At half a cent a point, ten dollars will usually cover a run of pretty bad luck in an evening’s play. _=DEALING.=_ At the beginning of the game the cards should be counted and thoroughly shuffled, and shuffled at least three times before each deal thereafter. The dealer presents the pack to the pone to be cut, and at least five cards must be left in each packet. The cards are dealt from left to right in rotation, and the deal passes to the left in regular order. Only three persons at the table receive cards, no matter how many are in the game. If there are four players, the dealer gives himself no cards. If there are five or six players, the first two on the dealer’s left and the pone receive cards. The other persons at the table are said to be “im Skat,” because they are laid aside for that deal. The cards may be distributed in several ways, but whichever manner the first dealer selects must be continued during the game, both by the original dealer, and by the others at the table.
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. Having mastered a number of variations, and learned the object of them in forming his pieces for attack or defence, he will naturally be led to the study of the middle game. In this there are a few general principles which should be steadily kept in view. For attack, the player should secure command of a wide range of the board; but for defence he should concentrate his forces as much as possible. He should be careful not to get his pieces in one another’s way, and not to leave pieces where they can be attacked and driven back by inferior pieces, because that entails a loss of valuable time. A player should never exchange a man in active service for one that is doing nothing. If several lines of play are open, the one offering the most numerous good continuations should be selected. When a player is not ready for attack, he should develop his pieces, and remember that the more of them he can get to bear on the enemy’s King, the better.
, derived from jocus, a game. The word is variously applied to the game itself; to the player’s expectation of success; to his plan of campaign; or to the cards in his hand. Jeux de Régle, hands which should be played in a certain way on account of their mathematical expectations, (Écarté). Keeping Tab, keeping a record of the cards that win and lose as they are dealt at Faro. King Card, the best card remaining unplayed of the suit. King Row, the four squares on the checker board which are farthest from the player’s own side. Kitty, the percentage taken out of a pool to pay for refreshments, or for the expenses of the table. Knight Player, one who can give the odds of a Knight to weak players, at Chess. Last Trick, an expression used to distinguish the last trick when all the cards are played from the last when all the cards are not played, especially in Bézique and Sixty-six. Last Turn, the three cards left in the box at the end of the deal at Faro, the order of which may be bet upon.
If the English game is played on an American pool table the red spot should be only nine inches from the bottom rail, and the “D” should be drawn with a radius of eleven inches from the white spot on the baulk line. The D is never marked on an American table, but the opening shot in the three-ball game must be made from within a semicircle of six inch radius from the white spot. In the four-ball game, and in all forms of American Pool, the player may place his ball anywhere within the baulk line. _=THE BALLS.=_ The American standard balls are 2⅜ inches in diameter, while the English are only 2-1/16. Billiard balls should be carefully protected from sudden changes in temperature by being laid away in bran or sawdust in cold weather. It is a mistake to soak the balls in oil; all they need is to be wiped off with a damp cloth, and polished with chamois skin. The three balls employed in both the English and American games are known as the _=red=_, _=white=_, and _=spot white.=_ In play they are distinguished as the _=cue ball=_, which is the one struck by the player; the _=object ball=_, which is the one that the cue ball first comes into contact with; and the _=carrom ball=_, which is the second ball struck by the cue ball in making a carrom. _=THE SHOTS.
=_ Baccara may be played by any number of persons from three to eleven. Those first in the room have the preference, and should immediately inscribe their names. The first eleven form the table, and the privilege of being the banker is sold to the highest bidder; that is, to the one that will put up the most money to be played for. The remaining ten persons draw for choice of seats at the table, the first choice being for the seat immediately on the right of the banker, then for the first seat on his left. Five players are arranged on each side of the banker in this manner, right and left alternately, according to the order of their choice. Sometimes an assistant or croupier is seated opposite the banker, to watch the bets, gather and shuffle the cards, etc. A waste basket is placed in the centre of the table for the reception of cards that have been used in play. If no one bids for the bank, it must be offered to the first on the list of players; if he declines, the next, and so on. The amount bid for the bank is placed on the table, and none of it can be withdrawn, all winnings being added to it. If no bid is made, the banker may place on the table any amount he thinks proper, and that amount, or what remains of it after each coup, is the betting limit.
