The value of the rubber is the difference between the scores of the winners and that of the losers. For instance: If the rubber is in A-B’s favour with the score shown in the margin A-B win a rubber of 8 points. 1st game; 10 to 6 2nd game; 4 to 16 3rd game; 14 to 8 Rubber; 10 -------- Totals 38 to 30 This is a good game for superstitious people, who believe that certain trump suits are favourable to them. TEXT-BOOKS. The following list of works on _=whist=_, alphabetically arranged, contains the principal standard text-books on the game. Those marked * are especially for the beginner. Those marked x are chiefly devoted to the Short-suit game. Art of Practical Whist, by Major Gen. Drayson. * Foster’s Whist Manual, by R.
Pray, which have you come for, With a ring a ding a my dolly? Pray which have you come for On this bright shining night? I ve come for your daughter Mary, With a ring a ding a my dolly; I ve come for your daughter Mary On this bright shining night. Then take her, and welcome, With a ring a ding a my dolly; Then take her, and welcome, On this bright shining night [incomplete]. --Sheffield (S. O. Addy). (_b_) A number of children stand against a wall, and a row of other children face them. They walk backwards and forwards, singing the first and third verses. Then the children who are standing still (against the wall) answer by singing the second and fourth verses. When these are sung the moving line of children take Mary and dance round, singing some lines which my informant, says Mr. Addy, has forgotten.
_=SCORING.=_ A game consists of five points, which are made by tricks, by penalties, and by marking the King. A player winning three tricks out of the five possible, counts one point toward game; winning all five tricks, which is called _=the vole=_, counts two points. The player holding or turning up the King of trumps may mark one point for it, but he is not compelled to do so. If the pone plays without proposing, and makes three or four tricks, he counts one point; if he makes the vole he counts two points; but if he fails to make three tricks the dealer counts two. If the dealer refuses the first proposal, he must make three tricks to count one point; if he makes the vole he counts two points; but if he fails to win three tricks the player who was refused counts two points. If the dealer accepts the first proposal, and gives cards, subsequent proposals and refusals do not affect the score; the winner of the odd trick scoring one point, and the winner of the vole two points. In no case can a player make more than two points in one hand by tricks. If the dealer refuses the first proposal, and the pone makes the vole, it counts two points only. If the pone should play without proposing, and the dealer should mark the King and win the vole, it would count him only three points altogether.
It was evidently the intention of those who invented Poker that the hands most difficult to obtain should be the best, and should outrank hands that occurred more frequently. A glance at the table of odds will show that this principle has been carried out as far as the various denominations of hands go; but when we come to the members of the groups the principle is violated. In hands not containing a pair, for instance, ace high will beat Jack high, but it is much more common to hold ace high than Jack high. The exact proportion is 503 to 127. A hand of five cards only seven high but not containing a pair, is rarer than a flush; the proportion being 408 to 510. When we come to two pairs, we find the same inversion of probability and value. A player will hold “aces up,” that is, a pair of aces and another pair inferior to aces, twelve times as often as he will hold “threes up.” In the opinion of the author, in all hands that do not contain a pair, “seven high” should be the best instead of the lowest, and ace high should be the lowest. In hands containing two pairs, “threes up” should be the highest, and “aces up” the lowest. _=ECCENTRIC HANDS.
Some one has picked it up. Not you, not you (&c.), but you! --Much Wenlock (_Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 512). III. I lost my supper last night, and the night before, And if I lose it this night, I shall never have it no more. --Berrington (_Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 512). IV. I ve come to borrow the riddle (= sieve), There s a big hole in the middle.
Milk-pails were pails of wood suspended from a yoke worn on the milkmaid s shoulders, and these have been giving place to present-day milk-cans. Consequently we find in the rhymes only four versions in which milk-pails are used. In two versions even the sense of milking-can has been lost, and the South Shields version, sent me by little Miss Blair, has degenerated into male-scales, a thoroughly meaningless phrase. The Cowes version (Miss Smith) has arrived at wash-pan. The burden of the Chirbury version is a rea, a ria, a roses, and the Sheffield version is also remarkable: the I, O, OM refers, probably, to something now forgotten, or it may be the Hi, Ho, Ham! familiar in many nursery rhymes. The game seems to point to a period some time back, when milking was an important phase of the daily life, or perhaps to the time when it was customary for the maids and women of a village to go to the hilly districts with the cows (summer shealings) for a certain period of time. The references to domestic life are interesting. The scarcity of beds, the best or feather bed, and the children s bed, seeming to be all those available. The feather bed is still a valued piece of household furniture, and is considered somewhat of the nature of a heirloom, feather beds often descending from mother to daughter for some generations. I have been told instances of this.
