|Wife in carriage, |Wife with domestic |Bride with rings on | | |husband in cart. |utensils. |fingers and bells on | | | | |toes. | |13.| -- |Grief if wife should | -- | | | |die. | | |14.| -- | -- |Bride with a baby. | |15.| -- |Doctor, cat, and | -- | | | |devil. | | |16.
If two men are upon the bar, both must be entered before any man can be moved. A man may enter and hit a blot at the same time. If a player could get his men round the board without any of them being hit, seventy-seven points on the dice thrown would bring them all home; but as every man hit has to start all over again from his adversary’s home table, it may take a great many throws to get all the men home. For this reason it is obvious that each player should leave as few blots as possible, in order to save his men from being hit; and at the same time he should strive to cover as many points as possible, in order to prevent his adversary from moving round the board freely. It is still more important to cover points in the home table, so that when an adverse man is hit he will have fewer points upon which to enter. It is, of course, unnecessary to say that one can always enter or play on points covered by his own men. [Illustration: +-+-+-+-+-+-++-+-+-+-+-+-+ | |⛀|⛀|⛀|⛀|⛀|| | | | | | | | |⛀|⛀|⛀|⛀|⛀|| | | | | | | | | | |⛀| |⛀|| | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | | | | | |⛂| | | | | || | | | | | | |⛂ || | |⛂| | | | | || | | | | | | |⛂| | | | | || | | | | | | |⛂| | |⛂|⛂| || | | | | | | |⛂|⛀|⛂|⛂|⛂| || | | | | | | |⛂|⛀|⛂|⛂|⛂| || | | | | |⛀| +-+-+-+-+-+-++-+-+-+-+-+-+ ] _=Throwing Off.=_ When either player has succeeded in getting all his men home, he removes them from the board two or four at a time, according to the throws of the dice, provided he has men on the points in his home table corresponding to the numbers thrown. If not, he must move his men up toward the ace point. Doublets may take off four men if there are so many on the point.
Hardy). One child represents an old woman, and the other players carry on the dialogue with her. At the end of the dialogue the children are chased by the old woman. See Mother, Mother, may I go out to Play, Witch. Letting the Buck out This game was played seventy years ago. A ring being formed, the Buck inside has to break out, and reach his home, crying Home! before he can be caught and surrounded. Afterwards these words were sung-- Circle: Who comes here? Buck: Poor Johnny Lingo. Circle: Don t steal none of my black sheep, Johnny Lingo, For if you do I shall put you in the pinder pin-fold. --Stixwold, Lines. (Miss M.
If the leader wins it, he gets the one extra. If each player wins six tricks, there is no further scoring; but if either player wins the _=odd trick=_ he adds to his score ten points for _=cards=_, in addition to all other scores. If either player wins all twelve tricks, which would be the case in the example hand just given as an illustration, he adds to his score forty points for the _=capot=_; but this forty points includes the scores for the last trick and for the odd trick. A card once laid on the table cannot be taken back, unless the player has renounced in error. There is no _=revoke=_ in Piquet, and if a player has one of the suit led he must play it. If he fails to do so, when the error is discovered the cards must be taken back and replayed. _=REPIC.=_ If either player is able to reach 30 by successive declarations, beginning with the point, all of which are admitted by his adversary to be good, he adds 60 to his score, making it 90 instead of 30, and this is irrespective of what his adversary may have in minor or inferior combinations. The important thing to remember in repic is that declarations always count in regular order, carte blanche taking precedence of everything; then the point, sequences, and quatorze or trio. Suppose elder hand to hold the following cards:-- ♡ K Q J 10 9; ♣ A K Q; ♢ A Q 9; ♠ Q.
Potteries (Mrs. Thomas Lawton). (_b_) A circle is formed by joining hands, and two children stand in the centre. They walk round. At the seventh line the two in the centre each choose one child from the ring, thus making four in the centre. They then sing the remaining four lines. The two who were first in the centre then go out, and the game begins again, with the other two players in the centre. (_c_) Miss Burne says this game is more often played as Three Jolly Fishermen. At Cheadle, North Staffs., a few miles distant from Tean, this game is played by grown-up men and women.
