It is considered better play for the Third Hand to return the original leader’s suit than to open a long weak suit of his own such as one headed by a single honour. 4th. To return his partner’s suit even with a losing card, in preference to changing. When the original lead is a trump, it should be returned in every case, either immediately, or as soon as the player can obtain the lead. The same reasons for changing suits as those given for the original leader will apply to the Third Hand. _=RULES FOR RETURNING PARTNER’S SUITS.=_ When the original leader’s suit is returned by his partner, either immediately or upon his regaining the lead, it is usual to show, if possible, how many cards remain in the Third Hand, so that by adding them to his own, the leader may estimate the number held by his adversaries. This consideration is secondary to the return of the best, or one of the second and third best; but in the absence of such cards, the Third Hand should always return the higher of only two remaining, and the lowest of three or more, regardless of their value. In addition to the foregoing conventionalities, which are proper to the leader of a suit and his partner, there are two usages which apply equally to any player at the table. These are discarding and forcing.
W. Gregor). At Duthil, Strathspey, this game goes by the name of Rexa-boxa-King. When the players have ranged themselves on one side of the playground, and the King has taken his stand in front of them, he calls out Rexa-boxa-King, or simply Rexa, when all the players rush to the other side. The rush from side to side goes on till all are captured. The one last captured becomes King in the next game.--Rev. W. Gregor. See Click.
Leaving the starter still face up on the top of the pack, the eight cards in hand and crib are thrown aside. For the next deal, the player gives himself three cards from the top of the pack, one of which was the starter on the last deal, then two for the crib and three more for himself, discarding for the crib, cutting a starter, counting and scoring hand and crib as before. This is continued until only four cards are left, one of them being the starter for the last deal. Turn up these four cards and count them as a hand. The game is usually 91 points, and the object of the solitaire player is to see if he can reach the game hole without going through the pack more than once. If he does not reach with six hands and cribs, each with a starter, and one hand of four cards without a starter, he has failed to get the solitaire. _=WHEN TWO OR MORE PLAY.=_ The object is now to see which player or partnership can get the greatest number of points in going through the pack once, each playing his own solitaire with his individual pack, but keeping level with his opponents in the matter of hands and deals. It is usual for each to cut the starter for the other and then to verify the count of the other’s hands and cribs. If one reaches 91 before the other gets round past 60, it is reckoned as a double game.
| -- | -- | -- | | 9.| -- | -- | -- | |10.| -- | -- | -- | |11.| -- | -- | -- | |12.| -- |One in a rush and two |One we go rush, two we| | | |in a bush. |go push. | |13.|A guinea gold ring and| -- | -- | | |a silver pin. | | | |14.|Please, little girl, |To see a fine lady pop|Lady, come under the | | |pop under.
If he has nothing better in other suits than in the turn-up, it will still be slightly in his favour to beg, unless he has trumps enough to give him some hopes of making the point for Game. It is a fatal error to beg on good cards, and gamblers have a saying that he who begs a point to-day, will beg a stake to-morrow. _=High=_ and _=Low=_ count to the player to whom those cards are dealt, and there is no chance to alter the fortunes of the deal except by begging and running the cards. These two points may both be made by the same card, if it is the only trump in play; because High is counted for the best trump out during the deal, and Low for the lowest, no matter what the cards are. _=Catching the Jack=_, or saving it, is one of the principal objects of the game, and as a rule a player holding the Jack should lose no opportunity to save such a valuable counting card. On the other hand, a player holding higher trumps will often have to use good judgment as to whether to lead them to catch the Jack, if it happens to be out; or to keep quiet until the last few tricks, when if the Jack is not out, such trumps may be useful to win cards that count for Game. _=The Game=_ is generally known as _=the gambler’s point=_, because it is the only point that must be played for in every hand, and its management requires more skill than all the others put together. The cards that count for Game are the four honours and the Ten of each suit. Every ace counts 4; every King 3; every Queen 2; every Jack 1; and every Ten 10. After the last card has been played, each player turns over the tricks he has won, and counts up the pip value of the court cards and Tens that he has won.
If there is another 8 to come, the player with the pair may use both his 8’s, and win; but if there is no other 8 to come, it is impossible for the player with the two 8’s to win without first putting his adversary out. There are no _=Text Books=_ on Conquian, and this is the first complete description of it ever published. CALABRASELLA. This is a very popular game with the middle classes and the unoccupied clergy in Italy, and it is one of the very few good games of cards for three players. If the game were better known, the author is sure it would become a great favourite, especially with those who are fond of the whist family, because Calabrasella is an excellent training school for the use of cards of re-entry, long suits, and tenace positions in the end game. In the combination of two players against the third its tactics very closely resemble Skat, and many interesting and difficult positions occur in every game. _=Cards.=_ Calabrasella is played with the Spanish pack, forty cards, the 10 9 and 8 of each suit being discarded. The cards rank: 3 2 A K Q J 7 6 5 4, the 3 being the highest, and the 4 the lowest, both in cutting and in play. There are no trumps.
quoted in Halliwell s _Dictionary_. In Peele s play of the _Old Wives Tale_, a voice thus speaks from the bottom of a well:-- Gently dip, but not too deep, For fear you make the golden beard to weep. Fair maiden, white and red, Stroke me smooth and comb my head, And thou shalt have some _cockell-bread_. Cockly-jock A game among boys. Stones are loosely placed one upon another, at which other stones are thrown to knock the pile down.--Dickinson s _Cumberland Glossary_. See Castles. Cock s-headling A game where boys mount over each other s heads.--Halliwell s _Dictionary_. See Cockertie-hooie.