Particular attention should be paid to the player who robs, because he must have at least the ace and the turn-up in trumps, and is more likely to need spoiling than any other player. When a player wins a trick, some judgment will be necessary to decide whether he is trying for the pool himself, or simply spoiling it for some one else. When he wins two tricks, every other player at the table must combine against him. With only one small or medium trump, it is better to use it at the first opportunity. Unless the player has some hopes of winning the pool himself, he should trump all doubtful cards; that is, cards that may win the trick if not trumped. With two good trumps, it is better to wait for developments; even if you cannot win the last three tricks yourself, you may effectually spoil any other player. Do anything you can to prevent the possibility of a third trick being won by a player who has already won two. FORTY-FIVE, OR FIVE AND TEN. These names are given to Spoil Five when it is played by two persons only, or by four or six divided into two equal partnerships. There is no pool, as one side or the other must win three tricks every deal.
This saves all disputes as to _=who is shy=_, one of the greatest nuisances in Poker. _=Opening Jacks.=_ As there is no age or straddle in any form of jack pot, the player to the left of the dealer has the first say, and must examine his hand to see if he has Jacks or better; that is to say, either an actual pair of Jacks, or some hand that would beat a pair of Jacks if called upon to do so, such as two pairs, a straight, or triplets. In some localities it is allowed to open jacks with a _=bobtail=_; that is, four cards of a flush or straight. If the player on the dealer’s left has not openers, or does not care to open the pot if he has, he says: “I pass;” but he does not abandon his hand. The next player on his left must then declare. In some places players are allowed to throw down their cards when they pass; but in first-class games a penalty of five white counters must be paid into the pool by any player abandoning his hand before the second round of declarations, as it gives an undue advantage to players with medium hands to know that they have only a limited number of possible opponents. For instance: If six play, and the first three not only pass, but throw down and abandon their cards, a player with a pair of Jacks will know that he has only two possible adversaries to draw against him, which will so increase his chances that it may materially alter his betting. If no one acknowledges to holding Jacks or better, the pot is fattened, and the cards are reshuffled and dealt. The best practice is for the same dealer to deal again until some one gets Jacks or better.
To remedy this it is the custom in some clubs to allow a player to bid the full value of his hand. 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.
There are two principal varieties of this game; straight bridge, in which the dealer or his partner must make the trump, their opponents having nothing to say about it except to double the value of the tricks. The dealer’s partner is always the dummy, and either side may score toward game by making the odd trick or more. Auction bridge, in which the privilege of making the trump is bid for, the highest bidder playing the hand with his partner as dummy, regardless of the position of the deal, and his side being the only one that can score toward game, the adversaries scoring nothing but penalties in the honour column if they defeat the contract. As this is the more popular form of bridge at the present time, it will be given first. Since the adoption of the higher value for the spade suit under the name of royal spades, and the change in the value of the suits, the game gradually came to be known as royal auction, but as that change is now universal, the name has slipped back to its original title. AUCTION BRIDGE, OR AUCTION. _=CARDS.=_ Auction is played with a full pack of fifty-two cards, ranking A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2, the Ace being the highest in play, but ranking below the deuce in cutting. Two packs should be used, the one being shuffled while the other is dealt. _=MARKERS=_ suitable for scoring the various points made at Bridge have not yet been invented.
What are the odds against one of these dice being an ace? A person unfamiliar with the science of probabilities would say that as two numbers must come up, and there are only six numbers altogether, the probability is 2/6, or exactly 2 to 1 against an ace being thrown. But this is not correct, as will be immediately apparent if we write out all the 36 possible throws with two dice; for we shall find that only 11 of the 36 contain an ace, and 25 do not. The proper way to calculate this is to take the chances against the ace on each die separately, and then to multiply them together. There are five other numbers that might come up, and the fraction of their probability is ⅚ × ⅚ = 25/36, or 25 to 11 in their favour. Take the case of three dice: As three numbers out of six must come up, it might be supposed that it was an even thing that one would be an ace. But the possible throws with three dice are 6 × 6 × 6 = 216; and those that do not contain an ace are 5 × 5 × 5 = 125; so that the odds against getting an ace in one throw with three dice, or three throws with one die, are 125/216, or 125 to 91 against it. To find the probability of getting a given total on the faces of two or three dice we must find the number of ways that the desired number can come. In the 36 possible throws with two dice there are 6 which will show a total of seven pips. The probability of throwing seven is therefore 6/36, or 5 to 1 against it. A complete list of the combinations with two dice were given in connection with Craps.
