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. The ace is not in sequence with the King, but below the 2. The dealer distributes the cards, one at a time to each player in rotation, as far as they will go, leaving any odd cards on the table face downward, to form what are known as _=stops=_.
In many respects the game resembles single-handed Hearts, except that in Hearts none of the cards drawn are shown. CHINESE WHIST. _=CARDS.=_ Chinese Whist is played with a full pack of fifty-two cards, which rank as at Whist, both for cutting and playing. _=MARKERS.=_ Ordinary whist markers are used for scoring the points. _=PLAYERS.=_ Two, three or four persons can play Chinese Whist. When three play, the spade deuce is thrown out of the pack. Partners and deal are cut for from an outspread pack, as at Whist.
An adventurous player will sometimes call a misère on a hand which contains a singleton 5 or 6, and will lead it at once; trusting that second hand will imagine it to be safe, and cover it. Players should be aware of this trap, and never cover a misère player’s own lead if they can help it, unless the card led is below a 4. _=ABUNDANCE.=_ Very few persons will risk calling an abundance which they are not pretty certain of; but a player may be forced to the call on a doubtful hand, especially if he is over-called on his original proposal to play a solo. The lead is a great advantage, because trumps can be exhausted immediately, and the suits protected. If the caller has not the lead he must calculate in advance for trumping in, and if his plain suits are not quite established, he will require more trumps than would otherwise be necessary. The greatest danger to an abundance player who has not the original lead, is that his best suit will be led through him, and trumped, either on the first or second round. The caller is often trapped into unnecessarily high trumping when suits are led through him a second or third time. _=The Adversaries=_ have little chance to defeat an abundance unless they can over-trump the caller, or ruff his good cards before he can exhaust the trumps. It is best for the Right to lead his longest suit, and for the Left to lead his shortest.
| |11.|Fixing of wedding day.|Fixing of wedding day.|Fixing of wedding day.| |12.|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.
The dealer is allowed to pass without making a bid, the lowest call being one club. If all pass, the deal goes to the left. BRIDGE. There are two principal varieties of this game; straight bridge, in which the dealer or his partner must make the trump, their opponents having nothing to say about it except to double the value of the tricks. The dealer’s partner is always the dummy, and either side may score toward game by making the odd trick or more. Auction bridge, in which the privilege of making the trump is bid for, the highest bidder playing the hand with his partner as dummy, regardless of the position of the deal, and his side being the only one that can score toward game, the adversaries scoring nothing but penalties in the honour column if they defeat the contract. As this is the more popular form of bridge at the present time, it will be given first. Since the adoption of the higher value for the spade suit under the name of royal spades, and the change in the value of the suits, the game gradually came to be known as royal auction, but as that change is now universal, the name has slipped back to its original title. AUCTION BRIDGE, OR AUCTION. _=CARDS.
, until the whole company have gone through the same ceremony, which concludes with all dancing round three times, as at the commencement. The Norfolk and London versions are reduced to a simple Kiss in the Ring game, with the following verse:-- Round the cushion we dance with glee, Singing songs so merrily; Round the cushion we dance with glee, Singing songs so merrily; Yet the punishment you must bear If you touch the cushion there. --Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews). (_c_) Selden, in his _Table Talk_, thus refers to this game:-- The Court of England is much altered. At a solemn dancing first you have the grave measures, then the Cervantoes and the Golliards, and this is kept up with ceremony. At length to Trenchmore and the _Cushion Dance_; and then all the company dance, lord and groom, lady and kitchen-maid, no distinction. But in King Charles s time there has been nothing but Trenchmore and the Cushion Dance, &c. The Whishin Dance (an old-fashioned dance, in which a cushion is used to kneel upon), mentioned by Dickinson (_Cumberland Glossary_), is probably the same game or dance, whishin meaning cushion. Brockett (_North Country Words_) mentions Peas Straw, the final dance at a rustic party; something similar to the ancient Cushion Dance at weddings. It is also recorded in Evans _Leicestershire Glossary_, and by Burton in the following passage from the _Anatomy of Melancholy_: A friend of his reprehended him for dancing beside his dignity, belike at some cushen dance.
[Illustration: No. 8. +-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+ | . | | . | | . | | .
