After an ace has appeared, the player may examine the cards in any or all of the piles, but their order must not be disturbed. The object in looking at the cards is to select the pile which is least likely to stop you, or the one having the fewest cards in it. _=TAKE FOURTEEN.=_ Shuffle and cut the pack, and deal the cards one at a time, face upward, into twelve piles, and continue dealing on the top of these twelve until the pack is exhausted. This will give you four piles which contain one card more than the others. Then take off any two of the top cards which will make 14, reckoning the Jack as 11, the Queen as _12_ and the King as 13, all the others at their face value. Only two cards must be used to make 14. If you succeed in taking off all the cards in this manner, you win. You are at liberty to look at the underneath cards in the various piles, but you must not disturb their positions. _=HELP YOUR NEIGHBOUR.
Beginning on his left, the dealer distributes the cards face down one at a time in rotation until each player has received five cards. The deal passes to the left, and each player deals in turn. _=IRREGULARITIES IN THE DEAL.=_ The following rules regarding the deal should be strictly observed:-- If any card is found faced in the pack the dealer must deal again. Should the dealer, or the wind, turn over any card, the player to whom it is dealt must take it; but the same player cannot be compelled to take two exposed cards. Should such a combination occur, there must be a fresh deal by the same dealer. If the player exposes his cards himself, he has no remedy. Should any player receive more or less than his correct 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 fresh deal if no bet has been made; or he may ask the dealer to give him another 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 bottom of the pack. If the number of the hands dealt does not agree with the number of players, there must be a new deal.
SCOTLAND. Chambers _Popular Rhymes_, ed. 1870. Mactaggart s _Gallovidian Encyclopædia_, ed. 1871. Jamieson s _Etymological Dictionary_, ed. 1872-1889. Folk-lore Society Publications. ABERDEEN-- Pitsligo Rev. W.
” If the trump card is not an ace, any player at the table holding the ace of trumps is bound to announce the fact when it comes to his turn to play to the first trick. The usual plan is for him to pass a card to the dealer face downward, and in return the dealer will give him the turn-up trump. If the holder of the ace does not want the turn-up, he must tell the dealer to turn the trump down, which shows that he could rob, but does not wish to. If the holder of the ace of trumps plays without announcing it, he not only loses his right to rob, but his ace of trumps becomes of less value than any other trump for that deal, and even if it is the ace of hearts he loses the privileges attached to that card. _=METHOD OF PLAYING.=_ The eldest hand begins by leading any card he pleases. It is not necessary to follow suit except in trumps; but if a player does not follow suit when he is able to do so, he must trump the trick, or it is a revoke. If he cannot follow suit, he may trump or discard at his pleasure. The highest card played of the suit led wins the trick, and trumps win all other suits. The winner of the first trick leads any card he pleases for the next, and so on, until all five tricks have been played.
=_ When a call is made, all the hands must be shown to the table, and the best poker hand wins the pool. Any player declining to show his hand, even though he admits that it is not good, must pay an amount equal to the ante to each of the players at the table; or, if jack pots are played, he must put up for all of them in the next jack pot. When the hands are called, there is no penalty for mis-calling a hand; the cards, like the counters, speak for themselves. _=35. Rank of the Hands.=_ The best poker hand is a _=Royal Flush=_; A K Q J 10 of the same suit, which beats a _=Straight Flush=_; any sequence of five cards of the same suit. _=Four of a Kind=_; such as four 10’s and an odd card. _=Full Hand=_; three of a kind and a pair, such as three 8’s and a pair of Q’s, which beats a _=Flush=_; five cards of the same suit, but not in sequence. _=Straight=_; five cards in sequence, but of various suits. In straights, the Ace cannot be used to form such combinations as Q K A 2 3; but it may be used as the bottom of 5 4 3 2, or the top of 10 J Q K.
AMERICAN SKAT. In this variation, now so largely played, the highest bidder always sees the skat before announcing his game. Although a gucki, it need not be a grand, but may be solo or nullo if he likes. If he wins the game he announces the scores as usual; but if he loses he always loses double. He may announce schneider or schwarz after discarding for the skat. If he makes an announced schneider, it doubles the value of his game, instead of simply adding a multiplier. An announced schwarz trebles it. For example: Spade solo with 1, schneider announced. His game is 1 for game, 1 for schneider, without 1, 3 × 11 = 33, doubled for announcing schneider, 66. If lost, it costs 132.
