=_ No person should be allowed any advantage over another which is not compensated for in some way. In Seven-up, for instance, the non-dealer counts game if it is a tie; an advantage which is offset by the dealer’s counting Jack if he turns it. In Auction Pitch the dealer has no such advantage, because no trump is turned, and therefore the non-dealer cannot count ties for game. It is a common error among Cassino players to hold that a player cannot build on his own build, but that his adversary may do so. A player holds two deuces, an Eight and a Ten, and builds a Six to an Eight. It is claimed that an adversary may increase this build to ten, but the original builder may not. This is manifestly unfair, because there is no compensating advantage to the player that is denied the privilege to justify its being allowed to his adversary. _=Benefiting by Errors.=_ No player should be allowed to win a game by committing a breach of the laws. If a person revokes, for instance, there is a certain penalty, but in addition to the penalty it is always stipulated that the revoking player cannot win the game that hand.
_=Probabilities.=_ The only point in the game is for a player to know what hands to stand on, and what to draw to. The dealer is guided by the cards dealt to other players, and by what they ask for. The other players should stand on 17, but draw on 16. In practice it has been found that the odds are about 2 to 1 in favour of drawing at 16; 3 to 1 for drawing at 15. The rules for drawing, etc., are more fully described in connection with the very similar game of Baccara. MACAO. In this variety of Vingt-et-un only one card is dealt to each player; court cards and tens count nothing, and the Ace is always worth one. The number to be reached is 9, instead of 21, and if a player has a 9 natural, he receives from the banker three times his stake; if an 8 natural, he receives double, and for a 7 natural, he is paid.
_=6. Betting Limits.=_ Before play begins limits must be agreed upon for the amount of the blind, the straddle, the ante in jack pots, and for betting or raising. _=7. Shuffling.=_ Before the first deal the pack must be counted to see that it contains the proper number of cards. Should the first dealer neglect this he forfeits five counters to the pool. Before each deal the cards must be shuffled. Any player may shuffle, the dealer last. _=8.
The dools are places marked with stones, where the players always remain in safety--where they dare neither be caught by the hand nor struck with balls. It is only when they leave these places of refuge that those out of the doons have any chance to gain the game and get in; and leave the doons they frequently must--this is the nature of the game. Now this game seems to have been often played in reality by our ancestors about their doon-hills.--Mactaggart s _Gallovidian Encyclopædia_. Down in the Valley I. Down in the valley where the green grass grows Stands E---- H----, she blows like a rose. She blows, she blows, she blows so sweet. In came F---- S---- and gave her a kiss. E---- made a pudding, she made it nice and sweet, F---- took a knife and fork and cut a little piece. Taste of it, taste of it, don t say nay, For next Sunday morning is our wedding day.
Two of the cards on the table form a marriage in spades, and as the marriage is in a different class from either of the other melds, he may claim it and score it; but if he does, he will lose the score for the binocle, being prevented by the rule about a fresh card from the hand for each individual meld. The only way to secure both scores would be to meld the marriage first, and afterward to lay down the Jack and meld the binocle. _=Time.=_ On account of the number of combinations possible, and the fact that there are only twelve tricks to be played before the scores for announcements are barred, it frequently happens that a player has not time to score everything he holds. He is allowed to count the cards remaining in the talon, provided he does not disturb their order, and it is often important to do so toward the end of a hand. _=Scoring Dix.=_ If a player holds or draws the Nine of trumps, he has the privilege of exchanging it for the turn-up card, and scoring ten points for dix. The exchange must be made immediately after winning a trick, and before drawing his card from the stock. Should the turn-up be a Nine, the exchange may still be made and scored; and if one player has already exchanged a Nine for the turn-up, the second Nine may still be exchanged for the first, and scored. A player cannot score dix and any other combination at the same time.
He s no Twenty-fifth, or he wouldn t have any need to go crooked. He saw a chance to make a killing. He suggested it to Rose, who fell for it and went along. Rose decided to steal Simonetti s half of the business from his partner with Smythe s help. It was no more complicated than smuggling thousand dollar bills off the table in false bottoms of trays that drinks were being served on. Smythe was using TK to lift the bills into those false bottoms, well screened by the trays from the TV monitors. Barney was in on it, of course. And after the joint had lost enough dough that way, Rose and Simonetti would have had to sell out. Only the buyer would have been a dummy for Rose and Smythe, using money Smythe had lifted off the tables. The whole TK business was just a smoke screen to keep matters confused, I concluded.
