The players then cut it into several packets, none less than four cards, all of which remain on the table face down. Some player then pushes one of the packets toward the dealer, and bets are then made on the others. Any player, except the dealer, can bet what he pleases on any packet. After all the bets are made all the packets, including the dealer’s, are turned face up, exposing the bottom card of each. Any packet disclosing a card lower than the dealer’s loses all bets placed upon it. Any packet showing a card better than the dealer’s wins from him. The dealer takes all ties. The deal then passes to the next player on the left. Sometimes only three packets are cut, one of which is pushed to the dealer. This game is a great favourite with card-sharpers, especially on ocean steamers.
Of these he has one chance to win the third game, and one to lose it. No matter how far we continue a series of successive events it will always be found that having won a certain number of games, it is still exactly an even thing that he will win the next also. The odds of 1023 to 1 against his winning ten games in succession existed only before he began to play. After he has won the first game, the odds against his winning the remaining nine are only 511 to 1, and so on, until it is an even thing that he wins the tenth, even if he has won the nine preceding it. In the statistics of 4000 coups at roulette at Monte Carlo it was found that if one colour had come five times in succession, it was an exactly even bet that it would come again; for in twenty runs of five times there were ten which went on to six. In the author’s examination of 500 consecutive deals of faro, there were 815 cards that either won or lost three times in succession, and of these 412 won or lost out. In a gambling house in Little Rock a roulette wheel with three zeros on it did not come up green for 115 rolls, and several gamblers lost all they had betting on the eagle and O’s. When the game closed the banker informed them that the green had come up more than twenty times earlier in the evening. They thought the maturity of the chances would compel the green to come; whereas the chances really were that it would not come, as it had over-run its average so much earlier in the evening. The pendulum swings as far one way as the other, but no method of catching it on the turn has ever yet been discovered.
Nor will any amount of calculation convince some players that they are wasting their money to stay in a jack pot in order to draw to a pair of tens, although such is the fact. The various positions occupied by the player at the poker table may be briefly examined, and some general suggestions offered for his guidance in each of them. In the first place he should look out for his counters. It is always best for each player to place the amount of his ante or his bet immediately in front of him, so that there need be no dispute as to who is up, or who is shy. Above all it should be insisted that any player who has once put counters in the pool, and taken his hand from them, should not again take them down. _=The Age=_ is the most valuable position at the table, but it is seldom fully taken advantage of. The age should never look at his hand until it is his turn to make good his blind. He may pick up his cards, but he should use his eyes in following the manner and facial expression of the other players as they sort their cards. One of the greatest errors made by the age is in thinking that he must save his blind. The player who draws to nothing because he can do so cheaply, will usually have nothing to draw at the end of the game.
This is a marching game for very little children, who follow each other in a row. (_b_) Halliwell gives the first two lines only (_Nursery Rhymes_, No. dxv., p. 101), and there is apparently no other record of this game. It is probably ancient, and formerly of some significance. It refers to days of bows and arrows, and the allusion to the killing of the wren may have reference to the Manx and Irish custom of hunting that bird. All in the Well A juvenile game in Newcastle and the neighbourhood. A circle is made, about eight inches in diameter, termed the well, in the centre of which is placed a wooden peg four inches long, with a button balanced on the top. Those desirous of playing give buttons, marbles, or anything else, according to agreement, for the privilege of throwing a short stick, with which they are furnished, at the peg.
After the draw C puts up three blues against the field. D and A call it, and all show hands. If any of the three, A, B or D can beat C they divide the pool, B getting his third, although he did not contribute to the call. This game is a pure gamble; except that a bold player may occasionally bluff the field off. _=METHODS OF CHEATING.=_ Poker and its congeners have received more attention from the greeks than any other family of card games. In fact it is generally believed that the term greek, as applied to a card sharper, had its origin in the Adam of the poker family, which was a gambling game introduced by the Greeks in Italy. So numerous and so varied are the methods of cheating at Poker that it is an axiom among gamblers that if a pigeon will not stand one thing he will another. The best informed make it a rule never to play Poker with strangers, because they realize that it is impossible for any but a professional gambler to know half the tricks employed by the poker sharp. It is a notorious fact that even the shrewdest gamblers are continually being taken in by others more expert than themselves.
