=_ After the last card has been played, each player counts his cards face downward, and announces the number. The player having the majority scores the three points for cards. If it is a tie, neither scores. The cards are then turned face up, and the spades counted and claimed; and then all the points for Cassinos and Aces. It should be remembered that the total number of points to be made in each hand, exclusive of sweeps, is eleven, and the total of the claims made must agree with that number. _=Scoring.=_ There are several methods of scoring. The old way was to play 11 points up, deducting the lower score from the higher at the end of each deal. If one side reached 11 before the adversary reached 6, it was a lurch, and counted as a double game. The common method is to count every hand a game, and settle for it in counters.
If this does not decide it, the elder hand wins. _=The Prime.=_ Four cards of different suits, sometimes called a Dutch flush, is a better hand than the point. If a prime is the best combination shown, the holder wins the pool, and receives _=two counters=_ from each of the other players. If the pips in the prime aggregate more than thirty, it is called _=Grand Prime=_, and the holder receives _=three counters=_ from each of the other players, instead of two. If two or more primes are shown, the one with the highest number of pips wins. If this is still a tie, the elder hand wins. _=A Sequence=_ is a bobtail straight flush; that is, three of the four cards are in sequence, such as the 2, 3 and 4 of spades, with an odd card, such as a 9. This is a better combination than a prime, and the holder receives _=three counters=_ from each player. In case of ties, the highest sequence wins.
The other players scatter themselves over the playground. The Staigie locks his fingers into each other. He then repeats the words-- Hunt the Staigie, Huntie, untie, staige, Ailleman, ailleman, aigie, and rushes off with his hands locked, and tries to touch one of the players. He must not unlock his hands till he has caught one. When he has captured one, the two join hands and hunt for another. When another is caught, he joins the two. This goes on till all are hunted down.--Keith (Rev. W. Gregor).
This means an outlay of at least 75 counters. When the triplets come, will he get back 75 counters on them? He will probably win the blind, and one or two antes; but the moment he makes his own ante good, every player who cannot beat triplets, knowing his system, will lay down his hand. An extensive observation of the methods of the best players has led the author to the conclusion that the great secret of success in Poker, apart from natural aptitude for the game, and being a good actor, is to _=avoid calling=_. If you think you have the best hand, raise. If you think you have not the best, lay it down. Although you may sometimes lay down a better hand than the one that takes the pool, the system will prove of immense advantage to you in two ways: In the first place, you will find it a great educator of the judgment; and in the second place, it will take almost any opponent’s nerve. Once an adversary has learned your method, it is not a question of his betting a red chip on his hand; but of his willingness to stand a raise of two blues, which he will regard as inevitable if you come in against him at all. The fear of this raise will prompt many a player to lay down a moderately good hand without a bet; so that you have all the advantage of having made a strong bluff without having put up a chip. The system will also drive all but the most courageous to calling your hand on every occasion, being afraid of a further and inevitable raise; and it is an old saying that a good caller is a sure loser. The theory of calling is to get an opportunity to compare your hand with your adversary’s.
=_ The eldest hand, when he does not deem it advisable to go on with his own suit, may be guided in his choice by the strength or weakness of certain suits in Dummy’s hand. The play against Dummy is especially important at no trumps. Suits which it is good policy to lead through are A x x x, K x x x, or any broken sequences of high cards. Suits in which Dummy is long, or holds any of the regular high-card combinations, should be avoided; winning or high sequences being especially dangerous. To lead such suits through Dummy’s strength is an invitation to partner to force you in the suit led. It is not necessary for you to be strong in a suit which you lead through Dummy; and if you are both weak, is often advantageous; especially if it avoids leading one of his strong suits. With A Q 10 x; Dummy having J x x x; play the 10. If partner has the King you make every trick in the suit. With A Q 10 x; Dummy having K x x; play the Q. If Dummy passes, you make two tricks; if he covers, you have tenace over the Jack.