Course o Park The game of Course of the Park has not been described, but is referred to in the following verse:-- Buff s a fine sport, And so s Course o Park. --_The Slighted Maid_, 1663, p. 50. Crab-sowl, Crab-sow A game played with a bung or ball struck with sticks (Brogden s _Provincial Words, Lincolnshire_). This is played on Barnes Common, and is apparently a form of Hockey (A. B. Gomme). Crates The game of Nine Holes. This is the game described by John Jones, M.D.
When you have a dangerous hand in hearts, but one absolutely safe long suit, it is often good play to begin with your safe suit, retaining any high cards you may have in other suits in order to get the lead as often as possible for the purpose of continuing your safe suit, which will usually result in one or more of the other players getting loaded. When you have at least three of each plain suit it is obvious that you cannot hope for any discards, and that you must take into account the probability of having to win the third round of one or more suits, with the accompanying possibility of getting hearts at the same time. If you have the lead, this probability must be taken into account before any of the other players show their hands, and as it may be set down as about 5⅛ to 1 that you will get a heart, any better chance that the hand affords should be taken advantage of. It will often occur that a player’s attention must be so concentrated on getting clear himself that he has no opportunity to scheme for “loading” the others. But if it unfortunately happens that he is compelled to take in one or more hearts, he should at once turn his attention to taking them all, or to loading the other players, with a view to making a Jack of the pool. Should he succeed in either object, he has another chance for his money. It is usually bad policy to return the suit opened by the original leader. He has picked that out as his safest suit, and although he may be the only one safe in it, by continuing it you are reducing your chances to two players, when you might share them with all three. _=FOLLOWING SUIT.=_ When a player is not the original leader, his policy becomes defensive; for, as the first player is plotting to give hearts to every one but himself, each of the others must be a prospective victim, and should do his best to avoid the traps prepared by the one who plans the opening of the hand.
If you hold Ace and others in a plain suit, partner leading Jack, pass it if Dummy has no honour. Perhaps by winning the second round you can give the invited force. With any other honours than the Ace, pass a partner’s Jack led. If partner leads you a suit of which he knows, or should know, you have not the best, he must have a good finesse in the suit which he does not lead, and you should take the first opportunity to lead that suit to him. In returning partner’s suits, some modification may be suggested by the condition of Dummy’s hand. For instance: With K x x; Dummy having A Q J x; if you win, third hand, on Dummy’s finesse, you may be sure your partner’s lead was a weak suit. If Dummy is weak in the two other plain suits, your partner may have a good finesse in one or both of them. When your partner wins the first round of an adverse suit, and immediately returns it, he is inviting a force. _=Dummy on the Left.=_ When the player is third hand with Dummy on his left, his chief care will be to divine his partner’s object in leading certain cards up to Dummy.
] The four large keys on one side are used to count single points, the single large key on the opposite side being reckoned as five. The three small keys are used for counting rubber points, or games. In ten point games, the scoring to four points is the same; but beyond four, a single counter placed _=below=_ two or more others, is reckoned as three; and _=above=_ two or more others, as five. [Illustration: Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine.] When proper markers are not obtainable, many persons cut eight slits in a visiting card, and turn up the points. [Illustration: Visiting-Card Marker.
Strong Suits, those in which a number of tricks can be made after the adverse trumps are out of the way. Sub Echo, a trump signal in a plain suit, made after partner has led trumps, and the player has not echoed on the trump lead. Sub-sneak, a two-card suit which is led for the sole purpose of getting a ruff on the third round. Sweating Out, winning a game without taking any risks, by waiting for the trifling points that fall to your share. Systems, any guide that keeps a player from guessing in the distribution of his bets; as distinguished from a martingale, which controls the amount of the wager itself. Table Games, Chess, Checkers, and Backgammon. Tables, the ancient name for Backgammon. Taille, F., a number of packs shuffled together, which are not to be reshuffled or cut until all have been used. Talon, the same as Stock.
