19. If, at any time after all have played to the first trick, the pack being perfect, a player is found to have either more or less than his correct number of cards and his adversaries have their right number, the latter, upon the discovery of such surplus or deficiency, may consult and shall have the choice:-- I. To have a new deal; or II. To have the hand played out, in which case the surplus or missing card or cards are not taken into account. If either of the adversaries also has more or less than his correct number, there must be a new deal. If any player has a surplus card by reason of an omission to play to a trick, his adversaries can exercise the foregoing privilege only after he has played to the trick following the one in which such omission occurred. In _=Boston=_, if at any time it is discovered that a player opposed to the bidder has _=less=_ than his proper number of cards, whether through the fault of the dealer, or through having played more than one card to a trick, he and his partners must each pay the bidder for his bid and all over-tricks. If the bidder has _=less=_ than his proper number of cards, he is put in for one trick at least, and his adversaries may demand the hand to be played out to put him in for over-tricks. In Misère Partout, any player having _=less=_ than his proper number of cards forfeits five red counters to each of the other players, and the hands are abandoned. If any player has _=more=_ than the proper number of cards, it is a misdeal, and the misdealer deals again, after forfeiting one red counter to the pool.
A player winning three tricks out of the five possible, counts one point toward game; winning all five tricks, which is called _=the vole=_, counts two points. The player holding or turning up the King of trumps may mark one point for it, but he is not compelled to do so. If the pone plays without proposing, and makes three or four tricks, he counts one point; if he makes the vole he counts two points; but if he fails to make three tricks the dealer counts two. If the dealer refuses the first proposal, he must make three tricks to count one point; if he makes the vole he counts two points; but if he fails to win three tricks the player who was refused counts two points. If the dealer accepts the first proposal, and gives cards, subsequent proposals and refusals do not affect the score; the winner of the odd trick scoring one point, and the winner of the vole two points. In no case can a player make more than two points in one hand by tricks. If the dealer refuses the first proposal, and the pone makes the vole, it counts two points only. If the pone should play without proposing, and the dealer should mark the King and win the vole, it would count him only three points altogether. The player first reaching five points wins the game. If a player has four scored, and turns the King, that wins the game, provided the King was the eleventh card.
| | 2.| -- | -- | -- | | 3.| -- | -- | -- | | 4.| -- | -- | -- | | 5.| -- |Yellow gravel. | -- | | 6.|The grass is so green.|The grass is so green.|The grass is so green.| | 7.
_=Sixty-three.=_ In this variation, nine cards are dealt to each player, three at a time. After the bidding, the players discard and fill up again to six cards. Players are allowed several bids, each raising in turn if he is raised. The highest bid possible is sixty-three, and these may be made as follows: High, low, Jack, and ten of trumps count 1 each; pedros, 5 each; King of trumps, 25; trey of trumps, 15; nine of trumps, 9. Game is 150 points. _=Widow Cinch.=_ Six players cut for partners, two on a side. Each player has two adversaries between himself and his partner. The dealer gives each player eight cards, four at a time, and four are dealt to the table after the first round to the players.
But if the declarer succeeds after being doubled, he not only scores double value for the tricks toward game, but he gets 50 points for fulfilling a doubled contract and 50 more for any tricks over his contract if he makes them. These figures are 100 in each case if he redoubles. Suppose the declaration is three no trumps, doubled, and the declarer makes five by cards. He scores 5 times 20 toward game, aces as held, and then 150 in penalties, 50 of which is for fulfilling his contract and twice 50 for the two tricks over his contract. _=KEEPING SCORE.=_ Two styles of score-pad are now in general use. In one the tricks and honours are entered in the same vertical column, one above the other, and are all added in one sum at the end. In the other style of pad the tricks are in one column and the honours and penalties in another, so that four additions are required to find the value of the rubber, which is always the difference between the total scores after giving the winners of two games 250 points. The following illustration will show both styles of pad: WE ||THEY || 36 || 30 18 || 100 16 || ====++==== 8 || || 40 ----++---- || 36 ----++---- || 250 ----++---- 42 || 492 || 42 |+---- || 450 WE || THEY 8 | 16 || | | 18 || | 100 | || 40 | 30 ----+----++----+----- | || 36 | 36 ----+----++----+----- 8 | 34 || 76 | 166 | 8 || | 76 +----+| | 250 | 42 || +----- | || | 492 | || | 42 | || +----- | || | 450 The scoring on which this rubber is won and lost was as follows: WE started with a contract to win one heart and made it, with simple honours, scoring 8 toward game and 16 above for honours. Then THEY set a contract for two tricks, getting 100 in penalties, against simple honours in royals, scored as 18 above for WE and 100 for THEY.
