_=Without a Widow.=_ The counters have a money value, and each player deposits one in the pool. The dealer then distributes the cards one at a time, face down, until each has three. The players then examine their cards, and each in turn, beginning with the eldest hand, may exchange one card. If he trades _=for ready money=_, he gives his card and one white counter to the dealer, and receives another card, face down, from the top of the pack. The discard is left on the table, and the counter is the dealer’s perquisite. If he trades _=for barter=_, he passes his discard to the player on his left, who must give one of his own in exchange before looking at the one he is to receive. If the player will not exchange, he must _=knock=_ on the table, to signify that he will stand by the cards he has. If he exchanges, he takes up the offered card, and then has the privilege of trading for ready money or for barter himself. The trading goes on in this way round and round, until some player knocks, when all trading is immediately stopped, and the hands are shown.
Queue, F., the points added for winning the rubber. Quinte, F., a sequence of five cards. Quitted. A trick is quitted when the fingers are removed from it after it is turned down. In Duplicate, a trick is not quitted until all four players have removed their fingers from it. A score is quitted when the fingers are removed from the counters, the peg, or the pencil. Raffles, the same number appearing on all the dice thrown. Ranche, leaving the black pin standing alone at Pin Pool.
-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+ | . | | . | | . | | . | | +-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+-.
] Where have you been? To grandmother s. What for? To go on an errand. What did you get? Some plums. What did you do with them? Made a plum-pudding. What did she give you? A penny. What did you do with it? Bought a calf. What did you do with it? Sold it. What did you do with the money? Gave it to the butcher, and he gave me a penny back, and I bought some nuts with it. What did you do with them? Gave them to the butcher, and he s behind the churchyard cracking them, and leaving you the shells. --Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews).
=_ Should any player receive more or less than his proper number of cards, and discover the error before he looks at any card in his hand, or lifts it from the table, he may demand a new deal if no bet has been made; or he may ask the dealer to give him another card from the pack if he has too few, or to draw a card if he has too many. Cards so drawn must not be exposed, but should be placed on the top of the pack. If a bet has been made, there must be a new deal. Should the player take up his hand, or look at any card in it, he has no remedy. _=16.=_ Should a player take up a hand containing more or less than five cards, or look at any card in it, such a hand is foul, and he must abandon it, forfeiting any interest he may have in that pool. If one player has six cards and his neighbour four, neither having lifted or looked at any card, the dealer may be called upon to draw a card from the six hand and give it to the four hand. _=17. Straddling.=_ During the deal, or at any time before he looks at any card in his hand, the player to the left of the age may straddle the blind by putting up double the amount put up by the age.
The more ambitious he is, the greater his necessity for keeping in view the maxim; “One thing at a time: all things in succession.” One must master the scales before he can produce the perfect melody. The novice should first thoroughly understand the object, and the fundamental principle of the game. _=The Object=_ is to win tricks. Not to give information, or to count the hands, or to remember every card played; but simply and only to win tricks. _=The Principle=_ is to secure for certain cards a trick-taking value which does not naturally belong to them; either by getting higher cards out of the way of lower, or by placing the holder of intermediate cards at a disadvantage with regard to the lead. If any person will take the trouble to deal out four hands, and after turning them face up on the table, count how many tricks each side will probably take with its high cards and trumps, he will find that the total will hardly ever be exactly thirteen tricks. Let us suppose the following to be one of the hands so dealt; Z turning up the ♡6 for trumps:-- [Illustration: ♡Q J 8 ♣6 ♢K J 6 5 3 ♠A 9 8 6 ♡4 3 2 +-------+ ♡A K 10 5 ♣A K Q 8 7 4 3 | Y | ♣J 9 ♢7 |A B| ♢A 8 4 ♠Q 7 | Z | ♠K 5 4 2 +-------+ ♡9 7 6 ♣10 5 2 ♢Q 10 9 2 ♠J 10 3 ] On looking over this hand it would appear that A could only make one trick in Clubs, of which the second round would be trumped. His partner can count on five tricks: the two best and the fourth trumps; the ♢A, and the ♠K; a total of six tricks. On counting the adversaries’ probable tricks, Y should make one of his three trumps, and the ♠A.
Thought you hated snakes, Lefty, he said. A guy could get used to almost anything, Grand Master, I said. I found a cobra under my pillow when I rolled out of the sack this morning. A coral snake fell out of the folds of my towel when I went to take a shower. Somebody stashed a bushmaster here in my locker to meet me when I dressed for surgery. I m getting almost fond of snakes. Maragon semaphored doubt by squeezing his eyebrows down in a scowl. Even _real_ snakes? he protested. It s the most artful hallucination I ve ever experienced, I granted. This snake has weight, a cold feel and a scratchy scaliness.
It is seldom right to lead the trump Ace, except at the end of the hand, or when you have duplicates, but leading high trumps to prevent an adversary from declaring further is a common stratagem, if you know from the cards in your hand, and those played, that your adversary may get the cards to meld something of importance. _=The Last Tricks.=_ Before you play to the last trick, give yourself time to note the cards your adversary has on the table, and compare them with your own, so that you may play the last tricks to advantage. If you wait until after playing to the last trick, he may gather up his cards so quickly that you will be unable to remember them. At Rubicon it is not always advisable to win the last trick. If your adversary is rubiconed in any case, you may add 100 points to your own score by giving him the 50 for the last trick, which may put him across the line into another hundred. TEXT BOOKS. Foster’s Complete Pinocle. 1906. Laws of Pinochle, by R.
=_ The cards are usually spread, face down, and each candidate for play draws a card. [Illustration: SPREADING THE PACK.] When _=two=_ or _=three=_ play, the lowest cut has the choice of seats, and takes the first deal. When _=four=_ play, they cut for partners; the two highest pairing against the two lowest. The lowest has the choice of seats, and deals the first hand. When _=five=_ or _=seven=_ play, they have the choice of seats in their order, the lowest first, and the lowest cut deals. When _=six=_ play, the three lowest are partners against the three highest, the lowest cut having the choice of seats, and the first deal. _=TIES.=_ Players cutting cards of equal value cut again; but the new cut decides nothing but the tie. _=PLAYER’S POSITIONS.