_=SCORING.=_ In both the foregoing systems, each pair should have its own score-card, and should mark the name of the team it plays against for each series of four hands. These score-cards are more for private reference than anything else in tournaments; because there is always a professional scorer, for whose use small slips are filled out and collected from the tables at the end of each round. The winner is the team that wins the most matches; not the one that gains the most tricks. In case of ties, the number of tricks won must decide. If the number of tricks taken by each side is a tie in any match, the score is marked zero, and each team counts half a match won. We give an illustration of the final score in a match between five teams. The _=c=_ and _=d=_ teams are tied for a second place in the number of matches; but the _=c=_ team takes third place, because it has lost one more trick than the _=d=_ team. The _=b=_ and _=c=_ teams score a half match; so do the _=c=_ and _=e=_ teams. [Illustration: +-----+----+----+----+----+----++-------+------+ |Teams| a | b | c | d | e ||Matches|Tricks| +-----+----+----+----+----+----++-------+------+ | a | \ | +5 | -1 | +1 | +4 || 3 | +9 | +-----+----+----+----+----|----++-------+------+ | b | -5 | \ | 0 | -1 | +2 || 1½ | -4 | +-----+----+----+----+----|----++-------+------+ | c | +1 | 0 | \ | -2 | 0 || 2 | -1 | +-----+----+----+----+----|----++-------+------+ | d | -1 | +1 | +2 | \ | -2 || 2 | 0 | +-----+----+----+----+----|----++-------+------+ | e | -4 | -2 | 0 | +2 | \ || 1½ | -4 | +-----+----+----+----+----+----++-------+------+ ] _=PAIR AGAINST PAIR.
About one o clock the Whipping Toms appeared on the scene of action. These were three men clad in blue smock frocks, with very long waggon whips, who were accompanied by three men with small bells. They commenced driving the men and boys out of the Newarkes. It was very dangerous sometimes; they would lash the whip in such a manner round the legs of those they were pursuing as to throw them down, which produced laughter and shouting. Some would stop, and turn to the whipper and say, Let s have a pennyworth, and he would guard and parry off the lashes with his shinney stick. When the whipper was successful in lashing him he demanded his penny, and continued lashing until he paid. This was continued until five o clock, then the game terminated. This was suppressed, I believe, in 1847. At that period it was a prevalent idea that it could not be abolished, as it was connected with an old charter. It is believed in the town that this custom was to commemorate the driving out of the Danes from the Newarkes at the time they besieged Leicester.
=_ _=MAKING THE TRUMP.=_ If the dealer does not take up the trump, he must place it under the remainder of the pack, face upward, so that it can be distinctly seen. Each player in turn, beginning on the dealer’s left, then has the privilege of naming a new trump suit. _=21.=_ If any player names the suit already turned down, he loses his right to name a suit; and if he corrects himself, and names another, neither he nor his partner is allowed to make that suit the trump. If a player names a new trump suit out of his proper turn, both he and his partner are forbidden to make that suit the trump. _=22.=_ If no one will name a new trump, the deal is void, and passes to the next player on the dealer’s left. _=23.=_ _=IRREGULARITIES IN THE HANDS.
I could feel that rattler on my arm all the way to Lake Tahoe. * * * * * Like any gambling house, the Sky Hi Club was a trap. Peno had tried to kid the public with a classy _decor_. It was a darned good copy of a nineteenth century ranch house. At the gambling tables everything was free--the liquor, the _hors d oeuvres_, the entertainment. Everything, that is, but the gambling and the women. The casino was taking its cut. And the women--or should I be so sure? You paid for your drinks if you stood up to the long mahogany bar. I turned my back to the rattle of cocktail shakers and chink of glasses, one heel hooked over the replica brass rail, and took a long careful look at the crap tables. There was a job for me at one of them.
