Many play for a fifth, or even a tenth of a cent a point. At half a cent a point, ten dollars will usually cover a run of pretty bad luck in an evening’s play. _=DEALING.=_ At the beginning of the game the cards should be counted and thoroughly shuffled, and shuffled at least three times before each deal thereafter. The dealer presents the pack to the pone to be cut, and at least five cards must be left in each packet. The cards are dealt from left to right in rotation, and the deal passes to the left in regular order. Only three persons at the table receive cards, no matter how many are in the game. If there are four players, the dealer gives himself no cards. If there are five or six players, the first two on the dealer’s left and the pone receive cards. The other persons at the table are said to be “im Skat,” because they are laid aside for that deal.
In _=Boston=_, or _=Solo Whist=_, any player making a bid must stand by it, and either play or pay. Should he make a bid in error and correct himself, he must stand by the first bid unless he is over-called, when he may either amend his bid or pass. ENGLISH WHIST LAWS. THE RUBBER. 1. The rubber is the best of three games. If the first two games are won by the same players, the third game is not played. SCORING. 2. A game consists of five points.
There are then two ways to play: If eight cards are dealt to each player, the game is simply Bézique, except for some minor details relating to the combinations and their value. These are usually disregarded, and the regular game of Bézique is played. If twelve cards are dealt to each player, the game is the same as the one about to be described, but with eight cards added to the pack, and the Seven taking the place of the Nine for dix. _=Misdealing.=_ If the dealer exposes a card belonging to his adversary or to the stock, the pone may demand a new deal; but if either player exposes any of his own cards the deal stands good. If too many cards are given to either player, and the error is discovered before the dealer plays to the first trick, there must be a new deal. If either player has too few cards, the pone may demand a new deal, or may allow the dealer to supply the deficiency from the top of the stock. If any card is found exposed in the pack, there must be a new deal. If a card faced in the stock is not discovered until the first trick has been played to by the dealer, the exposed card must be turned face down, without disturbing its position. If the pack is found to be imperfect, the deal in which it is discovered is void; but all previous scores and cuts made with that pack stand good.
After it has been thoroughly shuffled and properly cut, thirteen cards are counted off, face down, and placed at the player’s left, face up. This is the stock. The fourteenth card is then turned face up and is the foundation for that deal. Let us suppose it is a seven. It is placed by itself, furthest from the player, waiting for the three other sevens to appear to form three other foundations, each in a different suit. Four cards are then dealt off from left to right, face up, for the layout. Holding the remaining thirty-four cards in the left hand, face down, the player counts off three at a time and turns them face up on the table, but so that the top card only is seen. If this card can be used, the card under it is available. 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.
DUCK PIN GAME. THE PINS ARE SPOTTED THE SAME AS THE AMERICAN GAME OF TEN PINS. A regulation Duck Pin shall be 9 inches high, 1½ inches in diameter at the top, 3½ inches in diameter at the body of the pin, and 1⅜ inches in diameter at the base; shall taper gradually from the bottom to the largest part of the body, and shall be as near uniform in weight as possible. No ball exceeding 4½ inches in diameter can be used in games. Each player to roll three balls to each frame, and each player to roll two frames at a time. A line shall be drawn ten feet beyond the regular foul line, and any ball delivered beyond the first named line shall be declared foul. All other rules of the American Bowling Congress govern. KINSLEY CANDLE PIN. The Count--Two balls shall be allowed for frame. Strikes--A strike is credited when a player bowls over the ten pins with the delivered ball.
In order to save the pool, it is usual for the adversaries, before playing to the second trick, to say: “_=I pay.=_” If all agree to pay, the bidder must accept the amount of his bid without any over-tricks, and the pool is not touched. If a player has made a pool bid, and the adversaries, before playing to the second trick, agree to pay, they cannot prevent the caller from taking the pool; but they save possible over-tricks. The agreement of the adversaries to pay must be unanimous. Misère Partout does not touch the pool. If the hand is played out, and the caller fails, he must double the pool, whether he has made a pool bid or not. If there is more than one pool, he must double the first one, which will of course contain the limit. This will simply have the effect of forming an additional pool to be played for. When there are several pools on the table, a successful caller takes any of those that contain the limit. When there is only one pool on the table, he must be satisfied with its contents, however small.
