Some of the most brilliant endings in whist are skirmishes for the possession of the last trump; the player who is at a disadvantage often persistently refuses the fatal force, hoping the leader will be compelled to change his suit, or will lose the lead. _=Drawing the Losing Trump.=_ It is usually best to draw losing trumps from the adversaries, unless a player can foresee that he may want the best to stop a strong adverse suit. _=A Thirteenth Card=_, played by the partner, is usually considered an invitation to put on the best trump. The Second Hand should not trump a thirteenth card unless he is weak in trumps. _=AMERICAN LEADS.=_ Advanced players, who have had so much practice that they can infer the probable position of the cards without devoting their entire attention to it, have adopted a new system of leading from the four combinations following, in order to show the number of small cards in the suit:-- [Illustration: 🃑 🃞 🃝 🃛 🃖 | 🂱 🂾 🂶 🂴 🂲 🃁 🃎 🃍 🃆 🃅 | 🂮 🂭 🂧 🂤 🂢 ] From these the King is never led if there are more than four cards in the suit. Having more than four, the lowest of the sequence of high cards is led. From the first this would be the Jack; from the second the Queen; from the third the Ace, (because the King is barred;) and from the fourth the Queen. The Ten is not ranked among the high cards in American Leads.
In the last three tricks, if you find yourself with a doubtful card, and the best and a small card of a suit which the declarer leads through you, win the trick and lead the doubtful card, for if the declarer held the best of that suit he would have led it first, to be sure of a trick. _=Dummy on the Right.=_ When Dummy leads through you, your skill in avoiding any traps the declarer may be setting for you will depend on your knowledge of how he manages his hand, and your ability to infer what he holds. As a general principle, it may be assumed that any high card led by Dummy forms part of a combination, the unseen part of which is in the declarer’s hand. If Dummy leads a Queen from Q x x, you holding A J x, it is almost a certainty that the declarer holds the King. If you have A K x, the dealer must have J 10 and several others. If you have K x x, the declarer probably holds Ace, or a long suit headed by J 10. When Dummy leads strengthening cards, they must be to give the declarer a finesse. If he leads a small card from small cards, some high-card combination must be in the declarer’s hand. In such cases it is useless for you to finesse.
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The successful adventurer is the person who puts the pin between two leaves including a picture which is the prize, and the pin itself is the forfeit (_Blackwood s Magazine_, Aug. 1821, p. 36). This was a general school game in West London in 1860-1866 (G. L. Gomme). Dab-an-thricker A game in which the _dab_ (a wooden ball) is caused to spring upwards by a blow on the _thricker_ (trigger), and is struck by a flat, bottle-shaped mallet fixed to the end of a flexible wand, the distance it goes counting so many for the striker.--Ross and Stead s _Holderness Glossary_. This is the same as Knur and Spell. Dab-at-the-hole A game at marbles (undescribed).
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. The third time Fire was called, silence was observed, and every player bowed the head. We called it Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.
EXTENSIONS AND AMPLIFICATIONS OF LITTLE WAR VI. ENDING WITH A SORT OF CHALLENGE APPENDIX-- LITTLE WARS AND KRIEGSPIEL I OF THE LEGENDARY PAST LITTLE WARS is the game of kings--for players in an inferior social position. It can be played by boys of every age from twelve to one hundred and fifty--and even later if the limbs remain sufficiently supple--by girls of the better sort, and by a few rare and gifted women. This is to be a full History of Little Wars from its recorded and authenticated beginning until the present time, an account of how to make little warfare, and hints of the most priceless sort for the recumbent strategist.... But first let it be noted in passing that there were prehistoric Little Wars. This is no new thing, no crude novelty; but a thing tested by time, ancient and ripe in its essentials for all its perennial freshness--like spring. There was a Someone who fought Little Wars in the days of Queen Anne; a garden Napoleon.
He may look at what he draws before announcing. If there are no cards on the table, he must pass his turn. The first to get rid of all his cards gets a chip from each of the others for each card they hold. JASS. This is popularly supposed to be the progenitor of the American game of pinochle, and is still very popular in Switzerland. _=CARDS.=_ Jass is played with the thirty-six card pack, the 5 4 3 2 of each suit being thrown out. The cards rank from the A K Q down to the 6, both in cutting and in play. The cards have a pip value in scoring, aces 11, tens 10, kings 4, queens 3 and jacks 2. In the trump suit, the jack is the highest card, and is worth 20 points instead of 2.
Altogether this game-rhyme affords a very good example of the condition of traditional games among the present generation of children. +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ |No.| Belfast. | Shropshire. | Derbyshire. | +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 1.|Green gravel. |Green gravel. | -- | | 2.| -- | -- |Around the green | | | | |gravel.
The numerator will be the number of times that the combinations occur which contain a figure larger than 3, in addition to the 6. This will be found to be 74, and the probability will therefore be 74/166. DISTRIBUTIONS. TIMES IN 1000. 8 2 2 1 2 8 3 1 1 1½ 8 3 2 0 1 8 4 1 0 ½ 8 5 0 0 0 7 2 2 2 5 7 3 2 1 19 7 3 3 0 3 7 4 1 1 4 7 4 2 0 3 7 5 1 0 1 7 6 0 0 0 6 3 2 2 57 6 3 3 1 35 6 4 2 1 47 6 4 3 0 13 6 5 1 1 7 6 5 2 0 6 6 6 1 0 1 5 3 3 2 155 5 4 2 2 106 5 4 3 1 130 5 4 4 0 12 5 5 2 1 32 5 5 3 0 9 4 3 3 3 105 4 4 3 2 215 4 4 4 1 30 _=MARTINGALES.=_ Many gamblers believe that as the science of probabilities teaches us that events will equalise themselves in time, all that is necessary is to devise some system that will keep a person from guessing, so that he may catch the pendulum as it swings; and to add to it some system of betting, so that he will have the best of it in the long run. Some content themselves with playing a “system” against banking games, which is merely a guide to the placing of the bets, the simplest example of which would be to bet always on heads if a coin was tossed a thousand times, or to bet on nothing but red at Roulette. Others depend more on martingales, which are guides to the amount of the bets themselves, irrespective of what they are placed on. 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.
and cccxliv., as quoted above, says, They are fragments of a game called The Lady of the Land, a complete version of which has not fallen in my way. Mr. Udal s versions from Dorsetshire are not only called The Lady of the Land, but are fuller than all the other versions, though probably these are not complete. Mr. Newell (_Games_, pp. 56-58) gives some versions of this game. He considers the original to have been a European game (he had not found an English example) in which there were two mothers, a rich and a poor one; one mother begging away, one by one, all the daughters of the other. (_d_) This game no doubt originates from the country practice of hiring servants at fairs, or from a dramatic Hirings being acted at Harvest Homes. The Good-bye of mother and daughters belongs, no doubt, to the original game and early versions, and is consistent with the departure of a servant to her new home.