No matter how skilful the player may be, he will find it impossible to save both Jack and Game. CALIFORNIA JACK. This is a variety of Seven-up for two players, in which the number of cards in the hand is constantly restored to six by drawing from the remainder of the pack. The trump suit is cut for before the cards are shuffled and dealt. The usual method is to cut for seats and deal, and the highest cut determines the trump suit at the same time. After each player has been given six cards, three at a time, the remainder of the pack is turned face up on the table, and the winner of each trick takes the top card, his adversary taking the next one. When the stock is exhausted, the last six cards are played as in the ordinary game of Seven-up. Seven points is game, the points being the same as in Seven-up; but everything, including Low, counts to the player winning it. _=Shasta Sam=_ is California Jack with the remainder of the pack turned face down, and is a much better game on that account. AUCTION PITCH, SELL OUT, OR COMMERCIAL PITCH.
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The bidder takes in all the tricks won by himself and his partners, and one of the adversaries should gather for that side. If a player on either side _=revokes=_, the adversaries score the number bid, and the hand is abandoned. _=Scoring.=_ If the bidder is successful in his undertaking, he and his partners, if any, are credited by the scorer with the number of points bid, but no more. Should a player bid five, and his side take seven, it would count them only five points. If the player making the trump fails to reach his bid, he is euchred, and the adversaries are credited with the number of points bid. _=Prizes.=_ It is usual to give two prizes for each table in play; one for the highest number of points won during the evening, and one for the smallest number; the latter being usually called the “booby” prize. _=Suggestions for Good Play.=_ It is very risky to bid seven without the Joker, the odds being 11 to 1 against finding it in the widow.
Should any player increase the ante to such an extent that none of the others care to call him, they must of course throw down their hands, and as there is no one to play against him, the one who made the last increase in the ante takes down all the counters in the pool. This is called _=taking the pot=_, and the cards are gathered, shuffled, and dealt again, the deal passing to the player who was the age. _=DRAWING CARDS.=_ All those who have made the ante good have the privilege of discarding, face downward, as many cards as they please, in the place of which they may draw others. The age has the first draw, and can take any number of cards from one to five, or he may _=stand pat=_, refusing to draw any. A player cannot receive from the dealer more or less cards than he discards; so that if a person is allowed to play with a short hand, of four cards only, he will still have only four cards after the draw. If his hand was foul, it will remain so after the draw. In drawing, a player may keep or discard what cards he pleases. There is no rule to prevent his throwing away a pair of aces and keeping three clubs if he is so inclined; but the general practice is for the player to retain whatever pairs or triplets he may have, and to draw to them. Four cards of a straight or a flush may be drawn to in the same way, and some make a practice of drawing to one or two high cards, such as an ace and a king, when they have no other chance.
The cup-bearer fell in also, and they danced on to the fiddler s corner, and the ceremony was again gone through as at first, with the substitution of the name of John for Jane, thus:-- The Lady: Our song it will no further go! The Fiddler: Pray, kind miss, why say you so? The Lady: Because John Sandars won t come to. The Fiddler: He must come to, he shall come to, An I ll make him whether he will or no! The dancing then proceeded, and the lady, on reaching her choice (a gentleman, of necessity), placed the cushion at his feet. He put money in the horn and knelt. They kissed and rose, he taking the cushion and his place in front of the lady, heading the next dance round, the lady taking him by the coat-tails, the first gentleman behind the lady, with the horn-bearer in the rear. In this way the dance went on till all present, alternately a lady and gentleman, had taken part in the ceremony. The dance concluded with a romp in file round the room to the quickening music of the fiddler, who at the close received the whole of the money collected by the horn-bearer. At Charminster the dance is begun by a single person (either man or woman), who dances about the room with a cushion in his hand, and at the end of the tune stops and sings:-- Man: This dance it will no further go. Musician: I pray you, good sir, why say you so? Man: Because Joan Sanderson will not come to. 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.
If they have no tricks they are schwartz; if they have not 30 points they are schneider. When four or more play, any person holding no cards may be penalised ten points for looking at the skat cards. _=METHOD OF PLAYING.=_ The successful bidder having disposed of the skat cards and announced his game, the Vorhand leads any card he pleases for the first trick. Vorhand should be careful not to lead until the player has laid out or discarded for the Skat in a Gucki or a Tourné. Players must follow suit if they can, but are not obliged to win the trick. Having none of the suit led, they may trump or discard at pleasure. The highest card played, if of the suit led, wins the trick, and trumps win all other suits. The winner of the first trick leads for the next, and so on, until all the cards have been played, or the game is acknowledged as won or lost, and abandoned. In a Grand, if a Jack is led, players must follow suit with the other Jacks, they being trumps.