The side of the _=inner table=_ which is nearer the player will always be his _=home table=_. In all the illustrations in this work you are supposed to be playing with the black side next you, and with your inner or home table on your _=left=_ hand. The raised portion or hinge of the board, which divides the inner from the outer tables, is known as the _bar_, and the points, or flèches, in each player’s home table are numbered from 1 to 6, reckoning from the outer edge toward the bar. These six points are spoken of as the Ace, Deuce, Trey, Four, Five and Six points respectively, and they correspond to the six faces on a single die. The points in the outer tables have no numbers, but the one next the bar on each side is called the _=bar point=_. In giving the moves of the men in a game, the names of the six points in the home tables are disregarded, and each player, Black and White, numbers the board from 1 to 24, starting from the square on which he has only two men. The notation for the black moves would be as shown in the margin; that for white being exactly opposite, of course. [Illustration: +---+---+---+---+---+---++---+---+---+---+---+---+ | ⛂ | | | | | ⛀ || | ⛀ | | | | ⛂ | | ⛂ | | | | | ⛀ || | ⛀ | | | | ⛂ | | | | | | | ⛀ || | ⛀ | | | | ⛂ | | | | | | | ⛀ || | | | | | ⛂ | | | | | | | ⛀ || | | | | | ⛂ | | 1 2 3 4 5 6 || 7 8 9 10 11 12 | |24 23 22 21 20 19 ||18 17 16 15 14 13 | | | | | | | ⛂ || | | | | | ⛀ | | | | | | | ⛂ || | | | | | ⛀ | | | | | | | ⛂ || | ⛂ | | | | ⛀ | | ⛀ | | | | | ⛂ || | ⛂ | | | | ⛀ | | ⛀ | | | | | ⛂ || | ⛂ | | | | ⛀ | +---+---+---+---+---+---++---+---+---+---+---+---+ ] The men on each side are always moved in the direction of their notation numbers. In all the following illustrations the black men move round the board from right to left, like the hands of a clock, while the white men go in the opposite direction; so that the two opposing forces are continually meeting and passing, like the people in the street. The _=Object of the Game=_ is for each player to move his men from point to point in order to get them all into his home table.
A Grand may be bid even without a trump, if you have the lead, and hold four aces, or three aces and four Tens. A Grand with any two Wenzels is safe if you have two good suits. A Nullo should never be bid unless the player has the Seven of his long suit. A certain amount of risk must be taken in all bids, and a player who never offers a game that is not perfectly safe is called a _=Maurer=_; one who builds on a solid foundation. The player who offers the most games will usually win the most unless he is a very poor player. _=Leading.=_ The single player should almost always begin with the trumps, in order to get them out of his way. With a sequence of Wenzels, it is a common artifice to begin with the lowest, hoping the second player may fatten the trick by discarding a Ten or Ace, under the impression that the Hinterhand can win it. This style of underplay is called _=Wimmelfinte=_, and the Mittelhand should beware of it. With only one Wenzel and the Ace and Ten, it is better to begin with a small trump.
(6.) Ornamental and various other buttons, such as regimental, official, mounted and engraved in flowers, and other designs according to arrangement, up to 20 points. See Banger, Cots and Twisses. Buzz and Bandy A local name for Hockey, which was formerly a very popular game among the young men of Shrewsbury and Much Wenlock. Called simply Bandy at Ludlow and Newport.--_Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 525. Cache-pole The game of Tennis. --Jamieson. Caiche The game of Handball.
A true fourchette is the card immediately above and below the one led; such as K J over the Q, or Q 10 over the J. An imperfect fourchette is the card above the one led, and another next but one below it; such as K 10 over a Q led, or Q 9 over a J led. Covering forces the opponents to play two honours to win one trick, and will often make an intermediate card good in your partner’s hand. _=THIRD HAND PLAY.=_ In addition to the methods of _=echoing=_ on the partner’s leads of high cards in the suit first opened, third hand must be ready to adapt himself and his play to any change of suit and will require constant practice in putting himself in his partner’s place, asking himself what the object is in leading certain cards through Dummy’s hand. The inferences from the conventional leads should be sufficiently familiar to need no further explanation; but even good players occasionally overlook indications that partner holds certain cards. For instance: A leads a small card; Y, Dummy, holds Q x x, and plays Q. You play the King and win the trick. This marks not only the Ace, but the _=Jack=_ in partner’s hand; because the declarer would not play a twice guarded Queen from Dummy’s hand if he had the Jack guarded himself. False cards should be avoided by the third hand as much as possible.
