When one player holds tenace over another, the end game often becomes a struggle to place the lead; and players frequently refuse to win tricks in order to avoid leading away from tenaces, or to compel another player to lead up to them. _=Underplay=_ is often resorted to by the Fourth Hand in suits in which the Third Hand has shown weakness. For instance: A small card is led; Third Hand playing the Ten, and Fourth Hand holding A Q J x. It is a common artifice to win with the Queen, and return the small card. When the original leader is underplayed in his own suit, he should invariably put up his best card. _=Finessing.=_ The expert may finesse much more freely than the beginner. Having led from such a suit as K J x x and partner having won with Ace and returned a small card, the Jack may be finessed with strong trumps. If the adversaries lead trumps, and the Ace wins the first round, a player holding the King second hand on the return, may finesse by holding it up, trusting his partner for the trick. In all cases that mark the best of the suit against a player, and on his left, he may finesse against the third best being there also.
In some places the players take their seats at random, and a card is then dealt to each face upward; the lowest card or the first Jack taking the deal. _=DEALING.=_ Any player has a right to shuffle the cards, the dealer last. They are then presented to the pone to be cut, and at least four cards must be left in each packet. Beginning at his left, the dealer gives each _player_ in rotation two cards on the first round, and three on the next; or three on the first and two on the next. No trump is turned. In some places the cards are distributed one at a time until each player has five; but the plan is not popular, as the hands run better and the bidding is livelier when the cards are dealt in twos and threes. The deal passes to the left, each player dealing in turn. _=MISDEALING.=_ A misdeal does not lose the deal in Napoleon, because the deal is a disadvantage.
_=Betting the Hands.=_ After the last cards have been drawn, the players proceed to bet upon their hands precisely as at Poker. If a player makes a bet or raise which no one will call, he takes the pool, and then shows his hand and demands payment for the combination he holds. It is very unusual for a player to stifle a hand at Ambigu, as he would at Bouillotte. If a call is made, the players in the call show and compare their cards, and the best hand wins the pool. Only the player who wins the pool can demand payment for combinations held. TEXT-BOOKS ON POKER. Draw Poker, by John W. Keller, 1887. Round Games, by Baxter-Wray, 1891.
Hooper s Hide Name for Blind Man s Buff. --Nares _Glossary_. Hop-crease The game of Hop-scotch. --Halliwell s _Dictionary_. Hop-frog The players bend as though about to sit on a _very low_ stool, then spring about with their hands resting on their knees.--Dorsetshire (_Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 234). Miss Peacock says that a game called Hop-frog over the Dog is played at Stixwould, Lincolnshire, in the same way as Leap-frog. See Curcuddie, Cutch-a-cutchoo, Harie Hutcheon, Hirtschin Hairy. Hop-score Game of Hop-scotch.
Many good players will not lead the Queen from a three-card suit, unless it is accompanied by the Jack. All such leads are called _=forced=_, and are intended to assist the partner, by playing cards which may strengthen him, although of no use to the leader. The best card should be led from any such combinations as the following:-- [Illustration: 🃝 🃛 🃖 | 🃊 🃉 🃄 🃋 🃊 🃅 | 🃙 🃘 🃔 🂫 🂥 🂣 | 🂷 🂶 🂴 ] _=Small-card Leads.=_ If the suit selected for the lead does not contain any combination of high cards from which it would be right to lead a high card, good players make it a rule to begin with the fourth-best, counting from the top of the suit. This is called the “card of uniformity,” because it indicates to the partner that there are remaining in the leader’s hand exactly three cards higher than the one led. Should the player be forced to lead any of the undesirable combinations shown on the last page, he would begin with the Ace if he held it; otherwise he would lead the fourth-best. In each of the hands shown this would be the four, and this card would be led, even if there were five or six cards in the suit. From this hand, for instance, the five is the proper lead:-- [Illustration: 🃎 🃈 🃆 🃅 🃄 🃃 🃂 ] _=Rules for Leading Second Round.=_ If the leader wins the first trick, having the best of the suit in his hand, he should follow with the winning card; but if he has several cards which are equally winning cards, he should lead the lowest of them. This is an indication to the partner that the card led is as good as the best; therefore the leader must hold the intermediate cards.
London Bridge is broken down, Broken down, broken down, London Bridge is broken down, My fair lady. [Other verses commence with one of the following lines, and are sung in the same manner--] Build it up with penny loaves. Penny loaves will melt away. Build it up with iron and steel. Iron and steel will bend and bow. Build it up with silver and gold. Silver and gold I have not got. What has this poor prisoner done? Stole my watch and broke my chain. How many pounds will set him free? Three hundred pounds will set him free. The half of that I have not got.
