On the discovery of a revoke in Boston the hands are usually abandoned; but the cards should be shown to the table, in order that each player may be satisfied that no other revoke has been made. A player revoking in Misère Partout pays five red counters to each of his adversaries and the hands are then abandoned. 31. The revoking player and his partner may require the hand in which the revoke has been made, to be played out, and score all points made by them up to the score of six. In _=Boston=_, the hands are abandoned after the revoke is claimed and proved. In _=Cayenne=_, the revoking players must stop at nine. In _=Solo Whist=_, the revoking players must pay all the red counters involved in the call, whether they win or lose, but they may play the hand out to save over-tricks. If the caller or his partner revokes they must jointly pay the losses involved; but if an adversary of the caller revokes, he must individually pay the entire loss unless he can show that the callers would have won in spite of the revoke. Should he be able to do this, his partners must stand their share of the losses, but the revoking player must individually pay for the three tricks taken as the revoke penalty. If the single player revokes, either on solo or abundance, he loses the red counters involved in any case, but may play the hand out to save over-tricks.
_=Cards.=_ Slobberhannes is played with a Euchre pack, thirty-two cards, all below the Seven being deleted. The cards rank: A K Q J 10 9 8 7, the ace being the highest both in cutting and in play. There is no trump suit. _=Counters.=_ Each player is provided with ten counters, and points are marked by placing these counters in the pool. The player who first loses his ten counters also loses the game. If stakes are played for, counters of a different colour must be provided, and the player losing the game must pay as many counters to each of the others as they have points still in front of them. One player is usually the banker, and sells and redeems all money counters. The others are redistributed at the end of each game.
Your smallest possible game will be diamonds with three; which will be worth 5 multiplied by 4; 1 for the game, and 3 for the Matadores, 20 points. If you can get the game on any bid less than 20 you are absolutely safe, provided you can reach 61 in your tricks. But the opposition of another player may irritate you, [reizen,] and provoke you to bid 24, or even 28, in the hope of turning a heart or a spade. If you go beyond 20, and turn a diamond, you must either find the fourth Matadore in the Skat, or make your adversaries schneider, in order to secure another multiplier. If you fail, you lose 24, or 28, according to your bid. The great difficulty in Skat is to judge the value of a hand, so as neither to under nor overbid it, and also to get all out of it that it is worth. A person who plays a Frage in hearts when he could easily have made it a Solo, reduces the value of his game just eighty per cent. A player with the four Wenzels, A K Q 9 8 of diamonds, and a losing card, would be foolish to play a diamond Solo with five, schneider announced, worth 72; while he had in his hand a sure Grand, with four, schneider announced, worth 140. Of course the schneider is not a certainty. The risk is that the Ten of diamonds will be guarded, and that an Ace and a Ten will make, both of them on your losing card, or one of them on the diamond Ten.
| | . | | . | | . | +---+-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+ | | . | | . | | .
A calls six tricks, intending to name hearts trumps; but not saying so. B passes; Y says “I Keep.” This announces to the table that Y will play with a red trump, and A knows he is bidding on diamonds. Z passes, and A says; “I keep over you.” B then bids seven tricks, and if A will not risk seven tricks in hearts, B will be the successful bidder. If A should bid seven tricks by keeping over B, the latter must know that it is useless for him to bid again unless he can make more tricks in diamonds than A can in hearts; for A’s bid, being in first preference, will always outrank B’s for the same number of tricks. A player once having passed cannot come into the bidding again, except to call one of the misères. In the example just given, either Y or Z, after having twice passed, might have outbid the seven tricks by calling a little misère. Such a bid can, of course, be entertained only when it outranks any bid already made. A player is not compelled to bid the full value of his hand; but it is to his interest to go as near to it as he can with safety; because, as we shall see presently, the more he bids the more he is paid.
