| | |28.| -- | -- | -- | |29.| -- | -- |What has this poor | | | | |prisoner done? | |30.| -- | -- |Stole my watch and | | | | |broke my chain. | |31.| -- | -- | -- | |32.|Give him a pipe of | -- | -- | | |tobacco to smoke. | | | |33.|Suppose the pipe | -- | -- | | |should fall and break.| | | |34.
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.... It was a game crying aloud for improvement. Improvement came almost simultaneously in several directions. First there was the development of the Country.
--Cheltenham (Miss E. Mendham). Same verses as in Shropshire, except the last, which runs as follows:-- Buff neither laughs nor smiles, But strokes his face for want of grace, And sticks his staff in the right place. --London (J. P. Emslie). (_b_) Five or six children stand in a row. Another child comes up to the first of the row, and strikes smartly on the ground with a stick. The child facing him asks the first question, and the one with the stick answers. At strokes his face he suits the action to the words, and then thumps with his stick on the ground at the beginning of the last line.
Should two players have an incorrect number of cards, one of them being the caller, there must be a new deal. CARDS LIABLE TO BE CALLED. 20. The following cards are liable to be called by either adversary:-- I. Every card faced upon the table otherwise than in the regular course of play, but not including a card led out of turn. II. Every card thrown with the one led or played to the current trick. The player must indicate the one led or played. III. Every card so held by a player that his partner sees any portion of its face.
If two players can count out on the same deal, and one of them is the bidder, he wins the pool if he has made good his bid. If neither of the ties is the bidder, the points count out in their regular order, High first, then Low, then Jack, and finally Game. For instance: Seven are playing. A sells to B, who bids two. B and C have each two to go. B pitches a trump of which C has both High and Low; but if B makes Jack and Game he wins the pool, because he bid only two points, and made them. This is generally expressed by the rule: _=bidder goes out first=_. _=Setting Back.=_ If the player who pitches the trump fails to make the number of points bid, he is set back, and scores nothing for any points he may have made. A player who is set back, either for overbidding his hand, or for refusing to sell and failing to make the number of points offered him, must withdraw from the pool as many white counters as were bid, and add them to his own.
Gomme). IV. Handy pandy, Jack a dandy, Which hand will you have? --Burne s _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 530. (_b_) The hands are closed, some small article is put in one of them behind the back of the player. The closed fists are then turned rapidly round one another while the rhyme is being said, and they are then placed one on top of the other. A guess is then made by any one of the players as to which hand the object is in. If correct, the guesser obtains the object; if incorrect, the player who performs Handy dandy keeps it. (_c_) This game is mentioned in _Piers Plowman_, p. 69 of Wright s edition.
A piece of string long enough to go round the inner circumference of the chairs is procured. A small ring is put upon the string, the ends of which are then tied. Then one of the players gets up from his chair and stands in the centre. The players sitting on the chairs take the string into their hands and pass the ring round from one to another, singing the lines. If the person standing in the centre can find out in whose hand the ring is, he sits down, and his place is taken by the one who had the ring. The game is sometimes played round a haycock in the hayfield. Miss Dendy sends a similar rhyme from Monton, Lancashire, where it is known simply as a marching game. For similar rhymes, see Halliwell s _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 3. See Paddy from Home, Tip it.
And when they were up they were up, And when they were down they were down, And when they were half-way up the hill They were neither up nor down. --Sheffield (S. O. Addy). A ring of chairs is formed, and the players sit on them. A piece of string long enough to go round the inner circumference of the chairs is procured. A small ring is put upon the string, the ends of which are then tied. Then one of the players gets up from his chair and stands in the centre. The players sitting on the chairs take the string into their hands and pass the ring round from one to another, singing the lines. If the person standing in the centre can find out in whose hand the ring is, he sits down, and his place is taken by the one who had the ring.
