| | 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.| | 5.| -- | -- | -- | | 6.
W. Gregor). (_b_) Hairry = rob, Bossie = a wooden bowl, commonly used for making the leaven in baking oat-cakes, and for making brose. This is a very general game amongst schoolboys. Half-Hammer The game of Hop-step-and-jump, Norfolk. This game is played in the west of Sussex, but not in the east. It is played thus by two or more boys. Each boy in his turn stands first on one leg and makes a hop, then strides or steps, and lastly, putting both feet together, jumps. The boy who covers the most ground is the victor.--Halliwell s _Dictionary_.
_=Dummy on the Right.=_ When Dummy leads through you, your skill in avoiding any traps the declarer may be setting for you will depend on your knowledge of how he manages his hand, and your ability to infer what he holds. As a general principle, it may be assumed that any high card led by Dummy forms part of a combination, the unseen part of which is in the declarer’s hand. If Dummy leads a Queen from Q x x, you holding A J x, it is almost a certainty that the declarer holds the King. If you have A K x, the dealer must have J 10 and several others. If you have K x x, the declarer probably holds Ace, or a long suit headed by J 10. When Dummy leads strengthening cards, they must be to give the declarer a finesse. If he leads a small card from small cards, some high-card combination must be in the declarer’s hand. In such cases it is useless for you to finesse. If you have any sequence superior to the card led, cover with the lowest.
If a player leads when it is the turn of an adversary to lead, and the error is discovered before all have played to such lead, a suit may be called from him or from his partner, as the case may be, the first time thereafter it is the right of either of them to lead. The penalty can be enforced only by the adversary on the right of the one from whom a lead can lawfully be called, and the right thereto is lost unless such adversary calls the suit he desires led before the first trick won by the offender or his partner subsequent to the offence is turned and quitted. SEC. 2. If a player leads when it is his partner’s turn and the error is discovered before all have played to such lead, a suit may at once be called from the proper leader by his right-hand adversary. Until the penalty has been exacted, waived or forfeited, the proper leader must not lead; should he so lead, the card led by him is liable to be called. SEC. 3. If a player when called on to lead a suit has none of it, he may lead as he pleases. SEC.
In the five-card game, in which there are only three cards in the hand and four in the crib, it is usual to sacrifice the hand very largely for the possibilities of the crib, because of the much larger scores that can be made with five cards, the starter and four in the crib. _=Baulking.=_ In both games it is the duty of the pone to baulk the dealer’s crib as much as possible, by laying out cards which are very unlikely to be worth anything, either in making fifteens or in filling up sequences. Pairs it is impossible to provide against, and the chance of making a flush is remote, but should be avoided if there is any choice. The best baulk is a King and Nine; tenth cards and Aces are also very good cards to lay out. Cards which are at least two pips apart, called _=wide cards=_, are better than _=close cards=_, as the latter may form sequences. Fives are very bad discards, and so are any cards that form a five or a fifteen. _=The Crib.=_ In laying out for his own crib, the dealer should preserve his own hand as much as possible; but other things being equal, the best cards to lay out are pairs, close cards, and cards that form fives, such as Fours and Aces. If these elements can be combined, so much the better.
The chances of improving a pair by drawing three cards, are one in three; and by drawing two cards only, one in four. The difference is worth the moral effect of the variation in the play. _=PROBABILITIES.=_ The endless poker statistics that have been published are of little or no value to the practical player, and there are only a few figures that are worth remembering. It is a general law in all games of chance that you should never do a thing which you would not be willing to repeat under the same circumstances a hundred times. The best example of the application of this law is in drawing to bobtails. If you have a four-card flush to draw to, the odds against getting it are about four to one; and unless you can obtain the privilege of drawing to it by paying not more than one-fifth of the amount in the pool, you will lose by it in the long run. The best players never draw to four-card flushes except when they have the age, and the ante has not been raised. There are some players who pretend to be so guided by probabilities that they never go into a pool unless the chances in favour of their having a good hand after the draw are at least equal to the odds they have to bet by going into the pool. This is all nonsense; for no player knows when he goes into a pool how much it will cost him to get out, and the value of his individual hand is an unknown quantity at the best, because it cannot be compared to the others.
| -- | -- | -- | |10.|Such beautiful flowers| -- | -- | | |ever seen. | | | |11.| -- | -- | -- | |12.| -- | -- | -- | |13.| -- | -- | -- | |14.| -- | -- | -- | |15.| -- | -- | -- | |16.| -- | -- | -- | |17.| -- | -- | -- | |18.
