GENERAL LAWS, FOR ALL CARD GAMES. Very few games have their own code of laws, and only one or two of these have the stamp of any recognised authority. In minor games, questions are continually arising which could be easily settled if the players were familiar with a few general principles which are common to the laws of all games, and which might be considered as the basis of a general code of card laws. The most important of these principles are as follows:-- _=Players.=_ It is generally taken for granted that those first in the room have the preference, but if more than the necessary number assemble, the selection must be made by cutting. A second cut will then be required to decide the partnerships, if any, and the positions at the table, the latter being important only in games in which the deal, or some given position at the table, is an advantage or the reverse. The usual method of cutting is to spread the cards face downward on the table, each player drawing one. In some games the cards are thrown round by one of the players. _=Shuffling, Cutting and Dealing.=_ In all games in which the cards are shuffled at all, each player has the right to shuffle, the dealer last.
To win _=Nine Tricks=_. To lose 12 tricks, after having discarded a card which is not to be shown; the single player’s remaining twelve cards being exposed face up on the table, but not liable to be called; _=Little Spread=_. To win _=Ten Tricks=_. To lose every trick, no trump suit, the single player’s cards being exposed on the table, but not liable to be called; _=Grand Spread=_. To win _=Eleven Tricks=_. To win _=Twelve Tricks=_. To win 13 tricks; _=Slam=_. To win 13 tricks, the single player’s cards exposed face up on the table, but not liable to be called; _=Spread Slam=_. The object of the bidder, if successful in securing the privilege of playing, is to win or lose the proposed number of tricks, against the combined efforts of his adversaries. Having once made a bid, he must play it unless he is over-called.
The figures on the right show the number of hands in which the player or the dealer will win out of the 65,780 possible distributions of the twenty-six unknown cards. These calculations are taken, by permission of Mr. Charles Mossop, from the eighth volume of the “_Westminster Papers_,” in which all the variations and their results are given in full. PLAYER WINS. DEALER WINS. 2 [Illustration: 🃗 🃘 🂷 🂸 🂹] 47,768 18,012 3 [Illustration: 🂷 🂸 🂮 🂧 🃇] 46,039 19,741 4 [Illustration: 🂧 🂨 🃇 🃗 🃞] 43,764 22,016 5 [Illustration: 🃇 🃈 🃘 🃗 🂾] 45,374 20,406 6 [Illustration: 🃗 🃘 🃈 🃉 🂭] 44,169 21,611 7 [Illustration: 🂷 🂸 🃙 🃚 🃋] 43,478 22,302 8 [Illustration: 🂧 🂨 🂺 🂱 🃑] 44,243 21,537 9 [Illustration: 🃇 🃈 🂡 🂫 🂸] 44,766 21,014 10 [Illustration: 🃗 🃘 🂾 🂫 🃇] 44,459 21,321 11 [Illustration: 🂷 🂸 🂮 🃁 🃙] 44,034 21,746 12 [Illustration: 🂧 🂨 🃎 🃚 🂺] 43,434 22,346 13 [Illustration: 🃇 🃈 🂨 🂽 🃞] 44,766 21,014 14 [Illustration: 🃗 🃘 🃁 🂭 🂻] 46,779 19,001 15 [Illustration: 🂷 🂸 🃛 🃋 🂫] 45,929 19,851 The player should always stand on a hand containing three trumps, not including the King, and should lead the trump:-- 16 [Illustration: 🂷 🂸 🂹 🂧 🃇] 42,014 to 23,766 An example of a hand containing only one trump has already been given, and some hands are jeux de règle which contain no trumps. The strongest of these is the King of each plain suit, and any queen. Lead the K Q suit:-- 17 [Illustration: 🃞 🃗 🂾 🂭 🂮] 48,042 to 17,738 The odds in favour of this hand are greater than in any other jeux de règle. Another which is recommended by Bohn is this, the odds in favour of which have not been calculated; the player to begin with the guarded King:-- 18 [Illustration: 🃞 🃗 🃍 🃇 🂮] Another is any four court cards, not all Jacks; unless one is the trump Jack guarded. From the example the Queen should be led:-- 19 [Illustration: 🂫 🂧 🂻 🃛 🃝] There are two hands which are usually played with only one trump, from both of which the best card of the long suit is led:-- 20 [Illustration: 🂷 🂧 🂨 🂨 🂮] 21 [Illustration: 🃗 🃇 🃈 🃍 🂮] _=THE LEADER.
