she said. Then you can still heal the sick? I asked. She shrugged. I want you to try, I added. Not till I get a sign, she said, moving uneasily. I m to get a sign. I waved my hands in disgust and turned away from her. There had to be some fakery in it somewhere, I said.
H. Patterson). II. London Bridge is broken down, Dance o er my lady lee, London Bridge is broken down, With a gay lady. How shall we build it up again? Dance o er my lady lee, How shall we build it up again? With a gay lady. Silver and gold will be stole away, Dance o er my lady lee, Silver and gold will be stole away, With a gay lady. Build it up with iron and steel, Dance o er my lady lee, Build it up with iron and steel, With a gay lady. Iron and steel will bend and bow, Dance o er my lady lee, Iron and steel will bend and bow, With a gay lady. Build it up with wood and clay, Dance o er my lady lee, Build it up with wood and clay, With a gay lady. Wood and clay will wash away, Dance o er my lady lee, Wood and clay will wash away, With a gay lady.
See Merry ma-tansa, Nettles. Munshets or Munshits Is played by two boys as follows:--One of the boys remains at home, and the other goes out to a prescribed distance. The boy who remains at home makes a small hole in the ground, and holds in his hand a stick about three feet long to strike with. The boy who is out at field throws a stick in the direction of this hole, at which the other strikes. If he hits it, he has to run to a prescribed mark and back to the hole without being caught or touched with the smaller stick by his playfellow. If he is caught, he is out, and has to go to field. And if the boy at field can throw his stick so near to the hole as to be within the length or measure of that stick, the boy at home has to go out to field. A number of boys often play together; for any even number can play. I am told that the game was common fifty years ago. In principle it resembles cricket, and looks like the rude beginning of the game.
In Lancashire the children stand in line behind each other, holding each other by the waist. One stands facing them and calls out-- My mother sits on yonder chimney, And she says she _must_ have a chicken. The others answer-- She _can t_ have a chicken. The one then endeavours to catch the last child of the tail, who when caught comes behind the captor; repeat until all have changed sides.--Monton, Lancashire (Miss Dendy). A version of this game played at Eckington, Derbyshire, is played as follows:--A den is chalked out or marked out for the Fox. A larger den, opposite to this, is marked out for the Geese. A boy or a girl represents the Fox, and a number of others the Geese. Then the Fox shouts, Geese, Geese, gannio, and the Geese answer, Fox, Fox, fannio. Then the Fox says, How many Geese have you to-day? The Geese reply, More than you can catch and carry away.
At Charminster the dance is begun by a single person (either man or woman), who dances about the room with a cushion in his hand, and at the end of the tune stops and sings:-- Man: This dance it will no further go. Musician: I pray you, good sir, why say you so? Man: Because Joan Sanderson will not come to. Musician: She must come to, and she shall come to, And she must come whether she will or no. Then the following words are sung as in the first example:-- Man: Welcome, Joan Sanderson, welcome, welcome. Both: Prinkum-prankum is a fine dance, And shall we go dance it once again, And once again, And shall we go dance it once again? Woman: This dance it will no further go. Musician: I pray you, madam, why say you so? Woman: Because John Sanderson will not come to. Musician: He must come to, and he shall come to, And he must come whether he will or no. And so she lays down the cushion before a man, who, kneeling upon it, salutes her, she singing-- Welcome, John Sanderson, &c. Then, he taking up the cushion, they take hands and dance round singing as before; and this they do till the whole company is taken into the ring. Then the cushion is laid down before the first man, the woman singing, This dance, &c.
Peacock (_Manley and Corringham Glossary_) gives knur, (1) a hard wooden ball, (2) the head. Addy (_Sheffield Glossary_) says knur is a small round ball, less than a billiard ball. It is put into a cup fixed on a spring which, being touched, causes the ball to rise into the air, when it is struck by a trip-stick, a slender stick made broad and flat at one end. The knur is struck by the broad part. The game is played on Shrove Tuesday. Brogden (_Provincial Words of Lincolnshire_) gives it under Bandy. It is called Knur, Spell, and Kibble in S.-W. Lincolnshire.--Cole s _Glossary_.
