This has been carried so far that the whole system has become a nuisance, and has destroyed one of the finest points in the game of Poker,--the liberty of personal judgment as to every counter put into the pool, except the blind. The following excuses for making jack pots are now in common use: _=After a Misdeal=_ some parties make it a jack; but the practice should be condemned, because it puts it in the power of any individual player to make it a jack when he deals. _=The Buck=_ is some article, such as a penknife, which is placed in the pool at the beginning of the game, and is taken down with the rest of the pool by whichever player wins it. When it comes to his deal, it is a jack pot, and the buck is placed in the pool with the dealer’s ante, to be won, taken down, and make another jack in the same way. The usual custom is to fix the amount of the ante in jack pots, a red, or five whites, being the common stake. In some places it is at the option of the holder of the buck to make the ante any amount he pleases within the betting limit. Whichever system is adopted, every player at the table must deposit a like amount in the pool. Players are sometimes permitted to _=pass a jack=_; that is, not to ante nor to take any part in the game until the jack is decided. If this is to be allowed, it should be so understood at the beginning of the game. _=The High Hand=_ jack pot is played whenever a hand of an agreed value, such as a flush or a full, is shown to the board; that is, called.
Miss Baker (_Northamptonshire Glossary_) says the game is played in that county. Formerly in the northern part of the county even married women on May Day played at it under the May garland, which was extended from chimney to chimney across the village street. Duck at the Table A boys game, played with round stones and a table-shaped block of stone.--Patterson s _Antrim and Down Glossary_. Probably the same as Duckstone. Duck Dance [Music] --London (A. B. Gomme). I saw a ship a sailin , A sailin on the sea, And oh, it was laden With pretty things for me [thee]. There were comfits in the cabin, And apples in the hold; The sails were made of silk, And the masts were made of gold.
If no higher combination than a point is shown, the player with the winning point receives _=one counter=_ from each of the other players at the table, besides winning the pool, and everything in it. In case of ties, the player having two cards in sequence wins. For instance: an 8 and a 7 will beat a 10 and a 5. 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.
_=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. This is called the “card of uniformity,” because it indicates to the partner that there are remaining in the leader’s hand exactly three cards higher than the one led. Should the player be forced to lead any of the undesirable combinations shown on the last page, he would begin with the Ace if he held it; otherwise he would lead the fourth-best. In each of the hands shown this would be the four, and this card would be led, even if there were five or six cards in the suit.
|True love is dead. |True love is dead. | |19.| -- | -- | -- | |20.| -- | -- | -- | |21.| -- | -- | -- | |22.| -- | -- | -- | |23.|He s sent letter to |I send you letter to |He sent this letter to| | |turn head. |turn round your head. |turn my head.
Gomme). This game is called King-sealing in Dorsetshire. See King of Cantland, Lamploo. King Come-a-lay A game played by boys. Two sets of boys, or sides, strive which can secure most prisoners for the King.--Shetland (Jamieson). King of Cantland A game of children, in which one of a company, being chosen King o Cantland, and two goals appointed at a considerable distance from each other, all the rest endeavoured to run from one goal to the other; and those whom the King can seize in their course, so as to lay his hand upon their heads (which operation is called winning them), become his subjects, and assist him in catching the remainder.--Dumfries (Jamieson). Jamieson adds: This game is called King s Covenanter in Roxburgh. He also refers to the game of King and Queen of Cantelon, recorded by Mactaggart.
Take the case of three dice: As three numbers out of six must come up, it might be supposed that it was an even thing that one would be an ace. But the possible throws with three dice are 6 × 6 × 6 = 216; and those that do not contain an ace are 5 × 5 × 5 = 125; so that the odds against getting an ace in one throw with three dice, or three throws with one die, are 125/216, or 125 to 91 against it. To find the probability of getting a given total on the faces of two or three dice we must find the number of ways that the desired number can come. In the 36 possible throws with two dice there are 6 which will show a total of seven pips. The probability of throwing seven is therefore 6/36, or 5 to 1 against it. A complete list of the combinations with two dice were given in connection with Craps. _=Poker.=_ In calculating the probability of certain conflicting events, both of which cannot occur, but either of which would be favourable, we must make the denominator of our fraction equal in both cases, which will, of course, necessitate a proportionate change in our numerator. Suppose a poker player has three of a kind, and intends to draw one card only, the odds against his getting a full hand are 1/16; against getting four of a kind, 1/48. To find the total probability of improvement, we must make the first fraction proportionate to the last, which we can do by multiplying it by 3.