C and D pass, and E, pretending not to know that B has opened it, announces that he will open it for the limit, although he has not a pair in his hand. He is of course immediately informed that it has been opened, upon which he unhesitatingly raises it for the limit. Whatever the others do, E stands pat, and looks cheerful. The author has never known this bluff to be called. Holding a strong hand, a player may often coax another to raise him, by offering to divide the pool. The successful bluffer should never show his hand. Even if he starts the game by bluffing for advertising purposes, hoping to get called on good hands later, he should not show anything or tell anything that the others do not pay to see or know. Bluffing is usually more successful when a player is in a lucky vein than when he has been unfortunate. POKER LAWS. _=1.
| -- |..... brass. | -- | | 15.| -- |...
Rise up, rise up, poor Mary Brown, To see your dear sister go through the town. I won t rise, I won t rise from off the ground, To see my dear sister go through the town. Rise up, rise up, poor Mary Brown, To see your dear brother go through the town. I won t rise, I won t rise up from off the ground, To see my dear brother go through the town. Rise up, rise up, poor Mary Brown, To see your dear sweetheart go through the town. I will rise, I will rise up from off the ground, To see my dear sweetheart go through the town. --Barnes, Surrey (A. B. Gomme). II.
In this position very little can be made out of good hands, because every one expects to find them there; but it offers many excellent opportunities for successful bluffing. A player in this position should never straddle. Many players endeavour to force their luck in this way, but it is a losing game, and the best players seldom or never straddle. Having to make the first bet after the draw, it is usual for the player in this position, if he has an average hand, to _=chip along=_, by simply betting a single counter, and waiting for developments. With a strong hand, it is best to bet its full value at once, on the chance that the bet may be taken for a bluff, and called. _=Other Positions.=_ As the positions go round the table from the first bettor to the age, they become more desirable, and little need be said of them beyond the consideration of the average strength necessary for a player to _=go in=_ on. _=GOING IN.=_ There is a great difference of opinion as to the minimum value of a hand which should justify a player in drawing cards if he can do so for the usual ante. In close games many players make it a rule not to go in on less than tens, while in more liberal circles the players will draw to any pair.
The successful bidder takes the widow, selecting from it what cards he pleases, and discarding others in their stead, so as to restore the number of his cards to seven. He then places a red counter in front of him, and chooses his partners, passing a red counter to each of them. These counters must be placed in front of the players to distinguish them as belonging to the bidder’s side; but the players make no changes in their respective positions at the table. Each player should bid on the possibilities of his hand, however small, so as to guide the others in their selection of partners. _=Partners.=_ If the bidder has proposed to take not more than _=five=_ tricks out of the seven possible, he chooses two partners, and these three play against the remaining four. If he has bid to make _=six=_ or _=seven=_ tricks he chooses three partners, and these four play against the remaining three. Partners cannot refuse to play. _=Playing Alone.=_ Should a player think he can take all seven tricks without any partners, he may bid _=ten=_, which would outrank a bid of seven; but such a bid must be made before seeing the widow.
Diamonds are “next” to hearts. Nick, a natural at Craps; 7 or 11 on the first throw. Nicknames for Cards: The ♢9 is the curse of Scotland; the ♣4 is the devil’s bedposts; the ♣A is the Puppy-foot; the Jack of trumps at Spoil Five is the Playboy, and the Five of trumps is the Five Fingers. N. E. S. W., letters used to distinguish the players at Duplicate Whist. N always leads, unless otherwise specified. Nursing, keeping the balls together at Billiards, as distinguished from gathering, which brings them together.
Sporle, Swaffham Miss Matthews. { Baker s _Glossary_, _Northants Notes NORTHAMPTONSHIRE { and Queries_, _Revue Celtique_, vol. { iv., Rev. W. D. Sweeting. Maxey Rev. W. D.
Addy in his _Sheffield Glossary_, and by Holland (_Cheshire Glossary_), Brogden (_Provincial Words, Lincolnshire_), Lowsley (_Berkshire Glossary_), Nares _Glossary_, and Baker s _Northants Glossary_. Miss Courtenay gives Scutter and Tic Tac Mollard as Cornish names for the game (_West Cornwall Glossary_). See also Halliwell s _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 139, and Strutt s _Sports and Pastimes_, p. 326. Butler, in his _Hudibras_ (p. ii. canto iii. l. 302), makes it one of the important qualifications of his conjurer to tell-- What figur d slates are best to make On wat ry surface _duck_ or _drake_.
