The player having the most valuable game, regardless of the number of tricks or the suit, is the successful bidder, because a bid of seven in hearts, for instance, is worth more in points than a bid of eight in clubs, as will be seen from the following table. ---------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------- If trumps are: |6 tricks.|7 tricks.|8 tricks.|9 tricks.|10 tricks. ---------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------- Spades | 40 | 80 | 120 | 160 | 200 Clubs | 60 | 120 | 180 | 240 | 300 Diamonds | 80 | 160 | 240 | 320 | 400 Hearts | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 No-trumps | 120 | 240 | 360 | 480 | 600 ---------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------- The successful bidder always leads for the first trick, after he has taken the widow and discarded, and after the hand is played, he has the first count. If he has made as many as he bid, he scores it; but he cannot score more than he bid unless he succeeds in winning every trick. In that case he scores 250 if his bid was less than 250; but if his bid was more than 250, he gets nothing extra for winning every trick. Any player but the bidder winning a trick scores ten points for it, so it is necessary for each player to keep separate the tricks he individually wins.
For instance: One player holds four Tens and three Jacks, his adversary holding triplets of Aces, Kings, and Queens. None of the latter would be of any value, as the lowest quatorze is better than the highest trio, and the player with the four Tens could count his three Jacks also. Pairs have no value. The value of any quatorze is 14, as its name implies. Trios are worth 3 only. In discarding, the object is to secure the best counting combinations, and also to retain cards which will win tricks in play. The combinations take precedence of one another in scoring, the first being always Carte Blanche, then the Point, then Sequence, and lastly the Quatorze or Trio. _=DECLARING.=_ Carte blanche must be announced and shown before a discard is made. Each player having discarded and drawn, the elder hand proceeds to announce any counting combinations he holds, which he must declare in regular order, beginning with the point.
In the early days, when poker parties were small, four players being a common number, it was frequently the case that no one had a pair strong enough to draw to, and such a deal was regarded as simply a waste of time. To remedy this, it was proposed that whenever no player came in, each should be obliged to ante an equal amount for the next deal, and just to demonstrate that there were some good hands left in the pack no one was allowed to draw cards until some one had _=Jacks or better=_ to draw to. The result of this practice was to make jack pots larger than the other pools, because every one was compelled to ante, and this seems to have prompted those who were always wanting to increase the stakes to devise excuses for increasing the number of jack pots. 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.
He went back to his desk and slumped against it, scowling at the points of his handtooled boots. * * * * * Rose looked over at me. Let s make sense, he said quietly. We watched you on the TV monitor from the time you came in. Sure, I said. What about it? he demanded. I shrugged. I had my way with the dice, Peno. I dropped nine yards as fast as I could, then won it back. The spots came up for me every single roll but two, when I had my eye on something else.
Each player must watch the draw for himself. The last card of the pack must not be dealt. When only two cards remain, the discards and abandoned hands must be gathered, shuffled, and presented to the pone to be cut, and the deal then completed. _=BETTING UP THE HANDS.=_ All those who made good the ante having been supplied with cards, the next player who holds cards on the left of the age must make the first bet. Should the age have declined to make good his ante, or have passed out before the draw, that does not transfer the privilege of having the last say to any other player; because the peculiar privilege of the age,--having the last say,--is given in consideration of the blind, which he is _compelled_ to pay, and no other player can have that privilege, because no other player is obliged to play. Even if a player has straddled the blind, he must still make the first bet after the draw, because he straddled of his own free will, and knew at the time that the only advantage the straddle would give him was the last say as to whether or not he would make good his ante and draw cards. If the player next to the age has passed out before the draw, the next player to the left who still holds cards must make the first bet. The player whose turn it is to bet must either do so, or throw his hand face downward in front of the player whose turn it will be to deal next. If he bets, he can put up any amount from one white counter to the limit, two blues.
