In Solo Whist, the individual player in fault must pay for himself and for his partners. ABANDONED HANDS. 27. If all four players throw their cards on the table, face upwards, no further play of that hand is permitted. The result of the hand, as then claimed or admitted, is established, provided that, if a revoke is discovered, the revoke penalty attaches. In _=Solo Whist=_, should the bidder abandon his hand, he and his partner, if any, must pay the stakes and settle for all over-tricks as if they had lost all the remaining tricks. If a player, not the bidder, abandons his hand, his partner or partners may demand the hand to be played out with the abandoned hand exposed, and liable to be called by the adversary. If they defeat the call they win nothing, but the player who abandoned his hand must pay the caller just as if he had been successful. If the partner or partners of the exposed hand lose, they must pay their share of the losses. REVOKING.
The names of the players having been previously written on the blackboard, their scores are put down opposite their names, each side, N & S and E & W, is then added up in order to find the average, and all scores above average are plus, while all below average are minus. The following is an example of the averaging of a game in which five tables took part, playing 30 deals:-- N & S E & W a 201 -6 f 189 +6 b 204 -3 g 186 +3 c 211 +4 h 179 -4 d 207 = j 183 = e 212 +5 k 178 -5 --------------- --------------- 5 |1035 5 |915 +---- +--- Aver. 207, N & S. Aver. 183, E & W. The _=e=_ and _=f=_ pairs make the best scores N & S and E & W respectively; the _=f=_ pair, having won the greatest number of tricks above the average of the hands, would be the winners. _=Howell Pair System.=_ A very popular system of managing pairs in club games, and also in the national tournaments for the Minneapolis trophy, is called the Howell Pairs. Indicator cards are placed on the tables, which show each player the number of the table and the position at that table to which he should move next. Sometimes he will sit N, sometimes S, and sometimes E or W, but he always finds his partner opposite him, and at the end of the game he will have had every other pair in the game for an adversary once, and will have played all the hands dealt.
After at least a year’s practice with them, he will either discover that he has no aptitude for the game, or will be ready to go into further details. A beginner who attempts to handle the weapons of the expert simply plays with edged tools, which will probably cut no one but himself and his partner. * * * * * _=THE SIGNAL GAME.=_ Having become thoroughly familiar with the elementary conventionalities of the game, so that they can be used without the slightest hesitation at the whist table, the player may proceed to acquaint himself with the details of what is commonly known as the Signal Game, which comprises all the various methods of signalling up hands between partners, according to certain arbitrary and pre-arranged systems of play. Many players object to these methods as unfair; but they are now too deeply rooted to yield to protest; and the best thing for a player to do is to familiarise himself with his adversaries’ weapons. _=The Trump Signal.=_ A player anxious to have trumps led, but who has no immediate prospect of the lead, may call on his partner to lead trumps at the first opportunity, by playing any two cards of a suit led, the higher before the lower. Let us suppose him to hold five good trumps, with the Six and Two of a suit of which his partner leads King, then Jack. By playing first the Six, and then the Two, he calls upon his partner to quit the suit, and lead a trump. Among some players, the lead of a strengthening card when an honour is turned, is a call for trumps to be led through that honour at the first opportunity, but it is not good play.