The number of points won or lost on the rubber may be only two or three, or they may run into the hundreds. The average value of a rubber at auction is about 400 points. Any much larger figure shows bad bidding. In straight bridge the average is about 180. In settling at the end of the rubber, it is usual for each losing player to pay his right-hand adversary. _=MAKING THE TRUMP.=_ In auction, the dealer begins by naming any one of the four suits, or no trumps, for any number of tricks he pleases. Each player in turn to the left then has the privilege of passing, bidding higher, or doubling. When three players pass a bid, it is the highest made and is known as the _=Winning Declaration=_ or _=Contract=_. In order to understand the principles that govern the players in their declarations, one should be thoroughly familiar with the values attached to the tricks when certain suits are trumps.
Kneel to the prettiest, bow to the wittiest, and kiss the one you love best. Stand in each corner of the room, sigh in one, cry in another, sing in another, and dance in the other. Put yourself through the keyhole. Place two chairs in the middle of the room, take off your shoes, and jump over them. Measure so many yards of love ribbon. Postman s knock. Crawl up the chimney. Spell Opportunity. Miss Burne mentions one penance designed to make the victim ridiculous, as when he is made to lie on his back on the floor with his arms extended, and declare-- Here I lie! The length of a looby, The breadth of a booby, And three parts of a jackass! --_Shropshire Folk-lore_, pp. 526-27.
There being six cards apart from his three, the Ace may be any one of them, and the Queen may be any one of the remaining five. This gives us 6 × 5 = 30, and the fraction 30/72. If we now add these four numerators together, we have:--for both cards in partner’s hand, 6; for Ace alone, 18; for Queen alone, 18; and for neither, 30; a total of 72, or unity, proving all the calculations correct. In some of the problems connected with Whist, it is important to know the probability of the suits being distributed in various ways among the four players at the table; or, what is the same thing, the probable distribution of the four suits in any one hand. The author is indebted to Dr. Pole’s “Philosophy of Whist” for these calculations. As an example of the use of this table, suppose it was required to find the probability of any other player at the table holding four or more trumps if you had six. Take all the combinations in which the figure 6 appears, and add together the number of times they will probably occur. That will be your denominator, 166. The numerator will be the number of times that the combinations occur which contain a figure larger than 3, in addition to the 6.
If either player, after discarding and drawing, plays with more than five cards, he loses the point and the privilege of marking the King. Should the dealer forget himself in dealing for the discard, and turn up another trump, he cannot refuse his adversary another discard, if he demands it, and the exposed card must be put aside with the discards. If any cards are found faced in the pack when dealing for the discard, the deal stands good if they will fall to the dealer. But if the exposed card will go to the pone, he has the option of taking it, or claiming a fresh deal by the same dealer. During all the discards the trump card remains the same. _=MARKING THE KING.=_ The discards settled, the first and most important thing before play begins is to mark the King. If the King is turned up, the dealer marks one point for it immediately. If the pone holds it, he must _=announce=_ and mark it before he plays a card. If he leads the King for the first trick, he must still announce it by saying distinctly: “I mark the King;” and unless this announcement is made before the King touches the table, it cannot be marked.
| | +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 1.| -- | -- |Draw a bucket of | | | | |water. | | 2.|Sift the lady s |Sieve my lady s | -- | | |oatmeal. |oatmeal. | | | 3.|Sift it into flour. |Grind my lady s flour.| -- | | 4.| -- | -- |For a lady s daughter.
72. V. Here is a poor widow from Sandy Row, With all her children behind her. One can knit and one can sew, And one can make the winder go. Please take one in. Now poor Nellie she is gone Without a farthing in her hand, Nothing but a guinea gold ring. Good-bye, Nellie, good-bye! --Belfast (W. H. Patterson). VI.