(_c_) It seems very clear from both the versions given that this is a ceremonial dance, round or at a place sacred to such ceremonies as betrothal and marriage. The version given by Chambers suggests this the more strongly, as the child in the centre acts as mistress of the ceremonies, or go-between, the person who was the negotiator between the parents on either side in bringing a marriage about. The courtesying and bowing of those in the ring to her may show respect for this office. On the other hand, there is the more important office of priest or priestess of the stones suggested by the action of the game, and the reverence to the centre child may be a relic of this. The fact that she asks a girl to tell her her sweetheart s name, and then announces the name of the girl s choice for approval or disapproval by the ring in both versions, points to the time when consent by relations and friends on both sides was necessary before the marriage could be agreed upon--the inquiry regarding the qualifications of the proposed wife, the recital of her housewifely abilities, and the giving of the ring by the boy to the girl are also betrothal customs. It is to be noted that it was a popular belief in ancient times that to wed with a rush-ring was a legal marriage, without the intervention of a priest or the ceremonies of marriage. Poore, Bishop of Salisbury (circa 1217), prohibited the use of them-- With gaudy girlonds or fresh flowers dight About her necke, or rings of rushes plight. --Spenser s _Queen_. And Shakespeare alludes to the custom in the lines-- As fit as ten groats for the hand of an attorney, as Tib s rush for Tom s forefinger. --_All s Well that Ends Well.
Honours are scored by each player separately, every honour being worth as much as a trick in that suit. Four or five in one hand count double. At no trump, the aces count for 10 each to the holders, four in one hand 100. The declarer scores his dummy’s honours. At the end of the rubber, each wins from or loses to each of the others. The score is usually made up in this way, the final amounts to the credit of each being shown in the top line: A, 240 B, 980 C, 456 ---------------------------- -740 +740 +215 -215 +524 -524 ---- ---- ---- -955 +1264 -309 _=DUPLICATE AUCTION.=_ This game may be played in any of the ways described for the movement of trays and players under the head of duplicate whist. Tricks and honours are scored as usual, but there are no games or rubbers. Should the declarer make 30 or more points on a single hand he gets 125 points bonus in the honour column. This game is now covered by the official laws for auction, which see.
=_ There are three shots common to billiards: The _=carrom=_ or _=cannon=_, in which a count is made by the cue ball striking both the other balls on the table. The _=winning hazard=_, in which the object or the carrom ball is driven into a pocket. The _=losing hazard=_, in which the cue ball goes into a pocket after contact with another ball. There are five ways of making the principal shots at billiards, and they should be thoroughly mastered by every player. These are: The force, the follow, the draw, the massé, and the side stroke. [Illustration] The first great principle in billiards is that the cue ball will always travel in the _=direction=_ in which the cue is pointed. Holding the cue upward, downward or sidewise makes no difference; the line of travel will be a prolongation of the line of the cue. In the three ways of striking the cue ball shown in the diagram in the margin, the ball will go in the direction of the arrow in each instance. [Illustration] If the cue is held nearly level with the surface of the table the ball will be pushed or rolled along; but if the cue is held perpendicularly, and the ball is struck directly on the top, the ball will be _=pinched=_ to the table, as in the first figure in the margin, and will not move. If the ball is struck off the centre, as in the second figure, it will travel only a short distance, as a result of the cue’s being forced past it toward the cloth, and will then return with a very strong retrograde motion after touching the object ball.
King William is then supposed to enter-- The first girl that I loved so dear, Can it be she s gone from me? If she s not here when the night comes on, Will none of you tell me where she s gone? He then recognises the disguised girl-- There s heart beneath the willow tree, There s no one here but my love and me. He had gone to the war, and promised to marry her when he came back. She wrapped a shawl about her head to see if he would recognise her. This was all the reciter could recollect; the lines of the ballad were sung by an old woman, the ring answering with the game-rhyme. This version seems to indicate clearly that in this game we have preserved one of the ceremonies of a now obsolete marriage-custom--namely, the disguising of the bride and placing her among her bridesmaids and other young girls, all having veils or other coverings alike over their heads and bodies. The bridegroom has to select from among these maidens the girl whom he wished to marry, or whom he had already married, for until this was done he was not allowed to depart with his bride. This custom was continued in sport as one of the ceremonies to be gone through after the marriage was over, long after the custom itself was discontinued. For an instance of this see a Rural Marriage in Lorraine, in _Folk-lore Record_, iii. 267-268. This ordeal occurs in more than one folk-tale, and it usually accompanies the incident of a youth having travelled for adventures, sometimes in quest of a bride.
