Some claim that it is from the Spanish basa, afterwards basico, a little kiss; referring to the union of the spade Queen and the diamond Jack, and the various marriages in the game. This was afterwards Basique, transformed by the French to Bésique, and by the English to Bézique. One English writer thinks the word is from bésaigne, the double-headed axe. Judging from the rank of the cards, which is peculiar to German games, Bézique may have originated in an attempt to play Binocle with a piquet pack, for Binocle seems to have been originally played with a full pack of fifty-two cards. One German writer says the game is of Swiss origin, and that they probably got it from Spain. In one writer’s opinion, the name Binocle, is derived from _bis_, until, and _knochle_, the knuckle, which would imply that the original meaning was, until some one knuckled; _i.e._, stopped the game by knocking on the table with his knuckles. This interpretation seems far-fetched, but if correct, it would sustain the opinion that Binocle was derived from the old game of Cinq-Cents, in which the player knocked with his knuckles to announce that he had made enough points to win the game. In the opinion of the author, the word “binocle” is a German mispronunciation of the French word “binage,” which was the term used in Cinq Cents for the combination of spade Queen and diamond Jack, as will be seen if the description of Cinq Cents is referred to.
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When three persons play, the entire pack is dealt out, giving sixteen cards to each player, four at a time, and turning up the last for the trump. There is no stock. Each plays for himself, and must keep his own score. A triangular cribbage board is very useful for this purpose. _=Dix.=_ Each player in turn, beginning on the dealer’s left, may show the Nine of trumps if he holds it, and exchange it for the trump card. Should two Nines be shown by different players, the one on the dealer’s left takes the turn-up trump. Even if the dealer has a Nine himself, he is not allowed to keep the turn-up trump. If the same player holds both Nines he may score twenty on winning a trick. A player with 990 up is not out if he turns up the Nine.
_=The Banker.=_ The banker for the next deal may be decided upon in various ways. The old rule was for one player to continue to act as banker and to deal the cards until one of his adversaries held a natural, the dealer having none to offset it. When this occurred, the player who held the natural took the bank and the deal until some one else held a natural. Another way was to agree upon a certain number of rounds for a banker, after which the privilege was drawn for again. Another was for one player to remain the banker until he had lost or won a certain amount, when the privilege was drawn for again. The modern practice is for each player to be the banker in turn, the deal passing in regular rotation to the left. When this is done there must be a penalty for dealing twice in succession, and it is usually fixed at having to pay ties, if the error is not discovered until one player has drawn cards. If before that, it is a misdeal. _=Pools.
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] [Illustration: _=Third Position.=_ Either to move; White to win. WHITE. +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | ⛃ | | ⛁ | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | ⛁ | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | ⛁ | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | ⛃ | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ BLACK. ] [Illustration: _=Fourth Position.=_ Black to play and win. White to play and draw. WHITE. +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | ⛁ | | ⛁ | | ⛀ | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | ⛃ | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | ⛃ | | ⛃ | | ⛂ | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ BLACK. ] The first position is one of the most common endings on the checker board, and should be very thoroughly understood.
This is, of course, the most difficult part of all, and, in fact, only experts were expected to do it. Every failure means out, and then your opponent has his turn. The winner is the one who gets through first. Such is the game as I remember it, but I have an uneasy suspicion that I have missed something out. I seem to remember one trick in which all the stones on the ground had to be picked up at once _where they lay_--scrambled up so to speak. Or it may be (and, in fact, I think it was) that sometimes, to add to the difficulty of the game, we picked up the groups of two, three, and four in Two-ers, Three-ers, and Four-ers in this fashion, instead of first placing them together.--Epworth, Doncaster (C. C. Bell). In Wakefield the set of pot checks, which represents five hucklebones, now consists of four checks and a ball about the size of a large marble.