The bluff must be planned from the start, and consistently played from the ante to the end. To use a common expression: “The play must be right for it, or the bluff will be wrong.” There are many cases in which a bluff of fifty cents would be much stronger than one of five dollars; the difference depending on the player’s position at the table, his treatment of the ante, and the number of cards he had drawn. As an example of the play being right for a bluff, take the following case: Five play in a jack pot. A and B have passed when C opens it for the limit. D and E pass out, but A and B both stay, and each draws one card. C takes two cards, and as it is his first bet he puts up the limit on his three aces. A drops out, but B raises C the limit in return. Now, if C is a good player he will lay down his three aces, even if he faintly suspects B is bluffing, because B’s play is sound in any case. He either could not, or pretended he could not open the jack; but he could afford to pay the limit to draw one card against openers, and he could afford to raise the limit against an opener’s evidently honest two-card draw.
=_ Each of the foregoing games has what is called a unit of value, which is afterward multiplied several times according to the number of Matadores, and whether the game was schneider or schwarz. These unit values are as follows, beginning with the lowest: ---------------+------------------+------------------------- Suits Trumps:--| Jacks Trumps:-- | No Trumps:-- ----+----+-----+------------------+------------------------- |Turn| Solo| Turned Grand 12 | Gucki Nullo 15 ♢ | 5 | 9 | Gucki Grand 16 | ” if played open 30 ♡ | 6 | 10 | Solo Grand 20 | Solo Nullo 20 ♠ | 7 | 11 | Open Grand 24 | ” if played open 40 ♣ | 8 | 12 | Ramsch 20 | Revolution 60 ----+----+-----+------------------+------------------------- When one player takes no trick in a Ramsch, the player with the greater number of points loses 30. If two players take no trick, the loss is 50 points. _=All Guckis lose double if they fail=_, so that if a player announces a Gucki Nullo and loses it, he will lose 30; but if he won it he would get 15 only. If a player has a Gucki Null Ouvert, he must announce that it is to be played open before he touches the skat cards. It is then worth 30 if won; 60 if lost. _=Passt-mir-nicht tournées all lose double if they fail=_, but win the usual number of points if they succeed. _=Multipliers.=_ The foregoing are simply the standard counting values of these various games. In calculating the actual value of a player’s game, in order to see how much he may safely offer in the bidding, and how much he would win if successful in his undertaking, these standard values are multiplied as follows:-- Five classes of games are recognized, beginning with the lowest, in which the player gets the necessary 61 points, but does not make his adversaries schneider.
There are no misdeals in auction. That is to say, whatever happens the same dealer deals again. Minor irregularities will be found provided for in the laws. The cards being dealt, each player sorts his hand to see that he has the correct number, thirteen; and the player or players keeping the score should announce it at the beginning of each hand. _=STAKES.=_ In auction, the stake is a unit, so much a point. The number of points won or lost on the rubber may be only two or three, or they may run into the hundreds. The average value of a rubber at auction is about 400 points. Any much larger figure shows bad bidding. In straight bridge the average is about 180.
To decide the order of play, as many pool balls as there are players or sides shall be put into a basket, shaken, and given out to the players by the marker. The players play in the order in which the colors appear on the pool marking board. A player pocketing a ball scores its value as against each of the other players, and when penalized, pays the penalty to each of them. In a game where sides are formed a player either scores for his own side, or is penalized to the opposing side or sides. 3. When commencing a game the fifteen red balls shall be placed as in the game of Pyramids. For each of these balls pocketed, according to rule, the striker shall score one point. The pool balls to be used are the yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, and black, which shall be spotted as follows at the commencement of the game, and have the appended values when pocketed according to rule: The Yellow ball shall be placed on the right hand spot of the baulk line and count two points; The Green ball shall be placed on the left hand spot of the baulk line and count three points; The Brown ball shall be placed on the middle spot of the baulk line and count four points; The Blue ball shall be placed on the spot between the two middle pockets and count five points; The Pink ball shall be placed at the apex of the pyramid and count six points; The Black ball shall be placed on the billiard spot and count seven points. The White ball shall be used in rotation by the various players taking part in the game solely as the striker’s ball, and shall be played from the “D” at the start of a game by the first player, and at any other period of the game, after it has been off the table from any cause whatever. 4.