The object of the game is to see how many cards can be built on the ace row. A better average can usually be obtained when the pack is run off three at a time with the privilege of running through again and again as long as any card can be used. FORTUNE TELLING. Whatever the arrangement employed for laying out the tableau in fortune telling, the result of the reading will always be dependent on the person’s ability to string together in a connected story the meanings which are attached to the various cards. According to Eittella, the father of all fortune telling, only 32 cards should be used, and it is essential that they should be single heads, because a court card standing firmly on its feet is a very different thing from one standing on its head. If single-head cards are not at hand, the lower part of the double-head cards must be cancelled in some manner. The following are the interpretations of the various cards, the initial _=R=_ meaning that the card is reversed, or standing on its head. _=HEARTS.=_ Ace. The house, or home.
The only difference in this form of the game is that the three court cards, K Q J, have a pip value, and may be used in combining and building, whereas in the ordinary game they can be used only in pairs. The Jack is worth 11, the Queen 12, and the King 13; so that a 9 and 2 can be taken in with a Jack, or a 6 4 and 3 with a King. In the same manner a Queen will win a Jack and Ace, or a King will win a Jack and deuce. The aces are sometimes valued at 14 each. SPADE CASSINO. In this interesting variation every spade counts one point toward game. The spade Jack counts one in addition to its being a spade, and the extra point so made takes the place of the count for “spades” in the ordinary game, so that 24 points are made in every hand, exclusive of sweeps: Cards 3; Big Cassino 2; Little Cassino 1; the four Aces 4; the spade Jack 1, and 13 spades. It must be remembered that the spade Jack and deuce count 2 points each, the extra point being for the spade. The game is scored on a cribbage board, every point being pegged immediately; that is, every spade, every Ace, the Cassinos and the sweeps. There is nothing to count at the end of the hand but the cards.
If four persons play, the dealer takes no cards. The three active players make up a pool, each putting in an equal amount at first, and the bidder putting into it as many as he bids for the privilege of naming the trump suit. Any one may deal the first hand, after which the deal passes to the left. Three cards are given to each player the first round, then two are laid off for a widow, then four to each player, and then three to each. Beginning on the dealer’s left, each player in turn may name the trump if he thinks he can take at least six of the ten tricks to be played for. Bids outrank one another in the order of the suits, hearts being preference always. The number of tricks is not mentioned. In case there are no bids, each in turn has a second chance to bid for the widow. These bids are made in counters, to be put into the pool. The highest bidder takes the widow, lays out two cards, and then names the trump suit.
--A. B. Gomme. In South Notts this game was called Snobs. It was played with small stones or marbles. There were nine sets of tricks. First One-ers (of which there were five in the set), then Two-ers (two in set), Three-ers (three in set), Four-ers (four in set), Four Squares (four in set), Trotting Donkeys (eight in set, I believe), Fly-catchers (six or seven in set), Magic (five in set), and Magic Fly-catchers (five in set). One-ers is played thus:--The five stones are thrown into the air and caught on the back of the hand. If all are caught they are simply tossed up again and caught in the hollow of the hand, but if any are not caught they have to be picked up, one by one, another stone being at the same time thrown into the air and caught with the one picked up in the hand. Two-ers, Three-ers, and Four-ers, are played in the same way, except that the stones not caught on the back of the hand have to be arranged in twos, threes, and fours respectively by the hand on which the caught stones are lying meanwhile, and then each lot has to be picked up altogether.
When he kneels any ridiculous words or formula can be said by the presiding boy, and then he and those players who are nearest to the kneeling boy rub his back with their hands for two or three minutes. While they are doing this the boy who led the victim up to the president fastens a string, to which is attached a small whistle, to the victim s coat or jacket. It must be fastened in such a way that the whistle hangs loosely, and will not knock against his back. The whistle is then blown by the player who attached it, and the kneeling boy is told to rise and search for the Magic Whistle. The players who are seated in the chairs must all hold their hands in such a way that the victim suspects it is in their possession, and proceeds to search. The whistle must be blown as often as possible, and in all directions, by those players only who can do so without the victim being able to either see or feel that he is carrying the whistle with him.--London (A. B. Gomme). This game is also called Knight of the Whistle.