If a player has a Gucki Null Ouvert, he must announce that it is to be played open before he touches the skat cards. It is then worth 30 if won; 60 if lost. _=Passt-mir-nicht tournées all lose double if they fail=_, but win the usual number of points if they succeed. _=Multipliers.=_ The foregoing are simply the standard counting values of these various games. In calculating the actual value of a player’s game, in order to see how much he may safely offer in the bidding, and how much he would win if successful in his undertaking, these standard values are multiplied as follows:-- Five classes of games are recognized, beginning with the lowest, in which the player gets the necessary 61 points, but does not make his adversaries schneider. This is simply called “game,” and as it must always be either won or lost, it is a constant factor. The value of the game is 1, and each better game is numbered in regular order, the five varieties being as follows: The Game, 1. Schneider, 2. Schwarz announced or Schwarz, 3.
Another version from Buckingham is given by Thomas Baker in the _Midland Garner_, 1st ser., ii. 32, in which the mother desires the daughter to milk in the washing-tub, and the words also appear very curiously tacked on to the Three Dukes a-riding game from Berkshire (_Antiquary_, xxvii. 195), where they are very much out of place. Mineral, Animal, and Vegetable A ball is thrown by one player to any one of the others. The thrower calls out at the same time either mineral, animal, or vegetable, and counts from one to ten rather quickly. If the player who is touched by the ball does not name something belonging to that kingdom called before the number ten is reached, a forfeit has to be paid.--London (A. B. Gomme).
Each player is for himself, there being no partnerships except the temporary combination against the declarer for each deal. The player who cuts the lowest card chooses his seat and cards and the player with the next lower cut sits on his left, the other on his right. The cards are dealt one at a time into four packets, of thirteen each, just as in the ordinary game of auction, the odd hand remaining untouched until the winning declaration is decided. The dealer makes the first bid and then each bids in turn until two pass. The penalty for bidding out of turn is 50 points added to the score of each opponent, for doubling out of turn it is 100. If both pass the irregularity there is no penalty, but if only one passes, the third may call attention to it. The highest bidder takes up the dummy hand, sorts it and lays it on the table opposite him, face up, as soon as the eldest hand leads a card. If there is a player sitting opposite the highest bidder, he moves to the vacant seat. The game is 30 points, and the winner of a game adds 125 points to his score at once. The first player to win two games not only adds the 125 for the second game, but 250 more for winning the rubber.
_ THE RUBBER. 1. The partners first winning two games win the rubber. When the first two games decide the rubber, a third is not played. SCORING. 2. Each side has a trick score and a score for all other counts, generally known as the honour score. In the trick score the only entries made are points for tricks won (see Law 3), which count both toward the game and in the total of the rubber. All other points, including honours, penalties, slam, little slam, and under-tricks, are recorded in the honour score, which counts only in the total of the rubber. 3.
=_ As a general proposition, the object of each player is to avoid getting any hearts in the tricks he takes in. In some varieties of the game his object must be to take no hearts; in others it will be to take less than his adversaries; while in others it will be to take less than four. After a person has taken in one or more hearts, his object will be to _=load=_ the others; that is, to see that they get some hearts also; or it may be to see that a given player takes at least one heart; or that no one but himself takes any. The manner in which a person must vary his play in accordance with these different objects will be discussed when we come to the suggestions for good play. In the meantime, it is necessary to bear in mind only the general principle that the object of the game is to avoid winning any tricks that contain hearts. _=METHOD OF PLAYING.=_ The cards dealt, the player to the left of the dealer begins by leading any card he pleases, and the others must follow suit if they can. The highest card played, if of the suit led, wins the trick. There is no trump suit. If a player has none of the suit led, he may discard anything he pleases.
This will make each player’s ante an equal amount, twelve counters, and they will then be ready to draw cards. No one can now raise the ante any further, because it is no one’s turn to “say.” It will thus be seen that every player in his turn can do one of three things, which are sometimes called the _=a b c=_ of Poker: He can _=Abdicate=_; by throwing down his hand, and abandoning whatever money he has already placed in the pool. He can _=Better=_; by putting up more money than any player before him, which is sometimes called “going better.” Or, he can _=Call=_, by making his amount in the pool equal to the highest bet already made. Should any player increase the ante to such an extent that none of the others care to call him, they must of course throw down their hands, and as there is no one to play against him, the one who made the last increase in the ante takes down all the counters in the pool. This is called _=taking the pot=_, and the cards are gathered, shuffled, and dealt again, the deal passing to the player who was the age. _=DRAWING CARDS.=_ All those who have made the ante good have the privilege of discarding, face downward, as many cards as they please, in the place of which they may draw others. The age has the first draw, and can take any number of cards from one to five, or he may _=stand pat=_, refusing to draw any.