When a series of games is played between the same individuals, it is usual to keep the net results on a sheet of paper, setting down the hundreds only, and to settle at the end of the sitting. _=Suggestions for Good Play=_ will be found in Binocle. * * * * * _=CHINESE BÉZIQUE=_ is Rubicon Bézique with six packs of cards shuffled together and used as one. The counts run into enormous figures, and 6000 is not an uncommon score for the winner. In _=CHOUETTE BÉZIQUE=_, one of several players agrees to take all bets, and has the choice of deal and seats without cutting. His adversaries may consult together in playing against him. If the chouette player wins, one of his opponents takes the loser’s place; but if he loses, the same player opposes him for the next game. The adversaries usually cut to decide which of them shall play the first game against the chouette player, the highest card having the privilege. If there are four players, two may play against two, each consulting with his partner and sharing his bets. BINOCLE.
A ball must be hit by the cue-ball before the pin can be scored; playing at the pin direct is not allowed. The pin must be set up where it falls; but in case it goes off the table or lodges on the top of the cushion it must be placed upon the centre spot. The pin leaning against the cushion must be scored as down, and when the pin lodges in the corner of the table, so that it cannot be hit with the ball, it is to be set up on the centre spot. One hundred points generally constitute a game, but any number of points may be agreed upon. THE SPANISH GAME OF BILLIARDS. This game is played in the South, California, and in Mexico and Cuba, and is played with two white and one red ball, and five pins placed similar to those in Pin Pool. The red ball is placed on the red-ball spot, and the first player strikes at it from within the baulk semicircle. The game is scored by winning and losing hazards, carroms, and by knocking over the pins. It is usually played thirty points up. The player who knocks down a pin after striking a ball gains _two_ points, if he knocks down two pins he gains _four_ points, and so on, scoring two points for each pin knocked down.
The exceptions are: If he holds A J alone, on a King led, the Ace should be played. If he holds A Q alone on a Ten led, the Ace should be played. With A Q x, the Ten should be passed. With Ace and small cards, the Ace should be played on the Ten. With Queen and small cards the Ten should be passed. When Third Hand plays Queen on a Ten led, it should be a certainty that he has no more of the suit. If he holds A K and only one small card, the King should be played on a Queen led. If he holds Ace and only one small card, the Ace should be played on the Jack led. If Third Hand has four trumps and a card of re-entry, the Ace should be played on Jack led, regardless of number, in older to lead trumps at once, to defend the suit. _=When Partner Leads Low Cards=_, the Third Hand should do his best to secure the trick.
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This is called _=dealing off the jack=_. If any player has forfeited his right in one deal, such as by having a foul hand, that does not prevent him coming into the pot again on the next deal with rights equal to the other players. If any player holds Jacks or better, he can open the pot, or “the jack,” for any amount he pleases within the betting limit. The expression “open” is used because after one player has declared that he holds Jacks or better, all restrictions are removed, and the pool is then open to any player to come in and play for it, regardless of what he may hold. Each player in turn, beginning on the left of the opener, must declare whether or not he will _=stay=_. If he stays, he must put up an amount equal to that bet by the opener, and has the privilege of raising him if he sees fit. If he passes, he throws his cards face downward on the table in front of the player whose turn it will be to deal next. Should the opener be raised, and not care to see that raise, he must show his hand to the table before abandoning it, in order to demonstrate that he had openers. Some players show only the cards necessary to open, but the strict rules require the whole hand to be shown before the draw. When once the jack is opened, the betting before the draw proceeds exactly as in the ordinary pool.
_=PLAYING.=_ When a call has been made entirely upon trump strength, it is much better to make tricks by ruffing, than by leading trumps. There is little use for a solo player to hold a tenace in trumps, hoping it will be led to him. If he has good suits, he should make sure of two rounds of trumps by leading the Ace. When the solo player is depending on the plain suits for tricks, and has one long suit, he should make what winning cards he has in the other plain suits in preference to leading trumps, for his only danger is that his long suit will be led often enough to give his adversaries discards in the other suits. If a proposal was made before the solo was called, it is better for the solo player to sit on the left of the player that proposed. The caller should never play single honours second hand, unless he has only one small card of the suit, or the honour is the Ace. With A Q x, second or third hand, the Q must be finessed if the caller has counted on both A and Q for tricks. If he can probably win without the finesse, he should play Ace. If he has tricks enough to win without either A or Q, he should play neither of them.