If the number of cards is also a tie, the dealer, or the player nearest him on his left wins. If no triplet is shown, the best straight flush wins. If there is no straight flush, the best point wins. The deal passes to the left, and a misdeal loses the deal, as the deal is an advantage, owing to the trade for ready money. If the dealer does not win the pool, he must pay one white counter to the player who does. If the dealer holds a combination of the same rank as the one that wins the pool, he must pay one white counter to every other player at the table. For instance: No triplet is shown, and a straight flush, Jack high, wins the pool. The dealer has a straight flush, 9 high, and must pay one counter to every player at the table. If the dealer had no sequence flush, he would pay the winner of the pool only. _=With a Widow.
Bull in the Park. Bulliheisle. Bummers. Bun-hole. Bunch of Ivy. Bung the Bucket. Bunting. Burly Whush. Buttons. Buzz and Bandy.
_ _=Trick 1.=_ _=Y=_ plays King second hand, hoping it will be taken by the Ace, so that he may become third or fourth player, and perhaps save his Ten. _=B=_, with the minor tenace in trumps, plays to avoid the lead as long as possible. _=Trick 2.=_ _=Y=_ gets rid of another winning card; _=B=_ keeping a small card to avoid the lead. _=Trick 3.=_ _=A=_ returns the Club, reading _=B=_ for the Q or no more. _=B=_ still avoids the lead, and _=Z=_ is marked as not having the trump Ten, or he would have saved it. _=Trick 4.=_ _=Z=_ plays to win what cards he can.
Each player should bid on the possibilities of his hand, however small, so as to guide the others in their selection of partners. _=Partners.=_ If the bidder has proposed to take not more than _=five=_ tricks out of the seven possible, he chooses two partners, and these three play against the remaining four. If he has bid to make _=six=_ or _=seven=_ tricks he chooses three partners, and these four play against the remaining three. Partners cannot refuse to play. _=Playing Alone.=_ Should a player think he can take all seven tricks without any partners, he may bid _=ten=_, which would outrank a bid of seven; but such a bid must be made before seeing the widow. If a player thinks he can win all seven tricks without either widow or partners, he may bid _=twenty=_, which is the highest bid possible. When twenty is bid the cards in the widow must remain untouched. _=Playing.
A second game is played with a board having nine holes, through one of which the ball must pass. Nares quotes several authors to show the antiquity of the game. He shows that the Nine Men s Morris of our ancestors was but another name for Nine Holes. Nine, a favourite and mysterious number everywhere, prevails in games. Strutt (_Sports_, p. 384) also describes the game as played in two ways--a game with bowling marbles at a wooden bridge; and another game, also with marbles, in which four, five, or six holes, and sometimes more, are made in the ground at a distance from each other, and the business of every one of the players is to bowl a marble, by a regular succession, into all the holes, and he who completes in the fewest bowls obtains the victory. In Northamptonshire a game called Nine Holes, or Trunks, is played with a long piece of wood or bridge with nine arches cut in it, each arch being marked with a figure over it, from one to nine, in the following rotation--VII., V., III., I.
Third Hand winning first round has the choice of four lines of play: 1st. To lead trumps, if he is strong enough. 2nd. To return the best card of his partner’s suit if he has it. This is imperative before opening any other suit but trumps. 3rd. To lead his own suit, if he can do anything with it. It is considered better play for the Third Hand to return the original leader’s suit than to open a long weak suit of his own such as one headed by a single honour. 4th. To return his partner’s suit even with a losing card, in preference to changing.
The peculiarity of this bidding is that nobody sells, the bids being made _=to the board=_, as it is called. The bidder announces the number of points he thinks he can make (with his partner’s assistance) but does not name the trump suit. If a player will not bid, he says: “_=I pass=_.” After a bid has been made in its proper turn, any following player must bid higher or pass. No one is allowed to bid more than fourteen. There are no second bids, and a bid once made cannot be amended or withdrawn. The player who has made the highest bid is called upon to name the trump suit. _=Irregular Bids.=_ If any player bids before the eldest hand has bid or passed, both the player in error and his partner lose their right to make any bid that deal; but the side not in error must bid against each other for the privilege of naming the trump suit. If the eldest hand has decided, and the pone bids without waiting for the dealer’s partner, the pone loses his bid, and the dealer may bid before his partner, without penalty.