A player cannot bid seven to over-call six; he must go to eight; and a player cannot _=bid=_ five tricks without a partner, although, as we have just seen, he may be forced to _=play=_ in that manner. When six, eight, or nine tricks are bid, the suits outrank one another for equal numbers of tricks; but as the suit called need not be the bidder’s true intention, nor the same as the card laid on the table, the proposer must be careful that his play will be as good as his bid. For instance: He intends nine tricks in spades, but proposes eight in diamonds. He cannot bid nine in diamonds, for that would be a better bid than he intends to play; but the ruse may succeed in inducing a player not to bid against him, hoping diamonds is the true suit. It is a common artifice to bid the true suit, because few will believe it to be such. If clubs are belle, and diamonds petite, and a player who “demands” is over-called by a demand in belle, or a call of six tricks, the first caller cannot advance his bid to six tricks except in the suit which he has already laid on the table; but he may accept the player over-calling him, instead of bidding against him. After a player has once accepted or passed, he cannot bid misère. If no one makes a proposition of any kind, the hands are thrown up; the next dealer contributes to the pool, and a fresh hand is dealt. _=METHOD OF PLAYING.=_ As in Boston, the eldest hand has the first lead, and the others must follow suit if they can, except in the misère des quatre as.
VARIETIES OF THE BATTLE-GAME You may play various types of game. (1) One is the Fight to the Finish. You move in from any points you like on the back line and try to kill, capture, or drive over his back line the whole of the enemy s force. You play the game for points; you score 100 for the victory, and 10 for every gun you hold or are in a position to take, 1-1/2 for every cavalry-man, 1 for every infantry-man still alive and uncaptured, 1/2 for every man of yours prisoner in the hands of the enemy, and 1/2 for every prisoner you have taken. If the battle is still undecided when both forces are reduced below fifteen men, the battle is drawn and the 100 points for victory are divided. Note--This game can be fought with any sized force, but if it is fought with less than 50 a side, the minimum must be 10 a side. (2) The Blow at the Rear game is decided when at least three men of one force reach any point in the back line of their antagonist. He is then supposed to have suffered a strategic defeat, and he must retreat his entire force over the back line in six moves, i.e. six of his moves.
_=10.=_ Either player is entitled, on giving intimation, to arrange his own or his opponent’s pieces properly on the squares. After the first move has been made, however, if either player touch or arrange any piece without giving intimation to his opponent, he shall be cautioned for the first offence, and shall forfeit the game for any subsequent act of the kind. _=11.=_ After the pieces have been arranged, if the person whose turn it is to play _=touch=_ one, he must either play it or forfeit the game. When the piece is not playable, he forfeits according to the preceding law. _=12.=_ If _=any part=_ of a playable piece is moved over an angle of the square on which it is stationed, the move must be completed in _=that=_ direction. _=13.=_ A capturing play, as well as an ordinary one, is completed whenever the hand has been withdrawn from the piece played, although one or more pieces should have been taken.
These would all be new combinations. _=Double Declarations.=_ These are carried forward in the manner already described for the ordinary game. Suppose a player has two spade Kings on the table, and shows double bézique. He of course marks the more valuable score, 500, and simply claims the marriages by saying: “With twenty and twenty to score.” On winning another trick he is not compelled to score the previous announcement if he has any other or better to make. He might have two more Queens, and would announce: “Sixty Queens, with twenty and twenty to score.” If he scores one of the announcements held over, he still carries on the other. When announcements are carried forward in this manner, it must be remembered that the cards must still be on the table when the time comes to score them. If one of them has been led or played, or the stock is exhausted before the player wins another trick, the score held over is lost.
Any player failing to follow suit or to win a trick, when able to do so, may be compelled to take back his cards to the point where the error occurred, and to replay the hand from that point. In France he is penalised by counting nothing from that point on, either for brisques or for the last trick. The winner of the _=last trick=_ scores fifty points for it immediately. _=SCORING.=_ Each deal is a complete game in itself, and the winner is the player who has scored the most points for carte blanche, combinations, and the last trick. The brisques are not counted, unless they are necessary to decide a tie, or save a rubicon. The value of the game is determined by deducting the lesser score from the higher, and then adding 500 points to the remainder. In this deduction all fractions of a hundred are disregarded. For instance: A’s score is 1830; while B’s is 1260. A wins 1800, less the 1200 scored by B, which leaves 600; to this must be added the 500 points for game, making the total value of A’s game 1100 points.
