Diamonds will not go round twice without being trumped, so we cannot count on his ♢K. We cannot see any sure tricks for Z. Where are the five other tricks necessary to bring our total up to thirteen? They must be there, for there are thirteen tricks taken in every hand played. If we play over the hand, we shall find that A-B may make six, seven, nine, or ten tricks, according to their good management, and the good or bad play of their adversaries. In _=Foster’s Whist Tactics=_, Illustrative Hand No. 13, may be found the various ideas of sixteen of the best players in the American Whist League with regard to the proper management of this hand. They played it in four different ways, and with very different results in the score. This must show that the accidental distribution of the Aces, Kings, and trumps is not everything in whist, and that there must be ways and means of securing tricks which do not appear on the surface. There are four ways of taking tricks at whist: 1st. By playing high cards, the suit of which the others must follow.
He has the option of either knuckling doon and shooting at the ring from the prescribed mark, or ligging up (lying up)--that is, putting his taw so near the ring that if the others miss his taw, or miss the marbles in the ring, he has the game all to himself next time. If, however, he is hit by the others, he is said to be killed. --Addy s _Sheffield Glossary_. Lammas A party of boys take a few straws, and endeavour to hold one between the chin and the turned-down under-lip, pronouncing the following rhyme-- I bought a beard at Lammas fair, It s a awa but ae hair; Wag, beardie, wag! He who repeats this oftenest without dropping the straw is held to have won the game (Chambers _Popular Rhymes_, p. 115). This game-rhyme has an interesting reference to Lammas, and it may also refer to the hiring of servants. Brockett (_North Country Words_, p. 221) says, At a fair or market where country servants are hired, those who offer themselves stand in the market-place with a piece of straw or green branch in their mouths to distinguish them. Lamploo A goal having been selected and bounds determined, the promoters used to prepare the others by calling at the top of their voices-- Lamp! Lamp! Laa-o! Those that don t run shan t play-o! Then one of the spryest lads is elected to commence, thus:--First touching the goal with his foot or leaning against it, and clasping his hands so as to produce the letter W in the dumb alphabet, he pursues the other players, who are not so handicapped, when, if he succeeds in touching one without unclasping his hands, they both make a rush for the goal. Should either of the other boys succeed in overtaking one of these before reaching that spot, he has the privilege of riding him home pick-a-back.
=_ This is a most important element, and there is no surer indication of a careless or weak player than his inattention to the score. One cannot be too early impressed with the importance of saving the game before trying to win it; although great risks may be taken to win a game that cannot be lost that hand. Never risk a sure contract in the hope of making more; unless the two will win the game, and the odd trick will not win it. Never risk a trick that will save the game in the hope of winning more, and always set a contract while you can. _=DISCARDING.=_ This is one of the still unsettled questions of bridge tactics, some believing in discarding the weak suit always; others the strong suit always, and others one or the other according to the declaration. Against a trump declaration almost every one agrees that it is best to discard the best suit, so that if your partner gets in before you do, he may have something to guide him as to what your best chance is for any more tricks. Against no-trumpers, the majority of players hug every possible trick in their long suit and discard their weak suits, on the ground that it is folly to throw away cards that might win tricks. While this is true, it is also true that in discarding their weak suit they too often enable the declarer to win tricks that they might have stopped. For this reason, many players _=discard the suit they are not afraid of=_; that is, their best protected suit, and keep what protection they have in the weak suits, even if it is nothing but three to a Jack or ten.
For instance: A’s score is 1830; while B’s is 1260. A wins 1800, less the 1200 scored by B, which leaves 600; to this must be added the 500 points for game, making the total value of A’s game 1100 points. If the scores are very nearly equal, being within one or two hundred points of each other, the tricks taken in by each player are turned over, and the brisques are counted, each player adding to his score ten points for every brisque he has won. Suppose that after the last trick had been played and scored, A’s total was 1260, and B’s 1140. This is close enough to justify B in demanding a count of the brisques. It is found that A has seven only, while B has twenty-five. This shows B to be the winner of the game, with a total score of 1390 to A’s 1330. If the difference between the final scores is less than 100 points, after adding the brisques and throwing off the fractions, the player with the higher score adds 100 points for bonus. In the case just given, B’s final score is equal to A’s, after dropping the fractions from both; so he would add 100 for bonus to the 500 for game, and win 600 points altogether. _=Rubicons.
Hardy says some sing this game, Follow my game an holy man. Mr. Hardy once thought it was the remnant of a goblin story of a hoary man of the gable or house-roof, who presided over the destinies of poor cottagers, and he had begun to make out the folk tale. The fairy would sometimes come down, and, playing his antics, compel whomsoever observed him to follow him in a mimicking procession. Miss Hope writes of Holy Gabriel that the game is played at Mead Vale, a small village in Surrey, but is unknown at larger villages and towns a few miles off. Some of the women who played it in their youth say that it began in the Primitive Methodist school at Mead Vale. It is played at Outword, also a remote village, and was introduced there by a stonemason, who stated that he had learned it from a cousin who had been in America. Further inquiry by Miss Hope elicited the fact that the cousin had learned the game, when a boy, in his native place in Lancashire. He did not know whether it was a well-known game there. This information points perhaps to a modern origin, but in such cases it must be borne in mind that people are very fond of suggesting recent circumstances as the cause of the most ancient traditions or customs.