8. At the completion of 100 points the balls must all come to rest before the player makes his next stroke; otherwise the stroke is foul. 9. Should a player pocket the cue ball twice in succession without striking any object bail, he shall forfeit the game. 10. Should a player while upon his carroms pocket any ball, the hand is out, and he loses any points he may have made on that run. 11. Whenever, except on the final stroke, the cue ball is pocketed or forced off the table, the hand is out, the points scored on that run are lost, and the cue ball is in hand for the following player, who must play on a ball outside the string line, or else on some point of the cushion outside the line. 12. Should the spot on which any pocketed ball belongs be occupied, said ball shall be left off the table until the spot is free and the balls are at rest, with this exception--that should the 1 ball be pocketed, and its spot occupied, any player who is exactly 100, and whose turn it is to play, may demand that all the object balls be spotted and he shall play with ball in hand.
LIST OF AUTHORITIES ENGLAND. Halliwell s _Nursery Rhymes_. Halliwell s _Dictionary_, ed. 1889. Holloway s _Dictionary_, ed. 1838. Strutt s _Sports and Pastimes_, ed. 1831. Brand s _Popular Antiquities_, ed. 1875.
They form into couples, each standing behind the other, making a ring, the girls inside, one boy standing alone in the middle. As they go round they sing the verse. At the end each boy leaves hold of his partner s arm and catches the arm of the girl in front, the one who is standing in the centre trying in the confusion to get into a place. If he succeeds, the child left out has to be the one in the centre the next time. (_c_) Mr. Newell (_Games_, p. 101) says this game was called the Baptist Game in Virginia, where it is said to be enjoyed by pious people who will not dance. The American game is played in the same way as the English one. Mr. Newell gives the tune to which the game was sung.
Such are the following:-- [Illustration: 🂡 🂮 🂭 🂫 | 🂾 🂽 🂻 🂸 🂱 🂾 🂽 🂳 | 🃞 🃝 🃘 🃔 🃑 🃞 🃕 🃒 | 🃎 🃋 🃊 🃅 🃁 🃍 🃋 🃂 | 🂭 🂫 🂪 🂣 ] The beginner must be careful with these:-- [Illustration: 🂡 🂮 🂫 🂢 | 🃎 🃍 🃊 🃆 ] The combination which makes the first of these a high-card lead is the A K, and the King must be played Second Hand. The Jack has nothing to do with it. In the second, the Ten does not form any part of the combination, and the Queen is the card to play Second Hand. Some players will not play a high card second hand with K Q x x unless weak in trumps. An exception is generally made with these combinations, from which the proper lead is the Ace. [Illustration: 🃑 🃝 🃘 🃔 🃓 | 🂡 🂩 🂨 🂧 🂤 ] Many will not play Ace Second Hand in any case, and will play the Queen with the first combination only when they are weak in trumps. The reason for this exception is the importance of retaining command of the adverse suit as long as possible. _=On the Second Round=_, the Second Hand should follow the usual rule for playing the best of the suit if he holds it; or one of the second and third best, if he holds them. He should also be careful to estimate, by the eleven rule, how many cards are out against the leader, which will sometimes guide him to a good finesse. For instance: first player leads Ace, then Eight.
_=The Revoke.=_ Should the adversaries detect and claim a revoke before the cards are cut for the following deal, they have the option of three penalties: 1st. To take three tricks from the revoking player, adding them to their own. 2nd. To deduct three points from his game score. 3rd. To add three points to their own game score. The penalty cannot be divided. A revoke may be corrected by the player making it before the trick in which it occurs has been turned and quitted. The card played in error must be left face up on the table, and must be played when demanded by the adversaries, unless it can be got rid of previously, in the course of play.
