For instance: The third player holds cards; after him the fourth and fifth are paid, and then the first and second, each alternately with a player on the other side of the table. _=Banco.=_ Each player in turn, beginning with the one to whom cards will be dealt first, has the right to go banco; that is, to challenge the banker to play for his entire capital at a single coup. Such a proposition takes precedence of all others. If the bank loses such a coup, it must be put up to the highest bidder again, or offered to the next player on the list. If it wins, the same player, or any other player, may make a similar offer for the next coup, which will now be for double the first amount, of course; but no player is allowed to offer banco more than twice in succession. _=Dealing.=_ The cards cut, the banker takes a convenient number of them in his hand, or better, spreads them face downward on the table, and slips off the top card, giving it to the player next him on the right, face down. The next card he gives to the player on his left, and the next to himself. He gives another card to the right, to the left, and to himself, and then the players take them up and examine them.
_=METHODS OF CHEATING.=_ In all games in which the cards are dealt in bulk, four or six at a time, there is more or less temptation for the greek to gather desirable cards in the pack, leaving them undisturbed in the shuffle. If he can pick up two tricks of the previous deal with eight good cards of the same suit in them, by placing any two tricks of other cards between them, and dealing six at a time, he can tell exactly how many of the eight located cards are in his partner’s hand. For this reason a player who does not thoroughly shuffle the cards should be carefully watched; and an immediate protest should be made against any disarrangement of the tricks as they are taken in during the play, such as placing the last trick taken under the first. If the player doing this is to be the next dealer, any one observing the movement should insist upon his right to shuffle the cards thoroughly; if not to leave the game. We are strongly opposed to dealing the cards in bulk at Cayenne, and see no reason why the methods that prevail in the very similar game of Bridge should not be adopted. _=SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAY.=_ There is little to add to the rules already given for Whist. The principles that should guide in the making of the trump have been given in connection with the more important game of Bridge; and the suggestions for playing nullo will be fully discussed in the games in which it is a prominent characteristic: Solo Whist, and Boston. Grand is practically Whist after the trumps are exhausted.
But should the pairs be alike in both hands; such as tens, the highest card outside the pair would decide the rank of the hands, and if those were also alike, the next card, or perhaps the fifth would have to be considered. Should the three odd cards in each hand be identical, the hands would be a tie, and would divide any pool to which each had a claim. Two flushes would decide their rank in the same manner. If both were ace and Jack high, the third card in one being a nine, and in the other an eight, the nine would win. In full hands the rank of the triplets decides the value of the hand. Three Queens and a pair of deuces will beat three Jacks and a pair of aces. In straights, the highest card of the sequence wins; not necessarily the highest card in the hand, for a player may have a sequence of A 2 3 4 5, which is only five high, and would be beaten by a sequence of 2 3 4 5 6. The ace must either begin or end a sequence, for a player is not allowed to call such a combination as Q K A 2 3 a straight. 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.
Moreover, in our desire to bring the game to a climax, we decided that instead of a fight to a finish we would fight to some determined point, and we found very good sport in supposing that the arrival of three men of one force upon the back line of the opponent s side of the country was of such strategic importance as to determine the battle. But this form of battle we have since largely abandoned in favour of the old fight to a finish again. We found it led to one type of battle only, a massed rush at the antagonist s line, and that our arrangements of time-limits and capture and so forth had eliminated most of the concluding drag upon the game. Our game was now very much in its present form. We considered at various times the possibility of introducing some complication due to the bringing up of ammunition or supplies generally, and we decided that it would add little to the interest or reality of the game. Our battles are little brisk fights in which one may suppose that all the ammunition and food needed are carried by the men themselves. But our latest development has been in the direction of killing hand to hand or taking prisoners. We found it necessary to distinguish between an isolated force and a force that was merely a projecting part of a larger force. We made a definition of isolation. After a considerable amount of trials we decided that a man or a detachment shall be considered to be isolated when there is less than half its number of its own side within a move of it.
_=Objects of the Game.=_The object of each player is to form triplets, fours, and sequences, by combining the cards dealt him with others drawn from the stock. These combinations are laid upon the table, face up, and the player wins the game who first succeeds in laying down eleven cards in this manner. _=Sequences=_ must be all of the same suit, and cannot be shorter than three cards. The Ace is not in sequence with the King, but the 7 is next below the Jack. A sequence once started can be added to from time to time as the cards are drawn from the stock. _=Triplets=_ are any three cards of the same denomination, and they may be increased to _=Fours=_ at any time, by adding the other card. _=Borrowing.=_ A player with four of a kind on the table may borrow any one of the four to use in a sequence; but he cannot borrow one of three, because no combination may consist of less than three cards. In the same manner a player may borrow the card at either end of a sequence of at least four cards, if he can use it to make a triplet.
If the card turned over is a Jack, he may change to a Grand; but he must do so before he sees the second card in the Skat. If the player does not like the first card he turns, he need not show it, but may put it in his hand and turn the other. This second one must be the trump; or a Grand may be played if the card is a Jack. In case the game is lost after taking the second card, it costs double. This is called _=Passt mir Nicht=_. In a _=Solo=_, the skat cards are not touched, the successful bidder naming the trump to suit the hand of ten cards originally dealt him. The Skat belongs to him, as in Frage and Tourné, but he must not see its contents until the hand is played out, when any points and Matadores it may contain will count for him. In a _=Grand=_ there is no trump suit, the four Jacks being the only trumps in play. These four cards preserve their relative suit value, the club Jack being the best, and they are still Matadores. There are four varieties of Grand: A tourné player may make it a Grand if he turns up a Jack.