All dance round and sing the verses. When it comes to the spelling part of the rhyme, the Miller points at one child, who must call out the right letter. If the child fails to do this she becomes Miller. In the Shropshire version, a ring is formed with one player in the middle. They dance round and sing the verses. When it comes to the spelling part, the girl in the middle cries B, and signals to another, who says I, the next to her N, the third G, the fourth O! his name was Bobby Bingo! Whoever makes a mistake takes the place of the girl in the middle. In the Liphook version, at the fourth line the children stand still and repeat a letter each in turn as quickly as they can, clapping their hands, and at the last line they turn right round, join hands, and begin again. In the Tean version, the one in the centre points, standing still, to some in the ring to say the letters B.I.N.
If all follow suit the winner of the trick leads any card he pleases for the next trick. If all follow suit to that again, the winner leads for the next, and if all follow suit again, that ends it, and the winners of the several tricks divide the pool. All those who have not won a trick are _=looed=_, and must contribute three red counters each for the next pool, which, added to the three to be deposited by the next dealer, will make the ensuing pool a double. But if in any trick any player is unable to follow suit, as soon as the trick is complete the dealer turns up the top card on the remainder of the pack, and the suit to which it belongs is the trump. If any trump has been played, the highest trump wins the trick. In any case, the winner of the trick must lead a trump for the next trick if he has one. When all three tricks have been played, the winner of each is entitled to one-third of the contents of the pool. Those who have not won a trick are looed, and must contribute three red counters each for the next pool. This is called a _=Bold Stand=_. _=In Double Pools=_, an extra hand is dealt for the widow, and a trump is turned.
This game is sometimes called Snip Snap Snorem, by those who are not of a poetical turn of mind. Any number of persons may play, and a full pack of cards is dealt out, one at a time. If some players have a card more than others, it does not matter. The eldest hand lays upon the table any card he pleases, and each player in turn pairs or matches it, if he can, with another of the same denomination, accompanying the action with a rhyme. Suppose the first card played is a King; the person playing it would say: “There’s as good as King can be.” The first player to lay down another King would say: “There is one as good as he.” The player holding the third King would say: “There’s the best of all the three,” and the holder of the fourth would then triumphantly exclaim: “And there’s the Earl of Coventry.” The fortunate holder of the Earl of Coventry in each round has the privilege of leading a card for the next trick, and the first player to get rid of all his cards wins one counter from the others for every card they hold. The words, “Snip, Snap, Snorem,” may be substituted for the foregoing rhymes if time is short. _=Jig=_ is a variation of Earl of Coventry in which the next higher in sequence and suit must be played, if the player has it, until four cards are shown.
There was formerly some kind of bread called cockle-bread, and _cocille-mele_ is mentioned in a very early MS. quoted in Halliwell s _Dictionary_. In Peele s play of the _Old Wives Tale_, a voice thus speaks from the bottom of a well:-- Gently dip, but not too deep, For fear you make the golden beard to weep. Fair maiden, white and red, Stroke me smooth and comb my head, And thou shalt have some _cockell-bread_. Cockly-jock A game among boys. Stones are loosely placed one upon another, at which other stones are thrown to knock the pile down.--Dickinson s _Cumberland Glossary_. See Castles. Cock s-headling A game where boys mount over each other s heads.--Halliwell s _Dictionary_.
One can mark out high roads and streams with an ordinary lawn-tennis marker, mountains and rocks of stones, and woods and forests of twigs are easily arranged. But if the game is to be left out all night and continued next day (a thing I have as yet had no time to try), the houses must be of some more solid material than paper. I would suggest painted blocks of wood. On a large lawn, a wide country-side may be easily represented. The players may begin with a game exactly like the ordinary Kriegspiel, with scouts and boxed soldiers, which will develop into such battles as are here described, as the troops come into contact. It would be easy to give the roads a real significance by permitting a move half as long again as in the open country for waggons or boxed troops along a road. There is a possibility of having a toy railway, with stations or rolling stock into which troops might be put, on such a giant war map. One would allow a move for entraining and another for detraining, requiring the troops to be massed alongside the train at the beginning and end of each journey, and the train might move at four or five times the cavalry rate. One would use open trucks and put in a specified number of men--say twelve infantry or five cavalry or half a gun per truck--and permit an engine to draw seven or eight trucks, or move at a reduced speed with more. One could also rule that four men--the same four men--remaining on a line during two moves, could tear up a rail, and eight men in three moves replace it.
