_=Cards.=_ There are thirty-six cards in the pack, which rank: A 10 K Q J 9 8 7 6. Each Ace is worth 11, Tens are worth 10, Kings 4, Queens 3, and Jacks 2. This gives us 120 points in the pack, and the object is to get 61 or more. _=Dealing.=_ Any one can deal the first hand, after which the deal passes to the left. Three cards are given to each player the first round, then three for the widow, and then two rounds of four cards each to the players, so that there are three hands of eleven cards each, and three in the widow. _=THE GAMES.=_ Each player in turn, beginning on the dealer’s left, can offer to play one of three games, and the highest offer must be accepted. A player cannot increase his own bid unless he is overbid.
The string of children pass under the arch, the last of whom is taken captive by the two holding hands. The verses are repeated until all are taken.--Halliwell s _Nursery Rhymes_, cclxxxvii. [Illustration: Fig. 1.] [Illustration: Fig. 2.] [Illustration: Fig. 3.] [Illustration: Fig.
The last player with any cards left in his hand must take what is left of the stock, if any. The hearts taken in are then counted as usual. Thirty-one points is game, and the winner is the player who has the least hearts scored when some other player reaches thirty-one. SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAY. A good player, after sorting his hand, carefully estimates its possibilities. The hand may be such that it is evidently impossible to avoid taking some hearts. The player must then decide whether he will play to give each of the others hearts, or will take them all himself. If he succeeds in either object he has a chance to win back his money in the ensuing Jack. In deciding on his chances to get clear without taking a single heart, the player must first consider the advisability of beginning with a heart, or with a plain suit. If hearts, he should know the probability of the heart he leads not winning the trick; if a plain suit, he should know the probability of the suit going round one or more times without hearts being discarded on it, especially if he intends to lead high cards.
Rooking, hustling, inveigling a person into a game for the purpose of cheating him. Round, a round is complete when each player has had equal advantages with regard to deal, dummy, etc. Round Games, those which do not admit of partnerships. Rubber, winning two out of three games. F., Robre. Rubiconed, lurched, defeated before getting half way. Ruffing, trumping a suit. Run, a succession of counting shots at Billiards. Schnitt, G.
Greek, (grec) a card sharp. Guarded Cards, cards which cannot be caught by higher cards unless they are led through. Hand, the cards dealt to one player; the distribution of the cards in any one deal. A “remarkable hand” might be the play of an entire deal at Whist, for instance. Heading a Trick, playing a better card than any already played to the trick, but not necessarily the best in the hand. Heeled Bets, bets at Faro which play one card to win and another to lose, but do not win or lose double the amount if both events come on the same turn. Hinterhand, G., the last player on the first trick, (Skat). His Heels, the Jack turned up for a starter at Cribbage. His Nobs, Jack of the same suit as the starter at Cribbage.
p. 421. The following forms are those known to me, with their names. They are produced seriatim. 1. The cradle. 2. The soldier s bed. 3. Candles.
The penalty for each established revoke is: (_a_) When the declarer revokes, he cannot score for tricks and his adversaries add 100 points to their score in the honour column, in addition to any penalty which he may have incurred for not making good his declaration. (_b_) When either of the adversaries revokes, the declarer may either add 100 points to his score in the honour column or take three tricks from his opponents and add them to his own.[21] Such tricks may assist the declarer to make good his declaration, but shall not entitle him to score any bonus in the honour column in case the declaration has been doubled or redoubled, nor to a slam or little slam not otherwise obtained.[22] (_c_) When, during the play of a deal, more than one revoke is made by the same side, the penalty for each revoke after the first is 100 points. The value of their honours is the only score that can be made by a revoking side. 85. A player may ask his partner if he have a card of the suit which he has renounced; should the question be asked before the trick be turned and quitted, subsequent turning and quitting does not establish a revoke, and the error may be corrected unless the question be answered in the negative, or unless the revoking player or his partner have led or played to the following trick. 86. If a player correct his mistake in time to save a revoke, any player or players who have followed him may withdraw his or their cards and substitute others, and the cards so withdrawn are not exposed. If the player in fault be one of the declarer’s adversaries, the card played in error is exposed, and the declarer may call it whenever he pleases, or he may require the offender to play his highest or lowest card of the suit to the trick, but this penalty cannot be exacted from the declarer.