But if he puts up the four, he may put up as many more as he pleases within the limit, which is two blues, or fifty whites. This is called _=raising the ante=_. If he does not care to pay twice the amount of the blind or straddle for the privilege of drawing cards to improve his hand, he must throw his cards face downward on the table in front of the player whose turn it will be to deal next. Reasonable time must be allowed for a player to make his decision; but having made it, he must abide by it; a hand once thrown down cannot be taken up again, and counters once placed in the pool, and the hand removed from them, cannot be taken out again, even though placed in the pool by mistake. The player who has the first say having made his decision, the player next him on the left must then decide. He must put into the pool an amount equal to that deposited by the first player, or abandon his hand. Suppose there has been no straddle, and that all conclude to _=stay=_, as it is called. They each in turn put up two white counters until it comes to the age. The one white counter he has already put up as a blind belongs to the pool, but by adding one to it he can make his ante good, and draw cards, always provided no player has raised the ante. If any player has put more counters into the pool than the amount of the ante, all the other players must put up a like amount, or throw down their hands.
E. Thoyts); and Dorsetshire, Gathering nuts away (_Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 225). From Longcot, Berks, a version sent me by Miss I. Barclay has no fourth line to the verses. (_d_) This game is probably, unless we except Mulberry Bush, the most popular and the most widely played of any singing game. It might almost be called universal. This is shown by the fact that there are few counties where it is not known, and also that important variants, either in the words or in the method of playing, are rarely met with. In all the versions which have been sent there are only the following variations in the words, and these are principally in the refrain, or last line of each verse: On a cold and frosty morning ends by far the greater number of versions; On a fine summer s morning, So early in the morning, All on a summer s morning, Five o clock in the morning, On a cold and sunny morning, coming next in number. The Belfast version ends, May! May! May! and a Newbury and Marlborough fourth line is simply a repetition of the second, Nuts in May, nuts in May.
=_ 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. Each player gathers his own tricks, as there are no partnerships. _=RENEGING.=_ The three highest trumps have special privileges in the matter of not following suit. Any player holding the Five or Jack of the trump suit; or the ace of hearts, but having no smaller trump with them, may refuse to follow suit if any inferior trump is led; but if he has also a smaller trump, he must play one or the other. If a superior trump is led, the player must follow suit in any case.
I never done like that before, she breathed. Jest small ailin . You re a healer, all right, I said. And a prophetess, too, from what I saw at the dice table. You know what a Psi personality is? I asked her. Say, what is your name, anyway? Pheola, she said. Yes, I ve heard of them, she said. You re one, I told her. You can heal many people. She shook her head.
The first card led or “pitched” by the eldest hand is the trump suit for that deal. _=MISDEALING.=_ If any card is found faced in the pack, or the pack is proved to be imperfect, the same dealer deals again. If he deals without having the cards cut, or gives too many or too few cards to any player, it is a misdeal, and the deal passes to the next player on the misdealer’s left. If the dealer exposes a card, the adversaries may elect to have the deal stand, or to have a new deal by the same dealer. In _=Pitch=_, a misdeal does not lose the deal, because the deal is no advantage. _=BEGGING.=_ The deal completed, and the trump turned, the eldest hand looks at his cards, the other players leaving theirs untouched. If the eldest hand is not satisfied, he says: _=I beg=_; and the dealer, after examining his own hand, has the option of giving him a point or _=running the cards=_. If he decides to give the point, he says: _=Take it=_, and the eldest hand immediately scores one for the _=gift=_.
1. The player, taking the checks and ball in the right hand, throws down the checks, keeping the ball in the hand. If any check fall outside the ring the player is down. There is skill needed in the throwing of the checks in this and the following movements, so that they may be conveniently placed for taking up in the proper order. The checks being scattered, the player throws up the ball, takes up one check, and catches the ball as it comes down, or, as it is sometimes played, after it has bounced once from the step. This is repeated till all the checks are taken up. 2. As the last figure, but the checks are taken up two at a throw. 3. As the last, but at the first throw one check, called the Horse, is taken up, and at the second the remaining three checks at once, called the Cart.