Nonsense, child! we will take a candle, and all go together to search for it. The mother picks up a twig for a candle, and they set off. When they come near to the Ghost, she appears from her hiding-place, mother and children rush away in different directions, the Ghost chases them until she has caught one, who in her turn becomes Ghost.--West Cornwall (Miss Courtney, _Folk-lore Journal_, v. 55). This game was Ghost in the Copper in London. It was played in the same way as above. Chairs formed the copper, and the ghost crouched down behind. The Mother was washing at a tub, also formed with two chairs. The eldest daughter was told she could not go to school to-day; she must stop at home and help hang up the clothes.
--Monton, Lancashire (Miss Dendy). A version of this game played at Eckington, Derbyshire, is played as follows:--A den is chalked out or marked out for the Fox. A larger den, opposite to this, is marked out for the Geese. A boy or a girl represents the Fox, and a number of others the Geese. Then the Fox shouts, Geese, Geese, gannio, and the Geese answer, Fox, Fox, fannio. Then the Fox says, How many Geese have you to-day? The Geese reply, More than you can catch and carry away. Then the Geese run out of the den, and the Fox tries to catch them. He puts as many as he catches into his den (S. O. Addy).
She rushes back and calls out-- Mother, there s a mouse. Go and get your father s coat. There s a mouse. Go and get your father s watch and chain. There s a mouse. The Mother then goes to see herself. The second time she is scratched and chased. When caught she takes the Mouse s place.--Deptford, Kent (Miss Chase). This is evidently the same game as Ghost in the Garden and Ghost in the Copper, in a decaying stage.
C. _Playing the cards._ Each player, when it is his turn to play, must place his card, face upward, before him and toward the centre of the table. He must allow it to remain upon the table in this position until all have played to the trick, when he must turn it over and place it face downward, nearer to himself; if he or his partner have won the trick, the card should point toward his partner and himself; otherwise it should point toward the adversaries. The declarer may either play dummy’s cards or may call them by name whenever it is dummy’s turn to play and have dummy play them for him. A trick is turned and quitted when all four players have turned and ceased to touch their respective cards. The cards must be left in the order in which they were played until the scores of the deal have been recorded. D. _The Revoke._ A revoke may be claimed at any time before the last trick of the deal in which it occurs has been turned and quitted and the scores of that deal agreed upon and recorded, but not thereafter.
If he does not hold openers, or does not wish to open the pot with them, he must say: “I pass;” but must not abandon his hand, under penalty of paying five counters to the pool. _=39. False Openers.=_ Should a player open a jack without the hand to justify it, and discover his error before he draws, his hand is foul, and he forfeits whatever amount he may have already placed in the pool. Those who have come into the pool after the false opening, stay in and play for the pot, regardless of the value of the hands dealt them. _=40. Fattening.=_ If no player will open, the cards are reshuffled, cut, and dealt, usually by the same dealer, and each player adds one counter to the pool. _=41. Coming In.
_=RANK OF THE PROPOSALS.=_ The various calls outrank one another in the order in which we have given them. If one player says, “I propose,” and another calls “Solo,” the solo call shuts out the proposal, even though it has been accepted by a second player. The call of a misère would in turn shut out a solo; abundance would take precedence of misère; and abundance in trumps would be a better call than simple abundance. The slam of course outranks all other bids. This making of a better proposition than one already made is known as “_=Over-calling=_.” A player who has made a call of any kind, or has accepted a proposal, may amend his proposition to a better one, only in case he is over-called; or a player who can not get a partner to accept him may amend his call to solo. For instance: A player may have a hand which he feels sure is good for 8 tricks, perhaps 9. To be safe, he calls solo, and hopes to make three or four over-tricks. If he is outbid by some player over-calling him with a misère, he may be tempted to amend his call to abundance.
Burnt Cards, cards which are turned face upward on the bottom of the pack, usually in banking games. Calling for Trumps, the ask for trumps. Cannon, (Am. carrom,) a count made at billiards by causing the cue ball to touch two object balls. Capot, F., winning all the tricks. Cards, the number of tricks over six at Whist, such as “two by cards.” The majority of cards at Cassino. Carrer, (se) to straddle the blind. Contre-carrer, to over-straddle.
After the men on either side are all home, they are taken off the board according to the throws of the dice, and the player who is the first to get all his men off the board in this manner wins the game. If each player has taken off some of his men, the player getting all his off first wins a _=hit=_, which counts as a single game. If one player gets off all his men before his adversary has thrown off a single man, it is a _=gammon=_, and counts as a double game. If the loser has not only taken off none of his men, but has one or more men left on the side of the board farther from him when his adversary throws off his last man, it is a _=backgammon=_, and counts as a triple game. In America, gammons and backgammons are seldom played, every game being simply a hit. This spoils some of the fine points of the game, and entirely alters the tactics of the players, as will be seen when we come to the suggestions for good play. _=The Dice.=_ Although it is usual for each player to be provided with two dice, some players insist on the same pair being used by each player alternately; the claim being that luck will then run more evenly. At the beginning of the game each player makes a cast, either with one die or with two, as may be agreed, and the higher throw has the first play. In some clubs the player making the higher throw is allowed the option of playing the first cast, or of throwing again; but the general practice is to insist that the first cast is simply for the privilege of playing first, and that the dice must be cast again for the first move.