Each player deals in his turn; the right of dealing goes to the left. 34. The player on the dealer’s right cuts the pack, and, in dividing it, must not leave fewer than four cards in either packet; if in cutting, or in replacing one of the two packets on the other, a card be exposed, or if there be any confusion of the cards, or a doubt as to the exact place in which the pack was divided, there must be a fresh cut. 35. When a player, whose duty it is to cut, has once separated the pack, he cannot alter his intention; he can neither reshuffle nor recut the cards. 36. When the pack is cut, should the dealer shuffle the cards, he loses his deal. A NEW DEAL. 37. There must be a new deal-- I.
In Auction Hearts the revoking player must pay the amount of the bid in addition. 25. The claimant of a revoke may search all the tricks at the end of a hand. The revoke is established if the accused player mixes the cards before the claimants have time to examine them. 26. A revoke must be claimed before the tricks have been mixed, preparatory to shuffling for the next deal. 27. If a player is lawfully called upon to lead a certain suit, or to play the highest of it, and unnecessarily fails to comply, he is liable to the penalties for a revoke. 28. Any trick once turned and quitted must not again be seen until the hand is played.
Lone hands are very common in Railroad Euchre, and ordering up to prevent lone hands is commoner still. SEVEN-HANDED EUCHRE. _=Cards.=_ Seven-handed Euchre is played with a full pack of fifty-three cards, including the Joker. The cards in plain suits rank as at Whist; but the Joker is always the best trump, the right and left bowers being the second and third-best respectively. _=Counters.=_ One white and four red counters are necessary. The white counter is passed to the left from player to player in turn, to indicate the position of the next deal. The red counters are placed in front of the maker of the trump and his partners, to distinguish them from their opponents. Markers are not used, the score being kept on a sheet of paper.
It is usual for the player having the choice to make his adversary deal. A player exposing more than one card must cut again. _=DEALING.=_ After the cards are thoroughly shuffled, they are presented to the pone to be cut. At least five cards must be left in each packet. The dealer then distributes the cards four at a time for three rounds, giving to his adversary first, and then to himself. The twenty-fifth card is turned up for the trump. If this card is a Nine, the dealer claims _=dix=_, and counts ten for it immediately. The trump card is laid aside, and the remainder of the pack, which is called the _=stock=_, or _=talon=_, is slightly spread, to facilitate the process of drawing cards from it, and to be sure that none of the cards remaining in the stock are exposed. The trump is usually placed face up under the last card of the stock.
Once they got into position there I perceived that we should be done for, and accordingly I rushed every available man forward in a vigorous counter attack, and my own two guns came lumbering up to the farmhouse corners, and got into the wedge of shelter close behind the house before his could open fire. His fire met my advance, littering the gentle grass slope with dead, and then, hot behind the storm of shell, and even as my cavalry gathered to charge his guns, he charged mine. I was amazed beyond measure at that rush, knowing his sabres to be slightly outnumbered by mine. In another moment all the level space round the farmhouse was a whirling storm of slashing cavalry, and then we found ourselves still holding on, with half a dozen prisoners, and the farmyard a perfect shambles of horses and men. The melee was over. His charge had failed, and, after a brief breathing--space for my shot--torn infantry to come up, I led on the counter attack. It was brilliantly successful; a hard five minutes with bayonet and sabre, and his right gun was in our hands and his central one in jeopardy. And now Red was seized with that most fatal disease of generals, indecision. He would neither abandon his lost gun nor adequately attack it. He sent forward a feeble little infantry attack, that we cut up with the utmost ease, taking several prisoners, made a disastrous demonstration from the church, and then fell back altogether from the gentle hill on which Hook Farm is situated to a position beside and behind an exposed cottage on the level.
The last thirteen tricks are usually a problem in double-dummy; but the advantage will always be found to be with the player who has carefully prepared himself for the final struggle by preserving certain safe suits, and getting rid of those in which it became evident that his adversary had the small and safe cards. Some very pretty positions arise in the end game, it being often possible to foresee that four or five tricks must be played in a certain manner in order to ensure the lead being properly placed at the end, so that the odd hearts may be avoided. _=AUCTION HEARTS.=_ The cards having been cut and dealt, the player to the left of the dealer, whom we shall call A, examines his hand, and determines which suit he would prefer to play to get clear of. Let us suppose his hand to consist of the ♡ A K 8; ♣ J 6 5 4 3 2; ♢ K 4; and the ♠ 7 3. If the suit remains hearts, he is almost certain to take in a number; but if it is changed to clubs, he is almost as certain of getting clear. The hand is not absolutely safe, as hearts might be led two or three times before the clubs in the other hands were exhausted by the original leader, whose game would be to lead small clubs. As the pool will contain thirteen counters to a certainty, he can afford to bid in proportion to his chances of winning it for the privilege of making clubs the suit to be avoided, instead of hearts. It might be assumed, if the odds were 10 to 1 that the player would get clear if the suit were clubs, that therefore he could afford to bid ten times the amount of the pool, or 130, for his chance. Theoretically this is correct, but if he should lose one such pool, he would have to win ten others to get back his bid alone, to say nothing of the amounts he would lose by paying his share in pools won by others.