If you have an outside ace, which the club bid did not show, you can assist your partner once on that trick, but no more. Having assisted your partner’s suit bid with three tricks, do not bid again unless you have a fourth trick in hand, but if he rebids his suit without waiting for you, you may assist on one trick, especially a high honour in trumps. Do not double unless you have a certainty and are not afraid of a shift. Do not give up a fair chance for going game yourself just to double an adversary, unless you are sure of 200 in penalties at least, and do not give up the rubber game for less than 300. Always remember that a double may enable an adversary to go game, and will often show the declarer which hand to finesse against. _=Free Doubles=_ are opportunities to double when the declarer will go game anyhow if he makes his contract, but they should never be made if there is any chance that he may shift. _=Free Bids=_ are anything better than a spade by the dealer, or anything that over-calls a previous bid, because no one is forced to bid on the first round. A _=Shout=_ is a bid that is a trick more than necessary to over-call the previous bid. It shows a solid suit, or five or six sure tricks in hand. In a losing suit it is a loud call for the partner to go no trumps if he can.
If he discards too many cards, as the dealer frequently will by laying out five instead of three, he may take them back if he has not touched those in the stock, but if he touches any card in the stock, he must play with the short hand if there are not enough cards left in the stock to make his hand up to twelve. _=Irregular Drawing.=_ If the pone draws one of the three cards which properly belong to the dealer, he loses the game; and if the dealer draws any of the first five, before the pone has announced that he leaves them, the dealer loses the game. The dealer has no right to touch any part of the stock until the pone has discarded and drawn; but if the pone draws without making any announcement about leaving cards, the dealer has a right to assume that five cards have been taken, and that only three remain in the stock. For instance: The pone discards five cards, but draws four only, without saying anything. The dealer proceeds to discard and draw. He has of course taken one of the pone’s cards, but it is too late to remedy the error or claim a penalty, and the pone must play with eleven cards. It is evident that the dealer will have too many cards, but as he has been led into the error by his adversary, he must be allowed to discard to reduce his hand to twelve. If a player takes a card too many from the stock, he may replace it if he has not put it with the other cards in his hand. If he has seen it, he must show it to his adversary.
| | |48.| -- | -- | -- | |49.| -- | -- | -- | +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ |No.| Enborne. | Cork. | Crockham Hill. | +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 1.| -- | -- | -- | | 2.| -- | -- | -- | | 3.| -- | -- | -- | | 4.
Any player announcing to play alone, whether the dealer or not, has the privilege of passing a card, face down, to his partner. In exchange for this, but without seeing it, the partner gives the best card in his hand to the lone player, passing it to him face down. If he has not a trump to give him, he can pass him an ace, or even a King. Even if this card is no better than the one discarded, the lone player cannot refuse it. If the dealer plays alone, he has two discards; the first in exchange for his partner’s best card, and then another, in exchange for the trump card, after seeing what his partner can give him. In this second discard he may get rid of the card passed to him by his partner. If the dealer’s partner plays alone, the dealer may pass him the turn-up trump, or any better card he may have in his hand. Any person having announced to play alone, either of his adversaries may play alone against him; discarding and taking partner’s best card in the same manner. Should the lone player who makes the trump be euchred by the lone player opposing him, the euchre counts four points. It is considered imperative for a player holding the Joker, or the right bower guarded, to play alone against the lone hand, taking his partner’s best; for as it is evident that the lone hand cannot succeed, there is a better chance to euchre it with all the strength in one hand than divided.