(Rev. W. S. Sykes). VII. O what has this poor prisoner done, Poor prisoner done, poor prisoner done? O what has this poor prisoner done, So early in the morning? She stole my watch and lost my key, Lost my key, lost my key, She stole my watch and lost my key, So early in the morning. How many pounds to set her free, Set her free, set her free? How many pounds to set her free, So early in the morning? Five hundred pounds to set her free, Set her free, set her free, Five hundred pounds to set her free, So early in the morning. Five hundred pounds we have not got, Have not got, have not got, Five hundred pounds we have not got, So early in the morning. So off to prison she must go, She must go, she must go, So off to prison she must go, So early in the morning. If she go then I ll go too, I ll go too, I ll go too, If she go then I ll go too, So early in the morning.
For playing two moves in succession, the adversary may elect which move shall stand. For touching an adversary’s man, when it cannot be captured, the offender must move his King. If the King cannot move, no other penalty can be enforced. But if the man touched can be legally taken, it must be captured. For playing a man to a square to which it cannot be legally moved, the adversary, at his option, may require him to move the man legally, or to move the King. For illegally capturing an adversary’s man, the offender must move his King, or legally capture the man, as his opponent may elect. For attempting to Castle illegally, the player doing so must move either the King or Rook, as his adversary may dictate. For touching more than one of the player’s own men, he must move either man that his opponent may name. For touching more than one of the adversary’s men, the offender must capture the one named by his opponent, or if _either_ cannot be captured, he may be required to move the King or capture the man which can be taken, at the adversary’s option; or, if _neither_ can be captured, then the King must be moved. A player moving into check may be required, by the opposing player, either to move the King elsewhere, or replace the King and make some other move--but such other move shall not be selected by the player imposing the penalty.
Sun, May 22, 1904. It would seem that poker came from Persia to this country by way of New Orleans. The French settlers in Louisiana, recognizing the similarity between the combinations held in the newcomer from the East, _as nas_, and those with which they were already familiar in their own game of poque, called the Persian game poque, instead of _as nas_, and our present word, “poker,” seems to be nothing but a mispronunciation of the French term, dividing it into two syllables, as if it were “po-que.” There is no authoritative code of laws for the game of Poker, simply because the best clubs do not admit the game to their card rooms, and consequently decry the necessity for adopting any laws for its government. In the absence of any official code, the daily press is called upon for hundreds of decisions every week. The author has gathered and compared a great number of these newspaper rulings, and has drawn from them and other sources to form a brief code of poker laws, which will be found amply sufficient to cover all irregularities for which any penalty can be enforced, or which interfere with the rights of any individual player. DRAW POKER. _=CARDS.=_ Poker 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 or lowest in play, according to the wish of the holder, but ranking below the deuce in cutting. In some localities a special pack of sixty cards is used, the eight extra cards being elevens and twelves in each suit, which rank above the ten, and below the Jack.
If any player lifts his cards before the dealer has helped all the players, including himself, a misdeal cannot be claimed. _=Objects of the Game.=_ The object in Cassino is to secure certain cards and combinations of cards which count toward game. These are as follows:-- _Points._ The majority of _=Cards=_ taken in. 3 The majority of _=Spades=_ taken in. 1 The Ten of diamonds, _=Big Cassino=_. 2 The deuce of spades, _=Little Cassino=_. 1 The _=Ace=_ of any suit. 1 A _=Sweep=_ of all the cards on the table.
{ Elworthy s _Dialect_, _Somerset and SOMERSETSHIRE { Dorset Notes and Queries_, Holloway s { _Dictionary_. Bath Miss Large. STAFFORDSHIRE-- Hanbury Miss E. Hollis. Cheadle Miss Burne. Tean, North Staffordshire { Miss Keary, Miss Burne, Mrs. T. Potteries { Lawton. Wolstanton Miss Keary. { Moor s _Suffolk Words_, Forby s SUFFOLK { _Vocabulary_, Lady C.