Round comes one of them, the honey merchant, who feels those who are sweet and sour, by lifting them by the arm-pits and giving them three shakes. If they stand these without the hands unlocking below they are then sweet and saleable, fit for being office-bearers of other ploys.--Mactaggart s _Gallovidian Encyclopædia_. In Ross and Stead s _Holderness Glossary_ this is described as a girls game, in which two carry a third as a pot of honey to market. It is mentioned by Addy (_Sheffield Glossary_) and by Holland (_Cheshire Glossary_). Mr. Holland adds, If the hands give way before twenty is reached it is counted a bad honey pot; if not, it is a good one. In Dublin the seller sings out-- Honey pots, honey pots, all in a row, Twenty-five shillings wherever you go-- Who ll buy my honey pots? --Mrs. Lincoln. The game is mentioned by a writer in _Blackwood s Magazine_, August 1821, p.
Properly speaking, Poker is not the founder, but simply the most famous representative of a very ancient and always very popular family of games, all of which can be traced to one source, the old French game of Gilet, which was undoubtedly of Italian origin, perhaps a variety of Primero. Gilet we find changed to Brelan in the time of Charles IX., and although Brelan is no longer played, the word is still used in all French games to signify triplets, and “brelan-carré” is the common French term for four of a kind in _le poker Américain_. From Brelan we trace the French games of Bouillotte, and Ambigu, and the English game of Brag; but the game of poker, as first played in the United States, five cards to each player from a twenty-card pack, is undoubtedly the Persian game of _as nas_. The peculiar and distinguishing characteristic of Poker we find well described by Seymour, in his chapter on “Brag,” in the “Court Gamester,” 1719: “The endeavour to impose on the judgment of the rest who play, and particularly on the person who chiefly offers to oppose you, by boasting or bragging of the cards in your hand. Those who by fashioning their looks and gestures, can give a proper air to their actions, as will so deceive an unskilful antagonist, that sometimes a pair of fives, trays or deuces, in such a hand, with the advantage of his composed countenance, and subtle manner of over-awing the other, shall out-brag a much greater hand, and win the stakes, with great applause and laughter on his side from the whole company.” Quite a number of card games retain the feature of pairs, triplets, sequences, and flushes, but omit the element of brag or bluff, and can therefore hardly be considered full-blooded members of the poker family. Whiskey Poker, for instance, has really little or nothing in common with the true spirit of poker, and is simply the very ancient game of Commerce, played with five cards instead of three. The descriptions of this game in the earliest Hoyles betray its French origin; particularly in the use of the piquet pack; the French custom of cutting to the left and dealing to the right; and the use of the words “brelan,” and “tricon.” In later descriptions of the “new form” of Commerce, about 1835, we find 52 cards are used, and dealt from left to right, and the names of the combinations are changed to “pairs-royal,” “sequences,” and “flushes.
If any other player revokes, his opponents may take three points from the score of his side; or add three points to their score; or take three of his tricks. The penalty cannot be divided; but if two or more revokes are made by the same side, the penalty for each may be enforced in a different manner. For instance: If the score is 3 to 2 in favor of the adversaries, Vivant may take three points from their score for one revoke, and add three to his own score for the other. It is not permissible to reduce the revoking player’s _=tricks=_ to nothing. At least one must be left in order to prevent slams being made through revoke penalties. _=Cards Played in Error.=_ Vivant is not liable to any penalty for dropping his cards face up on the table; but if he or Mort plays two cards at once to a trick, the adversaries may select which they will allow to be played. The adversaries are subject to the same penalties as in whist for all cards played in error. _=Leading Out of Turn.=_ If Vivant or Mort lead out of turn, the adversaries may let the lead stand, or demand it be taken back.
2. Where you have a certain safe card, and others of another suit not absolutely safe, it is better to keep the safe card, in order to be sure of getting rid of the lead if you are put in on your dangerous suit. In following suit, the most annoying hand that one can hold is one containing at least three cards of each suit, none of them below a 6. There is no hope of a discard, unless two players make a fight in some one suit, which they lead four or five times in order to load each other, regardless of the escape of the other players. This very seldom occurs, and never among good players. With such a hand escape is almost impossible, and it is usually best to make the losses as small as possible. Many good players, with such a hand, will deliberately take in hearts on the plain suits, hoping to escape with only one or two in each trick, instead of having to carry the whole load by getting into the lead at the end. It should never be forgotten that when you must inevitably take some hearts it is cheaper to take them in on plain suits than to win heart tricks. _=CONTROL OF THE LEAD.=_ One of the strongest points in good heart play is the proper control of the lead at certain times.