The centre child says-- O no, she has gone into the town: Pray take the arm-chair and sit yourself down. The ring of children then sing-- O no, not until my dearest I see, And then one chair will do for we. Then all sing-- My elbow, my elbow, My pitcher, and my can: Isn t ---- ---- a nice young girl? Mentioning the supposed sweetheart. Isn t ---- ---- as nice as she? Mentioning the outside child. They shall be married when they can agree. Then the inside and outside children each choose a companion from the circle, and the rest repeat:-- My elbow, my elbow, &c. When the words have been sung a second time, the four children kiss, and the two from the circle take the places of the other, after which change the game begins again.--North Kelsey, Lincolnshire (Miss M. Peacock). Knor and Spell See Nur and Spell.
A vulgar expression. Cutting, dividing the pack when presented by the dealer; or drawing lots for choice of seats and deal. Cutting In and Out, deciding by cutting which players shall give way to fresh candidates. Curse of Scotland, the nine of diamonds. Cut Shots, very fine winning hazards. Dealing Off, the same dealer dealing again. Deck-head, an Irish name for the turned trump at Spoil Five. Deadwood, the pins that fall on the alley, in bowling. Décavé, F., frozen out; the entire amount of the original stake being lost.
The feedback of the power-steering wrenched the wheel from the driver s hand--it was ten times as strong as he was, dragging its power as it did from a four-hundred horsepower shaft turning 30,000 rpm. The car careened and skidded across the curb. It took out a small marble rail around the fountain pool and dived in, still screaming rubber. The fountain went over with a crash and then the racket dwindled off in the shriek of twisted buckets. The turbine had gotten what for in the collision. I didn t hang around to see what had happened to the driver. He was just some heavy who had the job of rubbing me out. But I did seek another haven. If they knew me that well, I d never be safe where I had stashed my suitcase. There was a copter squatting at the Sky Hi s ramp.
For the present, I have done all that I meant to do in this matter. It is for you, dear reader, now to get a floor, a friend, some soldiers and some guns, and show by a grovelling devotion your appreciation of this noble and beautiful gift of a limitless game that I have given you. And if I might for a moment trumpet! How much better is this amiable miniature than the Real Thing! Here is a homeopathic remedy for the imaginative strategist. Here is the premeditation, the thrill, the strain of accumulating victory or disaster--and no smashed nor sanguinary bodies, no shattered fine buildings nor devastated country sides, no petty cruelties, none of that awful universal boredom and embitterment, that tiresome delay or stoppage or embarrassment of every gracious, bold, sweet, and charming thing, that we who are old enough to remember a real modern war know to be the reality of belligerence. This world is for ample living; we want security and freedom; all of us in every country, except a few dull-witted, energetic bores, want to see the manhood of the world at something better than apeing the little lead toys our children buy in boxes. We want fine things made for mankind--splendid cities, open ways, more knowledge and power, and more and more and more--and so I offer my game, for a particular as well as a general end; and let us put this prancing monarch and that silly scare-monger, and these excitable patriots, and those adventurers, and all the practitioners of Welt Politik, into one vast Temple of War, with cork carpets everywhere, and plenty of little trees and little houses to knock down, and cities and fortresses, and unlimited soldiers--tons, cellars-full--and let them lead their own lives there away from us. My game is just as good as their game, and saner by reason of its size. Here is War, done down to rational proportions, and yet out of the way of mankind, even as our fathers turned human sacrifices into the eating of little images and symbolic mouthfuls. For my own part, I am _prepared_. I have nearly five hundred men, more than a score of guns, and I twirl my moustache and hurl defiance eastward from my home in Essex across the narrow seas.
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. LAW III.--DEALING. SEC. 1.
O ----, O ----, your true love is dead; He sent you a letter To turn round your head. Green gravel, green gravel, The grass is so green, The dismalest damsels As ever were seen. O ----, O ----, your true love s not dead; He sends you a letter To turn back your head. --Lincoln, Winterton, and Wakefield (Miss Fowler and Miss Peacock). VI. Green gravel, green gravel, the grass is so green, The fairest young lady [damsel] that ever was seen. O ----, O ----, your true love is dead; He s sent you a letter to turn round your head. --Redhill, Surrey (Miss G. Hope); Lancashire (Mrs. Harley).