_=TIES.=_ If the first cut does not decide, those tying must cut again. Should two or more players cut cards of equal value, the new cut will decide nothing but the tie; for even should one of those cutting to decide a tie draw a card lower than one previously cut by another player, the original low cannot be deprived of his right. For instance: there are six players. [Illustration: First cut is:-- 🂥 🃘 🃋 🂷 🃞 🃈 Second cut is:-- 🂴 🃒 ] The 5 and 7 have the first and second choice of seats; the 2 and 4 the third and fourth choice. _=PLAYERS’ POSITIONS.=_ There are only three distinctive positions at the poker table: the _=dealer=_; the _=pone=_; and the _=age=_. The pone is the player on the dealer’s right, and the age is the one on his left. _=STAKES.=_ Before play begins, or a card is dealt, the value of the counters must be decided, and a _=limit=_ must be agreed upon.
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A, having taken three hearts only, is entitled to 10 counters for the 10 hearts he did not hold, while B and C get 8 each. This exhausts the pool. There are no Jacks in this way of settling. Matters may be facilitated by having counters of different colours, the white being the unit, and the red representing the number which it will be necessary to pay for one heart. Practice will make the players so familiar with the amount of the various profits or losses that they simply pay or take what is due to them. The first time this is played it looks like a pretty severe game for a player who takes in a large number of hearts on one deal; but it will be found that he rapidly recovers. During a sitting of any length the player who takes in the smallest number of hearts must be the winner. In the case mentioned in connection with Sweepstake Hearts, in which one player lost 46 counters while another won 46, in 60 deals, the result at Howell’s Settling would have been that the player who took in only 58 hearts would be 548 counters ahead instead of losing 46; while the one who took in 500 hearts would lose 1220 counters, instead of winning 46. _=METHODS OF CHEATING.=_ Under the rule for dealing the cards one at a time, the greek must be very skilful to secure any advantage at Hearts.
The Queen was soda, the Five split out, and the Eight was in hoc. A | 0 0 1 0 2 | 0 1 1 1 3 | 0 0 1 1 4 | 1 0 0 0 5 | 0 0 X 6 | 1 1 1 1 7 | 0 1 1 0 8 | 1 1 0 - 9 | 0 1 0 1 10 | 0 0 0 0 J | 1 1 1 0 Q | . 0 1 0 K | 1 0 1 1 _=Systems.=_ On the manner in which the cards will go, a great many systems of play are based. There are sixteen different ways for a card to “play,” which are simply the permutations of the stroke and the cypher arranged in rows of four at a time. If a player is betting _=three on a side=_, he will take each card as it becomes a case, and bet that it either wins three times and loses once, or loses once and wins three times. In the foregoing deal he would have bet on the A 3 4 6 9 J to lose on the fourth card out of the box, and would have bet on the case cards of the 2 7 8 10 Q K to win. The Soda, it must be remembered, is really a winning card. Of these bets he would have won 5 out of twelve, taking back his money on the 8, as that card was left in hoc. Playing _=break even=_, these bets would have been exactly reversed, as all the cards would have played either to win and lose an equal number of times, or to _=win=_ or _=lose out=_; that is, to do the same thing all four times.
I shrugged. I had my way with the dice, Peno. I dropped nine yards as fast as I could, then won it back. The spots came up for me every single roll but two, when I had my eye on something else. He snickered. We saw her, he said. How about it, Fowler? I asked my Lodge Brother. Was a worker tipping the dice tonight? I never felt it, he said. But the table had dropped nearly forty grand during the shift, which was about over when you started to play. He s too good for me, Wally.
Newell, in his examination of the game, gives countenance to this theory, but he strangely connects it with other games which have a tug-of-war as the finish. Now in all the English examples it is remarkable that the tug-of-war does not appear to be a part of the game; and if this evidence be conclusive, it would appear that this incident got incorporated in America. It is this incident which Mr. Newell dwells upon in his ingenious explanation of the mythological interpretation of the game. But apart from this, the fact that the building of bridges was accompanied by the foundation sacrifice is a more likely origin for such a widespread game which is so intimately connected with a bridge. This view is confirmed by what may be called the literary history of the game. The verses, as belonging to a game, have only recently been recorded, and how far they go back into tradition it is impossible to say. Dr. Rimbault is probably right when he states that they have been formed by many fresh additions in a long series of years, and [the game] is perhaps almost interminable when received in all its different versions (_Notes and Queries_, ii. 338).