This derivation would account for both spellings of the word, with a “k” and with a “c.” The student is advised to make himself familiar with the German terms in the following description, as they are in common use wherever skat is played. Many American players who use the English language in bidding by figures, still adhere to the German names for the suits and positions at the table. _=CARDS.=_ Skat is played with a pack of thirty-two cards, all below the Seven being deleted. The rank of the cards differs according to whether the players are attempting to win or to lose tricks. If the object is to win tricks, it is known as a “game;” if the object is to lose, it is called a “nullo.” In nullo the cards rank in their natural order; A K Q J 10 9 8 7, the Ace being the highest. In the various “games,” the four Jacks are always the best trumps, and are known as _=Wenzels=_. The other cards follow the usual German rank; A 10 K Q 9 8 7, the Ace being the highest in plain suits.
AUCTION PITCH, SELL OUT, OR COMMERCIAL PITCH. This very popular round game derives its name from the fact that the first card led or “pitched” is the trump suit, and that the privilege of pitching it belongs to the eldest hand, who may sell it out to the highest bidder. The number of _=cards=_ and their rank is the same as at Seven-up; A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2, the ace being the highest in cutting and in play. _=Players.=_ Any number from four to seven may play, each for himself; five is considered the best game. The players cut for choice of seats, the highest cut taking the first choice and the deal. _=Counters.=_ Each player should be provided with seven white counters to mark the game. If stakes are played for, red counters are used to make up the pool, one player acting as the banker to sell and redeem all red counters. _=Dealing.
Having claimed these 27 points, and their correctness having been admitted by the elder hand, the dealer proceeds to play a card. If either player has forgotten to declare anything before he plays, the count is lost. _=Sinking.=_ A player is not obliged to declare any combination unless he wishes to do so, and he may sink a card if he thinks it would be to his advantage to conceal his hand. Sinking is calling only part of a combination, as, for instance, calling 51 for his point when he really has 61; calling a quinte when he has a sixième, or a trio when he has a quatorze. Sinking is usually resorted to only when the player knows from his own hand and discards that what he declares is still better than anything his adversary can hold; but it must be remembered that the part of the declaration which is sunk in this manner is lost. _=Irregular Declarations.=_ If either player claims a combination which he does not hold, and does not remedy the error before he plays a card, he cannot count anything that deal, losing any other declarations he may have made which are correct. His adversary then counts everything in his hand, whether his combinations were inferior or not. He also counts for what he wins in the tricks.
Second dealing is a common trick, especially on ocean steamers, marking the aces and slipping them back if they would fall to an adversary dealing them to the partner instead, who can go no trumps and score a hundred aces several times in an evening. Women are great offenders in trifling matters, such as asking the dealer if she passed it, when nothing has been said; looking over the adversaries’ hands as dummy, and then pushing dummy’s cards forward, as if arranging them, but in reality indicating which one to play. A great deal of petty cheating is done in putting down the score, and also in balancing it by cancellation. In large charity games, some women are so eager to win a prize that they will stoop to all manner of private signals, and some go so far as to make up a table and agree to double everything, so that some one of the four shall have a big score. Another common trick in so-called social games is to have a stool pigeon to overlook the hand of another and signal it up to the confederate who is playing. There may be some remedy for this sort of thing, but so far no one seems to have found it; or at least they lack the courage to put it in practice and expose the offenders. _=SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAY.=_ The great secret of success in auction lies in sound bidding, so that no bid shall have a double meaning and the partner may be able to rely absolutely on the information which the bid should convey. The complications of the situation are so numerous, owing to the variations introduced by each succeeding bid as the players over-call one another, that it would be impossible to cover them in a work of this kind, and the student would do well to consult some such work as “Whitehead’s Conventions,” which covers every situation that could possibly arise in the bidding. A few general hints may be of assistance in showing the principles that govern the more common situations.
Before the cards are dealt they must be shuffled in the presence of an adversary or the umpire. SEC. 2. The pack must not be so shuffled as to expose the face of any card; if a card is so exposed the pack must be reshuffled. LAW II.--CUTTING FOR THE TRUMP. SEC. 1. The dealer must present the cards to his right hand adversary to be cut; such adversary must take from the top of the pack at least four cards and place them toward the dealer, leaving at least four cards in the remaining packet; the dealer must reunite the packets by placing the one not removed in cutting upon the other. If, in cutting or in reuniting the separate packets, a card is exposed, the pack must be reshuffled and cut again; if there is any confusion of the cards or doubt as to the place where the pack was separated, there must be a new cut.