If a bower is turned, the dealer’s partner should lead a small trump at the first opportunity. In playing against a lone hand the best cards in plain suits should always be led, trumps never. In playing alone, it is best to lead winning trumps as long as they last, so as to force discards, which will often leave intermediate cards in plain suits good for tricks. _=Second Hand.=_ Play the best card you have second hand, and cover everything led if you can. With King and another or Queen and another, it is usually best to put up the honour second hand, on a small card led. _=Trumping.=_ It is seldom right to trump partner’s winning cards, unless he has ordered up the trump, and you think you can lead through the dealer to advantage. In playing against a lone hand, it is sometimes good play to trump your partner’s ace with an unguarded left bower or ace of trumps, as it may prevent the dealer from getting into the lead with a small trump, and may save a King or Queen of trumps in your partner’s hand. If you don’t trump, the dealer will probably get in and swing the right bower, and your trump will be lost.
One may rush, two may rush; Come, my girls, walk under the bush. --Halliwell s _Nursery Rhymes_, Games, cclxxxviii. (_b_) The Berrington version of this game is played as follows:--Two girls face each other, holding each other by both hands. Two others face each other, holding both hands across the other two. They see-saw backwards and forwards, singing the lines (fig. 1). One girl gets inside the enclosing hands (fig. 2), and they repeat till all four have popped under (fig. 3), when they jog up and down till they fall on the floor! (fig. 4).
A player may announce _=Gucki Grand=_, which means that he will take both the skat cards into his hand at once, in order to get the privilege of laying out any two cards he pleases, but that Jacks will be the only trumps. If a Gucki Grand is lost, it costs double. A player may announce a _=Gucki Nullo=_, in which he takes both the skat cards into his hand and lays out any two cards he pleases. This loses double if it is not successful. _=Revolution=_ is seldom played. It is a Nullo in which the adversaries put their twenty cards together as one hand to see if they can make the player take a trick. _=Uno=_ and _=Duo=_ are Grands, in which the single player engages to take one trick in Uno, or two in Duo, neither more nor less. _=GAME VALUES.=_ Each of the foregoing games has what is called a unit of value, which is afterward multiplied several times according to the number of Matadores, and whether the game was schneider or schwarz. These unit values are as follows, beginning with the lowest: ---------------+------------------+------------------------- Suits Trumps:--| Jacks Trumps:-- | No Trumps:-- ----+----+-----+------------------+------------------------- |Turn| Solo| Turned Grand 12 | Gucki Nullo 15 ♢ | 5 | 9 | Gucki Grand 16 | ” if played open 30 ♡ | 6 | 10 | Solo Grand 20 | Solo Nullo 20 ♠ | 7 | 11 | Open Grand 24 | ” if played open 40 ♣ | 8 | 12 | Ramsch 20 | Revolution 60 ----+----+-----+------------------+------------------------- When one player takes no trick in a Ramsch, the player with the greater number of points loses 30.
For instance: One partner has declared bézique and royal marriage, scoring the marriage only. His partner wins the next trick and adds A 10 J to the marriage, scoring the sequence; or perhaps shows three Kings or Queens, making fours. The players usually divide after the stock is exhausted, and for the last eight tricks each takes one of his former adversaries for a partner, but without changing seats. The game is usually 2000 points up. THREE-HANDED BÉZIQUE. Three persons play, each for himself. Two packs of thirty-two cards each and one of thirty-one cards are shuffled together. Triple bézique counts 1500, and the game is usually 2000 points. The deleted card from the third pack should be an Eight. POLISH BÉZIQUE.
If the eldest hand has decided, and the pone bids without waiting for the dealer’s partner, the pone loses his bid, and the dealer may bid before his partner, without penalty. If the dealer bids before his partner has decided, both he and his partner lose their right to bid that deal; but the pone is still at liberty to overbid the eldest hand for the privilege of naming the trump. If the dealer’s partner has bid, and the dealer bids without waiting for the pone, the dealer loses his right to bid for that deal. If a player whose partner has not yet bid names the trump suit, his partner loses the right to bid. If no bid is made, the dealer may name any suit he pleases, without bidding. If any player exposes a card before the trump suit is named, the adversaries may elect to have a new deal by the same dealer. _=DISCARDING AND DRAWING.=_ The trump suit named, each player discards and leaves _=face upward=_ on the table as many cards as he pleases. He must discard three, to reduce his hand to six cards. If he discards more than three he must draw from the remainder of the pack to restore the number of his cards to six; so that after the discard and draw each player at the table will have exactly six cards, although nine were originally dealt him.
_=IRREGULARITIES IN DECLARING.=_ If the dealer’s partner makes a declaration before being asked to do so, either adversary may demand that the declaration shall stand, or that there shall be a new deal. In England, only the eldest hand, A, may exact the penalty. If the dealer’s partner passes the declaration to the dealer, either adversary may claim a new deal or may insist that the player in error shall make the declaration. In England, the eldest hand exacts this penalty. Should an adversary of the dealer make a declaration, the dealer may, after looking at his own hand, either have a new deal or proceed as if nothing had been said. _=SETTLING THE VALUE OF THE TRICKS.=_ The trump suit having been announced, the first hand or leader, A, before he plays a card, has the privilege of doubling the value of the tricks if he thinks the opponents cannot win the odd trick with the trump named. To do this, he simply says: “I double.” If he does not feel justified in doubling, he transfers the opportunity to his partner, by asking him: “Shall I play?” That is to say, “shall we play without doubling?” If his partner will not double, he answers: “Yes.
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In the following paragraphs the words _=dealer=_ and _=player=_ will be used to distinguish the adversaries at Écarté. The principle underlying the jeux de règle is the probable distribution of the cards in the trump suit, and the fact that the odds are always against the dealer’s holding two or more. There are thirty-two cards in the Écarté pack, of which eight are trumps, and one of these is always turned up. The turn-up and the player’s hand give us six cards which are known, and leave twenty-six unknown. Of these unknown cards the dealer holds five, and he may get these five in 65,780 different ways. The theory of the jeux de règle is that there are only a certain number of those ways which will give him two or more trumps. If the player holds one trump, the odds against the dealer’s holding two or more are 44,574 to 21,206; or a little more than 2 to 1. If the player holds two trumps, the odds against the dealer’s holding two or more are 50,274 to 15,506; or more than 3 to 1. It is therefore evident that any hand which is certain to win three tricks if the dealer has not two trumps, has odds of two to one in its favour, and all such hands are called jeux de règle. The natural inference from this is that such hands should always be played without proposing, unless they contain the King of trumps.