LAW VI.--PLAYING, TURNING AND QUITTING THE CARDS. SEC. 1. Each player when it is his turn to play, must place his card face up before him and towards the center of the table and allow it to remain in this position until all have played to the trick, when he must turn it over and place its face down and nearer to himself, placing each successive card as he turns it, so that it overlaps the last card played by him and with the ends towards the winners of the trick. After he has played his card and also after he has turned it, he must quit it by removing his hand. SEC. 2. The cards must be left in the order in which they were played and quitted until the scores for the deal are recorded. SEC.
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There are no second bids. If all pass, the dealer must bid twenty. As soon as the trump is named, every player at the table makes his own melds, which will be good if he wins a trick. The rules for play are the same as in the ordinary three and four hand. If four play as partners, two against two, the eldest hand always leads for the first trick, no matter who the successful bidder may be. The bidder always has the first count at the end of the hand, and it is usual to play this game so many deals, instead of so many points. At the end of six deals, for instance, the highest score is the winner. Sometimes this game is played with a widow, three cards when three play, four when four play. Each player is allowed three bids, and the successful bidder turns the widow face up, so that all may see what it contained. He then takes the widow into his hand and discards what he pleases, face down, to reduce his hand to the same number of cards as the other players.
Addy). V. How do you luby lue, How do you luby lue, How do you luby lue, O er the Saturday night? Put your right hand in, Put your right hand out, Shake it in the middle, And turn yourselves about. --Lady C. Gurdon s Suffolk _County Folk-lore_, p. 64. [Repeat this for left hand, right foot, left foot, heads, and put yourselves in. ] VI. Can you dance looby, looby, Can you dance looby, looby, Can you dance looby, looby, All on a Friday night? You put your right foot in, And then you take it out, And wag it, and wag it, and wag it, Then turn and turn about. --Addy s _Sheffield Glossary_.
Don t you want to know about the other people? They re okay, said Underhill. I knew that before I came in here. He stretched his arms and sighed and grinned at them. He could see they were relaxing and were beginning to treat him as a person instead of a patient. I m all right, he said. Just let me know when I can go see my Partner. A new thought struck him. He looked wildly at the doctor. They didn t send her off with the ship, did they? I ll find out right away, said the doctor. He gave Underhill a reassuring squeeze of the shoulder and left the room.
184:-- This game was sometimes called the _nine mens merrils_ from _merelles_, or _mereaux_, an ancient French word for the jettons, or counters, with which it was played. The other term, _morris_, is probably a corruption suggested by the sort of dance which, in the progress of the game, the counters performed. In the French _merelles_ each party had three counters only, which were to be placed in a line in order to win the game. It appears to have been the _tremerel_ mentioned in an old fabliau. See _Le Grand_, _Fabliaux et Contes_, ii. 208. Dr. Hyde thinks the morris, or merrils, was known during the time that the Normans continued in possession of England, and that the name was afterwards corrupted into _three men s morals_, or _nine men s morals_. If this be true, the conversion of _morrals_ into _morris_, a term so very familiar to the country people, was extremely natural. The Doctor adds, that it was likewise called _nine-penny_ or _nine-pin miracle_, _three-penny morris_, _five-penny morris_, _nine-penny morris_, or _three-pin_, _five-pin_, and _nine-pin morris_, all corruptions of _three-pin, &c, merels_ (Hyde s _Hist.
When a person is told to go, he must play as many cards as he can without passing 31. If he reaches 31 exactly, he scores two points; if he cannot quite reach it, he scores one point for the go. The principle is that if 31 cannot be made by either player, the one playing the card that brought the count nearest to it shall count one for it, even if he has told himself to go. There is no count for “last card” if it makes 31. But the “last card” counts if it makes 15. If a player tells another to go when he can still play himself, he forfeits two points, and his adversary may, if he chooses, take back the cards to the point where the error occurred and have them played over again. The same penalty can be enforced against a player who pegs for a go when he can still play. Suppose the first card played is a Jack. The dealer, holding two Nines, an Eight, and a Five, plays the Five, and pegs 2 for the fifteen. The pone plays a Nine, announcing the total as twenty-four.
24. When one or more players belonging to an existing table aid in making up a new one, which cannot be formed without him, he or they shall be the last to cut out. 25. A player belonging to one table who enters another, or announces a desire to do so, forfeits his rights at his original table, unless the new table cannot be formed without him in which case he may retain his position at his original table by announcing his intention to return as soon as his place at the new table can be filled. 26. Should a player leave a table during the progress of a rubber, he may, with the consent of the three others, appoint a substitute to play during his absence; but such appointment becomes void upon the conclusion of the rubber, and does not in any way affect the rights of the substitute. 27. If a player break up a table, the others have a prior right of entry elsewhere. SHUFFLING. 28.
