_=POOL SOLO.=_ When players wish to enhance the gambling attractions of the game, a pool is introduced. For this purpose a receptacle is placed upon the table, in which each player puts a red counter at the beginning of the game. Any person playing alone against the three others, wins this pool if he is successful; if he fails, he must double the amount it contains, besides paying each of his adversaries in the regular way. In some places it is the custom for each player to contribute a red counter when he deals. The proposals and acceptances do not touch the pool. _=METHOD OF PLAYING.=_ If a proposal is accepted, and no one over-calls it, the proposer and acceptor are partners; but make no change in their positions at the table. The eldest hand, sitting to the left of the dealer, begins by leading any card he pleases, and the play proceeds exactly as at Whist, the tricks being so stacked that they may be readily counted at any time. If a single player has called solo, misère, or abundance, the eldest hand still has the original lead, and there is no change in the positions of the players.
SET-BACK EUCHRE. This is simply a reversal of the ordinary method of scoring, the players starting with a certain number of points, usually ten, and deducting what they make on each deal. The peculiarity which gives the game its name is that if a player is euchred he is _=set back=_ two points, his adversaries counting nothing. The revoke penalty is settled in the same way. The game is usually counted with chips, each player starting with ten, and placing in the centre of the table those that he is entitled to score. BLIND EUCHRE. Each player is for himself and a widow of two cards is dealt. The player who takes the widow practically orders up the trump and must play against all the others after discarding two cards. If no one will take the widow, the deal is void. PENALTY EUCHRE.
For the Rules of Etiquette of Duplicate Whist, see page 85. SINGLE TABLE, OR MNEMONIC DUPLICATE. The laws of Duplicate Whist govern where applicable, except as follows: Each player plays each deal twice, the second time playing a hand previously played by an adversary. Instead of turning the trump, a single suit may be declared trumps for the game. On the overplay, the cards may be gathered into tricks instead of playing them as required by law (Law VIII, Sec. 1). In case of the discovery of an irregularity in the hands, there must always be a new deal. MNEMONIC DUPLICATE FOR MORE THAN ONE TABLE. Except a contest played in comparison with a progressive match, the replaying of the cards by the same players--“up and back,” as it is sometimes called--is the only possible method of approximating to Duplicate Whist for one table; but where eight or more players participate, this form of the game is extremely undesirable, from the element of memory entering into the replay and destroying the integrity of the game and its value as a test of Whist skill. It has been well described as “a mongrel game--partly Whist and partly Dummy, but lacking in the best features of each.
Judging from the rank of the cards, which is peculiar to German games, Bézique may have originated in an attempt to play Binocle with a piquet pack, for Binocle seems to have been originally played with a full pack of fifty-two cards. One German writer says the game is of Swiss origin, and that they probably got it from Spain. In one writer’s opinion, the name Binocle, is derived from _bis_, until, and _knochle_, the knuckle, which would imply that the original meaning was, until some one knuckled; _i.e._, stopped the game by knocking on the table with his knuckles. This interpretation seems far-fetched, but if correct, it would sustain the opinion that Binocle was derived from the old game of Cinq-Cents, in which the player knocked with his knuckles to announce that he had made enough points to win the game. In the opinion of the author, the word “binocle” is a German mispronunciation of the French word “binage,” which was the term used in Cinq Cents for the combination of spade Queen and diamond Jack, as will be seen if the description of Cinq Cents is referred to. Stopping the play is a prominent feature in Sixty-Six, another variation of Bézique, and the connecting link between Binocle and Skat. In Sixty-Six, the combination known as Bézique, or binocle, is omitted; so is the sequence in trumps. Sixty-four-card Binocle is simply Bézique, with a slight difference in the counting value of the various combinations.
Gregor). I saw this game played on Barnes Green, Surrey, on 25th August 1892. The boys, instead of using their hats, had pieces of leather tied to a string, with which they struck the Bear on the back. They could only begin when the Keeper cried, My Bear is free. If they struck at any other time, the striker became the Bear. It is called Baste the Bear. --A. B. Gomme. Chambers (_Popular Rhymes_, p.
If the seller accepts, he scores to within one of game; but if he refuses, he must make as many as bid, even if he does not actually want them. It is one of the fine points of the game for the seller to refuse when the number of points offered would put the bidder out if he was successful. There is no penalty for bidding out of turn. If a player chooses to expose to a preceding player what he is prepared to bid, that is usually to his own disadvantage. _=Bidding to the Board.=_ Modern players usually adopt the practice of bidding to the board, eldest hand having the first bid. In this form of the game the points bid count to no one, and anyone can bid up to four, no matter what the scores are. No one can claim the privilege of pitching the trump for as many as bid, as each in turn must bid higher or pass. _=Playing.=_ The successful bidder has the first lead, and whatever card he plays, whether by mistake or not, is the trump suit for that deal.
No matter what points are made for tricks, the dealer only can score them below the line, to count toward game. If the adversaries make the odd trick, they score above the line, in the honour column, so that no one can go out except on his own deal. After the deal is finished and scored, the players move, so as to bring about a change of partners. The one on the left of the vacant place moves into it, and the player on his right deals. Three of these movements bring about the original position. Each player’s score is kept individually, and when one of the three has won two games, the scores are added up and balanced, after giving the winner 100 rubber points. Each then pays the difference to the others. Suppose the winner to be A, with 320; B having 80 and C 64. A wins 240 from B and 256 from C; while B wins 16 from C. _=BRIDGE FOR TWO.
Chuck-farthing Strutt says this game was played by boys at the commencement of the last century, and probably bore some analogy to Pitch and Hustle. He saw the game thus denominated played with halfpence, every one of the competitors having a like number, either two or four; a hole being made in the ground, with a mark at a given distance for the players to stand, they pitch their halfpence singly in succession towards the hole, and he whose halfpenny lies the nearest to it has the privilege of coming first to a second mark much nearer than the former, and all the halfpence are given to him; these he pitches in a mass toward the hole, and as many of them as remain therein are his due; if any fall short or jump out of it, the second player--that is, he whose halfpenny in pitching lay nearest to the first goer s--takes them and performs in like manner; he is followed by the others as long as any of the halfpence remain (_Sports_, pp. 386, 387). There is a letter in the _Spectator_, supposed to be from the father of a romp, who, among other complaints of her conduct, says, I have catched her once at eleven years old at Chuck-farthing among the boys. Chuck-hole, Chuck-penny Same game as Chuck-farthing, with this difference, that if the pennies roll outside the ring it is a dead heat, and each boy reclaims his penny.--Peacock s _Manley and Corringham Glossary_; and see Brogden s _Lincolnshire Words_. Chucks A game with marbles played by girls (Mactaggart s _Gallovidian Encyclopædia_). A writer in _Blackwood s Magazine_, August 1821, p. 36, says Chucks is played with a bowl and chucks--a species of shells (_Buccinum lapillus_) found on the sea-shore [ bowl here probably means a marble]. Brockett (_North Country Words_) says this game is played by girls with five sea-shells called chucks, and sometimes with pebbles, called chuckie-stanes.