Don t care for the Queen, don t care for the Queen, The Queen of Barbaree. Good morning, young Queen, good morning, young Queen, I have a complaint to thee. Pray what is your complaint to me? They won t surrender, they won t surrender The Tower of Barbaree. Take one of my brave soldiers. --Lady Camilla Gurdon s _Suffolk County Folk-lore_, p. 63. IV. You must surrend me, you must surrend me To the Queen of Barbaloo. No, we ll not surrend you, no, we ll not surrend you To the Queen of Barbaloo. We ll complain, we ll complain, &c.
We admit that if a team adopts straight American leads, it is much easier for them to count the partner’s hand accurately; but it seems to me that this advantage is more than overcome by the fact that in our openings we have a clear idea as to the general character of the partner’s hand while there is still time to take advantage of the knowledge. In the long-suit game this element is entirely wanting. _=IN CONCLUSION.=_ The first-class whist-player is usually developed gradually. If he possess the faculty of paying close attention to the game while he is playing, nothing should prevent his rapid progress. At first he may care little or nothing for “book” whist, but after some experience with book players, he is rather in danger of running to the other extreme, and putting more book into his game than it will carry. Having passed that stage, his next step is usually to invent some system of his own, and to experiment with every hand he plays. By degrees he finds that all special systems of play have some serious defects which over-balance their advantages, and this discovery gradually brings him back to first principles. If he gets so far safely, his game for all future time will probably be sound, common-sense whist, without any American leads, plain-suit echoes, or four-signals, and free from any attempts to take fourteen tricks with thirteen cards. When a whist-player reaches that point, he is probably as near the first class as the natural limitations of his mental abilities will ever permit him to go.
With être, to be in the lead. Dans la main, applies to the possibilities of the hand. Placer la main, to place the lead. Make-up, to get the cards ready for the next deal. Make the Pass, to put the two parts of the pack back as they were before the cut. Maldonne, F., misdeal. Manche, F., one game of the rubber. Manque, the numbers from 1 to 18 at Roulette.
It is described by Strutt, p. 381, who considers Kiss-in-the-Ring is derived from this Cat and Mouse. Catchers One bicken is required in this game, and at this a lad must stand with a bat and ball in hand. He hits the ball away along the sand. Another boy picks it up and asks the striker How many? who replies-- Two a good scat, Try for the bat. The ball is then thrown to the bicken, and if it does not come within the distance named--two bats--the striker again sends the ball away, when the question is again asked-- Three a good scat, Try for the bat. And so on until the boy standing out throws the ball in to the required distance.--Old newspaper cutting without date in my possession (A. B. Gomme).
If the caster has his fingers over the mouth of the box when he turns it over, or lifts the box himself, the throw is foul. The second method is known as rolling, or the _=long gallery=_, and is generally used in poker dice and such games. After the box has been shaken, the caster holds it by the side, and gives it a twist and a push, which causes the dice to pour out, and roll along the table. The third method is called _=shooting=_, and is always employed in craps. No box is used, the dice being held in the hand and rolled along the table or the ground. The crap shooter is obliged to shake the dice in his hand to show that he is not holding them with certain faces together, which is a common way of preventing or getting certain throws, especially with shaped dice. Whichever method is employed, each die must lie flat upon one of its own faces after the throw, neither resting upon nor _=cocked=_ against any other die or any obstruction upon the table or the ground. If any of the dice are cocked, all of them must be taken up and thrown again. RAFFLING. In a raffle for prizes of any kind, each player has three throws with three dice.
At the end of the hand, or when the deal is lost, the deal passes to the player next to the dealer on his left, and so on to each in turn. In _=Solo Whist=_, the cards are distributed three at a time until only four remain in the pack. These are dealt one at a time, and the last turned up for trump. In _=Boston=_ and in _=Cayenne=_, the cards are dealt four at a time for two rounds, and then five at a time. No trump is turned. After the cards have been dealt the player opposite the dealer presents the still pack to be cut by the player on the dealer’s left, and the top card of the portion left on the table is turned up. In _=Boston=_, _=Cayenne=_, or _=Solo Whist=_, the deal is never lost. The same dealer deals again with the same pack. 14. There must be a new deal by the same dealer:-- I.
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, to shuffle. Memory Duplicate, playing over the same hands at the same table; the players who held the N and S cards getting the E and W for the overplay. Menage, F., gathering and arranging the cards for the succeeding deal when two packs are used. Milking, taking a card from the bottom and the top of the pack at the same time with the forefinger and thumb. Mischen, G., to shuffle. Misdeal, any failure to distribute the cards properly. Mise, F., the layout, or the original pool.