Each side will be under the supreme command of a General, who will be represented by a cavalry soldier. The player who is General must stand at or behind his representative image and within six feet of it. His signalling will be supposed to be perfect, and he will communicate with his subordinates by shout, whisper, or note, as he thinks fit. I suggest he should be considered invulnerable, but Colonel Sykes has proposed arrangements for his disablement. He would have it that if the General falls within the zone of destruction of a shell he must go out of the room for three moves (injured); and that if he is hit by rifle-fire or captured he shall quit the game, and be succeeded by his next subordinate. Now as to the Moves. It is suggested that: Infantry shall move one foot. Cavalry shall move three feet. The above moves are increased by one half for troops in twos or fours on a road. Royal Engineers shall move two feet.
For this reason a player whose time is short will often forego the dix score altogether unless the trump card is valuable. _=Irregular Melds.=_ If a player announces a combination which he does not show, such as fours when he has three only, which he may easily do by mistaking a Jack for a King, his adversary can compel him not only to take down the score erroneously marked, but to lead or play one of the three Kings. A player may be called upon to lead or play cards from other erroneous declarations in the same manner, but if he has the right card or cards in his hand, he may amend his error, provided he has not drawn a card from the stock in the meantime. _=The Last Twelve Tricks.=_ When the stock is exhausted all announcements are at an end, and the players take back into their hands all the cards upon the table which may remain from the combinations declared in the course of play. Should a player take up his cards before playing to the last trick, he may be called upon to lay his entire hand on the table. The winner of the previous trick then leads any card he pleases; but for the last twelve tricks the second player in each must not only follow suit, but must win the trick if he can, either with a superior card or with a trump. Any player failing to follow suit or to win a trick, when able to do so, may be compelled to take back his cards to the point where the error occurred, and to replay the hand from that point on. The penalty for the _=revoke=_ varies in different places, but the general rule is for the revoking player to lose his entire count for “cards.
She hugged my arm to her skinniness. That s all any of the hustlers ever want--to get their hands on your chips. They figure some of them will stick to their fingers. The gambler next to me had won a dollar bet without my help. He acted mighty glad for a win--maybe it was a while since he d hit it. I decided to give him a run of luck. Now in charge of my chips, Sniffles called the turn on every roll. She was hot. It wasn t just that she followed where the gambler next to me put his dough--she was ahead of him on pushing out the chips on half the rolls. He quickly saw that my chips had stayed on the same side of the line each roll as his.
_=Third Hand on Strengthening Cards.=_ Unless Third Hand has both Ace and King of the suit, he should pass any forced or strengthening lead which is not covered by the Second Hand. This obliges the Fourth Hand to open another suit, or to continue at a disadvantage. Third Hand winning first round has the choice of four lines of play: 1st. To lead trumps, if he is strong enough. 2nd. To return the best card of his partner’s suit if he has it. This is imperative before opening any other suit but trumps. 3rd. To lead his own suit, if he can do anything with it.
-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+ | . | | . | | . | | . | | +-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+-.
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. This will be found to be 74, and the probability will therefore be 74/166.
See Sally Water, Silly Old Man. Here we go around, around [Music] Our shoes are made of leather, Our stockings are made of silk, Our pinafores are made of calico, As white as any milk. Here we go around, around, around, And we shall touch the ground. --Barnes and London Streets (A. B. Gomme). A ring is formed by the children joining hands. They walk round singing the first four lines. They then dance round quickly and sit down suddenly, or touch the ground with their clothes. A version of this game from Liphook, Hants, almost identical in words, has been sent by Miss Fowler, and another from Crockham Hill, Kent, by Miss Chase.