The player who pockets the white ball gains two points, and two for each pin knocked over with the same stroke. Each carrom counts two. The player who knocks down a pin or pins with his own ball before striking another ball loses two for every pin so knocked down. The player who pockets his own ball without hitting another ball forfeits three points; for missing altogether he forfeits one point. The striker who forces his own ball off the table without hitting another ball forfeits _three_ points, and if he does so after making a carrom or pocket he loses as many points as he would otherwise have gained. The rules of the American Carrom Game, except where they conflict with the foregoing rules, govern this game also. BOTTLE POOL. The game of Bottle Pool is played on a pool table with one white ball, the 1 and 2 ball, and pool-bottle. The 1 and 2 balls must be spotted, respectively, at the foot of the table, at the left and right diamond nearest each pocket, and the pool-bottle is placed standing on its neck on the spot in the centre of the table, and when it falls it must be set up, if possible, where it rests. Carrom on the two object-balls counts 1 point; Pocketing the 1 ball counts 1 point; Pocketing the 2 ball counts 2 points; Carrom from ball and upsetting bottle counts 5 points.
Each player in turn can exchange the hand dealt him for the widow, or for the hand abandoned by anyone who has taken the widow, the cards being always face down. The turned trump is not taken up by the dealer, but is left on the pack. The eldest hand leads for the first trick and every man is for himself, each holding his own tricks. At the end of the hand, each player that has not taken a trick receives a counter from each of the others, whether they have taken tricks or not. Then all those that have won tricks put back into the pool a counter for each trick they have taken. The first player to get rid of his twelve counters wins the game. AUCTION EUCHRE. This form of the game is sometimes erroneously called _=French Euchre=_. The French know nothing about Euchre in any form. Auction Euchre is exactly the same as the ordinary four or six-handed game, except that the trump is not turned up, the players bidding in turn for the privilege of naming the trump suit.
Cave, F., the amount a player places in front of him at the beginning of play; table stakes. Checks, the counters at Poker are checks; at Faro they are chips. Chelem, F., a slam. Chip Along, to bet a single counter and wait for developments. Chouette, à la, taking all the bets. Close Cards, those which are not likely to form sequences with others, especially at Cribbage. Club Stakes, the usual amount bet on any game in the club. Cogging Dice, turning one over with the finger after they have been fairly thrown.
=_ If the dealer gives the pone more or less cards than he asks for, he loses the point and the right to mark the King, unless it was turned up. If the dealer gives himself more cards than he wants, he loses the point and the right to mark the King, unless he turned it up. If he gives himself less cards than he wants, he may make the deficiency good without penalty; but if he does not discover the error until he has played a card, all tricks for which he has no card to play must be considered as won by his adversary. If the pone asks for more cards than he wants, the dealer can play the hand or not, as he pleases. If he plays, he may draw the superfluous card or cards given to the pone, and look at them if the pone has seen them. If the dealer decides not to play, he marks the point. In either case the pone cannot mark the King, even if he holds it. If the pone asks for less cards than he wants, he must play the hand as it is, and can mark the King if he holds it; but all tricks for which he has no card to play must be considered as won by his adversary. If a player plays without discarding, or discards for the purpose of exchanging, without advising his adversary of the fact that he has too many or too few cards, he loses two points, and the right of marking the King, even if turned up. If either player, after discarding and drawing, plays with more than five cards, he loses the point and the privilege of marking the King.
In Berkshire (_Antiq._ xxvii. 255) the game is played without words, and apparently no handkerchief or other sign is used. Miss Thoyts says the young man raises his hat when he embraces the young woman of his choice. To throw (or fling) the handkerchief is a common expression for an expected proposal of marriage which is more of a condescension than a complimentary or flattering one to the girl. Kiss in the Ring is probably a relic of the earliest form of marriage by choice or selection. The custom of dropping or sending a glove as the signal of a challenge may have been succeeded by the handkerchief in this game. Halliwell, p. 227, gives the game of Drop Glove, in which a glove is used. For the use of handkerchiefs as love-tokens see Brand, ii.