E. take one move; to repair R.E. take five moves. To destroy a river road bridge R.E. take one move; to repair, R.E. take five moves. A supply depot can be destroyed by one man in two moves, no matter how large (by fire).
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.
It is possible that the different animals which are victims to the Fox appearing in the different games may arise from local circumstances, and that in this case a real distinction exists between the various names by which this game is known. A game called Wolf and Deer, similar to Fox and Geese, is given in _Winter Evening Amusements_, by R. Revel. The last one at the end of the tail may, if she has no other chance of escape, try and place herself before the Deer or Hen. She is then no longer to be hunted; all the others must then follow her example until the deer becomes the last of the line. The game then terminates by exacting a forfeit for each lady whom the Wolf has suffered to escape his clutches (pp. 64, 65). See Gled Wylie, Hen and Chickens, Old Dame. Fox and Geese (2) A game known by this name is played with marbles or pegs on a board on which are thirty-three holes, or on the pavement, with holes scraped out of the stones. To play this game there are seventeen pieces called Geese, and another one either larger or distinguished from the Geese by its colour, which is called the Fox.
But a shot cannot kill more than one man without knocking him over, and if it touches several without oversetting them, only the first touched is dead and the others are not incapacitated. A shot that rebounds from or glances off any object and touches a man, kills him; it kills him even if it simply rolls to his feet, subject to what has been said in the previous sentence. HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING AND CAPTURING (1) A man or a body of men which has less than half its own number of men on its own side within a move of it, is said to be isolated. But if there is at least half its number of men of its own side within a move of it, it is not isolated; it is supported. (2) Men may be moved up into virtual contact (one-eighth of an inch or closer) with men of the opposite side. They must then be left until the end of the move. (3) At the end of the move, if there are men of the side that has just moved in contact with any men of the other side, they constitute a melee. All the men in contact, and any other men within six inches of the men in contact, measuring from any point of their persons, weapons, or horses, are supposed to take part in the melee. At the end of the move the two players examine the melee and dispose of the men concerned according to the following rules:-- Either the numbers taking part in the melee on each side are equal or unequal. (a) If they are equal, all the men on both sides are killed.
The same question is put to Foolie. If he answers, _e.g._, orange, the one so named steps out and stands beside Foolie. All not first chosen are gone over in this way. Those left unchosen take their stand beside the Namer. There is then a tug-of-war, with the Namer and Foolie as the leaders.--Keith (Rev. W. Gregor).
-+---+-.-+---+ | . | | . | | . | | . | | +-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+ | .
_=THE POOL=_ is made up by the dealer’s contributing ten counters for the first eight rounds, and twenty for the last two. It is increased from time to time by penalties, and is won or lost by the players, just as in Boston. There is no limit to the pool. If any player objects to dividing it at the end of the game, it must be played for until some player wins it. _=PLAYERS.=_ The number of players, their arrangement at the table, etc., is precisely the same as at Boston. _=CUTTING.=_ Instead of cutting for the first deal, any one of the players takes a pack of cards, and gives thirteen to each player in succession, face up. The player to whom he gives the diamond Jack deals the first hand, and has the choice of seats and cards.
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. He succeeds in finding the whereabouts of the coveted girl, but before he is allowed by the father to take his bride away he is required to perform tasks, a final one being the choosing of the girl with whom he is in love from among others, all dressed alike and disguised. Our bridal veil may probably originate in this custom. In the ballad from which Mr. Newell thinks the game may have originated, a maid has been given in marriage to another than her chosen lover. He rides to the ceremony with a troop of followers; the bride, seeing him approach, calls on her maidens to take off her gold crown and coif her in linen white, to test her bridegroom s affection. This incident, I think, is not to test affection, but the ordeal of recognising his bride, however disguised, and the fact that the hero at once recognises his love, mounts with her on horseback, and flees to Norway, may be considered to support my view.