” Black could not throw off another man until the one hit had not only been re-entered, but had made the circuit of the board and got home again. A player is not obliged to throw off a man if he prefers to move, but he must do one or the other. In the foregoing diagram, for instance, if Black threw three-ace, he would be very foolish to take off two men, leaving a blot on his three point. He should move the ace from his four to his three point, and then take off the three, leaving no blots. _=SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAY.=_ Always see that the men are properly set up. It would be a great help to many persons if the manufacturers of backgammon boards would print upon them a small diagram of the correct position of the men. The first thing for the beginner to learn is the proper manner of playing the opening throws, and this should be practised with a board and men. In some cases there are several ways to play the same throw; double fours, for instance, it is said cannot be played wrong. All possible throws of the dice, from double six to double ace, and the various ways of playing them, are shown in the diagrams.
V EXTENSIONS AND AMPLIFICATIONS OF LITTLE WAR Now that battle of Hook s Farm is, as I have explained, a simplification of the game, set out entirely to illustrate the method of playing; there is scarcely a battle that will not prove more elaborate (and eventful) than this little encounter. If a number of players and a sufficiently large room can be got, there is no reason why armies of many hundreds of soldiers should not fight over many square yards of model country. So long as each player has about a hundred men and three guns there is no need to lengthen the duration of a game on that account. But it is too laborious and confusing for a single player to handle more than that number of men. Moreover, on a big floor with an extensive country it is possible to begin moving with moves double or treble the length here specified, and to come down to moves of the ordinary lengths when the troops are within fifteen or twelve or ten feet of each other. To players with the time and space available I would suggest using a quite large country, beginning with treble moves, and, with the exception of a select number of cavalry scouts, keeping the soldiers in their boxes with the lids on, and moving the boxes as units. (This boxing idea is a new one, and affords a very good substitute for the curtain; I have tried it twice for games in the open air where the curtain was not available.) Neither side would, of course, know what the other had in its boxes; they might be packed regiments or a mere skeleton force. Each side would advance on the other by double or treble moves behind a screen of cavalry scouts, until a scout was within ten feet of a box on the opposite side. Then the contents of that particular box would have to be disclosed and the men stood out.
=_ Special markers are made for scoring at Bézique; but the score may easily be kept by means of counters. Each player should be provided with four white, four blue, and one red, together with some special marker, such as a copper cent or a button. The button stands for 500 points, each blue counter for 100, the red for 50, and the white ones for 10 each. At the beginning of the game the counters are placed on the left of the player, and are passed from left to right as the points accrue, exchanging smaller denominations for higher when necessary. Many persons find it more convenient to peg the game on a pull-up cribbage board, starting at 21, counting each peg as 10 points, and going twice round to the game hole. _=STAKES.=_ Bézique is played for so much a game, 1,000 points up; or for so much a point, the score of the loser being deducted from that of the winner. When a partie of five games is agreed upon, it is usual to have an extra stake upon the odd game, and when three games have been won by the same player, the partie is at an end. It is usual to count it a double game if the loser has not reached 500 points. _=PLAYERS.
There is no authority for the introduction of the “h,” which has led some persons to think the word a compound of “bis” and “knochle,” and has given rise to the forms: binochle, pinochle, pinuchle, pinucle, penucle, penuchle, penuckle and pinuckel, all of which may be found in various works on card games. _=CARDS.=_ Binocle is played with two packs of twenty-four cards each, all below the Nine being deleted, and the two packs being then shuffled together, and used as one. The cards rank A 10 K Q J 9, the Ace being the highest, both in cutting and in play. _=COUNTERS.=_ The game is 1000 points, and is usually scored with counters, each player being provided with four white, worth 10 each; four blue, worth 100 each; one red, worth 50, and a copper cent or a button, which represents 500. These counters are placed on the left of the player at the beginning of the game, and are moved over to his right as the points accrue. The game is sometimes kept on a cribbage board, each player starting at 21, and going twice round to the game-hole, reckoning each peg as 10 points. _=STAKES.=_ Binocle is played for so much a game of 1000 points, and the moment either player either actually reaches or claims to have reached that number, the game is at an end.
