Blind Nerry Mopsy. Blind Palmie. Blind Sim. Block, Hammer, and Nail. Blow-point. Bob Cherry. Boggle about the Stacks. Boggle-bush. Bonnety. Booman.
If the Ace is accompanied by other honours, such as the Queen or Jack, it is better to avoid opening the suit, unless you have five or more cards of it. But if you do lead a suit headed by the Ace, _=without the King=_, be sure that you lead the Ace, when playing against a trump declaration, or you may never make it. All such combinations as the following should be avoided, if possible, as more can be made out of them by letting them alone:-- [Illustration: 🃑 🃝 🃚 🃔 | 🃞 🃛 🃘 🃔 🂱 🂻 🂺 🂴 | 🂽 🂻 🂶 🂴 🂮 🂨 🂧 🂤 | 🂫 🂪 🂩 🂤 🃍 🃆 🃅 🃄 | 🃊 🃉 🃈 🃄 ] But with three honours, A Q J, the Ace should be led. _=Rules for Leading Short Suits.=_ It will sometimes happen that the only four-card suit in the leader’s hand will be trumps or a suit headed by honours not in sequence, which it is not desirable to lead. In such cases, if there is no high-card combination in any of the short suits, it is usual to lead the highest card, unless it is an Ace or King. Many good players will not lead the Queen from a three-card suit, unless it is accompanied by the Jack. All such leads are called _=forced=_, and are intended to assist the partner, by playing cards which may strengthen him, although of no use to the leader. The best card should be led from any such combinations as the following:-- [Illustration: 🃝 🃛 🃖 | 🃊 🃉 🃄 🃋 🃊 🃅 | 🃙 🃘 🃔 🂫 🂥 🂣 | 🂷 🂶 🂴 ] _=Small-card Leads.=_ If the suit selected for the lead does not contain any combination of high cards from which it would be right to lead a high card, good players make it a rule to begin with the fourth-best, counting from the top of the suit.
Of course, if you have the card to make a pair royal in return, that is another matter, and is playing on, not playing off. Do not play a card which brings the pip count to 5 or 21 if you can help it; because any tenth card will enable your adversary to peg two holes. Be a little wary about pairing the first card played, unless you have a third of the same denomination. If you have a choice between a pair and a sequence, your decision will depend on whether you are playing off or on. If you are playing off, make the pair, and take no chances of long runs. _=Playing On.=_ In this you play to give your adversary a count, hoping to make a better yourself. It is always advantageous to play one of a pair, and to begin with one end of a sequence. If he pairs your first card, you can reply with a pair royal. If he plays to make a sequence, you can sometimes hold him off until you get the score, and he will be unable to continue the run without passing 31.
The keeper has to replace the tin before looking for the boys. If, after that, he can spy a boy, that boy must come out and stand by the ring. When another boy is spied, he endeavours to reach the ring before the keeper does so, and kick out the tin. If he is successful, any one of the boys who is standing by, having been previously spied, is released from the keeper, and again hides. The object of the keeper is to successfully spy all the boys. When this is accomplished the last boy becomes the keeper.--Earls Heaton, Yorks. (Herbert Hardy). See Mount the Tin. Nine Holes Nine round holes are made in the ground, and a ball aimed at them from a certain distance; or the holes are made in a board with a number over each, through one of which the ball has to pass.
It is a notorious fact that even the shrewdest gamblers are continually being taken in by others more expert than themselves. What chance then has the honest card player? There are black sheep in all flocks, and it may be well to give a few hints to those who are in the habit of playing in mixed companies. Never play with a man who looks attentively at the faces of the cards as he gathers them for his deal; or who stands the pack on edge, with the faces of the cards towards him, and evens up the bunch by picking out certain cards, apparently because they are sticking up. Any pack can be straightened by pushing the cards down with the hand. The man who lifts them up is more than probably a cheat. Never play with a man who looks intently at the pack and shuffles the cards slowly. If he is not locating the cards for the ensuing deal he is wasting time, and should be hurried a little. Never play with a person who leaves the cut portion of the pack on the table, and deals off the other part. In small parties this is a very common way of working what is known as _=the top stock=_. If such a dealer is carefully watched it will usually be found that he seizes the first opportunity to place the part cut off on the top of the part dealt from.
_=PLAYING OUT OF TURN.=_ If any adversary of the bidder leads or plays out of turn, he forfeits three counters to the bidder, independently of the result of the hand, and receives nothing if the bid is defeated. If the bidder leads out of turn, the card must be taken back, unless all have followed the erroneous lead, in which case the trick is good. There is no penalty if he plays out of turn. _=REVOKES.=_ When a revoke is detected and claimed, the hands are immediately abandoned, and the individual player in fault must pay all the counters depending on the result. If he is the bidder, he pays each adversary; if he is opposed to the bidder, he pays for himself and for each of his partners. In England it is the rule to take back the cards and play the hand over again, as at Écarté, the revoking player paying all the stakes according to the result. This is often very unfair to the bidder, and leads to endless disputes as to who held certain cards which have been gathered into tricks. Sometimes the difference between a seven and an eight in a certain player’s hand will change the entire result.