Noughts and Crosses [Illustration] This game is played on slates by school-children. The accompanying diagram is drawn on the slate, and a certain figure (generally twenty) is agreed upon as game. There are two players, one takes noughts [o], the other crosses [x]. The three places drawn on the slate above the diagram are for the players each to put down marks or numbers for the games they win, the centre place being for Old Nick, or Old Tom. The object of the game is for each player to occupy three contiguous places in a row or line with either noughts or crosses, and to prevent his opponent from doing so. The diagram is of course empty when play begins. One player commences by putting his mark into either of the vacant places he prefers, the other player then places his in another, wherever he thinks he has the best opportunity to prevent his opponent getting a three, and at the same time to get a three himself; then the first player plays again, and so on alternately until all the squares are occupied, or until one of the players has a three in line. If neither player gets a three, the game is won by Old Nick, and one is scored to his name. In the diagram the result of the game is shown when won by Old Nick. Whichever player first wins a game adds Old Nick s score to his own.
If a plain suit is led, a player may trump, even when holding a card of the suit led; but if he does not trump he must follow suit if he can, or he is liable to the penalty for a revoke. The last trick turned and quitted may be seen, but no other. _=Irregularities in the Hands.=_ If any player is found to have an incorrect number of cards, it is a misdeal if no bid has been made. If a bid has been made, the deal stands good if three players have their right number of cards. If the first trick has been played to by a person holding too many cards, neither he nor his partner can score anything that hand; but they may play the hand out to save what points they can. If a player has too few cards, there is no penalty, but he should draw from the discard to make up the deficiency, plain-suit cards only being available. _=Exposed Cards.=_ The following are exposed cards, which must be left face up on the table, and are liable to be called by either adversary: 1. Every card faced upon the table otherwise than in the regular course of play.
It is sometimes played with pegs, bits of paper, or wood, or stone. It is called Peg Morris by Clare, the Northamptonshire poet. The ancient game of Nine Men s Morris is yet played by the boys of Dorset. The boys of a cottage, near Dorchester, had a while ago carved a Marrel pound on a block of stone by the house. Some years ago a clergyman of one of the upper counties wrote that in the pulling down of a wall in his church, built in the thirteenth century, the workmen came to a block of stone with a Marrel s pound cut on it. Merrels the game was called by a mason.--Barnes _Additional Glossary; Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 233. Nine Men s Morris, in Gloucestershire called Ninepenny Morris, was, says a correspondent in the _Midland Garner_, largely practised by boys and even older people over thirty years ago, but is now, as far as I know, entirely disused. Two persons play.
This limit must not exceed one-fourth of the betting limit. Should any player in his turn refuse to straddle, no other player on his left can straddle. _=18. The Ante.=_ After the cards are dealt, each player in turn, beginning with the one to the left of the age, or to the left of the last straddler, if any, must either abandon his hand or put into the pool twice the amount of the blind, or of the last straddle. When it comes to the turn of the age, and the straddlers, if any, they must either abandon their hands, or make the amount they have in the pool equal to twice the amount of the blind, or of the last straddle, if any. _=19. Raising the Ante.=_ Each player, when it is his turn to come in, may add to the amount of the ante any sum within the betting limit. This will compel any player coming in after him to equal the total of the ante and the raise, or to abandon his hand; and it will also give such following player the privilege of raising again by any further amount within the betting limit.
f d | b a 1 a e 2 e | c 3 c f d | b | Hands 9 and 10 played and exchanged. | None. The pairs _=a=_ and _=d=_ now give way to _=b=_ and _c_, and the _=b=_ _=c=_ _=e=_ _=f=_ pairs play two hands and exchange them; then change adversaries for two more hands; _=a=_ and _=d=_ remaining idle all the time. All the pairs have now been matched but _=a=_ and _=d=_, and they take seats E & W at two tables, the N & S positions being filled up by any of the other players in the match. any any a 1 a d 2 d any any No notice is taken of the scores made by the N & S hands in the last set; as it is simply a match between the a and _d_ pairs. _=Scoring.=_ Each pair against each is considered a match, and the winner of the most matches wins, tricks deciding ties. _=Compass Whist.=_ When we come to handle large numbers, the changes of position become too complicated, and the simplest plan is to arrange them at as many tables as they will fill, and to place on each table an equal number of trays. At the Knickerbocker Whist Club, New York, which is still famous for its compass games, they play a minimum of 24 trays, or get as near that number as possible.