It would seem that poker came from Persia to this country by way of New Orleans. The French settlers in Louisiana, recognizing the similarity between the combinations held in the newcomer from the East, _as nas_, and those with which they were already familiar in their own game of poque, called the Persian game poque, instead of _as nas_, and our present word, “poker,” seems to be nothing but a mispronunciation of the French term, dividing it into two syllables, as if it were “po-que.” There is no authoritative code of laws for the game of Poker, simply because the best clubs do not admit the game to their card rooms, and consequently decry the necessity for adopting any laws for its government. In the absence of any official code, the daily press is called upon for hundreds of decisions every week. The author has gathered and compared a great number of these newspaper rulings, and has drawn from them and other sources to form a brief code of poker laws, which will be found amply sufficient to cover all irregularities for which any penalty can be enforced, or which interfere with the rights of any individual player. DRAW POKER. _=CARDS.=_ Poker is played with a full pack of fifty-two cards, ranking: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2; the ace being the highest or lowest in play, according to the wish of the holder, but ranking below the deuce in cutting. In some localities a special pack of sixty cards is used, the eight extra cards being elevens and twelves in each suit, which rank above the ten, and below the Jack. It is very unusual to play Poker with two packs.
, a few miles distant from Tean, this game is played by grown-up men and women. Jolly Hooper I. Here comes a [or one] jolly hooper, Ring ding di do do, Ring ding di do do. And who are you looking for, In a ring ding di do do, In a ring ding di do do? I am looking for one of your daughters, In a ring ding di do do, In a ring ding di do do. What shall her name be, In a ring ding di do do, In a ring ding di do do? Her name shall be [Sarah], In a ring ding di do do, In a ring ding di do do. Sarah shall ramble, In a ring ding di do do, In a ring ding di do do, All around the chimney [jubilee] pot in 1881. --Deptford, Kent (Miss Chase). II. I ve come for one of your daughters, With a ring a ding a my dolly; I ve come for one of your daughters On this bright shining night. Pray, which have you come for, With a ring a ding a my dolly? Pray which have you come for On this bright shining night? I ve come for your daughter Mary, With a ring a ding a my dolly; I ve come for your daughter Mary On this bright shining night.
For instance: A has bet three dollars, and B has only two dollars in front of him, but wishes to call A. B calls for a sight by putting his two dollars in the pool, and A must then withdraw his third dollar from the pool, but leave it on the table to be called or raised by any other player. Should C wish to call A, or even to raise him, A and C may continue the betting independently of B’s part of the pool. Should C have even less money than B, say one dollar, he may still further reduce the original pool, leaving the two dollars aside for settlement between A and B, and A’s third dollar still aside from that again for the decision of any other player. Let us suppose that A and C continue the betting until one calls. When the hands are shown, if either A’s or C’s is better than B’s, B loses his interest; but if B’s hand is better than either A’s hand or C’s hand, he takes the part of the pool for which he called a sight, while A and C decide the remainder between them. For instance: A calls C, and C shows three tens. Neither A nor B can beat it, and C takes everything. But if B had three Jacks, and A only three fives, B would take the part of the pool for which he called a sight, and C would take the remainder. Should C have raised and bluffed A out, or have bet so much that A finally refused to call, A would have no interest in either pool, and C would take all the money outside the pool for which B called a sight.
It is probable, therefore, that it may be an altered form of the game of London Bridge. The refrain, My fair lady, occurs in both games. See London Bridge. Hats in Holes A boys game. The players range their hats in a row against the wall, and each boy in turn pitches a ball from a line at some twenty-five feet distance into one of the hats. The boy into whose hat it falls has to seize it and throw it at one or other of the others, who all scamper off when the ball is packed in. If he fails to hit he is out, and takes his cap up. The boy whose cap is left at the last has to cork the others, that is, to throw the ball at their bent backs, each in turn stooping down to take his punishment.--Somerset (Elworthy s _Dialect_). See Balls and Bonnets.
