Gambling is our business, Lefty. Don t you think we could spot any of the ordinary kinds of cross-roading? This is TK, and it has real voltage. We can t spot it. We ve got to have Psi power do it for us. Maybe, I agreed. But no TK can do it if Smythe can t. Have you tried a PC? Simonetti grabbed a piece of the heavens in rage. No! he yelled in his loud whisper. None of your crystal-ball witches in here! I knew how he felt. PC s give me the colly-wobbles, too.
The lowest cut takes the deal. Partners sit opposite each other. _=Dealing.=_ The dealer presents the pack to be cut, and then gives thirteen cards to each player, one at a time. No trump is turned. The deal passes to the left. All irregularities are governed by the same laws as bridge. _=Making the trump.=_ Each player in turn, beginning with the dealer, bids to make a certain number of tricks, from seven to thirteen, with a suit of his own choosing, which he names when he makes his bid. The suits outrank one another in the order of hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades, hearts being the best.
Through all the games I have seen played this idea seems to run, and it exactly accords with the conception of marriage by capture. For examples of the actual survivals in English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish customs of marriage by capture see Gomme s _Folk-lore Relics of Early Village Life_, pp. 204-210. The question is, How does this theory of the origin of the game fit in with the term Nuts in May ? I attribute this to the gathering by parties of young men of bunches of May at the May festivals and dances, to decorate not only the Maypole, May kissing-bush, but the doors of houses. Knots of May is a term used by children, meaning bunches of May. Thus, a note by Miss Fowler in the MS. of the games she had collected says, In Bucks the children speak of knots of May, meaning each little bunch of hawthorn blossom. The gathering of bunches of May by parties of young men and maidens to make the May-bush round which the May Day games were held, and dancing and courting, is mentioned by Wilde (_Irish Popular Superstitions_, p. 52), the game being Dance in the Ring. Holland (_Cheshire Glossary_) says, May birches were branches of different kinds of trees fastened over doors of houses and on the chimney on the eve of May Day.
How shall we build it up again? Dance o er my lady lee, How shall we build it up again? With a gay lady. Silver and gold will be stole away, Dance o er my lady lee, Silver and gold will be stole away, With a gay lady. Build it up with iron and steel, Dance o er my lady lee, Build it up with iron and steel, With a gay lady. Iron and steel will bend and bow, Dance o er my lady lee, Iron and steel will bend and bow, With a gay lady. Build it up with wood and clay, Dance o er my lady lee, Build it up with wood and clay, With a gay lady. Wood and clay will wash away, Dance o er my lady lee, Wood and clay will wash away, With a gay lady. Build it up with stone so strong, Dance o er my lady lee, Huzza! twill last for ages long, With a gay lady. --[London][5] (Halliwell s _Nursery Rhymes_, clii.). III.
) The dealer now plays a deuce, and announces seventeen. This card does not form any sequence with those that have gone immediately before it, because if the order of play is retraced it will be found that another deuce is encountered before we reach the Four. This illustrates the rule already given, that sequences formed in play must always be single, and cannot be reckoned with substitute cards, like pairs royal. If they could, the last player in this case might claim a double run of five and a pair. The pone now plays another 4, which forms the sequence afresh if we go back to the third card played. He announces: “Twenty-one, with a run of five,” and pegs five holes more. The dealer plays a 3, also claiming a run of five, which he pegs, and as that is the last card to be played in that hand he also pegs one hole for _=last card=_. The total score of the dealer is now 10 points, and that of the pone is 15. The cards they held, and the order in which they were played is as follows:-- [Illustration: Pone:-- 🂤 🃃 🃕 🃔 Dealer:-- 🃂 🂱 🂲 🃓 ] _=SHOWING.=_ In order to illustrate the manner of counting the hands, which is called showing, let us suppose the starter to be a Queen, and that the pone discarded an Ace and a Ten for the crib, the dealer laying out two Jacks.