] [Illustration: Fig. 3.] [Illustration: Fig. 4.] (_c_) The analysis of the game rhymes is as follows:-- +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ |No.| Halliwell s Version. | Liphook (Hants). | Shropshire. | +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 1.|Draw a pail of water.
Any cross-roader who can tip dice the way you were working them can twitch an ear. Let s see some credentials. He scuffed through the sawdust to the bar and took a stack of silver dollars from his apron. He held them, dealerwise, in the palm of his hand, with his fingertips down, so that they were a column surrounded by a fence of fingers. How many? he asked. I shrugged. The whole stack, Smythe, I told him. His eyebrows went halfway up his tall, tall forehead. But he put them all down on the bar top, about twenty-five silver dollars. Show me, I said.
6). Malone says, Handy dandy is, I believe, a play among children, in which something is shaken between two hands, and then a guess is made in which hand it is retained. See Florio s _Italian Dictionary_, 1598: Bazzicchiare, to shake between the hands; to play Handy dandy. Pope, in his _Memoirs of Cornelius Scriblerus_, in forbidding certain sports to his son Martin till he is better informed of their antiquity, says: Neither cross and pile, nor ducks and drakes, are quite so ancient as Handy dandy, though Macrobius and St. Augustine take notice of the first, and Minutius Foelix describes the latter; but Handy dandy is mentioned by Aristotle, Plato, and Aristophanes. Browne, in _Britannia s Pastorals_ (i. 5), also alludes to the game. See Neiveie-nick-nack. Hap the Beds A singular game, gone through by hopping on one foot, and with that foot sliding a little flat stone out of an oblong bed, rudely drawn on a smooth piece of ground. This bed is divided into eight parts, the two of which at the farther end of it are called the Kail-pots.
As this would close the blank end of the line, the first player, whom we shall call A, would have to play on the 5 end, as he has no 6. In order to get the line back to his second longest suit, the blanks, he would play the 5-2, hoping to play 2-0 next time. His adversary, B, would play on this end if he could, but being unable to do so, he gets rid of his heaviest domino, playing the double six. A plays 2-0, and B should now bring in his suit of aces by playing 6-1, which would win the game; but for the sake of illustration we shall suppose that he foolishly plays 6-4. A plays his double four, and the dominoes on the table present the following appearance:-- [Illustration] B, having neither 4 nor 0 on any of his remaining dominoes, says: “_=Go=_,” which signifies that he is blocked, and cannot play. A can now play at either end, and with either of two dominoes; but it would be bad policy to play the 4-5, because his adversary might be able to play to the 5; but it is a certainty that he cannot play to either 0 or 4. If A plays the 4-5, B gets rid of all his dominoes before A can play again. If A plays the 4-0 on the blank end, he will have to play again with his 4-5; but if he plays it on the 4 end he blocks himself. Whether to block the game or not depends on the probable comparative value of the dominoes held by A and B. If A blocks the game by making both ends blank, both players show their remaining dominoes, and the one with the greater number of pips loses as many points as he has pips in excess of the other player.
Two boys are selected to toss. One of them throws up his cap, crying, Pot! or Lid! which is equivalent to Heads and Tails. If, when a prisoner is caught, he cries out Kings! or Kings to rest! he is allowed to escape. The game is a very rough one.--Addy s _Sheffield Glossary_. Beds Jamieson gives this as the Scottish name for Hopscotch; also Brockett, _North Country Words_. Bell-horses I. Bell-horses, bell-horses, what time of day? One o clock, two o clock, three, and away! Bell-horses, bell-horses, what time of day? Two o clock, three o clock, four, and away! Five o clock, six o clock, now time to stay! --Stanton Lacey (Burne s _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 520). II.
See Blind Man s Buff. Joggle along I. Come all you young men In your youthful ways, And sow your wild oats In your youthful days. Then you ll be happy, Then you ll be happy, As you grow old. For the day s far spent, And the night s coming on, So give us your arm, and We ll joggle along. --Penzance, Cornwall (Mrs. Mabbott). II. Come all ye young men, with your wicked ways, Sow all your wild oats in your youthful days, That we may live happy, that we may live happy, That we may live happy when we grow old. The day is far spent, the night s coming on, Give us your arm, and we ll joggle along, That we may live happy, &c.
