_=CUTTING.=_ The usual method of cutting for partners, etc., at auction, is to shuffle the cards thoroughly, and “spread” them face downwards on the table; each candidate drawing a card, and turning it face upwards in front of him. The four cutting the lowest cards playing the first game, or rubber. [Illustration: SPREADING THE PACK.] The four having been selected, the cards are again shuffled and spread, and partners are cut for; the two lowest pairing against the two highest; the lowest of the four is the dealer, and has the choice of cards and seats. _=TIES.=_ As between cards of equal value in cutting, the heart is the lowest, diamonds next, then clubs and then spades. _=POSITION OF THE PLAYERS.=_ The four players at the bridge table are indicated by letters; A and B are partners against Y and Z; Z always represents the dealer, who always makes the first bid, A being the second bidder, Y the third and B the fourth.
How s poor Jenny jo, Jenny jo, Jenny jo? He s very ill. Oh, very good, very good, very good. How s poor Jenny jo, Jenny jo, Jenny jo? He s fallen downstairs and broken his neck. Oh, very good, very good, very good. How s poor Jenny jo, Jenny jo, Jenny jo? He s dead. Oh, very good, very good, very good. --Annaverna, Louth, Ireland (Miss R. Stephen). (_b_) Two children stand apart; one, who personates the Mother, stands still and holds out her skirts with both hands; the other personates Jenny Jones, and kneels or stoops down in a crouching position behind her companion s outstretched skirts. The other players form a line by joining hands.
(c) A “tray” is a device for retaining the hands of a deal and indicating the order of playing them. (d) The player who is entitled to the trump card is termed the “dealer,” whether the cards have or have not been dealt by him. (e) The first play of a deal is termed “the original play;” the second or any subsequent play of such deal, the “overplay.” (f) “Duplicate Whist” is that form of the game of whist in which each deal is played only once by each player, and in which each deal is so overplayed as to bring the play of teams, pairs of individuals into comparison. (g) A player “renounces” when he does not follow suit to the card led; he “renounces in error” when, although holding one or more cards of the suit led, he plays a card of a different suit; if such renounce in error is not lawfully corrected it constitutes a “revoke.” (h) A card is “played” whenever, in the course of play, it is placed or dropped face upwards on the table. (i) A trick is “turned and quitted” when all four players have turned and quitted their respective cards. LAW I.--SHUFFLING. SEC.
Handy Dandy I. Handy dandy, Sugary candy-- Top or bottom? Handy spandy, Jack a dandy-- Which good hand will you have? --Halliwell s _Dictionary_: _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 216. II. Handy dandy riddledy ro-- Which will you have, high or low? --Halliwell s _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 216. III. Handy pandy, Sugary candy, Which will you have-- Top or bottom? --London (A. B. Gomme).
As soon as either side reaches five points, they win the game, but the concluding hand must be played out, and the winners are entitled to score all the points over five that they can make on that hand. For instance: The score is 4 to 3 in favor of Vivant and Mort. They win the first seven tricks, which makes them game; but they do not cease playing. If they succeed in gaining eleven tricks out of the thirteen, they win a game of 9 points, instead of 5. As already observed, Vivant loses or gains double the value of the points in each hand. In the three-handed game this must be so; but in my opinion it would be a great improvement in the four-handed game to allow the player sitting out to share the fortunes of the Vivant, as in Bridge, and in many German games of cards, notably Skat. _=SLAMS.=_ The two great differences between French and English Dummy are that honours are not counted in Mort, and that a special value is attached to slams. A slam is made when one side takes the thirteen tricks. These must be actually won, and cannot be partly made up of tricks taken in penalty for revokes.
Ten. Success in business. If followed by ♢ 9, the note will not be paid when it is due; if followed by the ♠ 9 you will lose the entire account. Nine. Success in love. Eight. Great anticipations. Seven. Trifling love affairs. _=R.
The object is to get as near twenty-one as possible without passing it, and it is usually considered best to stand at 18, but to throw again at 17. If a player goes beyond 21, he is out of it. The one getting nearest 21 takes the pool; ties divide it. CENTENNIAL. Two persons or sides play with three dice. The object of the game is to secure pips on the dice, or multiples of pips, which will make the figures from 1 to 12 in numerical order, and afterward the numbers from 12 to 1 again. The first side to accomplish this wins the game. There must be an ace in the first throw or nothing counts; that obtained, any following numbers may be made singly, or by adding two or more together. Suppose the first throw is 4, 2, 1. The 1 and 2 will make 1, 2 and 3.
Another will handle his counters as if about to mark the King; will then affect to hesitate, and finally re-adjust them, and ask for cards, probably taking four or five, having absolutely nothing in his hand. The pone will ask the dealer how many points he has marked, knowing perfectly well that the number is three. On being so informed, he concludes to ask for cards, as if he were not quite strong enough to risk the game by standing; when as a matter of fact he wants five cards, and is afraid of the vole being made against him. There are many simple little tricks practiced by the would-be sharper, such as watching how many cards a player habitually cuts, and then getting the four Kings close together in such a position in the pack that one of them is almost certain to be turned. Telegraphic signals between persons on opposite sides of the gallery who are nevertheless in partnership, are often translated into advice to the player, to his great benefit. Besides these, all the machinery of marked cards, reflectors, shifted cuts, wedges, strippers, and false shuffles are at the command of the philosopher, who can always handle a small pack of cards with greater freedom, and to whom the fashion of dealing in twos and threes is always welcome. The honest card-player has not one chance in a thousand against the professional at Écarté. _=SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAY.=_ The French claim that any person may become an expert at a game like Piquet, simply by dint of long practice; but that the master of Écarté must be a born card-player, as no game requires in such degree the exercise of individual intelligence and finesse. While this may be true, there are many points about the game which may be learned by the novice, and which will greatly improve his play.