=_ In Spoil Five there are three things to play for. If any one person can win three tricks he takes the pool. If he can win all five tricks he not only gets the pool, but receives an extra counter from each of the other players. If he has no chance to win three tricks, he must bend all his energies to scattering the tricks among the other players, so that no one of them shall be able to get the three tricks necessary to win the pool. When this is done, the game is said to be _=spoiled=_, and as that is the object of the majority in every deal it gives the game its name. In the older forms of the game the winner of three tricks counted five points, and if he could be prevented from getting three tricks his five points were spoiled. _=JINK GAME.=_ When a player has won three tricks, he should immediately abandon his hand and claim the pool, for if he continues playing he must _=jink it=_, and get all five tricks or lose what he has already won, the game being spoiled just as if no one had won three tricks. It is sometimes a matter for nice judgment whether or not to go on, and, for the sake of an extra counter from each player, to risk a pool already won. The best trump is often held up for three rounds to coax a player to go on in this manner.
Feind, G., an adversary; Gegner is the more common word. Figure, F., K, Q or J. Fille, F., see Widow. Finesse, any attempt to take a trick with a card which is not the best of the suit. First, Second, or Third Hand, the positions of the players on any individual trick. Five Fingers, the five of trumps at Spoil Five. Flèches, the points upon a backgammon board.
--Auchencairn, Kirkcudbright (A. C. Haddon). XVII. How s poor Jenny jo, Jenny jo, Jenny jo? He s very ill. Oh, very good, very good, very good. How s poor Jenny jo, Jenny jo, Jenny jo? He s fallen downstairs and broken his neck. Oh, very good, very good, very good. How s poor Jenny jo, Jenny jo, Jenny jo? He s dead. Oh, very good, very good, very good.
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.
Take one of my brave soldiers, Take one of my brave soldiers. --Deptford, Kent (Miss Chase). II. Will you surrender, will you surrender To the King of the Barbarines? We won t surrender, we won t surrender To the King of the Barbarines. We ll make you surrender, we ll make you surrender To the King of the Barbarines. You can t make us surrender, you can t make us surrender To the King of the Barbarines. We ll go to the King, we ll go to the King, To the King of the Barbarines. You can go to the King, you can go to the King, To the King of the Barbarines. --Clapham, Surrey (Miss F. D.
Halliwell says it was a rude game, formerly common in Yorkshire, and probably resembling the game of Cat. There is such a game played now, but it is called Pig. --Easther s _Almondbury Glossary_. Baddin The game of Hockey in Cheshire.--Holland s _Glossary_. Badger the Bear A rough game, sometimes seen in the country. The boy who personates the Bear performs his part on his hands and knees, and is prevented from getting away by a string. It is the part of another boy, his Keeper, to defend him from the attacks of the others.--Halliwell s _Dictionary_. This is a boys game, and is called Buffet the Bear.
| -- | -- | -- | | 7.| -- | -- | -- | | 8.| -- | -- | -- | | 9.| -- | -- | -- | |10.| -- | -- | -- | |11.| -- | -- | -- | |12.| -- |One in a rush and two |One we go rush, two we| | | |in a bush. |go push. | |13.|A guinea gold ring and| -- | -- | | |a silver pin.
It is seldom right to lead small cards of a plain suit. There is a better chance to make a trick with the King by leading it than by keeping it guarded. In the trump suit, tenaces are very strong, and should be preserved, especially if the tenace is over the turn-up trump. There is a familiar example of the importance of tenace when only two play, in which one person holds the major tenace in trumps, hearts, and must win three tricks, no matter which player leads. The cards in one hand are:-- [Illustration: 🂻 🂱 🂺 🂡 🂮 ] and those in the other hand are;-- [Illustration: 🃋 🂾 🂽 🂹 🃑 ] If the player with the major tenace has to lead first, all he has to do is to force his adversary with the plain suit, spades. Whatever the adversary leads, the player with the major tenace simply wins it, and forces again. If the player with the four trumps has the first lead, it does not matter what card he plays; the player with the major tenace wins it, and forces with the plain suit. As long as the major tenace in trumps is not led away from, it must win three tricks in trumps. _=Leading Trumps.=_ With strong cards in plain suits, the eldest hand may often lead trumps to advantage if the dealer’s partner has assisted, especially if the turn-up trump is small.