T. Winterblossom, 1875. THE EUCHRE FAMILY. This family embraces four of the best known and most popular games in the world, each of which has been considered the national game in its own country: Écarté in France; Napoleon in England; Spoil Five in Ireland; and Euchre in America. It has always been the custom to trace the origin of Euchre to a variety of Triomphe, or French Ruff, probably introduced to America by the French of Louisiana; and to claim Écarté as its cousin, and the French survivor of the parent game. In the opinion of the author, both the game and its name go to show that Euchre is of mixed stock, and probably originated in an attempt to play the ancient Irish game of Spoil Five with a piquet pack. “Euchre” is not a French word, but the meaning of it is identical with “Spoil Five”; both names signifying that the object of the game is to prevent the maker of the trump from getting three tricks. In the one game he is “spoiled;” in the other he is “euchred.” In the old game of Triomphe, in Écarté, and in the black suits in Spoil Five, the order of the court cards in plain suits is the same, the ace ranking below the Jack. But in Euchre the Jack ranks above the ace when the suit is trumps, exactly as it does in Spoil Five.
The ring dance round to a tune and sing a chorus [which is not given by the writer]. They then stop. Buff extends his wand, and the person to whom it happens to be pointed must step out of the circle to hold the end in his hand. Buff then interrogates the holder of the wand by grunting three times, and is answered in like manner. Buff then guesses who is the holder of the wand. 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.
Emslie says he knows it under the name of Baste the Bear in London, and Patterson (_Antrim and Down Glossary_) mentions a game similarly named. It is played at Marlborough under the name of Tom Tuff. --H. S. May. See Doncaster Cherries. Bag o Malt A bag o malt, a bag o salt, Ten tens a hundred. --Northall s _English Folk Rhymes_, p. 394. Two children stand back to back, linked near the armpits, and weigh each other as they repeat these lines.
_=Discarding.=_ The trump named, each player must put out at least three of his cards, and may discard as many more as he pleases. All such discards must be placed on the table face up. Should a player discard a trump, his partner may call his attention to it, and it may be taken back, provided the player has not been helped to cards, or has not lifted the cards drawn. _=Drawing.=_ The players having discarded, the dealer, beginning on his left, must give to each in turn from the top of the pack, face down, as many cards as may be necessary to restore the number in each hand to six. _=Robbing the Deck.=_ When it comes to the dealer’s turn to draw cards, instead of taking them from the top of the pack, face down, he may search the remainder of the pack, and take from it any cards he pleases to restore the number in his hand to six. Should he find in his own hand and in the remainder of the pack, more than six trumps, he must discard those he does not want, face upward on the table. _=Irregular Drawing.
The most common form of martingale is called _=doubling up=_, which proceeds upon the theory that if you lose the first time and bet double the amount the next time, and continue to double until you win, you must eventually win the original amount staked. If there was no end to your capital, and no betting limit to the game, this would be an easy way to make money; but all banking games have studied these systems, and have so arranged matters that they can extend their heartiest welcome to those who play them. In the first place, by simply doubling up you are giving the bank the best of it, because you are not getting the proper odds. If you double up five times you are betting 16 to 1; but the odds against five successive events are 31 to 1, as we have already seen, and the bank should pay you 31 instead of 16. You should not only double, but add the original amount of the stake each time, betting 1, 3, 7, 15, 31, 63, and so on. If you do this, you will win the amount of your original stake for every bet you make, instead of only for every time you win. This looks well, but as a matter of fact doubling up is only another way of borrowing small sums which will have to be paid back in one large sum when you can probably least afford it. Suppose the game is Faro, the chips five dollars a stack, and the limit on cases twenty-five dollars. The limit on cases will then be 400 chips. If eight successive events go against your “system,” which they will do about once in 255 times, your next bet will be beyond the limit, and the banker will not accept it.
A game consists of seven points, each trick above six counting one. The value of the game is determined by deducting the losers’ score from seven. In _=Boston=_, the game is finished in twelve deals. In _=Cayenne=_, a game consists of ten points, each trick above six counting towards game according to the table of values. Honours and Slams also count towards game. Every hand must be played out, and all points made in excess of the ten required to win the game are counted on the next game; so that it is possible to win two or three games in one hand. In Nullo, every trick over the book is counted by the adversaries. Players cannot count out by honours alone; they must win the odd trick or stop at the score of nine. If one side goes out by cards, the other cannot score honours. The rubber is won by the side that first wins four games of ten points each.