_=Leading Out of Turn.=_ If either of the dealer’s adversaries lead out of turn, the dealer may either call the card exposed, or may call a suit when it is the turn of either adversary to lead. If the dealer leads out of turn, there is no penalty, but he cannot correct the error if the second hand has played. _=Cards Played in Error.=_ If any player but the Dummy omits to play to a trick and does not correct the error until he has played to the next trick, his adversaries may claim a new deal. If any one, excepting Dummy, plays two cards to a trick and does not discover it, he is responsible for any revokes that he may make in consequence of not having the card in his hand. _=OBJECT OF THE GAME.=_ As in all members of the whist family, the object in Bridge is to win tricks, the highest card played of the suit led winning, and trumps, if any, winning against all other suits. At the end of each hand the side that has won any tricks in excess of the book, scores them, after multiplying their number by the unit of value settled upon by the doubling, if any took place. As soon as either side reaches or passes 30, they win the game; but the hand must be played out, and all tricks taken must be counted.
The survivor of the first two must either say, “Yes,” to the offers made by Hinterhand, or pass. The final survivor then announces his game. It is usual for the last one to pass to signify that he is done by pushing the skat cards toward the survivor, indicating that they are his, and that he is the player. If a player is offered a game equal to his own he may still say, “Yes;” but if he is offered a better game, and still says, “Yes,” he runs the risk of being compelled to play. The old German way of bidding, adopted at the Skat Congresses in Altenburg, Leipzig and Dresden, was to bid in suits; a bid of club Solo outranking one of spade Solo, no matter what it was worth. This has long been obsolete, the objection to it being that a player might get the play on a game of much inferior value. A player with a spade Solo, six Matadores, and schneider announced could offer only a spade Solo, without mentioning its value, and although his game was worth 99, he could be outbid by an offer of Nullo, which was then worth only 20. This is contrary to the spirit of the game, which requires that the person offering the game of the greatest value shall be the player. The rank of the bids in the old German game was as follows, beginning with the lowest:-- Frage, in the order of the suits. Tourné, in the order of the suits.
Clubby. Coal under Candlestick. Cob. Cobbin-match. Cobble. Cobbler s Hornpipe. Cob-nut. Cock. Cock-battler. Cock-fight.
There is more reason for this when we consider how easy the notion of clock-winding would creep in after the old veneration for the sacred alder tree had ceased to exist. [Illustration] See Bulliheisle, Wind up the Bush Faggot, Wind up the Watch. Ezzeka Old Ezzeka did one day stand Upon a barrel top; The bung flew out, and all at once It went off with a pop. --Dronfield (S. O. Addy). This game is usually played in a house or schoolroom, by boys and girls. A boy or girl is chosen who is considered to be able to stand a joke. He sits on a chair. A stool is put behind, upon which a boy called Ezzeka stands.
Broken-down Tradesmen. Brother Ebenezer. Bubble-hole. Bubble-justice. Buck, Buck. Buck i t Neucks. Buckerels. Buckey-how. Buff. Buk-hid.
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. If the latter succeeded in breaking away before the couplet was finished, the capture was incomplete. The second game described is almost identical with King Cæsar, played at Barnes. About twenty years ago the game was common in some parts of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, where it was sometimes called Chevy Chase. --_Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 233.
=_ 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.=_ Six cards are dealt to each player, three at a time, but no trump is turned. All the rules for irregularities in the deal are the same as in Seven-up, but a misdeal does not lose the deal under any circumstances. _=Objects of the Game.=_ As in Seven-up, the object of each player is to get rid of his seven counters, one of which he is entitled to put in the pool for each of the following points: For holding the _=highest=_ trump in play; for holding (having dealt to him) the _=lowest=_ trump in play; for winning a trick with the _=Jack=_ of trumps in it; for making the greatest number of the pips that count for the _=game=_ point. The details of these points have already been explained in connection with Seven-up. If the count for Game is a tie, no one scores it. _=Bidding.