The ace is the highest card in play and in cutting. If five persons play, the Jack of each suit is added; if only three play, the Queens are discarded, reducing the pack to sixteen cards. Two packs are generally used alternately. _=Counters=_ or chips are used, as in Poker, instead of money. Any player may be the banker. _=Players.=_ Three, four, or five persons may play; but four is the proper number, and all descriptions of the game suppose it to be four-handed. _=Cutting.=_ To decide the positions of the players, a sequence of cards is sorted out, equal in number with the number of players. These cards are then shuffled, face downward, and each player draws one.
The spirit of prophecy was believed to exist in a dying person. See Handy Croopen. How many Miles to Babylon I. King and Queen of Cantelon, How many miles to Babylon? Eight and eight and other eight. Will I get there by candle-light? If your horse be good and your spurs be bright. How mony men have ye? Mae nae ye daur come and see. --Chambers _Popular Rhymes_, p. 124; Mactaggart s _Gallovidian Encyclopædia_. II. How many miles to Babylon? Three score and ten.
It is usual for the closer, if he does not hold the Nine himself, to take up the trump card and offer it to his adversary. This is an intimation that he is about to turn it down if his adversary does not want it. It is sometimes better not to exchange when the game is closed, as it may give the adversary a good counting card if he can catch all your trumps. There is no score for the last trick when the game is closed, because the number of tricks played will then be less than twelve. As closing gives peculiar advantages to the closer, there are certain forfeits if a person closes and fails to reach 66. There are three varieties of closing, which are as follows:-- If, during the play of the hand, either player thinks he has reached 66, he closes, and turns over the tricks he has already won. If he is correct, he scores one, two, or three points, according to the condition of his adversary’s count. But if he is not correct, and has not quite reached 66, his adversary scores two points in any case, and if the non-closer had not won a trick up to the time the stock was closed, he scores three; because that is the number the closer would have won if he had been correct in his count. If a player thinks he would have a better chance to reach 66 first if his adversary was compelled to follow suit, he may close the stock. For instance: A’s mental count is 35, and he holds in his hand a marriage, and the Ace of another plain suit; but no trumps.
Misdealing.=_ A misdeal does not lose the deal; the same dealer must deal again. It is a misdeal: If the dealer fails to present the pack to the pone; or if any card is found faced in the pack; or if the pack is found imperfect; or if the dealer gives six or more cards to more than one player; or if he deals more or fewer hands than there are players; or if he omits a player in dealing; or if he deals a card incorrectly, and fails to correct the error before dealing another. _=14. Irregularities in the Hands.=_ Should the dealer, or the wind, turn over any card, the player to whom it is dealt must take it; but the same player cannot be compelled to take two exposed cards. Should such a combination occur there must be a new deal. If the player exposes cards himself, he has no remedy. _=15.=_ Should any player receive more or less than his proper number of cards, and discover the error before he looks at any card in his hand, or lifts it from the table, he may demand a new deal if no bet has been made; or he may ask the dealer to give him another card from the pack if he has too few, or to draw a card if he has too many.
P-K4 Kt-KB3 KtxP 1 ---- 2 ------ 3 ------ P-K4 Kt-KB3 Kt-QB3 You don’t take the King’s Pawn; it is much more important to develop your pieces rapidly. KtxKt P-Q3 B-Kt5 4 ----- 5 ----- 6 ----- QPxKt B-QB4 KtxP White’s sixth move is bad, and you immediately take advantage of it. If he takes your Knight with his Pawn, you will take his K B P with your Bishop, and say “Check.” If he takes the Bishop you win his Queen. If he moves his King you check again with your other Bishop, which will force him to take your black Bishop, and lose his Queen. BxQ K-K2 7 ------ 8 ---------- BxP ch K-Kt5 mate If the beginner will examine the position, he will find that there is no way of escape for the King, and Black wins. Openings are usually divided into five principal classes: Those in which the first piece developed is the _=King’s Knight=_; those in which the _=King’s Bishop=_ is the first piece brought into play; those in which a _=Gambit=_ is offered on the second move, usually a sacrificed Pawn; those which are called _=Close=_ openings, securing a good defensive game for the black pieces; and those which are _=Irregular=_. In the following outline of fifty of the openings, only the first four moves are given, and usually only one variation is selected, the object being more to give the student an idea of the development than to exhaust the subject. The arrangement is alphabetical, that being more convenient in a book of reference. For the continuations the student is recommended to study “Freeborough,” or the “Handbuch des Schachspiels.