The value of their honours is the only score that can be made by a revoking side. 85. A player may ask his partner if he have a card of the suit which he has renounced; should the question be asked before the trick be turned and quitted, subsequent turning and quitting does not establish a revoke, and the error may be corrected unless the question be answered in the negative, or unless the revoking player or his partner have led or played to the following trick. 86. If a player correct his mistake in time to save a revoke, any player or players who have followed him may withdraw his or their cards and substitute others, and the cards so withdrawn are not exposed. If the player in fault be one of the declarer’s adversaries, the card played in error is exposed, and the declarer may call it whenever he pleases, or he may require the offender to play his highest or lowest card of the suit to the trick, but this penalty cannot be exacted from the declarer. 87. At the end of the play the claimants of a revoke may search all the tricks. If the cards have been mixed, the claim may be urged and proved if possible; but no proof is necessary and the claim is established if, after it is made, the accused player or his partner mix the cards before they have been sufficiently examined by the adversaries. 88.
The connecting link seems to have been a game called Five Fingers, which is described in the “_Compleat Gamester_,” first published in 1674. The Five Fingers was the five of trumps, and also the best, the ace of hearts coming next. In Spoil Five, the Jack of trumps comes between these two. _=CARDS.=_ Spoil Five is played with a full pack of fifty-two cards. The rank of the cards varies according to the colour of the suit, and the trump suit undergoes still further changes, the heart ace being always the third best trump. In the plain suits, the K Q J retain their usual order, the King being the best. The rank of the spot cards, including the aces of diamonds, clubs, and spades, is generally expressed by the phrase: _=Highest in red; lowest in black=_. That is to say, if several cards of a suit, not including a King, Queen or Jack, are played to a trick, the highest card will win if the suit is red; and the lowest if the suit is black. This will give us the following order for the plain suits, beginning with the highest card in each:-- No change.
At the end of the game, or on the twelfth hand, if the caller does not succeed, he pays the pool as usual, and his adversaries then divide it amongst themselves. The _=Suggestions for Good Play=_, etc., are given in connection with Solo Whist and need no further amplification for Boston de Fontainbleau. The _=Laws=_ vary so little from those used in the regular game of Boston that it is not necessary to give an additional code, either for Fontainbleau or for French Boston, which follows. FRENCH BOSTON. _=CARDS.=_ French Boston is played with a full pack of fifty-two cards, which rank as at Whist, both for cutting and playing; except that the diamond Jack is always the best trump unless diamonds are turned up, in which case the heart Jack becomes the best trump, and the diamond Jack ranks next below the diamond Queen. _=COUNTERS=_ are used as in Boston, their value being a matter of agreement before play begins. _=THE POOL=_ is made up by the dealer’s contributing ten counters for the first eight rounds, and twenty for the last two. It is increased from time to time by penalties, and is won or lost by the players, just as in Boston.
The crap shooter is obliged to shake the dice in his hand to show that he is not holding them with certain faces together, which is a common way of preventing or getting certain throws, especially with shaped dice. Whichever method is employed, each die must lie flat upon one of its own faces after the throw, neither resting upon nor _=cocked=_ against any other die or any obstruction upon the table or the ground. If any of the dice are cocked, all of them must be taken up and thrown again. RAFFLING. In a raffle for prizes of any kind, each player has three throws with three dice. The rules already given for throwing dice from a box must be followed, the scorer placing the dice in the box before each throw, and lifting the box after it. The total of the three throws is recorded opposite the name of each player, and the highest throw wins. The odds against throwing a certain number or higher are shown in the margin. +--------------------------------+ |IT IS ABOUT AGAINST THROWING| +---------------------+----------+ | Even |32 or more| | 9 to 7 |33 ” | | 11 to 6 |34 ” | | 28 to 11 |35 ” | | 3 to 1 |36 ” | | 5 to 1 |37 ” | | 7 to 1 |38 ” | | 10 to 1 |39 ” | | 16 to 1 |40 ” | | 24 to 1 |41 ” | | 39 to 1 |42 ” | | 66 to 1 |43 ” | | 116 to 1 |44 ” | | 215 to 1 |45 ” | | 422 to 1 |46 ” | | 886 to 1 |47 ” | | 2016 to 1 |48 ” | | 5032 to 1 |49 ” | | 14093 to 1 |50 ” | | 45809 to 1 |51 ” | | 183229 to 1 |52 ” | | 1007768 to 1 |53 ” | | 10077695 to 1 |54 | +---------------------+----------+ Suppose the prize in a raffle is a horse which would be worth a hundred dollars to you. The highest throw so far is 42, and there are only twenty more chances to be thrown.