36, says Chucks is played with a bowl and chucks--a species of shells (_Buccinum lapillus_) found on the sea-shore [ bowl here probably means a marble]. Brockett (_North Country Words_) says this game is played by girls with five sea-shells called chucks, and sometimes with pebbles, called chuckie-stanes. Jamieson says a number of pebbles are spread on a flat stone; one of them is tossed up, and a certain number must be gathered and the falling one caught by the same hand. See Checkstones, Fivestones. Church and Mice A game played in Fifeshire; said to be the same with the Sow in the Kirk. --Jamieson. Click Two Homes opposite each other are selected, and a boy either volunteers to go Click, or the last one in a race between the Homes does so. The others then proceed to one of the Homes, and the boy takes up his position between them. The players then attempt to run between the Homes, and if the one in the middle holds any of them while he says One, two, three, I catch thee; help me catch another, they have to stay and help him to collar the rest until only one is left. If this one succeeds in getting between the Homes three times after all the others have been caught, he is allowed to choose the one to go Click in the next game; if he fails, he has to go himself.
In 1863 John Loraine Baldwin got together a committee at the Arlington, now the Turf Club, and they drew up the code which is still in use all over the world for English whist. In the United States, laws better suited to the American style of play were drawn up by the American Whist League in 1891, and after several revisions were finally adopted, in 1893, as the official code for League clubs. The literature of whist saw its palmiest days at the beginning of this century. 7,000 copies of Bob Short’s “Short Rules for Whist” were sold in less than a year. Mathews’, or Matthews’, “Advice to the Young Whist-Player,” went through eighteen editions between 1804 and 1828. After these writers came Admiral Burney, who published his “Treatise” in 1821; Major A. [Charles Barwell Coles,] gave us his “Short Whist” in 1835. Deschapelles published his “Traité du Whiste” in 1839, but it gave little but discussions on the laws. “Whist, its History and Practice” by Amateur, appeared in 1843. General de Vautré’s “Génie du Whiste,” in 1847.
Some players imagine this can be done by putting side on the cue ball, but such is not the case. It is accomplished by striking so hard that the ball buries itself in the cushion, the result of which is that the angle of reflection is less than that of incidence. It is possible to drive an object ball to the rail at an angle of 60 degrees with such force that after crossing the table twice it will come off at a perfect right angle from the cushion. This is a very useful shot in banking for the side pockets, and also in playing for the 1 or 4 pin at Pin Pool. The following _=LAWS=_ for Fifteen-Ball Pool are copied, by permission, from the 1908 edition of the rules published by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co. _=1.=_ The game of Fifteen-Ball Pool is played with fifteen balls numbered from one to fifteen, respectively, and one white ball not numbered. The latter is the cue-ball, and at the opening of the game, the player plays with it from within the string at the head of the table, at any of the numbered balls, and afterward as he finds it on the table, his object being to pocket as many of the numbered balls as he can, the number on each ball he pockets being scored to his credit; so that not he who pockets the largest number of balls, but he whose score, when added up, yields the largest total, wins the game. Before commencing the game these fifteen balls are placed in the form of a triangle upon the table--a triangular frame being employed for this purpose to insure correctness. The ball numbered fifteen is so placed upon the table as to form the apex of the triangle, pointing upward toward the head of the table, and in forming the triangle the fifteen-ball should rest as nearly as possible upon the spot known as the deep-red spot in the Three-Ball Game.
Suppose A-B have been set back 18 points on two failures, Y-Z having made 16 points on those two deals, and 23 on their own bids. The score will stand: A-B 64 to go; Y-Z, 12 to go. Even if we suppose that A-B make 11 on each of the next four deals, they will still have 20 to go, while Y-Z will be out. Again: A-B want 15, Y-Z want 2. Even if A-B can bid 12 and make it, Y-Z will sweat out. With the system of scoring here recommended, this sweating out is impossible, and it is not uncommon for a side that wants one to go, to be beaten by an adversary that wants forty-nine. The side first pegging out on a cribbage-board, or getting rid of its fifty-one counters, wins the game. When the game is counted on a pull-up cribbage marker, it is usual to start with ten up, and peg out to the game-hole, or 61. _=VARIATIONS.=_ There are quite a number of minor differences in the manner of playing Cinch.