If he has more or less than the proper number of cards, his hand is foul, and must be abandoned, the player forfeiting any interest he may have in that deal, and any stake he may have put up on that hand. In all gambling houses, the invariable rule is to call a short hand foul; although there should be no objection to playing against a man with only four cards, which cannot be increased to five, even by the draw. _=STRADDLING.=_ During the deal, or at any time before he looks at any card in his hand, the player to the left of the age may _=straddle the blind=_ by putting up double the amount put up by the age. The only privilege this secures to the straddler is that of having the last _=say=_ as to whether or nor he will make good his ante and draw cards. Should he refuse to straddle, no other player can do so; but if he straddles, the player on his left can straddle him again by doubling the amount he puts up, which will be four times the amount of the blind. This will open the privilege to the next player on the left again, and so on until the limit of straddling is reached; but if one player refuses to straddle, no other following him can do so. Good players seldom or never straddle, as the only effect of it is to increase the amount of the ante. _=METHOD OF PLAYING.=_ The cards dealt, the players take up and examine their hands.
It is played with the full pack of fifty-two cards, which rank as at Whist, and any number of players from three to nine. Six cards are dealt to the widow, one of which must be discarded by the player taking it. All pools are alike, there being no difference between simples and doubles, and there is no such announcement as general rounce. There is no obligation to head the trick, nor to trump or under-trump; but the winner of the first trick must lead a trump if he has one. BIERSPIEL. This is a popular form of Rams among German students. Three crosses are chalked on the table in front of each player, representing five points each. When a trick is won, a beer-soaked finger wipes out the centre of a cross, and reduces its value to four. Successive cancellings of the remaining arms of the cross as tricks are taken gradually reduce it to nothing, and the player who is last to wipe out his third cross pays for the beer. No player is allowed to look at his cards until the trump is turned, and the dealer gives the word of command: “Auf.
If, whilst dealing, a card be exposed by the dealer or his partner, should neither of the adversaries have touched the cards, the latter can claim a new deal; a card exposed by either adversary gives that claim to the dealer, provided that his partner has not touched a card; if a new deal does not take place, the exposed card cannot be called. 39. If, during dealing, a player touch any of his cards, the adversaries may do the same, without losing their privilege of claiming a new deal, should chance give them such option. 40. If, in dealing, one of the last cards be exposed, and the dealer turn up the trump before there is reasonable time for his adversaries to decide as to a fresh deal, they do not thereby lose their privilege. 41. If a player, whilst dealing, look at the trump card, his adversaries have a right to see it, and may exact a new deal. 42. If a player take into the hand dealt to him a card belonging to the other pack, the adversaries, on discovery of the error, may decide whether they will have a fresh deal or not. A MISDEAL.
Only Psi force will get you out of this jam. If you know in advance where this operator is going to hit you, you can nail him. There s a dozen techniques. Peno Rose looked at me from under lowered brows. Are _you_ a PC, Lefty? he asked me. No, I said shortly. The Lodge had proved that several times, in spite of my strong feelings that I had flashes of precognition. Why should I resent not having PC? How many Psi personalities have more than one power? Not many. And as for precognition, as Simonetti said, more than their fair share is possessed by wild-looking women. Like Sniffles, I thought suddenly.
_=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. In English speaking countries the cards are always cut by the player on the dealer’s right, who is called the “pone.” In cutting to the dealer in any game there must be as many cards left in each packet as will form a trick; or, if the game is not one of tricks, as many cards as there will be in any player’s hand; four, for instance, at Whist, and five at Poker. The cards are always distributed to each player in rotation from left to right, and each must receive the same number of cards in the same round. In games in which the cards are dealt by two and threes, for instance, it is illegal to give one player two and another three in the same round. _=Misdeals.=_ In all games in which the deal is an advantage, a misdeal loses the deal; but in all games in which the deal is a disadvantage, or some position is more advantageous than that of the dealer, such as the “age” at Poker, a misdeal does not lose the deal. The only exception to this rule is in Bridge, in which there are no misdeals, and Cribbage, which has a fixed penalty. _=Bidding.