No ball shall, under any circumstances, be taken up. 12. Should the spot allotted to any pool ball be occupied when it becomes necessary to respot it, it shall be placed upon the _nearest unoccupied spot_, and, failing that, as near as possible to its proper spot in the direction of the centre spot. If the middle spot of the baulk line is occupied, the brown ball after being pocketed shall, if possible, be placed on the left-hand spot of the baulk line, and, failing that, the rule as above applies. 13. If the striker’s ball is touching another, such ball not being playable, and he disturb the ball touching his own, the stroke is foul. 14. Should the striker’s ball be so placed that he cannot play direct on the object ball, he is said to be “snookered.” FOUL STROKES AND PENALTIES. 15.
See Hunt the Staigie, Stag Warning, Whiddy. Chinnup A game played with hooked sticks and a ball, also called Shinnup. Same as Hockey. Chinny-mumps A school-boys play, consisting in striking the chin with the knuckles; dexterously performed, a kind of time is produced.--Addy s _Sheffield Glossary_. Chock or Chock-hole A game at marbles played by chocking or pitching marbles in a hole made for the purpose, instead of shooting at a ring (Northamptonshire, Baker s _Glossary_). Clare mentions the game in one of his poems. Chow A game played in Moray and Banffshire. The ball is called the Chow. The game is the same as Shinty.
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Biddy-base A Lincolnshire name for Prisoner s Base. --Halliwell s _Dictionary_; Peacock s _Manley and Corringham Glossary_; Cole s _S. W. Lincolnshire Glossary_. Biggly Name for Blind Man s Buff. --Dickinson s _Cumberland Glossary_. Billet The Derbyshire name for Tip-cat. --Halliwell s _Dictionary_. Billy-base A name for Prisoner s Base. --Halliwell s _Dictionary_.
1734. Against the suggestion that the modern game is derived directly from the Romans, is the fact that it is known in countries never traversed or occupied by the Romans. Thus Dr. Clarke, in his _Travels in Russia_, 1810, p. 106, says: In all the villages and towns from Moscow to Woronetz, as in other parts of Russia, are seen boys, girls, and sometimes even old men, playing with the joint-bones of sheep. This game is called Dibbs by the English. It is of very remote antiquity; for I have seen it very beautifully represented on Grecian vases; particularly on a vase in the collection of the late Sir William Hamilton, where a female figure appeared most gracefully delineated kneeling upon one knee, with her right arm extended, the palm downwards, and the bones ranged along the back of her hand and arm. In this manner the Russians play the game. See Dalies, Fivestones. Hummie The game otherwise called Shinty.
If no one will call, the player making the bet takes the pool, and the next deal. If a bet is made and called, those in the call do not show their down cards, but are each given another card, face up, and the same betting process is gone through, the best hand showing face up making the first bet in each round. As long as two or more players remain in the pool they are given more cards until they have five. Then the final betting is done, and if a call is made, the down cards are shown, and the best poker hand wins the pool. Straight flushes do not count. WHISKEY POKER. The arrangements for the cards, seats, etc., are the same as in Draw Poker. Each player is provided with an equal number of white counters, which may have a value attached to them, or which may simply represent markers. If the counters represent money, each player should have at least twenty; if they are only markers, five is the usual number.
If his hand was foul, it will remain so after the draw. In drawing, a player may keep or discard what cards he pleases. There is no rule to prevent his throwing away a pair of aces and keeping three clubs if he is so inclined; but the general practice is for the player to retain whatever pairs or triplets he may have, and to draw to them. Four cards of a straight or a flush may be drawn to in the same way, and some make a practice of drawing to one or two high cards, such as an ace and a king, when they have no other chance. Some hands offer opportunities to vary the draw. For instance: A player has dealt to him a small pair; but finds he has also four cards of a straight. He can discard three cards and draw to the pair; or one card, and draw to the straight; or two cards, keeping his ace in the hope of making two good pairs, aces up. The details of the best methods of drawing to various combinations will be discussed when we come to suggestions for good play. [Illustration: 🂱 🂴 🃒 🂣 🃄 ] In drawing cards, each player in turn who has made good his ante, beginning with the age, must ask the dealer for the number of cards he wants. The demand must be made so that every player can hear, because after the cards have been delivered by the dealer no one has the right to be informed how many cards any player drew.