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Suppose the bid to be three in diamonds, making the tricks worth 30 each, and that the bidder’s side get the odd trick only. Although the bidder has failed to make good, he scores below the line for the seven tricks he took, at 30 each, and the adversaries score for the six they took, also at 30 each. Then, as the bidder fell short by two tricks of making good, his adversaries score these two tricks at 3,000 points each, penalty, in the honour column. _=Honours.=_ The honours are the A K Q J 10 of trumps and the four Aces, the Aces being always honours; but when there is a no-trump declaration they are the only honours. This makes the Ace of trumps count double, when there is a trump suit; once as one of the five honours in trumps, and once as an Ace. Each honour is worth ten times as much as a trick. If the bid was three in clubs, the tricks would be worth 30 each and the honours 300 each. The side that has the majority of Aces and of honours scores for all they hold; not for the majority or difference. Suppose the bidder’s side has three honours in clubs and three Aces; the other side must have only two honours and one Ace; therefore the bidder scores for six honours, at 300 each.
_=AVOID CHANGING SUITS.=_ A player having once begun with a suit, either for the purpose of establishing it, or of taking tricks in it, should not change it until he is forced to do so. Running off to untried suits is one of the beginner’s worst faults. There are five good reasons for changing suits, and unless one of them can be applied, the suit should be continued: 1st. In order to lead trumps to defend it. 2nd. In order to avoid forcing partner. 3rd. In order to avoid forcing both adversaries. 4th.
Note--This game can be fought with any sized force, but if it is fought with less than 50 a side, the minimum must be 10 a side. (2) The Blow at the Rear game is decided when at least three men of one force reach any point in the back line of their antagonist. He is then supposed to have suffered a strategic defeat, and he must retreat his entire force over the back line in six moves, i.e. six of his moves. Anything left on the field after six moves capitulates to the victor. Points count as in the preceding game, but this lasts a shorter time and is better adapted to a cramped country with a short back line. With a long rear line the game is simply a rush at some weak point in the first player s line by the entire cavalry brigade of the second player. Instead of making the whole back line available for the Blow at the Rear, the middle or either half may be taken. (3) In the Defensive Game, a force, the defenders, two-thirds as strong as its antagonist, tries to prevent the latter arriving, while still a quarter of its original strength, upon the defender s back line.
The common form of folding chess-board provides a field for three of our best known games; Chess, Checkers, and Backgammon, which are generally spoken of as “table games,” although, strictly speaking, Backgammon is the only game of Tables. These three games were probably played long before history noticed them, and they have survived almost all ancient forms of amusement. _=Chess=_ is not only the most important of the three, but the most widely known, and possesses the most extensive literature. According to Chatto, it is probable that all games of cards owe their origin to chess, cards themselves having been derived from an old Indian variation of chess, known as the Four Kings. Chess is also the most fascinating of the table games, its charm being probably due to the fact that, like whist, it is a game that no man ever mastered. Whether or not this is in its favour is an open question. The amount of study and practice required to make a person proficient in chess brings a serious drain upon the time, and the fascinations of the game are such that once a person has become thoroughly interested in it, everything else is laid aside, and it is notorious that no man distinguished as a chess-player has ever been good for anything else. Mr. Blackburne, the English chess champion, regards the game as a dangerous intellectual vice which is spreading to rather an alarming extent. Discussing the matter, after his game with Mr.
_=POSITION OF THE PLAYERS.=_ The four players at Solo Whist are usually distinguished by the letters A B Y Z. [Illustration: Y +-----+ | | A | | B | | +-----+ Z ] Z is the dealer, and A is known as the _=eldest hand=_. The position of the players does not imply any partnership; for, as we shall see presently, any player may have any one of the others for a partner, without any change taking place in their positions at the table. The players having once taken their seats are not allowed to change them without the consent of all the others at the table. _=DEALING.=_ The cards having been properly shuffled, are presented to the pone to be cut. Beginning on his left, the dealer distributes the cards three at a time, until only four remain. These he deals one at a time, turning up the last for the trump. When two packs are used, the player sitting opposite the dealer shuffles the still pack while the other is dealt.
But I did seek another haven. If they knew me that well, I d never be safe where I had stashed my suitcase. There was a copter squatting at the Sky Hi s ramp. I jumped for it and had him drop me toward the outskirts of the town of Lake Tahoe, and then walked a few blocks, mostly in circles to see if I were being followed, before darting into a fairly seedy motel a couple blocks off the main drag. My room was on the third floor of the flea-bag. Part of the place was only two stories high. The door at the end of my corridor opened out onto the roof. When I had calmed down, I stepped through the door into the cool of the desert night. * * * * * The gravel on the built-up roof crunched in the darkness under my feet as I walked cautiously to the parapet and looked over its edge to the hunk of desert that stretched away toward Reno, out behind the motel. The third story, behind me, cut off the neon glare from the Strip and left the place in inky darkness.