In every case I have acknowledged my indebtedness, which, besides being an act of justice, is a guarantee of the genuineness of the collection. I have appended to this preface a list of the collectors, together with the counties to which the games belong; but I must particularly thank the Rev. W. Gregor, Mr. S. O. Addy, and Miss Fowler, who very generously placed collections at my disposal, which had been prepared before they knew of my project; also Miss Burne, Miss L. E. Broadwood, and others, for kindly obtaining variants and tunes I should not otherwise have received. To the many versions now printed for the first time I have added either a complete transcript of, where necessary, or a reference to, where that was sufficient, printed versions of games to be found in the well-known collections of Halliwell and Chambers, the publications of the Folk-lore and Dialect Societies, Jamieson s, Nares , and Halliwell s Dictionaries, and other printed sources of information.
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. A different set of indicator cards is required for every different number of tables in the game.
10. _=Pair.=_ That the number will be even. 11. _=Manque.=_ That the number will be from 1 to 18. 12. _=Passe.=_ That the number will be from 19 to 36. 13.
|Draw a bucket o |Drawing a bucket of |Draw a pail of water. | | |water. |water. | | | 2.| -- | -- | -- | | 3.| -- | -- | -- | | 4.|For a lady s daughter.|For my lady s |For a lady s daughter.| | | |daughter. | | | 5.
A subtle, nasty operator, he said gruffly. And he s had the gall to stick it in me pretty badly, Wally. What Sime says is true. Well, this we wouldn t stand for. I didn t give a care if every gambling house in Nevada went broke. But Smythe was in the Lodge. And it finally made sense that the Lodge had sent me to bail him out. I gave old Maragon my mental apology. The Grand Master wouldn t stand still for _anybody s_ making a fool out of the Lodge. Still: Nobody that good is out of captivity, I snapped.
2nd. In order to avoid forcing partner. 3rd. In order to avoid forcing both adversaries. 4th. Because it is hopeless, and there is some chance in another. 5th. To prevent a cross ruff, by leading trumps. _=Simple Inferences=_ from the fall of the cards usually supply the best guide in the matter of changing suits. If the Jack is led from K Q J x x, and wins the trick, partner may be credited with the Ace; and if the original leader has four trumps, and a card of re-entry, he should quit his established suit, and lead trumps to defend it.
Those who hide themselves, instead of crying Hoop, as in England, cry Hy spy; and they are denominated the Outs. The business of the Ins is, after the signal is given, to lay hold of the Outs before they can reach the den. The captive then becomes one of the Ins; for the honour of the game consists in the privilege of hiding oneself. Jamieson adds, Hy is still used in calling after a person, to excite attention, or when it is wished to warn him to get out of the way. Strutt describes it as Harry-Racket, or Hide and Seek (_Sports_, p. 381). At Cork two sides are chosen for Spy; one side hides while the other side hunts. When the hunters see one of the hidden players, they call out, I spy ----, and the child s name. The player called must run after the Spy and try to catch him before he reaches his Den; if he succeeds, the one caught must go to the opposite side of players, then next time the spies hide, and those who have been hiding, spy (Miss Keane). A more general form of the game is for one child to hide, and to make a noise in a disguised voice to give notice of his whereabouts, or to call out Whoop! or Coo! Until this noise or call is made, the searchers may not seek him.
The best method of avoiding this is for each player, as the game proceeds, to announce and claim the lowest trump which has so far appeared, and instead of giving it to the current trick, to leave it turned face up in front of him if it is of no counting value. For instance: Four are playing, and a round of trumps comes out, the six being the lowest. The player holding it announces: “Six for Low,” and keeps the card face up in front of him until some smaller trump appears. It often happens that a player holds a 7 or 8, and having no idea that it will be Low, takes no notice of it. At the end of the hand it is found that both the 7 and 8 are out, the 7 being Low, and the holders of those two cards get into an argument as to which card each of them held. _=SCORING.=_ The last card played, the various points for High, Low, Jack, (if in play), and the Game are claimed, and the player or side holding them puts a counter in the pool for each. The side first getting rid of its seven counters wins the game. If both sides make points enough to win the game on the same deal, High goes out first, then Low, then Jack, and then Game. As already noticed, one card may be both High and Low; the Jack may be High, Low, Jack; and it is even possible, if there is no other trump or counting card in play, for the Jack to be High, Low, Jack, and the Game.