If the heart ace is led, and one player holds the Jack alone, and another the Five alone, neither of these cards need be played, because the trump led is inferior to both of them. If a superior trump is played in following suit, such as the Five played on an Eight led, the holder of the lone Jack of trumps or ace of hearts, need not play it, because the lead was inferior. This privilege of reneging is confined to the three highest trumps. _=OBJECTS OF THE GAME.=_ In Spoil Five there are three things to play for. If any one person can win three tricks he takes the pool. If he can win all five tricks he not only gets the pool, but receives an extra counter from each of the other players. If he has no chance to win three tricks, he must bend all his energies to scattering the tricks among the other players, so that no one of them shall be able to get the three tricks necessary to win the pool. When this is done, the game is said to be _=spoiled=_, and as that is the object of the majority in every deal it gives the game its name. In the older forms of the game the winner of three tricks counted five points, and if he could be prevented from getting three tricks his five points were spoiled.
Simple gambling instruments were probably very early articles of manufacture, and Chatto says that it is not unlikely that after a simple dinner of mutton some enterprising gamester may have taken the small bones from between the shank and the foot, and after burning spots in them to distinguish one from the other, put them into _a_ cow’s horn and shaken them up, afterward rolling them upon the ground. From some such beginning Astragali was developed, a game which Dr. Thomas Hyde thinks was known at the time of the Deluge. Later on, other instruments were used in connection with dice, and so the earliest forms of Backgammon were developed. Dice are still the favourite implements for deciding any matters of pure chance, such as raffling off a horse or a gold watch; but the rules governing such lotteries are but imperfectly understood by people in general. There are also a number of smaller matters, such as the payment for refreshments or cigars, which are settled by thousands of persons every day, simply by throwing dice. The various methods of throwing, and the rules governing all such games are as follows:-- _=THE DICE.=_ Although dice may be of any size, the standard pattern are half an inch square, of ivory or bone, with black spots one tenth of an inch in diameter. The opposite sides of the die always equal seven, and if the die is placed upon the table with the ace uppermost and the deuce nearest you, the four will be on the left and the three on the right. The positions of the three and four are sometimes reversed to enable sharpers to distinguish fair dice from those which have been doctored.
Betting Out of Turn.=_ Should any player bet out of his turn, he cannot take down his counters again if he has removed his hand from them. Should the player whose proper turn it was raise the bet, the player who bet out of turn must either meet the raise or abandon his hand, and all interest in that pool. _=33. Mouth Bets.=_ Any player stating that he bets a certain amount, but failing to put up the actual counters in the pool, cannot be called upon to make the amount good after the hands are shown, or the pool is won. If the players opposed to him choose to accept a mouth bet against the counters they have already put up, they have no remedy, as no value is attached to what a player says; his cards and his counters speak for themselves. Any player wishing to raise a mouth bet has the privilege of raising by mouth, instead of by counters; but he cannot be called upon to make the amount good after the hands are shown, or the pool has been won. _=34. Showing Hands.
The deal passes in regular rotation to the left. When three play with a pack of forty cards, the last card is turned up for trumps, but it does not belong to the dealer, and is not used in play. The general rules with regard to irregularities in the deal are the same as at Whist; except that a misdeal does not pass the deal. The misdealer must deal again, and with the same pack. The cards dealt, each player sorts and counts his hand to see that he has the correct number of cards, thirteen. If not, he should immediately claim a misdeal; for a player having more or less than his right proportion of cards cannot win anything on that hand, but will have to stand his proportion of all losses incurred by him or his side. _=OBJECTS OF THE GAME.=_ There are seven distinct objects in the Solo Whist, and before play begins each player has an opportunity of declaring to which of these objects he proposes to attain. They are:-- 1st. To win 8 of the 13 tricks, with the assistance of a partner.