The general rule is for the dealer to give cards unless he is guarded in three suits; or has a trump, and is safe in two suits; or has two trumps, and is safe in one suit. If the dealer has only one suit guarded, and one trump, he must take into account the risk of being forced, and having to lead away from his guarded suit. There are eight recognized hands on which the dealer should refuse. The full details of the calculations can be found in the ninth volume of the “_Westminster Papers_.” As in the case of the player, the weakest trumps have been taken for the examples, and the weakest holdings in plain suits. If the dealer has better plain suits, or stronger trumps, he has of course so much more in his favour if he refuses. The first column of figures gives the number of times in 65,780 that there will be no proposal, so that the dealer has no choice but to play. The other columns give the number of times the dealer or the player will win if the player proposes and the dealer refuses. The first suit given in each instance is the trump. NO DEALER PLAYER PROPOSAL.
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_=Revolution=_ is seldom played. It is a Nullo in which the adversaries put their twenty cards together as one hand to see if they can make the player take a trick. _=Uno=_ and _=Duo=_ are Grands, in which the single player engages to take one trick in Uno, or two in Duo, neither more nor less. _=GAME VALUES.=_ Each of the foregoing games has what is called a unit of value, which is afterward multiplied several times according to the number of Matadores, and whether the game was schneider or schwarz. These unit values are as follows, beginning with the lowest: ---------------+------------------+------------------------- Suits Trumps:--| Jacks Trumps:-- | No Trumps:-- ----+----+-----+------------------+------------------------- |Turn| Solo| Turned Grand 12 | Gucki Nullo 15 ♢ | 5 | 9 | Gucki Grand 16 | ” if played open 30 ♡ | 6 | 10 | Solo Grand 20 | Solo Nullo 20 ♠ | 7 | 11 | Open Grand 24 | ” if played open 40 ♣ | 8 | 12 | Ramsch 20 | Revolution 60 ----+----+-----+------------------+------------------------- When one player takes no trick in a Ramsch, the player with the greater number of points loses 30. If two players take no trick, the loss is 50 points. _=All Guckis lose double if they fail=_, so that if a player announces a Gucki Nullo and loses it, he will lose 30; but if he won it he would get 15 only. If a player has a Gucki Null Ouvert, he must announce that it is to be played open before he touches the skat cards. It is then worth 30 if won; 60 if lost.
Good players will not bet on an ace alone, unless the suit is turned up; nor on a point of 21 with a weak card of the turn-up suit. If three play in a pool the point should be very strong to follow beyond the first raise; and if four players are engaged, it is almost a certainty that brelans will be shown. When a player with a brelan has frightened off his opponents with a big bet, it is usual to _=stifle=_ the brelan, as it is considered more to the player’s advantage to leave his adversaries under the impression that he may have been bluffing than to show the hand for the sake of the one white counter to which it entitles him. With three cards of one suit to the King, it is usual to bet high, in order to drive out anything but a brelan. Any player holding ace and another of the suit will of course abandon his hand, as his point is worth only 21 at the most, and the player with three to the King will get the benefit of his cards when the point is counted. AMBIGU. _=Cards.=_ Ambigu is played with a pack of forty cards, the K Q J of each suit being deleted. The cards rank in the order of their numerical value, the 10 being the highest, and the ace the lowest. Two packs may be used alternately.
A snake within the Lodge. You might try to stop him. But your partner, Rose, is the real crook. Get the doc, then tie up Rose. She s gone, he insisted. Nerve poison kills right now. He s right, Billy Joe, Pheola said softly. I m going numb all over. What did I tell you? Simonetti husked at me. I had enough left to hit him sharply over the temples with a lift.
The forty-eight cards are dealt out, four at a time, but no trump is turned. Beginning on the dealer’s left, each player in turn bids a certain number of points for the privilege of naming the trump suit and of having the lead for the first trick. There are no second bids. If all pass, the dealer must bid twenty. As soon as the trump is named, every player at the table makes his own melds, which will be good if he wins a trick. The rules for play are the same as in the ordinary three and four hand. If four play as partners, two against two, the eldest hand always leads for the first trick, no matter who the successful bidder may be. The bidder always has the first count at the end of the hand, and it is usual to play this game so many deals, instead of so many points. At the end of six deals, for instance, the highest score is the winner. Sometimes this game is played with a widow, three cards when three play, four when four play.