=_ If a piece gives check to the adverse King, and the King moves away, the check may be repeated, and the King must move again, or interpose a piece, or capture the checking piece. If the position is such that no matter how often the King moves or is covered he cannot get out of check, and no matter how much the opposing pieces move they cannot check-mate him, the game is drawn by perpetual check. Diagram No. 11 is an illustration of such a position. [Illustration: _No. 11._ BLACK. +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | ♚ | ♛ | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | ♟ | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | ♜ | ♟ | ♕ | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | ♔ | | | | | | | ] The only way out of the check is to interpose the Queen, whereupon the white Queen will move diagonally to the edge of the board and check again, forcing the black Queen back where she came from, and drawing the game by perpetual check. If the black Queen moves away from the King, she will be captured, and White will give check-mate at the same time. _=NOTATION.
No matter how correctly the player may be guessing, and how much the luck runs his way, he wins smaller and smaller amounts, until at last he is “pinched off.” But if a long series of events goes against him his bets become larger and larger, but he must keep up the progression until he gets even. If ten bets go his way he wins $55; if ten go against him he loses $145. It is said that Pettibone made a fortune playing progression at Faro, which is very likely, for among the thousands of men who play it the probabilities are that one will win all the time, just as the probabilities are that if a thousand men play ten games of Seven Up, some man will win all ten games. At the same time it is equally probable that some man will lose all ten. Some players progress, but never pinch, keeping account on a piece of paper how many bets they are behind, and playing the maximum until they have won as many bets as they have lost. Against a perfectly fair game, with no percentage and no limit, and with capital enough to follow the system to the end, playing progression would pay a man about as much as he could make in any good business with the same capital and with half the worry; but as things really are in gambling houses and casinos, all martingales are a delusion and a snare. It is much better, if one must gamble, to trust to luck alone, and it is an old saying that the player without a system is seldom without a dollar. It is the men with systems who have to borrow a stake before they can begin to play. Such matters as calculating the probability of a certain horse getting a place, the odds against all the horses at the post being given, would be out of place in a work of this kind; but those interested in such chances may find rules for ascertaining their probability in some of the following text books.
ON FOUL STROKES.--It is a foul, and no count can be made: _=1.=_ If a stroke is made except with the point of the cue. _=2.=_ If the cue is not withdrawn from the cue-ball before the latter comes in contact with an object-ball. _=3.=_ If the striker, when in hand, plays from any position not within the six-inch radius. _=4.=_ If, in the act of striking, he has not at least one foot _touching_ the floor. _=5.