=_ Owing to the peculiarity of the Knight’s move, many persons have amused themselves in trying to cover the entire chess board with a Knight, touching the same square once only, and returning to the starting-point again. There are several ways of doing this, one of the simplest being the following:-- [Illustration: +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ |14|29|34|55|12|27|24|49| +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ |35|56|13|28|33|50|11|26| +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ |30|15|54|51|58|25|48|23| +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ |41|36|57|32|61|52|63|10| +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ |16|31|40|53|64|59|22|47| +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ |37|42| 1|60|19|62| 9| 6| +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | 2|17|44|39| 4| 7|46|21| +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ |43|38| 3|18|45|20| 5| 8| +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ ] _=TEXT BOOKS.=_ Among the very large number of works on Chess there is abundant room for choice, but the following works are considered standard authorities on the game:-- Freeborough’s Chess Openings, 1896. Cook’s Synopsis. Minor Tactics of Chess, by Young and Howell. Modern Chess Instructor, by W. Steinitz. Common Sense in Chess, by E. Lasker. Walker’s Treatise on Chess, 1841.
W. Crombie says, The game of Hop-scotch was one of considerable antiquity, having been known in England for more than two centuries, and it was played all over Europe under different names. Signor Pitré s solar explanation of its origin appeared improbable to him, for not only was the evidence in its favour extremely weak, but it would require the original number of divisions in the figure to have been twelve instead of seven, which was the number indicated by a considerable body of evidence. It would seem more probable that the game at one time represented the progress of the soul from earth to heaven through various intermediate states, the name given to the last court being most frequently paradise or an equivalent, such as crown or glory, while the names of the other courts corresponded with the eschatological ideas prevalent in the early days of Christianity. Some such game existed before Christianity, and Mr. Crombie considered that it had been derived from several ancient games. Possibly the strange myths of the labyrinths might have had something to do with Hop-scotch, and a variety of the game played in England, under the name of Round Hop-scotch, was almost identical with a game described by Pliny as being played by the boys of his day. Mr. Crombie also said he believed that the early Christians adopted the general idea of the ancient game, but they not only converted it into an allegory of heaven, with Christian beliefs and Christian names; they Christianised the figure also; they abandoned the heathen labyrinth and replaced it by the form of the Basilicon, the early Christian church, dividing it into seven parts, as they believed heaven to be divided, and placing paradise, the inner sanctum of heaven, in the position of the altar, the inner sanctum of their earthly church. See Hap the Beds.
If he was not pleased with the girl offered him he replied in either of the three following verses. The first of the three was generally said if the girl was thought to be too old; if bad-tempered, the second. If the lad found no fault, but wished to politely refuse, he sang the last verse. The girl then was asked in her turn, and the same formula gone through, she saying either of the three last verses given. Forfeits were demanded for every refusal, and were cried at the end of the game. (_c_) Mr. Ballantyne writes: This game was a great favourite in my father s house. This was a forfeit game, forfeits being called wadds. Chambers, _Popular Rhymes_, p. 124, gives a version of this game.
If a card faced in the stock is not discovered until the first trick has been played to, the exposed card must be turned face down, without disturbing its position. If a pack is found to be imperfect, the deal in which the error is discovered is void, but all previous cuts or scores made with that pack stand good. _=METHOD OF PLAYING.=_ The pone begins by leading any card he chooses, to which his adversary may play any card he pleases. A player is not obliged to follow suit, nor to trump; but may renounce or trump at pleasure until the stock is exhausted, after which the method of play undergoes a change. If a player follows suit, the higher card wins the trick, and if identical cards are played to the same trick, such as two Jacks of clubs, the leader wins. Trumps win plain suits. The winner of the trick takes in the cards, turning them face down; but before he leads for the next trick he has the privilege of announcing and scoring any one of certain combinations that he may hold in his hand. After, or in the absence of any such announcement, and before leading for the next trick, he draws a card from the top of the stock and places it in his hand, without showing or naming it. His adversary draws the next card, so that each player restores the number of cards in his hand to eight.
_=Taking Tricks.=_ The methods of taking tricks, and placing them so that they can be easily counted, have been fully described in connection with whist. _=OBJECT OF THE GAME.=_ As in whist, the object is to take tricks; the highest card played of the suit led wins, and trumps win against all other suits. The first six tricks taken by one side, and forming a _=book=_, do not count; but all above that number count toward game. At the end of each hand, the side that has taken any tricks in excess of the book scores them, their opponents counting nothing. 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.