If an adversary exposes a card, the dealer may elect to deal again. If a new deal is not demanded, cards exposed in dealing cannot be called. The adversaries may stop a player dealing out of turn, or with the wrong pack, provided they do so before the last three cards are dealt, alter which the deal stands good. _=Misdealing.=_ A misdeal loses the deal. It is a misdeal: If the cards have not been properly cut, if the dealer does not give the same number of cards to each player on the same round; if he gives too many or too few cards to any player; if he counts the cards on the table, or those remaining in the pack; or if he deals a card incorrectly, and fails to correct the error before dealing another. If the dealer is interrupted in any way by an adversary, he does not lose his deal. _=Bidding.=_ After receiving his nine cards, each player in turn, beginning on the dealer’s left, announces the number of points he will undertake to win if he is allowed to name the trump suit. No player is allowed to bid more than fourteen.
Then--] What shall we dress her in, Dress her in, dress her in? What shall we dress her in, Dress her in red? Red s what the soldiers wear, The soldiers wear, the soldiers wear, Red s what the soldiers wear, And that won t do. What shall we dress her in, Dress her in, dress her in? What shall we dress her in, Dress her in blue? Blue s what the sailors wear, Sailors wear, sailors wear; Blue s what the sailors wear, And that won t do. What shall we dress her in, Dress her in, dress her in? What shall we dress her in, Dress her in black? Black s what the mourners wear, The mourners wear, the mourners wear; Black s what the mourners wear, And that won t do. What shall we dress her in, Dress her in, dress her in? What shall we dress her in, Dress her in white? White s what the dead wear, The dead wear, the dead wear; White s what the dead wear, And that will do. --Liphook, Hants (Miss Fowler). XV. Come to see Jinny Jones, Jinny Jones Come to see Jinny Jones, And where is she now? Jinny is washing, is washing, Jinny is washing, And you can t see her now. Very well, very well, lady, lady, Very well, lady, That will do. [Then follow-- (1) starching, (2) ironing, (3) dying, (4) dead.] What shall we follow in, follow in? What shall we follow in? We ll follow in blue.
2, Anamnestes introduces Memory as telling how he played at blowe-point with Jupiter when he was in his side-coats. References to this game are also made in _Apollo Shroving_, 1627, p. 49; and see Hawkins _English Drama_, iii. 243. See Dust-Point. Bob Cherry A children s game, consisting in jumping at cherries above their heads and trying to catch them with their mouths (Halliwell s _Dictionary_). It is alluded to in Herrick s _Hesperides_ as Chop Cherry. Major Lowsley describes the game as taking the end of a cherry-stalk between the teeth, and holding the head perfectly level, trying to get the cherry into the mouth without using the hands or moving the head (_Berkshire Glossary_). It is also mentioned in Peacock s _Manley and Corringham Glossary_. Strutt gives a curious illustration of the game in his _Sports and Pastimes_, which is here reproduced from the original MS.
Chance Bone. Change Seats. Checkstone. Cherry Odds. Cherry-pit. Chicamy. Chickidy Hand. Chinnup. Chinny-mumps. Chock or Chock-hole.
It is generally conceded, that the odds against a player who holds up on the first round are about 1 to 11. That is to say, in 12 pools, he will sacrifice his chances of one simply by holding up. After one or two tricks have been played, the conditions may be such that it becomes necessary to hold up, in order to win the second round. This is especially the case after you have been loaded, and are anxious to keep a certain player out of the lead. For an example see Illustrative Hand No. 4. in which Y holds up the ♢ King to keep A from getting in and leading another round of hearts. In the same hand Z tries hard to make the pool a Jack by holding up the ♣ Q. Had not A been entirely safe in diamonds the stratagem would have succeeded. In following suit it is important to keep count of the cards played, in order to avoid the unwitting lead of a suit of which the other players have none.
This is called _=Bridge to the Score=_. Four deals is a round, before changing adversaries, and fifty points are added to the score of the side having the greater trick score. Another method is to add fifty points to the side winning a game, if a game is won before moving, and then to add a definite number of points for every trick point that one side may be ahead of the other on unfinished games; or as many points as the higher score below the line. None of these methods have proved attractive enough to be popular, however, although the first is the one commonly adopted for club tournaments, adding fifty points bonus for the higher trick score, regardless of any games or rubbers. All the additions of percentages require special score cards and the services of some alleged expert to run the game, and even then they are not attractive. The problem of duplicate bridge remains as yet unsolved, so far as a popular game is concerned. _=SIX-HAND BRIDGE.=_ This is played by six persons, sitting with two card tables pushed together so as to make one. Each dealer sits at the long end of the table, the two dealers being partners. On each side of one sits a pair of adversaries so that the initial arrangement, if pair A had the deal, would be this:-- [Illustration: B C +-----+-----+ | 5 | 6 | | | | A |1 | 4| A | | | | 2 | 3 | +-----+-----+ B C ] Numbers are placed on the tables to indicate the positions to which the players shall move after each deal.