_=CUTTING.=_ The players draw from an outspread pack for partners, seats, and deal. The two lowest play against the two highest; the highest cut has the choice of seats and cards, and deals the first hand. Partners sit opposite each other. _=DEALING.=_ Each player has the right to shuffle the pack, the dealer last. The cards are then presented to the pone to be cut, and at least four cards must be left in each packet. Beginning on his left, the dealer gives nine cards to each player, three at a time in three separate rounds. No trump is turned, and the remainder of the pack is left on the table face downward. _=MISDEALING.
_=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.
The man whose face or manner betrays the nature of his hand, or the effect of an opponent’s bet or raise, will find everyone to beat his weak hands, and no one to call his strong ones. Unless he is a fair judge of human nature he will never be able to estimate the strength or peculiarities of the players to whom he is opposed, and will fail to distinguish a bluff from an ambuscade. Without courage he cannot reap the full benefit of his good hands; and without patience he cannot save his money in the time of adversity. Of one thing every player may rest assured, and that is that Poker cannot be played by mathematical formulas. Beyond the most elementary calculations of the chances in favour of certain events the theory of probabilities is of no assistance. It is not necessary to call in a mathematician to prove that a player who habitually discards a pair of aces to draw to three cards of a suit will lose by the operation in the long run. Nor will any amount of calculation convince some players that they are wasting their money to stay in a jack pot in order to draw to a pair of tens, although such is the fact. The various positions occupied by the player at the poker table may be briefly examined, and some general suggestions offered for his guidance in each of them. In the first place he should look out for his counters. It is always best for each player to place the amount of his ante or his bet immediately in front of him, so that there need be no dispute as to who is up, or who is shy.
| | | |12.|One rush, two rush. |One o my rush, two o |One in a rush, two in | | | |my rush. |a bush. | |13.| -- | -- | -- | |14.|Pray thee, fine lady, |Please, young lady, |Pretty my lady, pop | | |come under my bush. |creep under the |under the bush. | | | |_briar_ bush. | | |15.
THE REVOKE. 71. Is when a player, holding one or more cards of the suit led, plays a card of a different suit. 72. The penalty for a revoke-- I. Is at the option of the adversaries, who at the end of the hand may either take three tricks from the revoking player or deduct three points from his score, or add three to their own score; II. Can be claimed for as many revokes as occur during the hand; III. Is applicable only to the score of the game in which it occurs; IV. Cannot be divided, _i.e.
Unfortunately, no one has yet been able to advance any argument sufficiently convincing for either system to demonstrate that it is better than the other. Some of the best teachers of the game advocate the discard from strength against no-trumps; others teach the weak discard. _=ENCOURAGING DISCARDS.=_ In order to distinguish between discards from weakness and those from strength, many players use what is called an encouraging card. This is anything higher than a six, if they have protection in the suit, or want it led. A player with an established suit, and A 8 2 of another suit, for instance, would discard the 8, to encourage his partner to lead that suit and put him in. In case there is no card higher than the six, the _=reverse discard=_ is used. With A 4 2, the play would be the 4 and then the 2. Some use this reverse or encouraging card to induce the partner to continue the suit he is leading, but the practice is confusing. _=THE DECLARER’S PLAY.
This identification of the game-rhyme would suggest that the game originally was a child s dramatic imitation of an old burial ceremony, and it remains to be seen whether the signification of the words would carry out this idea. In the first place, the idea of death is a prominent incident in the game, appearing in seven out of the fourteen versions. In all these cases the death is followed by the clapping of hands and bell-ringing, and in five cases by the singing of birds. Clapping of hands occurs in two other cases, and bell-ringing in one other case, not accompanied by the death incident. Now it is singular that the burial-rite which has just been quoted is called Dish-a-loof; and a reference to the game of Dish-a-loof [under that title], will show that it derives its name from the clapping of hands. In the ceremony, as described by Henderson, although songs and games are part of the burial-ceremony, there is no specific mention of hand-clapping; but it is conceivable that the action at one time formed part of the ceremony, and hence the name Dish-a-loof. This would not account for the promise of a duck, drake, &c., as in incidents Nos. 12 and 20; nor for the promise of a young prince or young man; but these incidents might very well be variants of some earlier forms which are not now discoverable, especially as love-games were played at funerals, and as the tendency, in the less complete forms of the game as they have come down to us, is in the direction of transposing the game into a complete love-game. The use of rushes in the Lanarkshire game might indicate the funeral garland (Aubrey s _Remaines_, pp.