The honest card-player has not one chance in a thousand against the professional at Écarté. _=SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAY.=_ The French claim that any person may become an expert at a game like Piquet, simply by dint of long practice; but that the master of Écarté must be a born card-player, as no game requires in such degree the exercise of individual intelligence and finesse. While this may be true, there are many points about the game which may be learned by the novice, and which will greatly improve his play. 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.
| |roving. | | 9.|We ll take this maid | -- |We ll take this pretty| | |by the hand. | | fair maid by the | | | | |hand. | | 10.| -- | -- | -- | | 11.| -- | -- | -- | | 12.|You shall have a duke,|You shall have a dik- |Ye sall get a duke. | | |my dear. |ma-day.
Hold your right ear in, Hold your right ear out, Shake it a little, a little, And then turn round about. Here we come dancing lewby, Lewby, lewby, li, &c. --Eckington, Derbyshire (S. O. Addy). V. How do you luby lue, How do you luby lue, How do you luby lue, O er the Saturday night? Put your right hand in, Put your right hand out, Shake it in the middle, And turn yourselves about. --Lady C. Gurdon s Suffolk _County Folk-lore_, p. 64.
Choose one, choose two, Choose the fairest of the few. Now you re married I wish you joy, Father and mother you must obey; Love one another like sister and brother, And pray, young couple, come kiss one another. --Colchester (Miss G. M. 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.
Each one is out if the stick or ball lodges in the hole or hits the stone; or if the ball or stone is caught; or if it can be put in the hole or hits the stone while the boys are changing places. This game is also played with two Lobbers, that lob alternately from each end. The game is won by a certain number of runs.--Ireland (_Folk-lore Journal_, ii. 264). See Cat, Cudgel, Kit-Cat, Rounders. Loggats An old game, forbidden by statute in Henry VIII. s time. It is thus played, according to Stevens. A stake is fixed in the ground; those who play throw Loggats at it, and he that is nearest the stake wins.
10. The game shall come to an end only at the conclusion of a round, and any player wishing to stop must give notice before the beginning of a round. CARDS. 11. There are thirty-two cards in the pack, the rank and value of which are as follows: Jack 2; ace 11; ten 10; king 4; queen 3; the nine, eight and seven having no counting value. 12. The suits shall always outrank one another in the same order; clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds. The four jacks, or Wenzels, which are always the four best trumps, shall outrank one another in the same order. 13. In Nullo, the cards rank: A K Q J 10 9 8 7, and the suits and jacks are all of equal rank.
The men are moved according to the throws of the dice, each player in turn having a throw and a move. After the men on either side are all home, they are taken off the board according to the throws of the dice, and the player who is the first to get all his men off the board in this manner wins the game. If each player has taken off some of his men, the player getting all his off first wins a _=hit=_, which counts as a single game. If one player gets off all his men before his adversary has thrown off a single man, it is a _=gammon=_, and counts as a double game. If the loser has not only taken off none of his men, but has one or more men left on the side of the board farther from him when his adversary throws off his last man, it is a _=backgammon=_, and counts as a triple game. In America, gammons and backgammons are seldom played, every game being simply a hit. This spoils some of the fine points of the game, and entirely alters the tactics of the players, as will be seen when we come to the suggestions for good play. _=The Dice.=_ Although it is usual for each player to be provided with two dice, some players insist on the same pair being used by each player alternately; the claim being that luck will then run more evenly. At the beginning of the game each player makes a cast, either with one die or with two, as may be agreed, and the higher throw has the first play.