With the hand still twisted throw up the ball and untwist and catch it. The checks are picked up in the course of the twisting. These I am told are the orthodox movements; and I do not doubt that in them there is much of very old tradition, although the tenth and eleventh must have been either added or modified since pot checks came into use, for the figures could not be built up with the natural bones. Some other movements are sometimes used according to fancy, as for example the clapping of the ground with the palm of the hand before taking up the checks and catching the ball.--J. T. Micklethwaite (_Arch. Journ._, xlix. 327-28).
_=Players.=_ According to the English usage, Dummy is played by three persons, and the table is complete with that number. They cut for partners and for the deal; the player cutting the lowest card takes dummy for the first rubber; the one cutting the next lowest takes dummy for the second rubber; and the one cutting the highest takes it for the last rubber. It is considered obligatory to play three rubbers, in order that each may have whatever advantage or disadvantage may be supposed to attach to the dummy. The three rubbers so played are called a Tournée. It is sometimes agreed that one player shall take dummy continuously, on condition that he concedes to his adversaries one point in each rubber. When this is done, the largest rubber that the dummy’s partner can win is one of seven; and he may win nothing; whereas his adversaries may win a rubber of nine, and must win at least two. This concession of a point is not made, as many imagine, because it is an advantage to have the (dummy) partner’s hand exposed; but because it is an advantage to have the player’s hand concealed. He knows the collective contents of the adversaries’ hands; each of them knows only the contents of dummy’s hand and his own. _=Cutting.
One can brew, one can bake, And one can make a lily-white cake; One can knit, one can spin, And one can make a bed for a king. Please will you take one in? [choose out one] Now poor ---- she is gone Without a farthing in her hand, Nothing but a gay gold ring. Good-bye! Good-bye! Good-bye, mother, good-bye! --Isle of Man (A. W. Moore) VII. Here comes a poor widow from Sandalam, With all her children at her hand; The one can bake, the other can brew, The other can make a lily-white shoe; Another can sit by the fire and spin, So pray take one of my daughters in. The fairest one that I can see Is pretty [Mary] come to me. And now poor [Mary] she is gone Without a guinea in her hand, And not so much as a farthing. Good-bye! Good-bye, my love, good-bye! --Forest of Dean, Gloucester (Miss Matthews). VIII.
Hope). III. I sell my bat, I sell my ball, I sell my spinning-wheel and all; And I ll do all that ever I can To follow the eyes of the drummer man. --Luton, Bedfordshire (Mrs. Ashdown). (_b_) In the Yorkshire version a ring is formed with one child in the middle as the Oary Man. Whatever he, or she, does, all in the ring must mimic, going round and singing at the same time. Any one found late in changing the action or idle in obeying the caperings of the central child becomes the Oary Man in place of the child taking that part. Both girls and boys play. In the Redhill version, Holy Gabriel kneels in the middle of the circle.
She was mumbling to herself. I guess you could call it an incantation. I got a picture of a nubile waif, too freakish to fit where she d been raised. What had her Hegira been like? In what frightful places had she found herself welcome? From her talk, it could have been an Ozark backwater. I didn t want to know what backwoods crone had taught her some mnemonic rendition of the Devil s Litany. Her hands passed up beyond my shoulder, to my neck. It s in yore haid, she said. In yore darlin haid! Fingers worked over my scalp. Oh, there! she gasped. Hit s ahurtin me! Hurtin , hurtin , and I m a draggin it off n yuh! Her backwoods twang sharpened as she aped some contemporary witch.
After the pack has been shuffled and cut, the dealer lays off two cards, face up for “hand cards.” He then deals a card for himself and one for the players, also face up. If either of these is of the same denomination as either of the hand cards, it must be placed with them, and another card dealt; because all bets must be made on single cards. Having two cards, one for the players and one for himself, the banker turns up cards one at a time. If he draws the same denomination as the players’ card, he wins all the bets upon it. If he draws his own denomination, he loses all bets upon the other card. If he draws a card that matches neither, and is not in the hand cards, it is placed on the table, and the players can bet upon it. As soon as the players’ card is matched, the banker withdraws both cards, but he cannot withdraw his own card. All cards matching the hand cards must be placed with them. TABLE GAMES.
In hands containing two pairs, “threes up” should be the highest, and “aces up” the lowest. _=ECCENTRIC HANDS.=_ In addition to the regular poker hands, which are those already given, there are a few combinations which are played in some parts of the country, especially in the South, either as matter of local custom or by agreement. When any of these are played, it would be well for the person who is not accustomed to them to have a distinct understanding in advance, just what combinations shall be allowed and what hands they will beat. There are four of these eccentric hands, and the figures on the right are the odds against their being dealt to any individual player: _=Blaze.=_ Five picture cards. Beat two pairs; but lose to three of a kind. [Illustration: 🂻 🃝 🃍 🃎 🂮] 3008 to 1 _=Tiger.=_ Must be seven high and deuce low; without a pair, sequence or flush. It beats a straight; but loses to a flush.