The victors range themselves in two lines, each boy with his cap or handkerchief tightly plaited in his hand, and pelt with all their might the vanquished as they run between the lines. The boys of Nairn call this running of the gauntlet, through fire an watter. The method of playing the Warwick, Fernham, and Louth versions is practically the same. The children stand in half-circle beginning with the two tallest at either end. All clasp hands. The two at one end question those at the other end alternately (fig. 1). At the last line the two that have been answering hold their hands up to form a bridge, and all the others thread through, still holding hands (the bridge advancing slowly) (fig. 2). The Louth version is also sometimes played as Oranges and Lemons.
| PLAYED. ---------------------+----+-----+-----+--------+---------+--------- Ruy Lopez |145 |103 | 58 | 306 | 57 | 20 Queen’s Pawn(a) | 97 | 63 | 39 | 199 | 48 | 13 French Defence | 84 | 48 | 39 | 171 | 60 | 11 Vienna | 47 | 34 | 15 | 96 | 57 | 6 Sicilian Defence | 40 | 29 | 10 | 79 | 57 | 5 King’s Gambit | 36 | 32 | 11 | 79 | 52 | 5 Giuoco Piano | 36 | 32 | 10 | 78 | 52 | 5 Evans | 34 | 20 | 12 | 66 | 61 | 4 Irregular | 29 | 31 | 14 | 74 | 49 | 5 Scotch | 22 | 26 | 9 | 57 | 47 | 4 Zukertort | 23 | 17 | 11 | 51 | 56 | 3 Two Knights Defence | 16 | 20 | 10 | 46 | 46 | 3 Staunton’s | 19 | 15 | 5 | 39 | 55 | 3 Fianchetto | 13 | 14 | 2 | 29 | 48 | 2 Petroff Defence | 15 | 9 | 3 | 27 | 61 | 2 Centre Gambit(b) | 11 | 11 | 4 | 26 | 50 | 2 Philidor Defence | 8 | 9 | 3 | 20 | 47 | 1 Miscellaneous | 22 | 29 | 6 | 57 | 44 | 4 +----+-----+-----+--------+---------+--------- Total |697 |542 | 261 | 1500 | | ---------------------+----+-----+-----+--------+---------+--------- The first player won 55.2 per cent. of games played, counting drawn games as one-half. (a). Includes Queen’s Gambits and Queen’s Gambits declined. (b). Includes Centre and Counter Centre Gambits. _=THE MIDDLE GAME.=_ After a little experience with openings, the player will usually select one or two which he feels that he can handle better than others, and will make a specialty of them.
Every ball delivered, unless it be declared a dead ball by the umpire, shall be counted against the player. Pins which are knocked down by another pin rebounding in the play from the side partition or rear cushion are counted as pins down. Pins which are knocked down or displaced from any cause except by a fairly delivered ball shall in all cases be respotted. Should a player by mistake roll on the wrong alley, or out of his turn, or be interfered with in his play by another bowler or spectator, or should any of the pins at which he is playing be displaced or knocked down in any manner before his delivered ball reaches the pins, or should his ball come in contact with any foreign obstacle on the alleys, then the ball so delivered by him shall be immediately declared a dead ball by the umpire, and such ball shall not count, and shall be immediately re-rolled by the player after the cause for declaring such ball dead has been removed. Pins which are knocked down by a fair ball, and which remain lying on the alley or in the gutters, are termed dead wood, and shall be removed before the next ball is rolled. Should a standing pin fall by removing dead wood, such pin or pins shall be at once respotted. Should a pin be broken or otherwise badly damaged during the game, it shall be at once replaced by another as nearly uniform with the set in use as possible. The umpire shall in all such cases be the sole judge in the matter of replacing such pin or pins. Each player shall roll two balls in each frame except when he shall make a strike, or when a second strike or spare is made in the tenth frame, when the player shall complete that frame by rolling a third ball. In such cases the frame shall be completed on the alley on which the first strike or spare is made.