Null ouvert, worth 40. Grand ouvert. The multipliers were the same as those used in the modern game, but the player had no means of using them in his bids. It will be observed that the modern value of the various games seeks to preserve the old rank by assuming the lowest possible bid on any given game. In some parts of Germany it is still the custom to reckon Solos at the tourné values, simply adding one multiplier for “out of hand.” Thus a spade Solo with two would be reckoned; “with two, one for game, one for out of hand; four times seven, or twenty-eight.” Note that seven is tourné value for spades. _=THE SKAT CARDS.=_ The successful bidder determined, the skat cards are pushed towards him, and the manner in which he uses them limits the game he is allowed to play. While the player must win or lose a game worth as many as bid, he may attempt to win as many more as he pleases.
The game is generally arranged for a certain number of tours or deals, at the end of which the scores are balanced and settled for. RUBICON PIQUET, FOR TWO PLAYERS. The chief difference between this game and the usual form, Piquet au cent, is in the manner of declaring. The usual method in England and America is as follows:-- _=The Point=_ is scored by the player holding the greatest number of cards in the suit, and the pip value is resorted to only to decide ties. This is done in order to conceal, if possible, the nature of the cards held. When the numerical value is asked, only the last figure is given, “seven,” for instance, if the point is 47. If the point is good, the elder hand immediately names the suit. If it is not good, the suit is not named, and the elder hand proceeds to call his _=sequences=_. It they are good, the suits must be named; the same with quatorze and trio. _=Under-calling.
But if the cards are thrown down claiming the point or the game, and the claim is good, there is no penalty. If the cards are abandoned with the admission that the adversary wins the point or the game, and the adversary cannot win more than is admitted, there is no penalty. _=SCORING.=_ A game consists of five points, which are made by tricks, by penalties, and by marking the King. A player winning three tricks out of the five possible, counts one point toward game; winning all five tricks, which is called _=the vole=_, counts two points. The player holding or turning up the King of trumps may mark one point for it, but he is not compelled to do so. If the pone plays without proposing, and makes three or four tricks, he counts one point; if he makes the vole he counts two points; but if he fails to make three tricks the dealer counts two. If the dealer refuses the first proposal, he must make three tricks to count one point; if he makes the vole he counts two points; but if he fails to win three tricks the player who was refused counts two points. If the dealer accepts the first proposal, and gives cards, subsequent proposals and refusals do not affect the score; the winner of the odd trick scoring one point, and the winner of the vole two points. In no case can a player make more than two points in one hand by tricks.
--Belfast (W. H. Patterson). III. Hark the robbers Coming through, coming through, My fair lady. They have stolen my watch and chain, Watch and chain, watch and chain. Off to prison they shall go, They shall go, they shall go, My fair lady. --Wolstanton, Stoke-on-Trent (Miss A. A. Keary).
124; Mactaggart s _Gallovidian Encyclopædia_. II. How many miles to Babylon? Three score and ten. Will we be there by candle-light? Yes, and back again. Open your gates and let us go through. Not without a beck and a boo. There s a beck, and there s a boo, Open your gates and let us go through. --Nairn, Scotland (Rev. W. Gregor).
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=_ The single player should almost always begin with the trumps, in order to get them out of his way. With a sequence of Wenzels, it is a common artifice to begin with the lowest, hoping the second player may fatten the trick by discarding a Ten or Ace, under the impression that the Hinterhand can win it. This style of underplay is called _=Wimmelfinte=_, and the Mittelhand should beware of it. With only one Wenzel and the Ace and Ten, it is better to begin with a small trump. If you find all the trumps in one hand against you, or tenace over you, stop leading trumps, and play forcing cards. If you have no Wenzels it is usually best to lead your smallest trumps. If you have only Ace Ten and small trumps, and know the adversaries have one Wenzel and one trump better than your small one, lead your Ten, so that they cannot make both trumps. In playing for a schneider, it is often advisable to continue the trumps, even after the adversaries are exhausted, so that they shall not know which suit to keep for the last trick. _=Laying out the Skat.=_ In a Frage or a Tourné, some judgment is required in discarding for the Skat.
Pinlighting is getting better all the time. The Partners are getting better. I ve seen them pinlight two Rats forty-six million miles apart in one and a half milliseconds. As long as people had to try to work the pin-sets themselves, there was always the chance that with a minimum of four hundred milliseconds for the human mind to set a pinlight, we wouldn t light the Rats up fast enough to protect our planoforming ships. The Partners have changed all that. Once they get going, they re faster than Rats. And they always will be. I know it s not easy, letting a Partner share your mind-- It s not easy for them, either, said Underhill. Don t worry about them. They re not human.