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. It is therefore evident that any hand which is certain to win three tricks if the dealer has not two trumps, has odds of two to one in its favour, and all such hands are called jeux de règle. The natural inference from this is that such hands should always be played without proposing, unless they contain the King of trumps. The exception in case of holding the King is made because there is no danger of the dealer’s getting the King, no matter how many cards he draws, and if the player’s cards are not strong enough to make it probable that he can win the vole, it is better for him to ask for cards, in hope of improving his chances. If he is refused, he stands an excellent chance to make two points by winning the odd trick.
We know, too, the old belief that the cuckoo tells children how many years they have to live. These lines are also sometimes said, in addition to those given above-- Elder belder, limber lock, Three wives in a clock; Sit and sing, and call a spring, O-u-t spells out. The boy who bends down is supposed to be undergoing a great penalty. Strutt (_Sports_, p. 394) describes this game, and gives an illustration which is here reproduced from the original MSS. in the Bodleian. This game may have originated from a custom at funerals of practising spells for the safe and speedy passage of the departing spirit to its destination, or from divination mysteries to foretell who would be the next among the mourners to follow the dead body to the grave. The spirit of prophecy was believed to exist in a dying person. See Handy Croopen. How many Miles to Babylon I.
_=RETURNING SUITS.=_ When the third hand returns his partner’s suit, he should lead the higher of two cards, and the lowest of three, unless he has a card which will beat anything Dummy may hold in the suit, in which case he should _=always beat Dummy=_. _=PLAYING AGAINST DUMMY.=_ Some of the fine points in bridge arise in situations which require a careful consideration of the Dummy’s cards. There are three great principles in playing against Dummy:-- 1st. Lead through the strong suits, and up to the weak. 2nd. Do not lead through a fourchette. 3rd. Do not lead up to a tenace.
” The player holding the third King would say: “There’s the best of all the three,” and the holder of the fourth would then triumphantly exclaim: “And there’s the Earl of Coventry.” The fortunate holder of the Earl of Coventry in each round has the privilege of leading a card for the next trick, and the first player to get rid of all his cards wins one counter from the others for every card they hold. The words, “Snip, Snap, Snorem,” may be substituted for the foregoing rhymes if time is short. _=Jig=_ is a variation of Earl of Coventry in which the next higher in sequence and suit must be played, if the player has it, until four cards are shown. The one who lays down the last of the sequence of four cards starts a fresh sequence, and the winner is the one who can first get rid of all the cards originally dealt him. All the others then pay him a counter for each card they have left. COMMIT. The etymology of this word has been quite overlooked by those who have described the game. The word is from the French, cométe, a comet; but instead of being an equivalent in English, it is simply a phonetic equivalent; Commit, instead of Comet. Tenac informs us that the game was invented during the appearance of Halley’s comet; and the idea of the game is that of a string of cards forming a tail to the one first played, a feature which is common to quite a number of the older games of cards.
The careful poker player always “spreads” his cards before taking them up, to be sure that he has neither more nor less than five, and he lifts them in such a way that the palm and fingers of his right hand conceal the face of the first card, while the thumb of the left hand separates the others just sufficiently to allow him to read the index or “squeezer” marks on the edges. [Illustration: Spreading. Squeezing.] The object of this examination is to ascertain the value of the hand dealt to him, and to see whether or not it is worth while trying to improve it by discarding certain cards and drawing others in their place. The player should not only be thoroughly familiar with the relative value of the various combinations which may be held at Poker, but should have some idea of the chances for and against better combinations being held by other players, and should also know the odds against improving any given combination by drawing to it. The value of this technical knowledge will be obvious when it is remembered that a player may have a hand dealt to him which he knows is comparatively worthless as it is, and the chances for improving which are only one in twelve, but which he must bet on at odds of one in three, or abandon it. Such a proceeding would evidently be a losing game, for if the experiment were tried twelve times the player would win once only, and would lose eleven times. This would be paying eleven dollars to win three; yet poker players are continually doing this. _=RANK OF THE HANDS.=_ The various combinations at Poker outrank one another in the following order, beginning with the lowest.