--Miss Winfield. At Winterton and Lincoln the children form a circle, standing arms-length apart. A child holding a handkerchief occupies the centre of the ring and sings: Wiskit-a-waskit, A green leather basket; I wrote a letter to my love, And on the way I lost it; Some of you have picked it up, And put it in your pocket. I have a little dog at home, And it shan t bite you, (Here the singer points to each child in turn) Nor you, nor you, nor you; But it shall bite _you_. Then she drops the handkerchief before her chosen playmate, who chases her in and out of the ring under the arms of the other children until she is captured. The captor afterwards takes the place in the centre, and the original singer becomes a member of the circle.--Miss M. Peacock. The Deptford version of the verse is as follows:-- I had a little dog whose name was Buff, I sent him up the street for a penny orth of snuff, He broke my box and spilt my snuff, I think my story is long enough-- Tain t you, and tain t you, and tis you! --Deptford, Kent (Miss Chase). A Staffordshire and Sharleston version gives some altogether different formulæ:-- What colour s the sky? Blue.
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. At the end of the game, after the twelfth hand has been settled for, it is usual to divide the pool or pools equally among the players. But sometimes a grand is played without trumps, making a thirteenth hand, and the pool is given to the player winning the last trick. _=METHODS OF CHEATING.=_ There being no shuffling at Boston, and each player having the right to cut the pack, the greek must be very skilful who can secure himself any advantage by having the last cut, unless he has the courage to use wedges. But Boston is usually played for such high stakes that it naturally attracts those possessing a high degree of skill, and the system adopted is usually that of counting down. The greek will watch for a hand in which there is little changing of suits, and will note the manner of taking up the cards. The next hand does not interest him, as he is busy studying the location of the cards in the still pack. When this comes into play on the next deal, he will follow every cut, and finally cut for himself so that the desired distribution of the suits shall come about.
|We will give you pots | | |and pans. | | 14.|..... brass. | | 15.|.
=_ In calculating the probabilities of throws with two or more dice, we must multiply together the total number of throws possible with each die separately, and then find the number of throws that will give the result required. Suppose two dice are used. Six different throws may be made with each, therefore 6 × 6 = 36 different throws are possible with the two dice together. What are the odds against one of these dice being an ace? A person unfamiliar with the science of probabilities would say that as two numbers must come up, and there are only six numbers altogether, the probability is 2/6, or exactly 2 to 1 against an ace being thrown. But this is not correct, as will be immediately apparent if we write out all the 36 possible throws with two dice; for we shall find that only 11 of the 36 contain an ace, and 25 do not. The proper way to calculate this is to take the chances against the ace on each die separately, and then to multiply them together. There are five other numbers that might come up, and the fraction of their probability is ⅚ × ⅚ = 25/36, or 25 to 11 in their favour. Take the case of three dice: As three numbers out of six must come up, it might be supposed that it was an even thing that one would be an ace. But the possible throws with three dice are 6 × 6 × 6 = 216; and those that do not contain an ace are 5 × 5 × 5 = 125; so that the odds against getting an ace in one throw with three dice, or three throws with one die, are 125/216, or 125 to 91 against it. To find the probability of getting a given total on the faces of two or three dice we must find the number of ways that the desired number can come.
Then these two boys (_i.e._, the original pursuer and the one caught), joining hands, carry on the game as before, incurring a similar penalty in case of being overtaken as already described. Each successive boy, as he is touched by the pursuers, has to make for the goal under similar risks, afterwards clasping hands with the rest, and forming a new recruit in the pursuing gang, in whose chain the outside players alone have the privilege of touching and thus adding to their numbers. Should the chain at any time be broken, or should the original pursuer unclasp his hands, either by design or accident, the penalty of carrying a capturer to the goal is incurred and always enforced. In West Somerset the pursuing boys after starting were in the habit of crying out the word Brewerre or Brewarre; noise appearing to be quite as essential to the game as speed.--_Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries_, i. 186 (1888). Another correspondent to the same periodical (i. 204) says that an almost identical game was played at the King s School, Sherborne, some fifty years ago.