All versions, however, conclude with the girl saying--] Rise up, rise up, poor Mary Brown, And see your poor sweetheart go through the town. I will get up upon my feet, To see my sweetheart go through the street. --Halliwell s _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 218. (_b_) The children form a ring, one child laying or kneeling down in the centre. The ring sing the first, third, fifth, and alternate verses; the girl in the middle answers with the second, fourth, and so on alternately. At the last verse the girl jumps up and breaks through the ring by force; another girl takes her place in the ring, and the game begins again. The Sussex version of Mary Brown (Chas. Wise) is played by the children standing in line and advancing and retiring towards the lying or kneeling child. The Barnes version of Rise, Daughter is also played in this way.
--Keith (Rev. W. Gregor). At Barnes this game is called Gap. It is known as French Tag in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire (Miss Matthews), and Tap-back at Bitterne, Hants (Mrs. Adam). French and English The children choose sides under a leader, and a boundary line is made in the middle of the ground dividing the French and English territory. A handkerchief is then placed in the back part of each territory to represent a flag. The object is to obtain as many flags from the opposite side as possible. If a person is captured before having seized a flag, he is taken prisoner, and must be rescued by one of his own side.
” The numbers twenty-seven, twenty-six and twenty-five are also impossible. _=Pegging.=_ Neither player is allowed to touch the other’s pegs. If the score is erroneous, the player in fault must be called upon to remedy it himself. A player whose pegs are touched by his adversary can score two holes for penalty. If a player removes his adversary’s front peg, the latter may immediately claim the game. If a player displaces his own front peg, he must place it behind the other. If both players displace their front pegs, as by accident, they may agree to replace them where they believe them to have stood; but if they cannot agree they must call the game void. _=Pegging Out.=_ In pegging during the play, the first man to reach his game hole wins, no matter what either may have in hand or crib.
Should it be of the same suit as that first turned up, the Jack cannot be scored, as the dealer has declined to have that suit for the trump. When the same suit is turned up a second time, the card is laid aside; three more cards are given to each player, another trump is turned, and so on until a different suit comes up for the trump. If the pack is exhausted before another suit turns up, the cards must be _=bunched=_, and the same dealer deals again. The dealer’s partner and the pone are not permitted to look at their cards until the eldest hand and the dealer have decided whether to stand or run the cards. Among strict players, if a person looks at his hand before the proper time, the adversaries score a point. The object of this rule is to prevent the possibility of any expression of satisfaction or disapproval of the turn-up trump. No second beg is allowed, but when only two play, if either player is dissatisfied with the new trump he may propose to _=bunch the cards=_. If the proposition is agreed to, the cards are reshuffled and dealt again by the same dealer. If three play, the dealer must give a point to both adversaries if he refuses to run the cards, although only one begs. The dealer cannot give a player enough to put him out.
By putting up the Ace of hearts, and keeping both Q and J in his own hand, he is certain of a re-entry in hearts. On the second round of clubs, the adversary still holding up or underplaying, the dealer must be careful to overtake Dummy’s ten with his own Jack, so as to continue the suit without losing the lead. VARIETIES OF BRIDGE. _=THREE HAND AUCTION.=_ This is a game for three active players only, but four may form a table. Each player is for himself, there being no partnerships except the temporary combination against the declarer for each deal. The player who cuts the lowest card chooses his seat and cards and the player with the next lower cut sits on his left, the other on his right. The cards are dealt one at a time into four packets, of thirteen each, just as in the ordinary game of auction, the odd hand remaining untouched until the winning declaration is decided. The dealer makes the first bid and then each bids in turn until two pass. The penalty for bidding out of turn is 50 points added to the score of each opponent, for doubling out of turn it is 100.