The first illustration is straight auction; the second is a nullo. The underlined card wins the trick and the card under it is the next one led. +------+-----+-----+----+ +------+-----+-----+-----+ | A | Y | B | Z | | A | Y | B | Z | +------+-----+-----+----+ +------+-----+-----+-----+ | _Q♠_| 2♠ | 9♠ |♣2 | 1 | _A♢_| Q♢ | J♢ | 9♢ | | _A♠_| 6♠ | 8♠ |♡3 | 2 | _K♢_| 6♢ | 8♢ | 5♢ | | _K♠_| 10♠ | 4♠ |♡7 | 3 | _10♢_| 4♢ | ♡A | 3♢ | | 5♠ | _J♠_| 3♠ |♡J | 4 | J♠ | 3♠ | 9♠ | _A♠_| | 2♢ | _Q♢_| 4♢ | 5♢ | 5 | 5♠ | Q♠ | _K♠_| 6♠ | | 10♢ | 9♢ | 7♢ |_J♢_| 6 | ♣Q | ♣6 | ♣J |_♣K_ | | ♡ 4 | 3♢ | 8♢ |_A♢_| 7 | 7♢ |_♡J_ | ♡5 |♡10 | | 7♠ | ♡5 |♡ 9 |_K♢_| 8 | 10♠ | ♡7 |_♡Q_ |♡ 9 | | ♡ 8 | ♣3 |♡ 2 |_6♢_| 9 |_♣ 5_ | ♣4 | ♣2 |♣ 3 | | ♣ 4 |_♣Q_ |♣10 |♣9 | 10 | _7♠_| 2♠ | 4♠ |♡ K | | ♣ 5 |_♣A_ |♡ 6 |♣7 | 11 | ♣10 | ♡4 |_♣A_ |♡ 8 | | ♣ 8 |_♣K_ |♡10 |♡Q | 12 | ♣ 8 | ♡3 |_♣9_ |♡ 6 | |_♣ J_ | ♣6 |♡ A |♡K | 13 | ♣ 7 | 2♢ | 8♠ |♡ 2 | +------+-----+-----+----+ +------+-----+-----+-----+ In the first example the dealer, Z, bids a heart. A says one royal and Y two clubs. This bid of Y’s denies any support for his partner’s hearts, but shows a supporting minor suit, in case Z is strong enough to go on with the hearts. B bids two royals as he can stop the hearts twice and ruff the clubs. Z cannot pursue the hearts, but shows his supporting minor suit, bidding three diamonds. This says to Y, “Go no trumps if you can stop the spades.” When A passes, having bid his hand on the first round, Y goes two no trumps and makes game. B leads the top of his partner’s declared suit, and A leads a fourth round, hoping to get in with the club jack.
7. No player should take advantage of information imparted by his partner through a breach of etiquette. 8. No player should object to referring a disputed question of fact to a bystander who professes himself uninterested in the result of the game, and able to decide the question. 9. Bystanders should not in any manner call attention to, or give any intimation concerning the play or the state of the game, during the play of a hand. They should not look over the hand of a player without his permission; nor should they walk round the table to look at the different hands. ERRONEOUS SCORES. Any error in the trick score may be corrected before the last card has been dealt in the following deal; or if the error occurs in the last hand of a game or rubber, it may be corrected before the score is agreed to. Errors in other scores may be corrected at any time before the final score of the game or rubber is agreed to.
This is a variety of the three-ball game in which a cushion must be touched by the cue ball before the carrom is completed. The cushion may be struck first, and the object ball afterward, or the object ball first, and then the cushion. In the _=Three-cushion Carrom Game=_, three cushions must be touched by the cue ball before completing the count. In the _=Bank-shot Game=_, the cue ball must strike at least one cushion before touching the object ball. The _=Four-ball Game=_ is now obsolete. It was first played on a table with corner pockets, and afterward on a carrom table, two red balls being used, one spotted on the red and the other on the white spot. Two carroms could be made on one shot. The following are the most important _=LAWS=_ of the carrom game, and are copied by permission from the 1908 edition of the “Laws of Billiards,” published by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co. AMERICAN BILLIARD LAWS. _=1.
3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. 1.E.4.
So long as they do not balance, the banker must ask for what he wants: “Give me fourteen dollars on the outside to make the game,” etc. As soon as the amounts balance, and no more bets are offered, he says: “Roll. The game is made.” A round stick, about a foot long, is placed behind nine small ivory balls. Any person may roll. He takes his stand at one corner of the table and rolls the balls across the table to the pocket diagonally opposite him. At least one ball must go into the pocket and one must be left out, or they must be rolled over again. The number of balls left outside the pocket, odd or even, decides whether the inside or the outside bets win; and after the banker has deducted his ten per cent, the players who have backed the winning side get their money. MONTE BANK. The money staked by the banker is piled upon the table, so that all players may see what is to be won.
All other cards, including the Ace, retain their face value. There are no trumps, and the four suits are therefore equal in value at all times. _=MARKERS.=_ The game is 61 points, and is scored or “pegged” on a cribbage board, which has a double row of 30 holes on each side, and a game-hole at each end. The players are each provided with two pegs, and they score the points as they accrue by advancing their pegs from left to right according to the number of points they make. For instance: One player makes 6 for his first count. He places one of his pegs in the sixth hole from the left-hand end of the board. Then he makes 4, and places the second peg four holes in advance of the first, which will show that his total score is ten points. The third time he makes 2, which he scores by lifting out the back peg and putting it two holes in advance of the first one. This system of pegging not only shows the total number of points made by either player, but enables the adversary to check the count, as a glance at the distance between the two pegs will show the number of points pegged last time.