=_ If a team is playing a match, and one of the players is unavoidably absent, it is the custom to give him credit for his average, according to the records of his previous games during the tournament or the season. This is considered better than appointing a substitute to play for him. There are a great many varieties of Ten Pins, the most interesting of which will be found described in the following Laws of the game, which are reprinted here by the kind permission of the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co., from their 1908 edition of the “Bowler’s Guide.” BOWLING ALLEY LAWS. RULES AND REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE GAME OF AMERICAN TEN PINS. _Revised at Louisville, Ky., March 19-21, 1906. In effect Sept. 1, 1906.
_=Jig=_ is a variation of Earl of Coventry in which the next higher in sequence and suit must be played, if the player has it, until four cards are shown. The one who lays down the last of the sequence of four cards starts a fresh sequence, and the winner is the one who can first get rid of all the cards originally dealt him. All the others then pay him a counter for each card they have left. COMMIT. The etymology of this word has been quite overlooked by those who have described the game. The word is from the French, cométe, a comet; but instead of being an equivalent in English, it is simply a phonetic equivalent; Commit, instead of Comet. Tenac informs us that the game was invented during the appearance of Halley’s comet; and the idea of the game is that of a string of cards forming a tail to the one first played, a feature which is common to quite a number of the older games of cards. Commit is played by any number of persons, with a pack of fifty-one cards, the Eight of diamonds having been deleted. The players draw for positions at the table and for the first deal, and make up a pool. The cards have no value except the order of their sequence in the various suits.
_=Third.=_ On discovery of the false opening, each player is allowed to take down whatever amount he may have paid into the pool, including his original ante and all fatteners, and the false opener must then make the entire amount good. The cards are then dealt afresh. This is a very harsh punishment for a very trifling and common error. The second method is the most popular, and probably the fairest, and is now the universal rule. If the false opener does not discover his mistake until he has drawn cards, his action is at least suspicious, and he should be compelled to put up the total amount in the pool, as in case three. In some localities such a player is barred from playing the next two jacks, but compelled to ante his share in each. _=Betting Jacks.=_ When a jack pot has been properly opened, and all have declared whether or not they will stay, and have drawn cards, the players proceed to bet on their hands. As there is no age in jack pots, the rule is for the opener to make the first bet; or, if he has been raised out before the draw, the player next on his left who still holds cards.
* * * * * The click of the door latch broke the silence. One of the other stick-men eased himself in, holding the door only wide enough to squeeze past the jamb. Don t give the suckers a peek at the seamy side. They might just take their money to the next clip joint down the street. He didn t look like the others, somehow. He was older, for one thing. Perhaps it was his nearly bald scalp, perhaps the thick, bookish glasses in heavy brown frames. What s that? he asked mildly, poking a finger at the dealer kneeling in the sawdust on the floor. My Blackout victim was reaching out, trying to find something he could use to raise himself to his feet. His face was frozen in a fierce, unseeing stare as he mentally screamed at his eyes to see, see, see! Blackout! one of the bouncers told the second stick-man in a muffled voice.
A man may be fortunate enough for a long time to guess right oftener than he will guess wrong, and a lucky man in good guessing form is a very dangerous customer, that no cold deck will beat; but a man with a system surrenders to a double foe; the inevitable percentage of the game, and the skill of the banker, who can beat any system if the player will only promise to stick to it. KENO, OR LOTTO. This game is played with a large number of cards, on which are printed various permutations of the numbers 1 to 90, taken five at a time; but each of the five numbers selected for one combination must be in a separate division of tens, such combinations as 2 4 8 16 18 not being allowed on any card, because the 2 4 and 8, for instance, are all in the first ten numbers of the 90. These cards have each a number, printed in large red type across the face of the other figures. The following might be a keno card, No. 325:-- [Illustration: +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ | 1 | | 26 | | 45 | 53 | | 77 | | +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ | | 10 | 28 | =3=| =2=| =5=| 62 | 79 | 83 | +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ | 4 | 12 | | 37 | | 67 | | 90 | +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ ] Some cards have more than three rows of figures on them, but none have more than five in one row. The cards are left on the tables in large numbers, and any number of persons may play. Each selects as many cards as he wishes, or thinks he can watch, and places upon them their price, usually twenty-five cents each. An assistant comes round and calls out the numbers of all the cards to be played, and they are “pegged” on a large board provided for the purpose. Ninety small ivory balls, with flattened surfaces to carry the numbers, are placed in a keno goose, which looks like a coffee urn with the spout at the bottom.