It is even better to use a new card. _=Foster’s System=_ of playing two pairs at one table, which was used at all the matches for the Utica Trophy, in which one pair from a club challenged the pair that held the trophy for another club, consisted in having an umpire to transpose the suits between the original and the overplay of the deals. The trays containing the hands were sent in to the umpire’s room, and he had an extra pack of cards, from which he duplicated each hand of thirteen cards as he took it out of the pocket to which it belonged, but changed the suits, making clubs trumps instead of hearts, etc. This system was found to do away with the memory part of the game, it being very difficult to recognize a hand unless it had some startling feature. Coupled with the present practice of throwing out all hands in which there is found to be a suit of more than six cards, and dealing it over again, Foster’s system for two pairs is the best so far suggested. _=Eight Individuals.=_ This form of contest is seldom used, because players dislike the continual changing of position, and the delay in arriving at the results of the score. It would require seven sets to exhaust the combinations; and at each table two hands should be dealt, played, and exchanged with the other table in the set, before the players change positions. This would require 28 hands to complete the match. _=Safford’s System=_ for arranging the players is to have indicator cards on the tables:-- [Illustration: N N +---------+ +---------+ | 4 | | 3 | W|8 7|E W|1 5|E | 6 | | 2 | +---------+ +---------+ S S ] The players take their seats in any order for the first set; after which they go to the next higher number; 8 keeping his seat, and 7 going to 1.
If either, but only one, of the two numbers thrown can be played, the larger of the two must be selected. _=13.=_ If a player throws off men before all his men are at home, the men so thrown off must be placed on the bar, and re-entered in the adversary’s home table, just as if they had been captured in the course of play. The same penalty attaches to throwing off men while one is on the bar. RUSSIAN BACKGAMMON. In this variety of the game, no men are placed upon the board at starting, but each player enters his men by throws of the dice, and both players enter upon the same table, so that all the men on both sides move round the board in the same direction, and both players have the same home table, which is always the one opposite the entering table. After having entered two men on the first throw, the player is at liberty either to continue entering his men with any subsequent throws, or to play the men already entered. In moving or in entering a player may capture any blots left by his adversary; but he cannot enter upon a point covered by two or more of the adversary’s men. If a player cannot enter a fresh man with the throw made, he must play a man if he can. When a man is captured, he must be re-entered before any other man can be moved.
There is one day in the year, Shrove Tuesday, when the play is customarily practised, though not quite exclusively.--Atkinson s _Cleveland Glossary_. Easther (_Almondbury Glossary_) describes it as played with a wooden ball, a spel, and a pommel. Two may play, or two sides. When a player goes in he drives the knor for, say, 100 yards, _i.e._, five score, and he reckons five. Each person has the same number of strokes previously agreed upon, but generally only one innings. The spell is a kind of stage with three or four feet, to drive it into the ground. On the top of this stage is a spring made of steel, containing a cup to receive the knor, which is about one or two inches in diameter, and is made of holly or box.
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 careful player would be satisfied with 100 on such a hand, for if he fails to make the announced schneider, he loses everything. A player is not obliged to play the game he originally intended to, if he thinks he has anything better; but he must play a game worth as much as he bid, or the next higher, and having once announced his game, he must play it. Suppose Vorhand has a spade Solo with two, and on being offered 33 says, “Yes,” thinking the bidder will go on to 36, instead of which he passes. It is very probable that the bidder has a spade Solo without two, and will defeat a spade Solo announced by Vorhand.
Should any player in his turn refuse to straddle, no other player on his left can straddle. _=18. The Ante.=_ After the cards are dealt, each player in turn, beginning with the one to the left of the age, or to the left of the last straddler, if any, must either abandon his hand or put into the pool twice the amount of the blind, or of the last straddle. When it comes to the turn of the age, and the straddlers, if any, they must either abandon their hands, or make the amount they have in the pool equal to twice the amount of the blind, or of the last straddle, if any. _=19. Raising the Ante.=_ Each player, when it is his turn to come in, may add to the amount of the ante any sum within the betting limit. This will compel any player coming in after him to equal the total of the ante and the raise, or to abandon his hand; and it will also give such following player the privilege of raising again by any further amount within the betting limit. Should any player decline to equal the amount put up by any previous player, he must abandon his hand, together with all his interest in that pool.
Northall says this game is played after the manner of the Three Dukes (_Folk Rhymes_, p. 383). Halliwell (_Nursery Rhymes_, p. 98) has a version, and Rimbault (_Nursery Rhymes_) gives both words and tune. It is also contained in _The Merrie Heart_ (p. 47). See Jolly Hooper, Jolly Rover. Here comes One Virgin Here comes one Virgin on her knee, On her knee, on her knee, Here comes one Virgin on her knee, Pray what will you give her? When did you come? I came by night and I came by day, I came to steal poor Edie away. She is too old, she is too young, She hasn t learnt her virgin tongue. Let her be old or let her be young, For her beauty she must come.