The “baulk” is no protection. 6. The striker must pocket a red ball before playing upon a pool ball; otherwise the stroke is foul, and after pocketing a red ball he must play upon a pool ball, an order of play that must be observed throughout each break so long as a red ball remains upon the table. 7. After pocketing a red ball the striker is at liberty to select the pool ball upon which he will play, but when there is no longer a red ball on the table, the pool balls must be played at and taken in their order of value from lowest to highest, save that the player pocketing the last red ball shall be allowed to select the first pool ball upon which he plays, which, if pocketed, shall be respotted and the pool balls played at in their order of value. 8. When playing on a pool ball the striker, if asked the question by a player taking part in the game, shall “declare” the ball selected. 9. Any number of red balls may be taken in one stroke; but, if a pool ball is taken in conjunction with a red ball, the stroke is foul. After pocketing a red ball only the pool ball aimed at may be taken.
1, 2, 3, to be played and overplayed by tables 1 and 6, which are opposite each other in the rows. Trays 4, 5, 6, we lay aside. Trays 7, 8, 9, are to be played and overplayed by tables 2 and 7; while 10, 11, 12, are laid aside, and so on until we get to tables 5 and 10, which play and overplay trays 25, 26, 27. The easiest way to manage this is to give tray No. 2 to table 6, while tray 1 is at table 1, and then to let table 1 take tray 2, while table 6 plays tray 3. Then table 1 will get tray 3, while table 6 overplays tray 1. This will make all the trays come in numerical order to table 1, and will act as a check. The play of the first round, three deals, finished, the E & W players all move one table, 2 going to 1, 3 to 2, etc. The umpire now brings into play the trays that were idle, giving trays 4, 5, 6, to tables 1 and 6; trays 10, 11, 12, to tables 2 and 7, and so on down the line, all the trays that were used in the first round lying idle. Again the players move, and now table 1 gets the 7, 8, 9, set of trays to overplay with table 6, and so on; so that all the sets move up a table after each intervening round, and table 1 will get all the trays from 1 to 30 in order.
Billy Joe, she whispered above the racket of the gambler in the casino, putting her mouth close to my ear. I told you, sugar. And now you lost. You lost! Her perfume was cheap, but generous, and pretty well covered up her need for a bath. There s some left, I told her. Show me how. She hugged my arm to her skinniness. That s all any of the hustlers ever want--to get their hands on your chips. They figure some of them will stick to their fingers. The gambler next to me had won a dollar bet without my help.
This is the rule in Vingt-et-un, Baccara, and Blind Hookey. If the banker is not changed occasionally, he retains his position on account of the expense he has been put to to provide the apparatus for the play, as in Faro, Keno, Roulette, and Rouge et Noir. To justify this expenditure he must have some permanent advantage, and if no such advantage or “percentage” is inherent in the principles of the game, any person playing against such a banker is probably being cheated. At Monte Carlo, everything is perfectly fair and straightforward, but no games are played except those in which the percentage in favour of the bank is evident, and is openly acknowledged. In Faro there is no such advantage, and no honest faro bank can live. It is for that reason that the game is not played at Monte Carlo, in spite of the many thousands of Americans who have begged the management to introduce it. The so-called percentage of “splits” at Faro is a mere sham, and any candid dealer will admit that they do not pay for the gas. Roulette, Rouge et Noir, Keno, and Chuck Luck are all percentage games, although the banker in the latter is seldom satisfied with his legitimate gains. The peculiarity about all percentage banking games is that no system, as a system, will beat them. The mathematical expectation of loss is so nicely adjusted to the probabilities of gain that the player must always get just a little the worst of it if he will only play long enough.
The Kentish game is played with two lines of children advancing and retiring. This was also the way in which the London version (A. B. Gomme) was played. In the version sent by Mr. H. S. May a ring is formed by the children joining hands. One child stands in the centre--she represents the Mother. The ring of children say the first, third, and every alternate verse.