MAG. Magic Whistle. Magical Music. Malaga Raisins. Marbles. Mary Brown. Mary mixed a Pudding up. Merrils. Merritot. Merry-ma-tansa.
|Such beautiful flowers| -- | -- | | |ever seen. | | | |11.| -- | -- | -- | |12.| -- | -- | -- | |13.| -- | -- | -- | |14.| -- | -- | -- | |15.| -- | -- | -- | |16.| -- | -- | -- | |17.| -- | -- | -- | |18.|Sweetheart is dead.
Without these curtains we found the first player was at a heavy disadvantage, because he displayed all his dispositions before his opponent set down his men. And at last our rules have reached stability, and we regard them now with the virtuous pride of men who have persisted in a great undertaking and arrived at precision after much tribulation. There is not a piece of constructive legislation in the world, not a solitary attempt to meet a complicated problem, that we do not now regard the more charitably for our efforts to get a right result from this apparently easy and puerile business of fighting with tin soldiers on the floor. And so our laws all made, battles have been fought, the mere beginnings, we feel, of vast campaigns. The game has become in a dozen aspects extraordinarily like a small real battle. The plans are made, the Country hastily surveyed, and then the curtains are closed, and the antagonists make their opening dispositions. Then the curtains are drawn back and the hostile forces come within sight of each other; the little companies and squadrons and batteries appear hurrying to their positions, the infantry deploying into long open lines, the cavalry sheltering in reserve, or galloping with the guns to favourable advance positions. In two or three moves the guns are flickering into action, a cavalry melee may be in progress, the plans of the attack are more or less apparent, here are men pouring out from the shelter of a wood to secure some point of vantage, and here are troops massing among farm buildings for a vigorous attack. The combat grows hot round some vital point. Move follows move in swift succession.
] [Illustration: Fig. 9--Battle of Hook s Farm. Complete Victory of the Blue Army.] Blue then pounds Red s right with his gun to the right of the farm and kills three men. He extends his other gun to the left of the farm, right out among the trees, so as to get an effective fire next time upon the tail of Red s gun. He also moves up sufficient men to take possession of Red s lost gun. On the right Blue s gun engages Red s and kills one man. All this the reader will see clearly in figure 9, and he will also note a second batch of Red prisoners--this time they are infantry, going rearward. Figure 9 is the last picture that is needed to tell the story of the battle. Red s position is altogether hopeless.
Formation of table. Those first in the room have the preference. If more than the necessary number assemble, the choice shall be determined by cutting, those cutting the lowest cards having the right to play. Six persons is the largest number that can play at one table. The player cutting the lowest card has the deal. 2. In cutting, the Ace is low. Players cutting cards of equal value, cut again. All must cut from the same pack, and any person exposing more than one card must cut again. Drawing cards from an outspread pack is equivalent to cutting.
Strutt (_Sports_, p. 317) says: This was why the game received this name. It was formerly called Nine Men s Morris and Five-penny Morris, and is a game of some antiquity. It was certainly much used by the shepherds formerly, and continues to be used by them and other rustics to the present hour. An illustration of the form of the merelle table and the lines upon it, as it appeared in the fourteenth century, is given by him, and he observes that the lines have not been varied. The black spots at every angle and intersection of the lines are the places for the men to be laid upon. The men are different in form and colour for distinction s sake, and from the moving these men backwards and forwards, as though they were dancing a morris, I suppose the pastime received the name of Nine Men s Morris, but why it should have been called Five-penny Morris I do not know. The manner of playing is briefly thus:--Two persons, having each of them nine pieces or men, lay them down alternately, one by one, upon the spots, and the business of either party is to prevent his antagonist from placing three of his pieces so as to form a row of three without the intervention of an opponent piece. If a row be formed, he that made it is at liberty to take up one of his competitor s pieces from any part he thinks most to his own advantage, excepting he has made a row, which must not be touched, if he have another piece upon the board that is not a component part of that row. When all the pieces are laid down they are played backwards and forwards in any direction that the lines run, but can only move from one spot to another at one time.