[Illustration] No. 1 is the perfect position for the spot stroke; the dotted lines in the others show the course that must be followed by the cue ball to recover the initial position. _=Man-of-war Game=_ is a variety of English billiards in which there are three white balls, each belonging to different players. The following _=LAWS=_ are taken, by permission, from the rules published by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co. ENGLISH BILLIARD LAWS. _=1.=_ The choice of balls and order of play shall, unless mutually agreed upon by the two players, be determined by stringing; and the striker whose ball stops nearest the lower [or bottom] cushion, after being forced from baulk up the table, may take which ball he likes, and play, or direct his opponent to play first, as he may deem expedient. _=2.=_ The red ball shall, at the opening of every game, be placed on the top [or red] spot, and replaced after being pocketed or forced off the table, or whenever the balls are broken. _=3.
If he discards either the 10 and 9, or the 10 and 6, he will leave himself a double run of three, a pair, and two fifteens, 12 altogether. Of these two discards, that of the 10 and 6 is better than the 10 and 9, because the 10 and 9 might help to form a sequence in the adversary’s crib, whereas the 10 and 6 are so far apart that they are very unlikely to be of any use. Cards which are likely to form parts of sequences are called _=close cards=_, and those which are too widely separated to do so are called _=wide cards=_. _=METHOD OF PLAYING.=_ The crib laid out and the starter cut, the pone begins by playing any card he pleases. The card he selects he lays face upward on the table on his own side of the cribbage board, and at the same time announces its pip value; two, five, or ten, whatever it may be. It is then the dealer’s turn to play a card from his hand, which is also laid face upward on the table, but on the dealer’s side of the cribbage board. Instead of announcing the pip value of this second card, the dealer calls out the total value of the two cards taken together. The pone then lays another card on the table face upward and on the top of the first, which is not turned face down, and at the same time announces the total pip value of the three cards so far played; the dealer plays again, and so on. If at any time the total pip value of the cards played is exactly 15 or 31, the one who plays the card that brings it to that number pegs two points for it at once.
We arranged to move in alternate moves: first one moved all his force and then the other; an infantry-man could move one foot at each move, a cavalry-man two, a gun two, and it might fire six shots; and if a man was moved up to touch another man, then we tossed up and decided which man was dead. So we made a game, which was not a good game, but which was very amusing once or twice. The men were packed under the lee of fat volumes, while the guns, animated by a spirit of their own, banged away at any exposed head, or prowled about in search of a shot. Occasionally men came into contact, with remarkable results. Rash is the man who trusts his life to the spin of a coin. One impossible paladin slew in succession nine men and turned defeat to victory, to the extreme exasperation of the strategist who had led those victims to their doom. This inordinate factor of chance eliminated play; the individual freedom of guns turned battles into scandals of crouching concealment; there was too much cover afforded by the books and vast intervals of waiting while the players took aim. And yet there was something about it...
In case the teams are composed of an odd number of pairs, each team, in making up its total score, adds, as though won by it, the average score of all pairs seated in the positions opposite to its odd pair. In making up averages, fractions are disregarded and the nearest whole numbers taken, unless it be necessary to take the fraction into account to avoid a tie, in which case the match is won “by the fraction of a point.” The team making the higher score wins the match. H. _Pair Contests._ The score of a pair is compared only with other pairs who have played the same hands. A pair obtains a plus score for the contest when its net total is more than the average; a minus score for the contest when its net total is less than the average. NOTE.--Some players in America are adopting the English rule, which allows the dealer to pass, without making any declaration. The usual expression is, “No bid.
| CORNER. | CORNER. | SOUTER. | | | | | | | | | | 11-15 | 11-15 | 11-15 | 11-16 | 11-15 | 11-15 | 11-15 | | 23 19 | 22 17 | 23 19 | 24 19 | 24 19 | 22 18 | 23 19 | | 8-11 | 8-11 | 8-11 | | | | 9-14 | | 22 17 | 17 13 | 22 17 | | | | 22 17 | | 9-13 | 15-18 | 4- 8 | | | | 6- 9 | +=========+=========+=========+=========+=========+=========+=========+ | | | WILL O’ | WHITE | | |SWITCHER.|WHILTER. |THE WISP.| DYKE. | IRREGULAR OPENINGS. | | | | | | | | | | 11-15 | 11-15 | 11-15 | 11-15 | 11-15 | 11-15 | 10-15 | | 21 17 | 23 19 | 23 19 | 22 17 | 22 17 | 23 19 | 22 18 | | | 9-14 | 9-13 | 8-11 | 8-11 | 8-11 | 15-22 | | | 22 17 | | 17 14 | 25 22 | 22 17 | 25 18 | | | 7-11 | | | | | | +---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ _=The Middle Game.=_ The best way for the student to learn the manner in which the various openings are followed up, is to play over illustrative games, and in doing so he should be careful always to play with the winning side next him.