In doing this, he of course decreases the odds against his getting hearts, by deliberately winning the second round. But 2 to 1 in his favour is a much better chance than the certainty, almost, that he will be loaded if a particular player is allowed the opportunity to lead a certain suit again. See B’s play in Illustrative Hand No 2, and Y’s in No 4. A player may have no desire to prevent any particular adversary from getting the lead; but may be anxious simply to carry out a certain line of play. In order to do this it may be essential that he should have some direction of the course of the hand. This is impossible if his play is confined to following suit helplessly, whatever is led. He must be able to assume the lead himself in order so to change the course of the play as to better suit his game. Let us suppose that he has a dangerous hand in plain suits, but is safe in hearts, and decides that his best chance is to lead hearts at every opportunity; or that he has a certain safe suit which it is manifestly to his advantage to have led as often as possible. The other players, being the ones who are to suffer from this line of play, will of course prevent it if possible; and in order to carry out the plan in spite of their opposition, it will be necessary for the individual player to gain the lead a certain number of times, and so force his game upon them. Again, a player may know that he can load a certain adversary if he can get in and lead a certain suit or card; or he may know that by giving one player the lead, that player can load another.
_=27.=_ When three players, each with one life, remain in a pool, and the striker make a miss, the other two divide without a stroke. _=28.=_ Neither of the last two players can star, but if they are left with an equal number of lives each they may divide the pool; the striker, however, is entitled to his stroke before the division. _=29.=_ All disputes are to be decided by the marker; but if he be interested in the game, they shall then be settled by a majority of the players. BLACK POOL. This is a variation of English Colour-Ball Pool. A black ball is placed on the centre spot. The colours follow one another just as in English pool, until all the balls have come upon the table.
We ll take this pretty maiden, We ll take her by the hand, She shall go to Derby, And Derby is the land! She shall have a duck, my dear, She shall have a drake, She shall have a nice young man A-fighting for her sake! Suppose this young man was to die, And leave the poor girl a widow; The bells would ring and we should sing, And all clap hands together! --Berrington (_Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 511). VII. Tripping up the green grass, Dusty, dusty, day, Come all ye pretty fair maids, Come and with me play. You shall have a duck, my dear, And you shall have a swan, And you shall have a nice young man A waiting for to come. Suppose he were to die And leave his wife a widow, Come all ye pretty fair maids, Come clap your hands together! Will you come? No! Naughty man, he won t come out, He won t come out, he won t come out, Naughty man, he won t come out, To help us in our dancing. Will you come? Yes! Now we ve got our bonny lad, Our bonny lad, our bonny lad, Now we ve got our bonny lad, To help us in our dancing. --Middlesex (Miss Collyer). VIII. Stepping on the green grass Thus, and thus, and thus; Please may we have a pretty lass To come and play with us? We will give you pots and pans, We will give you brass, No! We will give you anything For a bonny lass.
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The Red Army suffers Heavy Loss.] [Illustration: Fig. 9--Battle of Hook s Farm. Complete Victory of the Blue Army.] Blue then pounds Red s right with his gun to the right of the farm and kills three men. He extends his other gun to the left of the farm, right out among the trees, so as to get an effective fire next time upon the tail of Red s gun. He also moves up sufficient men to take possession of Red s lost gun. On the right Blue s gun engages Red s and kills one man. All this the reader will see clearly in figure 9, and he will also note a second batch of Red prisoners--this time they are infantry, going rearward. Figure 9 is the last picture that is needed to tell the story of the battle.
(a). Includes Queen’s Gambits and Queen’s Gambits declined. (b). Includes Centre and Counter Centre Gambits. _=THE MIDDLE GAME.=_ After a little experience with openings, the player will usually select one or two which he feels that he can handle better than others, and will make a specialty of them. Having mastered a number of variations, and learned the object of them in forming his pieces for attack or defence, he will naturally be led to the study of the middle game. In this there are a few general principles which should be steadily kept in view. For attack, the player should secure command of a wide range of the board; but for defence he should concentrate his forces as much as possible. He should be careful not to get his pieces in one another’s way, and not to leave pieces where they can be attacked and driven back by inferior pieces, because that entails a loss of valuable time.