I have heard it credibly reported (and that _viva voce_) by men of great grauitie and reputation, that of fortie, threescore or a hundred maides going to the wood ouer night, there haue scaresly the third part of them returned home againe undefiled. Herrick s _Hesperides_ also describes the festival, and the custom of courting and marriage at the same time. The tune sung to this game appears to be the same in every version. END OF VOL. I. BALLANTYNE PRESS PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINBURGH AND LONDON Transcriber s notes: General: This eBook is Volume I of a two-volume work. Volume II is available as ebook number 41728 via the website of Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41728).
When he succeeds in doing so the one captured joins him (by holding hands) and helps to catch the other players. The game is finished when all are caught.--Cork (Miss Keane). Black Thorn [Music] --Earls Heaton, Yorks. I. Blackthorn! Butter-milk and barley-corn; How many geese have you to-day? As many as you can catch and carry away. --Monton, Lancashire (Miss Dendy). II. Blackthorn! Blackthorn! Blue milk and barley-corn; How many geese have you to-day? More than you can catch and carry away. --Harland and Wilkinson s _Lancashire Folk-lore_, p.
The game is usually 121 points up, or twice round the board, and only one player on each side keeps the score. Five cards are dealt to each player, one at a time, and one of these is discarded from each hand to form the crib, leaving four cards with which to play. The right-hand adversary of the dealer cuts for deal; the left-hand adversary for the starter. The eldest hand plays first, and all pairs, sequences, and fifteens are scored by the side making them. If a player says “go,” his left-hand neighbour must play, or pass the go to the next player on his left. In this way it may pass entirely round the table to the last player, who will then peg for it. At this game there is a great deal more in the play than in either hand or crib. The average hand and crib is the same as at six-card Cribbage, 7 for the hand and 5 for the crib, but the play for the partners will run to 8 or 10 holes. Either side should be at home with 48 to 50 on two deals; four individual hands of 7 each, four plays of five each, and one crib of 5. SEVEN-CARD CRIBBAGE.
Bedlams or Relievo. Beds. Bell-horses. Bellie-mantie. Belly-blind. Bend-leather. Betsy Bungay. Bicky. Biddy-base. Biggly.
How many pounds will set him free? Three hundred pounds will set him free. The half of that I have not got. Then off to prison he must go. --Crockham Hill, Kent (Miss E. Chase). (_b_) This game is now generally played like Oranges and Lemons, only there is no tug-of-war at the end. Two children hold up their clasped hands to form an arch. The other children form a long line by holding to each other s dresses or waists, and run under. Those who are running under sing the first verse; the two who form the arch sing the second and alternate verses. At the words, What has this poor prisoner done? the girls who form the arch catch one of the line (generally the last one).
If neither can peg out in play, the non-dealer has the first show. If he cannot show out, the dealer proceeds to count his hand and then his crib. If he cannot show out there must be a new deal. _=CHEATING.=_ The greatest advantage at Cribbage is to secure good starters, and for this purpose the greek adopts various methods of trimming and marking the cards so that he may secure a starter exactly suited to his hand. After trimming certain cards a trifle longer or shorter than others, the pack to be cut may be presented to the pone in such a manner that he will unconsciously lift them either by the ends or the sides, according to the wish of the dealer, and so uncover a starter exactly suited to the dealer’s hand or crib. When the sharper has the cut, he can of course uncover any card he pleases. With marked edges, the pone can cut down to a card of any desired denomination. Some audacious gamblers make it a rule to get a starter by simply removing the top card and turning up the next one. It is needless to say that the second card has been carefully pre-arranged.
Here are the robbers coming through, Coming through, coming through, Here are the robbers coming through, My fair lady. What will the robbers do to you, Do to you, do to you, What will the robbers do to you, My fair lady? Steal your watch and break your chain, Break your chain, break your chain, Steal your watch and break your chain, My fair lady. Then they must go to jail, Go to jail, go to jail, Then they must go to jail, My fair lady. --Belfast (W. H. Patterson). III. Hark the robbers Coming through, coming through, My fair lady. They have stolen my watch and chain, Watch and chain, watch and chain. Off to prison they shall go, They shall go, they shall go, My fair lady.
Grand Misère, 40 white counters. Little Spread, 80 white counters. Grand Spread, 160 white counters. It may be observed that each of these is twice the amount of the next lower. When misère partout is played, the person winning the largest number of tricks is the only loser, and he must pay each of the other players the difference between the number of his tricks and theirs in red counters. The number of red counters lost will always be found to be three times the number of tricks taken, minus the number of tricks not taken. For instance: A wins 4 tricks, three times which is 12; from which he deducts 9, the number he did not take, and finds his loss to be 3 red counters. Again; A wins 7 tricks; three times which is 21; minus 6 tricks not taken, a net loss of 15. No matter in what proportion the other tricks may be divided between the three other players, this total payment will always be found correct. For instance: A wins 6 tricks; Y 2; B 5; and Z none.