_, the original pursuer and the one caught), joining hands, carry on the game as before, incurring a similar penalty in case of being overtaken as already described. Each successive boy, as he is touched by the pursuers, has to make for the goal under similar risks, afterwards clasping hands with the rest, and forming a new recruit in the pursuing gang, in whose chain the outside players alone have the privilege of touching and thus adding to their numbers. Should the chain at any time be broken, or should the original pursuer unclasp his hands, either by design or accident, the penalty of carrying a capturer to the goal is incurred and always enforced. In West Somerset the pursuing boys after starting were in the habit of crying out the word Brewerre or Brewarre; noise appearing to be quite as essential to the game as speed.--_Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries_, i. 186 (1888). Another correspondent to the same periodical (i. 204) says that an almost identical game was played at the King s School, Sherborne, some fifty years ago. It was called King-sealing, and the pursuing boy was obliged by the rules to retain his hold of the boy seized until he had uttered-- One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. You are one of the king-sealer s men.
This pays 8 for 1. Limit is 750 francs. 4. _=Transversale=_, at the end of any three numbers, and taking them in horizontally. Pays 11 for 1. Limit is 560 francs. 5. _=Transversale Six=_, placed on the line at the end, taking in the three numbers horizontally above and below. This pays 5 for 1. Limit is 1,200 francs.
In the North Derbyshire version (Mr. S. O. Addy) a ring is formed of young men and women, a young man being in the centre. He chooses a young woman at the singing of the fifth line, and then joins the ring, the girl remaining in the centre. (_c_) The tunes of all versions are very similar. The tune of the Newbury game (Miss Kimber) is the same as the _first_ part of the Ogbourne tune printed (Mr. H. S. May); that from Nottingham (Miss Youngman) is the same as the first part of the London version.
With seven in suit headed by the Ace, lead the Ace, but never with less than seven without the King. With six in suit, you may lead the King from K Q, without either Jack or 10; but with less than six in suit never lead the King from K Q unless you have the 10 or the J also. _=THIRD HAND PLAY.=_ The leader’s partner must do his best to inform his partner as to the distribution of his suit. The method of doing this is entirely different when there is a trump from that which is adopted when there is no trump. In the first case, all your partner wants to know is, who is going to trump his suit if he goes on with it. In the second case, what he wants to know is his chance for getting his suit cleared or established. _=With a Trump.=_ When third hand makes no attempt to win the trick, either because his partner’s or Dummy’s card is better than any he need play, he plays the higher of two cards only, the lowest of three or more. This is called playing _=down and out=_.
| -- | -- | -- | |22.| -- | -- | -- | |23.| -- | -- | -- | |24.| -- | -- | -- | |25.| -- | -- | -- | |26.| -- |We ll set a man to |Set a man to watch all| | | |watch all night. |night. | |27.|Suppose the man should|If the man should fall| -- | | |fall asleep. |asleep.
This will simply have the effect of forming an additional pool to be played for. When there are several pools on the table, a successful caller takes any of those that contain the limit. When there is only one pool on the table, he must be satisfied with its contents, however small. At the end of the game, after the twelfth hand has been settled for, it is usual to divide the pool or pools equally among the players. But sometimes a grand is played without trumps, making a thirteenth hand, and the pool is given to the player winning the last trick. _=METHODS OF CHEATING.=_ There being no shuffling at Boston, and each player having the right to cut the pack, the greek must be very skilful who can secure himself any advantage by having the last cut, unless he has the courage to use wedges. But Boston is usually played for such high stakes that it naturally attracts those possessing a high degree of skill, and the system adopted is usually that of counting down. The greek will watch for a hand in which there is little changing of suits, and will note the manner of taking up the cards. The next hand does not interest him, as he is busy studying the location of the cards in the still pack.
The absurdity of their appraised value will be evident if we look at the first of them, the blaze, which is usually played to beat two pairs. As it is impossible to have a blaze which does not contain two pairs of court cards, all that they beat is aces up or kings up. If it were ranked, like other poker hands, by the difficulty of getting it, a blaze should beat a full hand. All these hands are improperly placed in the scale of poker values, as will be seen by comparing the odds against them. In any games to which these eccentric hands are admitted, the rank of all the combinations would be as follows, if poker principles were followed throughout:-- DENOMINATION. ODDS AGAINST. One pair 1¼ to 1 Two pairs 20 to 1 Three of a kind 46 to 1 Sequence or straight 254 to 1 Skip or Dutch straight 423 to 1 Flush 508 to 1 Tiger [Big or Little Dog] 636 to 1 Full hand 693 to 1 Round-the-corner straight 848 to 1 Blaze 3008 to 1 Four of a kind 4164 to 1 Straight flush 72192 to 1 Royal Flush [Ace high] 649739 to 1 When the true rank of these eccentric hands is not allowed, local custom must decide what they will beat. _=JOKER POKER=_, or _=MISTIGRIS=_. It is not uncommon to leave the joker, or blank card, in the pack. The player to whom this card is dealt may call it anything he pleases.