--Bexley Heath (Miss Morris). XII. I sent a letter to my love, And by the way I droppt it; I dee, I dee, I dee, I droppt it, And by the way I droppt it. --Keith (Rev. W. Gregor). XIII. I had a little dog, it shan t bite you, Shan t bite you, shan t bite you, Nor you, nor you, nor you. I had a little cat, it shan t scratch you, Shan t scratch you, nor you, nor you. I wrote a letter to my love, and on the way I dropped it.
In order to determine which player this is, they may all bid for the privilege by naming a certain number of points, usually well within the actual value of the game they intend to play. If a bidder meets with opposition, he gradually approaches the true value of his game, and the player whose game is worth the most will of course be able to bid the greatest number of points, and must be selected as the player, the two others being his adversaries. _=Games.=_ These games are divided into two principal classes, those in which the player undertakes to win, and those in which he tries to lose. When he plays to lose, it is to lose every trick, there being no trump suit, and the cards in each suit ranking A K Q J 10 9 8 7. These games are called _=Null=_, or Nullo, and _=Null Ouvert=_, the latter being played with the successful bidder’s cards exposed face upward on the table, but not liable to be called. The moment he wins a trick in a Nullo, he loses his game. Nullos are quite foreign to Skat, and appear to have been introduced as a consolation for players who always hold bad cards. When _=Ramsch=_ is played, the object is to take less than either of the other players; but the cards rank as in the ordinary game, except that the four Jacks are the only trumps. In all other games the successful bidder undertakes to win; but his success does not depend on the number of tricks he takes in, but on the total value of the counting cards contained in those tricks.
| | Vivant. | +---------+ +---------+ 1 1 ] For the three succeeding games the arrangement would be:-- [Illustration: 1 2 3 +---------+ +---------+ +---------+ | Mort. | | Mort. | | Mort. | 3 | | 4 4 | | 1 1 | | 2 | Vivant. | | Vivant. | | Vivant. | +---------+ +---------+ +---------+ 2 3 4 ] It will be seen that each player, immediately after being Vivant, sits out, or takes Mort’s place, for the next game. _=DEALING.=_ It is usual for Vivant to deal the first hand for himself, as the disadvantage of exposing fourteen cards is more than compensated for in compelling the adversary to open the game by leading up to an unknown hand.
Z., the letters used to distinguish the positions of the four players at Whist; A-B being partners against Y-Z., and Z. having the deal. Backgammon. If a player throws off all his men before his adversary has thrown off any, and while one or more of the adversary’s men are still on the side of the board next the winning player, it is a backgammon, or triple game. Bath Coup, holding up Ace Jack on a King led by an adversary. Battre, F., to shuffle. Bedienen, G.
Let us suppose his hand to consist of the ♡ A K 8; ♣ J 6 5 4 3 2; ♢ K 4; and the ♠ 7 3. If the suit remains hearts, he is almost certain to take in a number; but if it is changed to clubs, he is almost as certain of getting clear. The hand is not absolutely safe, as hearts might be led two or three times before the clubs in the other hands were exhausted by the original leader, whose game would be to lead small clubs. As the pool will contain thirteen counters to a certainty, he can afford to bid in proportion to his chances of winning it for the privilege of making clubs the suit to be avoided, instead of hearts. It might be assumed, if the odds were 10 to 1 that the player would get clear if the suit were clubs, that therefore he could afford to bid ten times the amount of the pool, or 130, for his chance. Theoretically this is correct, but if he should lose one such pool, he would have to win ten others to get back his bid alone, to say nothing of the amounts he would lose by paying his share in pools won by others. Let us suppose him to win his share, one-fourth of all the pools. While he is winning the ten pools necessary to repair his single loss, he has to stand his share of the losses in the thirty others, which would average about 128 counters. This must show us that even if a player has a 10 to 1 chance in his favour, he must calculate not only on losing that chance once in eleven times, but must make provision for the amounts he will lose in other pools. Experience shows that a bid of 25 would be about the amount a good player would make on such a hand as we are considering, if the pool were not a Jack, and he had first say.
So it had no fangs. You ve still got me sold. I ll go to Nevada for you. I d have gone clear to Hell to get away from that hallucinating witch he had working on me. I d gotten used to hallucinations--but who can get used to the doubt that one of those dreadful visions is real? I d had my lesson. * * * * * It served me right, of course. It had begun when Peno Rose had first visored me from Lake Tahoe. I had told him No. Too busy, _much_ too busy, with TK surgery at Memorial Hospital. It didn t mean a thing to me that some cross-roader with plenty of TK was stealing the Sky Hi Club s casino blind.
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