Third Hand plays Queen and returns a small card. The Ten should be finessed, regardless of trump strength, as the Ace must be on the left, and the finesse is against the Jack being there also. Many varieties of this finesse occur. _=Placing the Lead.=_ This is usually a feature of the end-game A player may have an established suit, his adversary being the only person with any small cards of it. If the lead can be placed in the hand of this adversary, he must eventually lead the losing cards. A player begins with a weak suit of four cards, on the first round of which it is evident that his partner has no more, the adversaries having all the high cards. The suit is not played again, and for the last six tricks the original leader finds himself with three cards of it, and the Q x x of another suit. If the adversaries play King and Ace of the latter suit, the Queen should be given up, trusting partner for the Jack, for the Queen will force the holder of the three losing cards into the lead. It is sometimes necessary to throw away an Ace in order to avoid the lead at critical stages of the end-game.
A player must lead or play them when lawfully called, provided he can do so without revoking; the call may be repeated at each or any trick until the card is played. A player cannot, however, be prevented from leading or playing a card liable to be called; if he can get rid of it in the course of a play no penalty remains. SEC. 4. The holder of a card liable to be called can be required to play it only by the adversary on his right. If such adversary plays without calling it, the holder may play to that trick as he pleases. If it is the holder’s turn to lead, the card must be called before the preceding trick has been turned and quitted, or before the holder has led a different card; otherwise he may lead as he pleases. LAW VIII.--LEADING OUT OF TURN. SEC.
Miss Peacock says, A version is known in Lincolnshire. Tunes have also been sent from Tean, North Staffs. (Miss Keary), and Epworth, Doncaster (Mr. C. C. Bell), which are nearly identical with the Leicester tune; from Market Drayton (Miss Burne), similar to the Derbyshire tune; from Monton, Lancashire (Miss Dendy), which appears to be only the latter part of the tune, and is similar to those given above. The tune given by Rimbault is not the same as those collected above, though there is a certain similarity. The editor of _Northamptonshire Notes and Queries_, vol. i. p.
The head table is provided with a bell, and each table is supplied with one pack of cards only. It is usual to sort out the thirty-two cards used in play, and the four small cards for markers, before the arrival of the guests. _=Drawing for Positions.=_ Two packs of differently coloured cards are used, and from the two black suits in each a sequence of cards is sorted out, equal in length to the number of tables in play. For instance: If there are sixteen ladies and sixteen gentlemen, or thirty-two players in all, they will fill eight tables, and all the clubs and spades from the ace to the eight inclusive should be sorted out. These are then thoroughly shuffled and presented, face down, to the players to draw from. The ladies take only the red-back cards, and the gentlemen only the blue. The number of pips on the card drawn indicates the number of the table at which the player is to sit, and those drawing cards of the same suit are partners for the first game. _=Playing.=_ All being seated, the deal is cut for at each table, and play begins.
What did I tell you? Simonetti husked at me. I had enough left to hit him sharply over the temples with a lift. A doctor. With antidote, I snapped. He trotted away. Darlin Billy! she said, and her heart stopped. She was dead. I picked her up in my arms and carried her to the same sawdust-strewn private dining room where I d given Barney the Blackout. I had to split the lift. The tourniquet was an absolute necessity, or more of the nerve poison would enter her system.
Should the partner of the offending player prove to be the leader to the first trick, the declarer may prohibit the initial lead of the exposed suit. All cards exposed by the declarer’s adversaries after the original lead are liable to be called and must be left on the table, face upward. Exposed cards are those played two at a time, dropped on the table face up, or so held that the partner might see them, or cards mentioned as being in the hand of the player or his partner. The declarer is not liable to any penalty for exposed cards. _=Leading Out of Turn.=_ If either adversary leads out of turn, the declarer may call the card exposed, or call a suit when it is the turn of either adversary to lead. If the declarer leads out of turn, from his own hand or dummy’s, there is no penalty, but he may not correct the error unless directed to do so by an adversary. If the second hand plays to the false lead, it must stand. If the declarer plays from his own hand or from dummy to a false lead, the trick stands. In case the dealer calls a suit and the player has none, the penalty is paid.