1 again. The turns are very difficult. CUSHION CARROMS. This is a variety of the three-ball game in which a cushion must be touched by the cue ball before the carrom is completed. The cushion may be struck first, and the object ball afterward, or the object ball first, and then the cushion. In the _=Three-cushion Carrom Game=_, three cushions must be touched by the cue ball before completing the count. In the _=Bank-shot Game=_, the cue ball must strike at least one cushion before touching the object ball. The _=Four-ball Game=_ is now obsolete. It was first played on a table with corner pockets, and afterward on a carrom table, two red balls being used, one spotted on the red and the other on the white spot. Two carroms could be made on one shot.
At the conclusion of each hand, the side that has won any tricks in excess of the book, scores them; the opponents counting nothing. As soon as either side has scored the number of points previously agreed upon as a game, which must be 5, 7, or 10, the cards are again shuffled and spread for the choice of partners, etc., unless it has been agreed to play a rubber. _=SCORING.=_ There are several methods of scoring at whist. The English game is 5 points, rubbers being always played. Besides the points scored for tricks, honours are counted; the games have a different value, according to the score of the adversaries; and the side winning the rubber adds two points to its score. In scoring, the revoke penalty counts first, tricks next, and honours last. _=The Revoke.=_ Should the adversaries detect and claim a revoke before the cards are cut for the following deal, they have the option of three penalties: 1st.
If 45 had been thrown, and there were still 21 chances to be thrown, you would be safe in paying liberally for the 45 chance. The great mistake that people make in buying or selling chances on throws already made in raffles is in thinking that because a certain number has not been thrown, that therefore it is likely to be. If there are 116 chances, they argue that 44 or better should be thrown, because that number or higher should come once in 116 times. This is quite right at the beginning of the raffle, but it is not right to assume that because 100 of the 116 chances have been thrown without reaching 44, that the odds are only 15 to 1 that 44 will not be thrown in the remaining 16 chances. The odds are still 116 to 1 against 44, just as they were before the raffle began. If you are going back to take into account the previous throws of the dice, you should know the 100 throws that were made with those dice before the raffle began. CRAP SHOOTING. This game is a simple form of Hazard, and when played “on the square,” is one of the fairest of all games, the percentage in favour of either side being very small. It is rapidly replacing Faro as the gambling game of America. Any number of persons may play, and any one may be the caster for the first throw.
If the winners of a game are five points to their adversaries’ nothing, they win a _=treble=_, and count three rubber points. If the adversaries have scored, but have one or two points only, the winners mark two points, for a _=double=_. If the adversaries have reached three or four, the winners mark one, for a _=single=_. The rubber points having been marked, all other scores are turned down. The side winning the rubber adds two points to its score for so doing. The value of the rubber is determined by deducting from the score of the winners any rubber points that may have been made by their adversaries. The smallest rubber possible to win is one point; the winners having scored two singles and the rubber, equal to four; from which they have to deduct a triple made by their adversaries. The largest rubber possible is eight points, called a _=bumper=_, the winners having scored two triples and the rubber, to their adversaries’ nothing. It is sometimes important to observe the order of precedence in scoring. For instance: if, at the beginning of a hand, A-B have three points to Y-Z’s nothing, and A-B make two by honours, Y-Z winning three by cards, Y-Z mark first; so that A-B win only a _=single=_, instead of a _=treble=_.
_=Laps.=_ If a player makes more points than are necessary to win the game, the additional points are counted on the next game, so that there is always an inducement to play lone hands, even with 4 points up. _=Slams.=_ If one side reaches five points before the other has scored, it is a slam, and counts _=two games=_. When laps and slams are played, it is sometimes agreed that if a person plays alone without taking his partner’s best card, or the dealer plays alone without taking up the trump or asking for his partners best, and such a player succeeds in winning all five tricks with a pat hand, it counts _=five=_ points. If he fails to win all five tricks, the adversaries count _=one=_. If he is euchred, they count _=three=_; but they are not permitted to play alone against him. _=Jambone.=_ Any person playing a lone hand may announce Jambone, and expose his cards face up on the table. The adversaries then have me right to call any card they please, either for the lead, or in following suit; but they cannot make the player revoke, nor can they consult, or in any way expose their hands.