=_ Whist is played with a full pack of fifty-two cards, ranking A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2; the Ace being the highest in play, but ranking below the deuce in cutting. Two packs are generally used, the one being shuffled while the other is dealt. _=MARKERS=_ are necessary to keep the score. The most common are red and white circular counters; the white being used for the points in each game, and the red for the games themselves, or for rubber points. It is better to have two sets, of different colours, each set consisting of four circular and three oblong counters, the latter being used for the rubber points, or for games. _=PLAYERS.=_ Whist is played by four persons. When there are more than four candidates for play, five or six may form a “table.” If more than six offer for play, the selection of the table is made by cutting. The table being formed, the four persons who shall play the first rubber are determined by cutting, and they again cut for partners, and the choice of seats and cards.
| -- | -- | -- | | 6.|Please may we have a |Come all ye fair |Come all ye pretty | | |pretty lass. |maids. |maids. | | 7.|To come and play with |And walk along with |Come and with us play.| | |us. |us. | | | 8.| -- | -- | -- | | 9.
--London (G. L. Gomme). In Cornwall the leader, when at fault, says-- Uppa, uppa, holye! If you don t speak My dogs shan t folly. --Courtney (_Folk-lore Journal_, v. 73). Other versions of this holloa are-- Whoop, whoop, and hollow! Good dogs won t follow Without the hare cries, Peewit. --Halliwell s _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 66. Sound your holler, Or my little dog shan t foller.
This language Lyndsay puts into the mouth of a Popish parson. The game seems to be that of ball played with the hand, as distinguished from Football. --Jamieson. See Ball. Call-the-Guse This game is supposed by Jamieson to be equivalent to Drive the Goose, and the game seems to be the same with one still played by young people in some parts of Angus, in which one of the company, having something that excites ridicule unknowingly pinned behind, is pursued by all the rest, who still cry out, Hunt the Goose! --Jamieson. Camp A game formerly much in use among schoolboys, and occasionally played by men in those parts of Suffolk on the sea coast--more especially in the line of Hollesley Bay between the Rivers Orwell and Alde, sometimes school against school, or parish against parish. It was thus played: Goals were pitched at the distance of 150 or 200 yards from each other; these were generally formed of the thrown-off clothes of the competitors. Each party has two goals, ten or fifteen yards apart. The parties, ten or fifteen on a side, stand in line, facing their own goals and each other, at about ten yards distance, midway between the goals, and nearest that of their adversaries. An indifferent spectator, agreed on by the parties, throws up a ball, of the size of a common cricket-ball, midway between the confronted players, and makes his escape.
If any player takes the widow, the next player on his left can do any one of three things: He may discard from his own hand any card he pleases, taking one from the widow in its stead; the card which he discards being placed on the table face upward, and becoming part of the widow; or he may exchange his entire hand for the widow; or he may stand on the hand dealt him, and knock. Whether he draws one card, exchanges his entire hand, or knocks, the next player on his left has the option of drawing, exchanging, or knocking; and so on, until some player does knock. Should no player take the widow until it comes to the dealer’s turn, he must either take it, or turn it face upward on the table. Even if the dealer knocks, he must turn up the widow, and allow each player an opportunity to draw from it, or to exchange his entire hand for it. When a player knocks, he signifies that no matter what the players following him may do, when it comes to his turn again the hands must be shown. A player cannot draw and knock at the same time; but a player can refuse to draw or exchange after another player has knocked, not before. In some localities it is the rule to turn the widow face up at once if any player knocks before it is taken; allowing all those after the knock an opportunity to draw or exchange; but this is not the usual custom. Suppose five play. E deals, and A passes; B takes the widow; C and D draw from B’s abandoned hand, and E knocks; without drawing, of course. A, who passed the first time, now has an opportunity to draw or exchange.
Knee by knee, and foot by foot, Turn about lady under the bush. --Hersham, Surrey (_Folk-lore Record_, v. 87). V. Darby and Joan were dressed in black, Sword and buckle behind their back. Foot for foot, and knee for knee, Turn about Darby s company. --Halliwell s _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 121. (_b_) The children form pairs, one pair following the other, with their arms linked behind. While the first four lines are repeated by all, they skip forward, and then skip back again.