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When the result is a tie, it is called _=paying in cards=_. _=The Banker.=_ The banker for the next deal may be decided upon in various ways. The old rule was for one player to continue to act as banker and to deal the cards until one of his adversaries held a natural, the dealer having none to offset it. When this occurred, the player who held the natural took the bank and the deal until some one else held a natural. Another way was to agree upon a certain number of rounds for a banker, after which the privilege was drawn for again. Another was for one player to remain the banker until he had lost or won a certain amount, when the privilege was drawn for again. The modern practice is for each player to be the banker in turn, the deal passing in regular rotation to the left. When this is done there must be a penalty for dealing twice in succession, and it is usually fixed at having to pay ties, if the error is not discovered until one player has drawn cards. If before that, it is a misdeal.
2 may play with any ball on the table--red or white. After the first stroke has been played, the players, in their order, may play with or at any ball upon the board. Unless the player has played on some ball upon the board before knocking down a pin, the stroke under all circumstances goes for nothing, and the pin or pins must be replaced and the player’s ball put upon the white-ball spot at the foot of the table or if that be occupied, on the nearest unoccupied spot thereto. But should two balls be in contact the player can play with either of them, direct at the pins, and any count so made is good. If a player, with one stroke, knocks down the four outside pins and leaves the black one standing on its spot, it is called a Natural, or _=Ranche=_, and under any and all circumstances it wins the game. When a player gets more than 31, he is _=burst=_, and he may either play again immediately with the same ball he has in the pool rack, starting at nothing of course, or he may take a new ball. If he takes a new ball he may either keep it or keep his old one, but he cannot play again until it comes to his turn. THE LITTLE CORPORAL. This game is the regular Three-Ball Carrom Game with a small pin added, like those used in Pin Pool, which is set up in the centre of the table. The carroms and forfeits count as in the regular Three-Ball Game, but the knocking down of the pin scores five points for the striker, who plays until he fails to effect a carrom or knock down the pin.
If this be true, the conversion of _morrals_ into _morris_, a term so very familiar to the country people, was extremely natural. The Doctor adds, that it was likewise called _nine-penny_ or _nine-pin miracle_, _three-penny morris_, _five-penny morris_, _nine-penny morris_, or _three-pin_, _five-pin_, and _nine-pin morris_, all corruptions of _three-pin, &c, merels_ (Hyde s _Hist. Nederluddi_, p. 202). Nares says the simpler plan here represented (fig. 2), which he had also seen cut on small boards, is more like the game than the one referred to in the variorem notes of Shakespeare. [Illustration: Fig. 2.] Forby has, _Morris_, an ancient game, in very common modern use. In Shakespeare it is called nine men s _morris_, from its being played with nine men, as they were then, and still are called.
Don’t think you can sandpaper a ball without injuring it. It takes an expert mechanic to true up a lignum-vitæ ball. Don’t lay a lignum-vitæ ball away DRY, if you don’t want it to crack. GENERAL LAWS, FOR ALL CARD GAMES. Very few games have their own code of laws, and only one or two of these have the stamp of any recognised authority. In minor games, questions are continually arising which could be easily settled if the players were familiar with a few general principles which are common to the laws of all games, and which might be considered as the basis of a general code of card laws. The most important of these principles are as follows:-- _=Players.=_ It is generally taken for granted that those first in the room have the preference, but if more than the necessary number assemble, the selection must be made by cutting. A second cut will then be required to decide the partnerships, if any, and the positions at the table, the latter being important only in games in which the deal, or some given position at the table, is an advantage or the reverse. The usual method of cutting is to spread the cards face downward on the table, each player drawing one.