This rule is commonly expressed by saying that a player may _=follow suit or trump=_. The highest card played of the suit led wins the trick, and trumps win all other suits. The winner of the trick takes it in, and leads for the next one, and so on until all the cards have been played. The tricks themselves have no value except for the court cards and Tens they contain. As High, Jack, and Game are always counted by the player holding those points at the end of the play, there can be no question about them: but serious disputes sometimes arise as to who played Low. The best method of avoiding this is for each player, as the game proceeds, to announce and claim the lowest trump which has so far appeared, and instead of giving it to the current trick, to leave it turned face up in front of him if it is of no counting value. For instance: Four are playing, and a round of trumps comes out, the six being the lowest. The player holding it announces: “Six for Low,” and keeps the card face up in front of him until some smaller trump appears. It often happens that a player holds a 7 or 8, and having no idea that it will be Low, takes no notice of it. At the end of the hand it is found that both the 7 and 8 are out, the 7 being Low, and the holders of those two cards get into an argument as to which card each of them held.
=_ Experience has shown that it pays to keep certain classes of hand in one section, either left to right or up and down. Many players put all the flushes in the vertical columns, and build the pairs, triplets and fours from right to left. Straights are uncertain quantities unless they are flush also and are seldom played for. Each card has a double value, and it may help to make up two hands of high scoring power, if well placed. The highest possible point value for a tableau would probably be five hands of four of a kind and five straight flushes, four of which would be royal, like this: [Illustration: 🂱 🃑 🃁 🂡 🃉 🂾 🃞 🃎 🂮 🃈 🂽 🃝 🃍 🂭 🃇 🂻 🃛 🃋 🂫 🃆 🂺 🃚 🃊 🂪 🃅 ] The odds against the cards coming from the stock in such order as to make a tableau like this possible would be enormous, but there are many sets of twenty-five cards that can be rearranged so as to make a much higher count than that actually arrived at in the solitaire. The player’s skill consists in anticipating the possibilities that certain cards will be drawn and in so arranging his table that if the hoped for card comes out, the most advantageous place will be found open for it. _=TWO OR MORE PLAYERS.=_ Any number can play this game, the only limitation being the number of packs available and space enough on the table for each one to lay out his own tableau. One player is selected as the “caller” and he shuffles his pack and presents it to be cut. In the meantime each of the others sorts his individual pack into sequence and suit, so as to be able to pick out any named card without unnecessary delay.
Garden Gate. Gegg. Genteel Lady. Ghost at the Well. Giants. Giddy. Gilty-galty. Gipsy. Gled-wylie. Glim-glam.
If he guesses rightly, the holder of the stick becomes Buff, and he joins the ring (_Winter Evening s Amusements_, p. 6). When I played at this game the ring of children walked in silence three times only round Buff, then stopped and knelt or stooped down on the ground, strict silence being observed. Buff asked three questions (anything he chose) of the child to whom he pointed the stick, who replied by imitating cries of animals or birds (A. B. Gomme). (_c_) This is a well-known game. It is also called Buffy Gruffy, or Indian Buff. The Dorsetshire version in _Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 238, 239, is the same as the Shropshire version.
Ecarter, F., to discard. Echoing, showing the number of trumps held when partner leads or calls; in plain suits, showing the number held when a high card is led. Edge, a corruption of the word “age,” the eldest hand. Eldest Hand, the first player to the left of the dealer in all English games; to his right in France. Encaisser, F., to hand the stakes to the banker. Entamer, F., to lead. Established Suits, a suit is established when you or your partner can take every trick in it, no matter who leads it.
The principal games are divided into two classes; those in which the object is to _=block=_ a player, so that he cannot follow suit, and those in which the object is to make the ends of the line some multiple of _=five=_ or _=three=_. The Block Game will be described first. _=THE BLOCK GAME.=_ Each player draws seven dominoes, and the one whose turn it is to set lays down any domino he pleases. If a good player, he will select one of his longest suit, especially if he has three or more, and his object will be to get the line back to his suit as often as possible. If a player had to set with the hand of dominoes shown in the foregoing diagram, he would select the 5-0, because he has four of the 5 suit, and three of the 0 suit. This would compel his adversary to play some domino having upon it a 5 or a 0. Let us suppose this adversary to hold the following dominoes: 6-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-0, 5-1, 5-0. He would of course play the 6-0, in order to bring the line round to his long suit of 6’s. As this would close the blank end of the line, the first player, whom we shall call A, would have to play on the 5 end, as he has no 6.