--Deptford, Kent (Miss Chase). II. I ve come for one of your daughters, With a ring a ding a my dolly; I ve come for one of your daughters On this bright shining night. Pray, which have you come for, With a ring a ding a my dolly? Pray which have you come for On this bright shining night? I ve come for your daughter Mary, With a ring a ding a my dolly; I ve come for your daughter Mary On this bright shining night. Then take her, and welcome, With a ring a ding a my dolly; Then take her, and welcome, On this bright shining night [incomplete]. --Sheffield (S. O. Addy). (_b_) A number of children stand against a wall, and a row of other children face them. They walk backwards and forwards, singing the first and third verses.
A player must lead or play them when lawfully called, provided he can do so without revoking; the call may be repeated at each or any trick until the card is played. A player cannot, however, be prevented from leading or playing a card liable to be called; if he can get rid of it in the course of a play no penalty remains. SEC. 4. The holder of a card liable to be called can be required to play it only by the adversary on his right. If such adversary plays without calling it, the holder may play to that trick as he pleases. If it is the holder’s turn to lead, the card must be called before the preceding trick has been turned and quitted, or before the holder has led a different card; otherwise he may lead as he pleases. LAW VIII.--LEADING OUT OF TURN. SEC.
Musician: She must come to, and she shall come to, And she must come whether she will or no. Then the following words are sung as in the first example:-- Man: Welcome, Joan Sanderson, welcome, welcome. Both: Prinkum-prankum is a fine dance, And shall we go dance it once again, And once again, And shall we go dance it once again? Woman: This dance it will no further go. Musician: I pray you, madam, why say you so? Woman: Because John Sanderson will not come to. Musician: He must come to, and he shall come to, And he must come whether he will or no. And so she lays down the cushion before a man, who, kneeling upon it, salutes her, she singing-- Welcome, John Sanderson, &c. Then, he taking up the cushion, they take hands and dance round singing as before; and this they do till the whole company is taken into the ring. Then the cushion is laid down before the first man, the woman singing, This dance, &c., as before, only instead of come to, they sing go fro, and instead of Welcome, John Sanderson, &c., they sing Farewell, John Sanderson, farewell, &c.
The Block Game is sometimes played 50 or 100 points up, and at the end the winner takes the stakes, if any, or settles at so much a point for the difference between the scores. In the _=Four-handed Block Game=_ the players cut for partners, the two lowest playing against the two highest, and the lowest cut having the first set. Each player draws four bones, and the play goes round from right to left. When any player is blocked, and says “go,” the one on his left must play or say “go,” also. The game is at an end when one player gets rid of all his dominoes, or all four players are blocked. The pips remaining in the hands of the partners are then reckoned, and the side having the lower number wins the difference. Another variation is for each to play for himself, but instead of playing only one domino at a time in each round, a player may go on as long as he can follow suit to either end of the line. _=DRAW GAME.=_ In this variation of the Block Game, each player has the option of drawing any number of dominoes from the bone-yard except the last two, which must always remain in stock. He may draw while he is still able to play, or not until he is blocked; but when he is blocked he is compelled to draw until he obtains a domino that can be played, or has drawn all but the last two in the bone-yard.
=_ On the second round of any suit, the player holding the best card should play it; or having several equally the best, one of them. If he is Fourth Hand, he may be able to win the trick more cheaply. If the original leader has several cards, equally the best, such as A Q J remaining after having led the King, he should continue with the lowest card that will win the trick. This should be an indication to his partner that the card led is as good as the best, and that therefore the leader must have the intermediate cards. _=Following King=_, which has been led from these combinations:-- [Illustration: 🂡 🂮 🂭 🂫 | 🂱 🂾 🂻 🂷 🃁 🃎 🃍 🃆 | 🃑 🃞 🃔 🃓 ] Leading the Jack on the second round would show both Ace and Queen remaining. Leading Queen would show Ace, but not the Jack. Leading Ace would show that the leader had not the Queen. In combinations which do not contain the best card, the lead may be varied in some cases to show the number remaining in the leader’s hand, or to indicate cards not shown by the first lead. _=Following King=_, which has been led from these combinations:-- [Illustration: 🃎 🃍 🃋 🃊 | 🃞 🃝 🃛 🃖 ] Leading the Ten on the second round would show both Queen and Jack remaining. Leading the Jack would show the Queen; but not the ten.