Twenty-fifth degree? Since when could a gambling casino afford a full-time Twenty-fifth? TK s in the upper degrees come high. I had already figured my fee at a hundred thousand a day, if I straightened out the casino s losses to the cross-roader. Wally Bupp, I said at last, deciding there was no point to trying some cover identity. My gimpy right wing was a dead giveaway. Thirty-_third_ degree, I added. He had a crooked grin, out of place beneath his scholarly glasses. I ve heard of Wally Bupp, he admitted. Well, he should have. There aren t so many Thirty-thirds hanging around. And you are young, smug and snotty enough to play the part, he concluded without heat.
I took her to my room, pointed at the dresser. One of the glasses on the tray beside a pitcher rose, floated into the bath and, after we had both heard the water run, came back through the air and tilted to trickle a few drops of water onto her head. Her words gave her away--she was no mystic. She swung her eyes back to me: TK! she gasped. She recoiled from me. She d had a viper to her bosom. Heal me! I snapped at her. You ve had your sign, and I m your darlin Billy. I got to find it, she said desperately. The weak place.
=_ The general principles of play are much the same in all the Bézique family of games. It is usually best to give your adversary the deal, because the first lead is often an advantage, especially if the turn-up is valuable, and you have a dix, or if you want to make the trump in Rubicon Bézique. It is seldom right to make the trump unless you have one or two of the sequence cards with the marriage. _=The Lead=_ is a disadvantage unless you have something to declare, or there is a brisque in the trick, or you can get home the Ten of a plain suit. The Tens are of no value in plain suits except as brisques, for they enter into no combination with other cards except in Penchant, Cinq-cents, and Rubicon. If the trick is of no value, or you have nothing important to declare, get rid of your small cards, and lead them when you do not want to retain the lead. The lead is sometimes necessary to prevent your adversary from declaring, especially toward the end of the hand. If you have led a brisque and won the trick, it is better to lead another brisque in the same suit than to change. Aces are better leads than Kings or Queens, for the court cards can be married, and you may never get 100 Aces. Kings are better leads than Queens, especially if the Queens are spades.
When there are a number of tables in play, it will be necessary to have a prize for each, giving the first choice to the player who has the highest score in the room. When this method is adopted, it is not necessary to deduct the lower score from the higher at the end of each rubber, so that each player can keep what she gets, the comparative result being the same if the players remain at the same table. This method is open to the objection that if two strong players are opposed to weak ones all the time, it is a great advantage. It is also liable to abuse, if four players agree to double everything, so that some one at the table shall be high score. _=PROGRESSIVE BRIDGE.=_ This is simply a movement of the players from table to table, much as described under the heading of _=compass whist=_. The players may either agree that all the N & S pairs shall sit still, all the E & W pairs moving one table; or they may arrange for the winners to move in a certain direction. In all progressive games, sometimes called _=Drive Bridge=_, there are no rubbers or games, as one table would keep all the others waiting. An even number of deals, usually four, is the rule for each round before moving. _=DUPLICATE BRIDGE.
The highest bidder takes up the dummy hand, sorts it and lays it on the table opposite him, face up, as soon as the eldest hand leads a card. If there is a player sitting opposite the highest bidder, he moves to the vacant seat. The game is 30 points, and the winner of a game adds 125 points to his score at once. The first player to win two games not only adds the 125 for the second game, but 250 more for winning the rubber. Honours are scored by each player separately, every honour being worth as much as a trick in that suit. Four or five in one hand count double. At no trump, the aces count for 10 each to the holders, four in one hand 100. The declarer scores his dummy’s honours. At the end of the rubber, each wins from or loses to each of the others. The score is usually made up in this way, the final amounts to the credit of each being shown in the top line: A, 240 B, 980 C, 456 ---------------------------- -740 +740 +215 -215 +524 -524 ---- ---- ---- -955 +1264 -309 _=DUPLICATE AUCTION.