Piquet is supposed to have been introduced during the reign of Charles VII., and was designed as a motif for a ballet of living cards which was given in the palace of Chinon. Of the etymology of the word piquet, little or nothing is known, but the game itself is one of those perennials that have survived much more pretentious rivals, and, thanks to its intrinsic merits, it has never since its invention ceased to be more or less à la mode. There are several varieties of Piquet, but the straightforward game for two players, sometimes called _=Piquet au Cent=_, or 100 points up, is the most common and popular, and will be first described. _=CARDS.=_ Piquet is played with a pack of thirty-two cards, all below the Seven being deleted. The cards rank: A K Q J 10 9 8 7, the Ace being the highest both in cutting and in play. There is no trump in Piquet, and all suits are equal in value. Two packs are sometimes used, one by each player in his proper turn to deal. The cards have a certain pip-counting value, the Ace being reckoned for 11, other court cards for 10 each, and the 7 8 9 10 for their face value.
Moore says, the same as other Thread the Needle games. (_c_) The game is evidently dramatic in form, and perhaps is illustrative of some fact of history, such as the toll upon merchandise entering a walled town. The changes in the words of the different versions are not very great, but they show the influence of modern history upon the game. The appearance of King George evidently points to the date when it was frequently played, though the older versions are doubtless those in which his Majesty does not do duty. Mactaggart has the following quaint note which perhaps may supply the origin, though it seems a far cry to the Crusaders:-- This sport has something methinks of antiquity in it; it seemeth to be a pantomime of some scenes played off in the time of the Crusades. King and Queen o Cantilon evidently must be King and Queen of Caledon, but slightly changed by time. Then Babylon in the rhyme, the way they had to wander and hazard being caught by the infidels, all speak as to the foundation of the game (Mactaggart s _Gallovidian Encyclopædia_). In the _Gentleman s Magazine_ for December 1849, in a review of the _Life of Shirley_, it is stated that in many parts of England the old game of Thread the Needle is played to the following words, which refer to the gate of the city of Hebron, known as the needle s eye. How many miles to Hebron? Three score and ten. Shall I be there by midnight? Yes, and back again.
[Illustration: Visiting-Card Marker.] Whatever the apparatus employed, it should be such that every player at the table can distinctly see the state of the score without drawing attention to it. _=METHODS OF CHEATING.=_ Whist offers very few opportunities to the card-sharper. When honours are counted, he may be able to keep one on the bottom of the pack until the completion of the deal by _=making the pass=_ after the cards have been cut. A _=greek=_ who possessed sufficient skill to do this without detection would be very foolish to waste his talents at the whist table; for, however large the stakes, the percentage in his favour would be very small. When whist is played with only one pack, a very skillful shuffler may gather the cards without disturbing the tricks, and, by giving them a single _=intricate=_ shuffle, then drawing the middle of the pack from between the ends and giving another single intricate shuffle, he may occasionally succeed in dealing himself and his partner a very strong hand in trumps, no matter how the cards are cut, so that they are not shuffled again. A hand dealt in this manner is framed on the walls of the Columbus, Ohio, Whist Club; eleven trumps having been dealt to the partner, and the twelfth turned up. In this case the shuffling dexterity was the result of fifteen years’ practice, and was employed simply for amusement, the dealer never betting on any game, and making no concealment of his methods. _=SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAY.
g._, a declaration of “three spades” is higher than “one club.” 45. A player in his turn may overbid the previous adverse declaration any number of times, and may also overbid his partner, but he cannot overbid his own declaration which has been passed by the three others. 46. The player who makes the final declaration[9] must play the combined hands, his partner becoming dummy, unless the suit or no trump finally declared was bid by the partner before it was called by the final declarer, in which case the partner, no matter what bids have intervened, must play the combined hands. 47. When the player of the two hands (hereinafter termed “the declarer”) wins at least as many tricks as he declared, he scores the full value of the tricks won (see Law 3).[10] 47_a_. When the declarer fails to win as many tricks as he declares, neither he nor his adversaries score anything toward the game, but his adversaries score in their honour column 50 points for each under-trick (_i.