_=VALUE OF THE HANDS.=_ The various hands possible in poker are given a counting value, supposed to be in proportion to the difficulty of getting them. There are three systems of counting in common use, the English differing slightly from the American, both in value and in rank. The various scoring values are here given: One pair 2 1 1 Two pairs 5 2 3 Triplets 10 7 6 Straights 15 9 12 Flushes 20 5 5 Full hands 25 12 10 Four of a kind 50 20 16 Straight flush 75 30 30 Royal flush 100 50 30 The first column given is the American system of counting by fives, after one pair, retaining the regular poker rank of the hands. The second column is the American system that puts the straight next to the full hand, and the flush between two pairs and a triplet. The third column is the English system, which ranks the straight above the full hand. As no person has as yet come forward with any figures to show which combination is easier to get in patience poker, nor the proportion of one hand to the other, these figures are all guess work; and players may adopt any values they please. As soon as the tableau is complete, with five rows of five cards each, the value of each of the ten hands the tableau contains is found and the total put down. The object of the solitaire player usually is to see how many tableaus he needs to reach a grand total of 500 points. _=SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAY.
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. _=Following the Jack=_, led from this combination:-- [Illustration: 🂾 🂽 🂻 🂷 🂶 ] Leading King on the second round would show five cards in the suit originally. Leading the Queen would show more than five. _=Following the Queen=_, led from this combination:-- [Illustration: 🃍 🃋 🃊 🃄 🃃 ] Leading Jack on the second round shows the suit to have originally contained only four cards; the Ten would show more than four. _=Following the Ace=_, led from these combinations:-- [Illustration: 🃑 🃝 🃛 🃖 | 🂡 🂭 🂫 🂦 🂥 ] Leading the Queen shows the suit was short. Leading the Jack shows that it contained at least five cards. When a player holds both the second and third-best of a suit on the second round, he should always play one of them, whether he is First, Second, or Third Hand. This protects him, by forcing the command of the suit, if it does not win the trick.
Had he not announced the schneider, and reached 91 or more in his counting cards, he would have won a game worth 50, losing the extra multiplier by not announcing the schneider in advance; for a schneider made without announcing it is worth only 2. In reckoning the value of a game it is always safer to bid on playing “with” than “without” Matadores in a Solo or Tourné; because, although you may have a hand “without four,” you may find a Wenzel in the Skat, and if it is the club Jack you lose three multipliers at once. _=BIDDING.=_ The players must be familiar with the manner of computing the various games in order to bid with judgment, and without hesitation. Suppose you hold the three highest Matadores with an average hand, not strong enough in any one suit to play a Solo, but good enough for a Tourné. Your smallest possible game will be diamonds with three; which will be worth 5 multiplied by 4; 1 for the game, and 3 for the Matadores, 20 points. If you can get the game on any bid less than 20 you are absolutely safe, provided you can reach 61 in your tricks. But the opposition of another player may irritate you, [reizen,] and provoke you to bid 24, or even 28, in the hope of turning a heart or a spade. If you go beyond 20, and turn a diamond, you must either find the fourth Matadore in the Skat, or make your adversaries schneider, in order to secure another multiplier. If you fail, you lose 24, or 28, according to your bid.
=_ The cards dealt, each player sorts his hand into sequences and triplets, and determines what cards he wants to complete his runs, so that he may be on the lookout for them. The pone then draws the top card from the stock and turns it face up on the pack. If this card can be used in combination with any of those in his hand, he draws it over to his side of the table, and takes from his hand the cards completing the combination of three cards, leaving them all face up. Even if he has cards enough in his hand to increase the combination to four or more cards, he should not show them. The cards drawn from the stock must never be taken into the hand. Let us suppose the pone holds these cards:--♡ J 7 6 4; ♠ 5 3 2; ♢ K 7 5; and that the ♡ 5 is the first card he draws. He can use this card in three ways: By making a run of three with the ♡ 4 and ♡ 6; or a run with the ♡ 6 and ♡ 7; or a triplet with the two other 5’s. In this case he would probably lay out the 6 and 7, and make the run of three. If he should draw the ♡ Q later on, he could use it by continuing the sequence with his Jack; or if the ♡ 3 appeared, he could use it with his ♡ 4. _=Passing.