_=The Object=_ is to win tricks. Not to give information, or to count the hands, or to remember every card played; but simply and only to win tricks. _=The Principle=_ is to secure for certain cards a trick-taking value which does not naturally belong to them; either by getting higher cards out of the way of lower, or by placing the holder of intermediate cards at a disadvantage with regard to the lead. If any person will take the trouble to deal out four hands, and after turning them face up on the table, count how many tricks each side will probably take with its high cards and trumps, he will find that the total will hardly ever be exactly thirteen tricks. Let us suppose the following to be one of the hands so dealt; Z turning up the ♡6 for trumps:-- [Illustration: ♡Q J 8 ♣6 ♢K J 6 5 3 ♠A 9 8 6 ♡4 3 2 +-------+ ♡A K 10 5 ♣A K Q 8 7 4 3 | Y | ♣J 9 ♢7 |A B| ♢A 8 4 ♠Q 7 | Z | ♠K 5 4 2 +-------+ ♡9 7 6 ♣10 5 2 ♢Q 10 9 2 ♠J 10 3 ] On looking over this hand it would appear that A could only make one trick in Clubs, of which the second round would be trumped. His partner can count on five tricks: the two best and the fourth trumps; the ♢A, and the ♠K; a total of six tricks. On counting the adversaries’ probable tricks, Y should make one of his three trumps, and the ♠A. Diamonds will not go round twice without being trumped, so we cannot count on his ♢K. We cannot see any sure tricks for Z. Where are the five other tricks necessary to bring our total up to thirteen? They must be there, for there are thirteen tricks taken in every hand played.
In such matches, the penalty for a revoke shall not increase the score of the opponents of the revoking players above the maximum, as made at the other tables, on the deal in which the revoke occurs; provided, however, that if the opponents win more tricks than such maximum, independently of the revoke penalty, their score shall stand as made. Nor shall the score of the revoking players be reduced, by the infliction of the revoke penalty, below the minimum so made at the other tables until the averages for the match and the relative scores of the other players have been determined; the score of the revoking players shall then, if necessary, be further reduced, so that in all cases they shall suffer the full penalty as provided in the first paragraph of this section. SEC. 5. A revoke cannot be claimed if the claimant or his partner has played to the following deal, or if both have left the table at which the revoke occurred. If the revoke is discovered in season, the penalty must be enforced and cannot be waived. SEC. 6. At the end of the play of a deal the claimants of a revoke can examine all of the cards; if any hand has been shuffled the claim may be urged and proved if possible; but no proof is necessary and the revoke is established if, after it has been claimed, the accused player or his partner disturbs the order of the cards before they have been examined to the satisfaction of the adversaries. LAW XI.
This diversion is still in part kept up by the young people of the town (Brockett s _North Country Words_). It is also mentioned in Peacock s _Manley and Corringham Glossary_, and in Ross and Stead s _Holderness Glossary_. Mr. Tate (_History of Alnwick_) says that a favourite pastime of girls, Keppy ball, deserves a passing notice, because accompanied by a peculiar local song. The name indicates the character of the game; kep is from _cepan_, Anglo-Saxon, kappan, Teut., to catch or capture; for when the game was played at by several, the ball was thrown into the air and kepped, or intercepted, in its descent by one or other of the girls, and it was then thrown up again to be caught by some other. But when the song was sung it was played out by one girl, who sent the ball against a tree and drove it back again as often as she could, saying the following rhymes, in order to divine her matrimonial future:-- Keppy ball, keppy ball, Coban tree, Come down the long loanin and tell to me, The form and the features, the speech and degree Of the man that is my true love to be. Keppy ball, keppy ball, Coban tree, Come down the long loanin and tell to me How many years old I am to be. One a maiden, two a wife, Three a maiden, four a wife, &c. The numbers being continued as long as the ball could be kept rebounding against the tree.
In the game of Auction slight intimations convey much information. The code succinctly states laws which fix penalties for an offence. To offend against etiquette is far more serious than to offend against a law; for in the latter case the offender is subject to the prescribed penalties; in the former his adversaries are without redress. 1. Declarations should be made in a simple manner, thus: “one heart,” “one no trump,” “pass,” “double”; they should be made orally and not by gesture. 2. Aside from his legitimate declaration, a player should not show by word or gesture the nature of his hand, or his pleasure or displeasure at a play, bid, or double. 3. If a player demand that the cards be placed, he should do so for his own information and not to call his partner’s attention to any card or play. 4.