To win 9 of the 13 tricks against the three other players combined; the single player to name the trump suit. This is called _=Abundance=_. 5th. To win 9 of the 13 tricks against the three other players combined, with the trump suit that is turned up. This is called _=Abundance in Trumps=_. 6th. To take no tricks, there being no trump suit, and the three other players being opposed; the single player’s cards being exposed face up on the table after the first trick is complete. This is called Misère sur table, or _=A Spread=_. 7th. To win all 13 tricks against the three other players combined; the single player to name the trump suit, and to have the original lead whether eldest hand or not.
117, is a carving which represents three rats busily engaged in hanging a cat on a gallows of this kind. Cat i the Hole A game well known in Fife, and perhaps in other counties. If seven boys are to play, six holes are made at certain distances. Each of the six stands at a hole, with a short stick in his hand; the seventh stands at a certain distance holding a ball. When he gives the word, or makes the sign agreed upon, all the six change holes, each running to his neighbour s hole, and putting his stick in the hole which he has newly seized. In making this change, the boy who has the ball tries to put it into an empty hole. If he succeeds in this, the boy who had not his stick (for the stick is the Cat) in the hole to which he had run is put out, and must take the ball. There is often a very keen contest whether the one shall get his stick, or the other the ball, or Cat, first put into the hole. When the Cat _is in the hole_, it is against the laws of the game to put the ball into it.--Jamieson.
---------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------- Spades | 40 | 80 | 120 | 160 | 200 Clubs | 60 | 120 | 180 | 240 | 300 Diamonds | 80 | 160 | 240 | 320 | 400 Hearts | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 No-trumps | 120 | 240 | 360 | 480 | 600 ---------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------- The successful bidder always leads for the first trick, after he has taken the widow and discarded, and after the hand is played, he has the first count. If he has made as many as he bid, he scores it; but he cannot score more than he bid unless he succeeds in winning every trick. In that case he scores 250 if his bid was less than 250; but if his bid was more than 250, he gets nothing extra for winning every trick. Any player but the bidder winning a trick scores ten points for it, so it is necessary for each player to keep separate the tricks he individually wins. If the bidder fails, he loses, or is set back, as many points as he bid, and he scores nothing for the tricks he takes, but he may play the hand out to prevent the others from scoring, as his adversaries still get ten points for each trick they win. Five hundred points is game, and as the bidder has the first count he may go out first, even if an adversary has won tricks enough to reach 500 also. EUCHRE LAWS. _=1.=_ _=SCORING.=_ A game consists of five points.
King William was King David s son, All the royal race is run; Choose from the east, choose from the west, Choose the one that you love best; If she s not here to take her part, Choose another with all your heart. --Sheffield (S. O. Addy). (_b_) In Sheffield a ring of young men and women is formed. A man goes inside the ring and walks round within it, whilst the others sing the verse. The young man then chooses a sweetheart, and the two walk round arm-in-arm within the ring, whilst the same verses are sung. When the singing is ended, the girl picks a young man, and so they all pair off. (_c_) Mr. Addy entitles this game Kiss in the Ring.
Bonnety. Booman. Boss-out. Boss and Span. Boys and Girls. Branks. Bridgeboard. Broken-down Tradesmen. Brother Ebenezer. Bubble-hole.
If not, the three are left on the table and three more turned up in the same way. Let us suppose this is the appearance of the table: [Illustration: The Foundation:-- 🂷 The Stock:-- 🃔 The Layout:-- 🃖 🃁 🂢 🂹 The top card of the three:-- 🃅 ] The player can make several changes at once. The five of diamonds will go on the club six, the club four on the five, the ace of diamonds on the deuce of spades, leaving a space which must be filled from the top of the stock, using the card that was under the four of clubs. Another card is exposed and available under the five of diamonds. Cards built on the foundations must be in the same suit, and build upward, nothing but eights being available on the sevens. On the layout, sequences are built down, and must change colour each time. Any time that there is a space in the four columns of the layout, the top card of the stock may be used to fill the space, but the stock itself must never be added to. If there are only two cards in any of the four columns of the layout at any time, and the top one can be used on another pile, it may be taken for that purpose. Suppose the nine of hearts were built on down to a black six, the five of diamonds could be removed to that pile to release the six of clubs. After running through the entire pack, three cards at a time, the cards that have not been used in the process, and which are lying on the table face up, are taken up again and turned face down, without shuffling them, and run through again, three at a time.
II. How many miles to Babylon? Three score and ten. Will we be there by candle-light? Yes, and back again. Open your gates and let us go through. Not without a beck and a boo. There s a beck, and there s a boo, Open your gates and let us go through. --Nairn, Scotland (Rev. W. Gregor). III.
| +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 1.| -- | -- | -- | | 2.| -- | -- | -- | | 3.| -- | -- | -- | | 4.| -- | -- | -- | | 5.|L. B. is broken down. |L. B.
_=29.=_ All disputes are to be decided by the marker; but if he be interested in the game, they shall then be settled by a majority of the players. BLACK POOL. This is a variation of English Colour-Ball Pool. A black ball is placed on the centre spot. The colours follow one another just as in English pool, until all the balls have come upon the table. After that, any ball on the table may be played at, and if it is pocketed, the player has the option of playing at the black ball. If he pockets it, each player pays him the amount of a life, so that the player whose ball was first pocketed would have to pay two, one for his own ball and one for the black. If a ball is pocketed before the balls are all on the table, the player may play on the black; but the following players must play on their colours until the first round is complete. No one is ever dead, and the game may be continued indefinitely, although half an hour is the usual limit.