Addy in his _Sheffield Glossary_, and by Holland (_Cheshire Glossary_), Brogden (_Provincial Words, Lincolnshire_), Lowsley (_Berkshire Glossary_), Nares _Glossary_, and Baker s _Northants Glossary_. Miss Courtenay gives Scutter and Tic Tac Mollard as Cornish names for the game (_West Cornwall Glossary_). See also Halliwell s _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 139, and Strutt s _Sports and Pastimes_, p. 326. Butler, in his _Hudibras_ (p. ii. canto iii. l. 302), makes it one of the important qualifications of his conjurer to tell-- What figur d slates are best to make On wat ry surface _duck_ or _drake_.
_=Grand misère sur table=_. _=METHOD OF BIDDING.=_ The player to the right of the dealer has the first say. If he proposes to take a partner as in Solo Whist, he says, “Je demande,” at the same time placing one of his cards face downward on the table. This card must not be shown or named, but must be of the suit which he proposes to make the trump. He is not allowed to announce the suit, so that any player accepting him as a partner does so in ignorance as to whether he will play in belle or in petite. If the demand is accepted, the proposer and his partner make no change in their positions at the table, but must make eight tricks, just as in Solo Whist. If a player cannot propose, he says: “Je passe,” and each of the others in turn from right to left have the opportunity to make a proposal. When any player proposes, any player in turn after him may accept, although such a one may have already passed. If the fourth player proposes, the three others having passed, and no one will accept him he is bound to play solo against three such weak adversaries, and must make five tricks, either in belle or in petite.
Newell s _Games and Songs of American Children_, pp. 155-56. By referring to these games it will be seen that the whole group are mimic representatives of farmyard episodes, though the animal characters are giving way to more domestic affairs, as shown in the Pins and Needles version of Hen and Chickens. It is possible that the different animals which are victims to the Fox appearing in the different games may arise from local circumstances, and that in this case a real distinction exists between the various names by which this game is known. A game called Wolf and Deer, similar to Fox and Geese, is given in _Winter Evening Amusements_, by R. Revel. The last one at the end of the tail may, if she has no other chance of escape, try and place herself before the Deer or Hen. She is then no longer to be hunted; all the others must then follow her example until the deer becomes the last of the line. The game then terminates by exacting a forfeit for each lady whom the Wolf has suffered to escape his clutches (pp. 64, 65).
V. Please may I go out to play? How long will you stay? Three hours in a day. Will you come when I call you? No. Will you come when I fetch you? Yes. Make then your curtseys and be off. The girls then scamper off as before, and as they run about the field keep calling out, I won t go home till seven o clock, I won t go home till seven o clock. After they have been running about for some five or ten minutes the Mother calls Alice (or whatever the name may be) to come home, when the one addressed will run all the faster, crying louder than before, I won t go home till seven o clock. Then the Mother commences to chase them until she catches them, and when she gets them to any particular place in the field where the others are playing, she says-- Where have you been? Up to grandmother s. What have you done that you have been away so long? I have cleaned the grate and dusted the room. What did she give you? A piece of bread and cheese so big as a house, and a piece of plum cake so big as a mouse.
The ring finger, the little finger, and the thumb of the other hand were the first three battleships to be lost to the Rats--lost as people realized that there was something out there _underneath space itself_ which was alive, capricious and malevolent. Planoforming was sort of funny. It felt like like-- Like nothing much. Like the twinge of a mild electric shock. Like the ache of a sore tooth bitten on for the first time. Like a slightly painful flash of light against the eyes. Yet in that time, a forty-thousand-ton ship lifting free above Earth disappeared somehow or other into two dimensions and appeared half a light-year or fifty light-years off. At one moment, he would be sitting in the Fighting Room, the pin-set ready and the familiar Solar System ticking around inside his head. For a second or a year (he could never tell how long it really was, subjectively), the funny little flash went through him and then he was loose in the Up-and-Out, the terrible open spaces between the stars, where the stars themselves felt like pimples on his telepathic mind and the planets were too far away to be sensed or read. Somewhere in this outer space, a gruesome death awaited, death and horror of a kind which Man had never encountered until he reached out for inter-stellar space itself.
| -- | -- | -- | |23.|He sent letter to turn|He sent letter to turn|He sent letter to turn| | |your head. |your head. |your head. | |24.| -- | -- | -- | |25.| -- | -- | -- | |26.| -- | -- | -- | |27.| -- |True love not dead, he| -- | | | |sends letter to turn | | | | |your head. | | |28.
If no pair is shown, the _=Highest Card=_ wins. A short hand, such as four cards, cannot be claimed as either a straight or a flush. _=36. Ties.=_ In case of ties, the highest of the odd cards decides it. Ultimate ties must divide the pool. When combinations of equal rank are shown, the one containing the highest cards wins, the rank of the cards being, A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2; so that two pairs, K’s and 4’s, will beat two pairs, Q’s and J’s. Three 5’s and a pair of 2’s, will beat three 4’s and a pair of aces. JACK POT LAWS. _=37.
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| -- | -- |My fair lady. | |10.| -- |With a gay lady. | -- | |11.|Where I d be. | -- | -- | |12.| -- |How shall we build it | -- | | | |up again? | | |13.|Stones and lime will | -- |Build it up with | | |build it up. | |bricks and mortar. | |14.
The rule of showing both hands is a safeguard against collusion between two players, one of whom might have a fairly good hand, and the other nothing; but by mutually raising each other back and forth they could force any other player out of the pool. The good hand could then be called and shown, the confederate simply saying, “That is good,” and throwing down his hand. Professionals call this system of cheating, “raising out.” When the hands are called and shown, the best poker hand wins, their rank being determined by the table of values already given. In the example just given suppose that A, on being called by D, had shown three fours, and that D had three deuces. A would take the entire pool, including all the antes, and the four blues and one red staked by B after the draw. It might be that B would now discover that he had _=laid down=_ the best hand, having held three sixes. This discovery would be of no benefit to him, for he abandoned his hand when he declined to meet the raises of A and D. If the hands are exactly a tie, the pool must be divided among those who are in at the call. For instance: Two players show aces up, and each finds his opponent’s second pair to be eights.
Sometimes, when several holes are made, the game is called Holy. --Addy s _Sheffield Glossary_; _Notes and Queries_, xii. 344. Bunch of Ivy Played by children in pairs (one kneeling and one standing) in a ring. The inner child of each pair kneels. The following dialogue begins with the inner circle asking the first question, which is replied to by the outer circle. What time does the King come home? One o clock in the afternoon. What has he in his hand? A bunch of ivy. The rhyme is repeated for every hour up to six, the outer circle running round the inner as many times as the number named. The children then change places and repeat.
The odds are five to two that your partner will hold one or more of any three named counting cards which you do not hold. If you have no Pedro, count on him for one, and if you have King and Queen, you can risk his having a guard to it, and bid as if you were sure of getting his Pedro home. If you have none of the points for High, Low, Jack, or Game, or only one of them, count on him for one at least, and bid accordingly. It is very difficult to give exact rules for bidding, the state of the score having much to do with it; but as a general rule it is much better to bid on _=catching cards=_ than on the points themselves. For instance: A K Q of trumps should certainly be good for eight points; some players habitually bid twelve on them, reckoning to catch both Pedroes and one of the minor points. This is risky unless there are one or two small trumps with the A K Q. On the other hand, two Pedroes, with Jack and Low, are not worth bidding more than five on; because it is very unlikely that you will save more than one of the Pedroes, if that. The very fact that you bid five diminishes your chances, for you betray the fact that your only hope is to save a well-guarded Pedro. Long experience with players who bid their hands correctly will give a player a very good idea of what the bidder has in his hand. To the partner this is a great point, for it enables him to judge when to give up points himself, and when to play for his partner to throw them to him.
The boys sing the first verse. The girls seek for daisies or any wild flowers, and join in the singing of the second verse, while the boys raise the prostrate Booman and carry him about. When singing the third verse the boys act digging a grave, and the dead boy is lowered. The girls strew flowers over the body. When finished another boy becomes Booman. (_c_) This game is clearly dramatic, to imitate a funeral. Mr. Doe writes, I have seen somewhere [in Norfolk] a tomb with a crest on it--a leek--and the name Beaumont, but it does not seem necessary to thus account for the game. Boss-out A game at marbles. Strutt describes it as follows:-- One bowls a marble to any distance that he pleases, which serves as a mark for his antagonist to bowl at, whose business it is to hit the marble first bowled, or lay his own near enough to it for him to span the space between them and touch both the marbles.
| -- | -- | -- | |31.| -- | -- | -- | +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ |No.| Wales. | Isle of Wight. | Isle of Man. | +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 1.|Green gravel. | -- |Green gravel. | | 2.| -- | -- | -- | | 3.