_=THREE-HANDED HEARTS=_ is more difficult to play than any other form of the game, partly because there are so many rounds of each suit, and partly because the moment one player refuses, the exact cards of that suit in the two other players’ hands are known to each of them. There is usually a great deal of cross-fighting in the three-handed game, during which one player escapes by getting numerous discards. When all three have refused, each a different suit, the end game becomes a question of generalship, and the preservation of one or more commanding cards, with which to control and place the lead, is usually the key to the situation. A player who has no high cards for the end game, unless he is quite safe, is almost certain to be loaded in the last few tricks. _=TWO-HANDED HEARTS.=_ Before opening the hand, the player should carefully consider what suits are safe and what are dangerous. It is usually best to preserve the safe suits and to lead the dangerous ones, which you should clear your hand of, if possible. It is a great advantage to have a missing suit, and equally disadvantageous to have a number of a suit of which your adversary is probably clear. If a card of a missing suit is drawn, it is usually best to lead it at once, so as to keep the suit clear; but in so doing, be careful first to place the card among the others in the hand, or your adversary will detect that it is a missing suit. The lead is a disadvantage if you have safe hearts; but toward the end of the stock, from which cards are drawn, it is an advantage to have commanding cards, with which you can assume the lead if necessary.
=_ At the conclusion of the rubber, if there are more than four candidates for play, the selection of the new table is made by cutting; those who have just played having an equal chance with the newcomers. The reason for this is that a Bridge table is complete with four, and that a rubber is usually too long, with its preliminaries of making the trump, and its finalities of settling the score, for players to wait their turn. A rubber at Short Whist is often over in two hands; but a carefully played rubber at Bridge sometimes occupies an hour. _=CHEATING.=_ Most of the cheating done at the bridge table is of such a character that it cannot be challenged without difficulty, although there is enough of it to be most annoying. Some players will place an ace about four cards from the top when they shuffle the cards, so that when the pack is spread for the cut they can draw it and get the first deal. Second dealing is a common trick, especially on ocean steamers, marking the aces and slipping them back if they would fall to an adversary dealing them to the partner instead, who can go no trumps and score a hundred aces several times in an evening. Women are great offenders in trifling matters, such as asking the dealer if she passed it, when nothing has been said; looking over the adversaries’ hands as dummy, and then pushing dummy’s cards forward, as if arranging them, but in reality indicating which one to play. A great deal of petty cheating is done in putting down the score, and also in balancing it by cancellation. In large charity games, some women are so eager to win a prize that they will stoop to all manner of private signals, and some go so far as to make up a table and agree to double everything, so that some one of the four shall have a big score.
=_ The various combinations at Poker outrank one another in the following order, beginning with the lowest. Cards with a star over them add nothing to the value of the hand, and may be discarded. The figures on the right are the odds against such a hand being dealt to any individual player. Five cards of various suits; not in sequence, and without a pair. [Illustration: 🂡* 🃘* 🂶* 🂴* 🂢*] Even _=One Pair.=_ Two cards of one kind and three useless cards. [Illustration: 🂨 🃘 🃞* 🂭* 🂴*] 34 to 25 _=Two Pairs.=_ Two of one kind; two of another kind; and one useless card. [Illustration: 🂫 🃋 🂣 🃓 🂹*] 20 to 1 _=Threes.=_ Three of one kind, and two useless cards.
(_c_) The analysis of the game rhymes is as follows:-- +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | | Hants. | Deptford (Kent). | Belfast. | +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 1.|Village life. |Village life. |Hunting life. | | 2.|All the boys happy. |All the boys happy.
With 5 or more; trumping with the 3rd-best; leading the 4th-best. These methods of taking the force must not be carried to extremes. For instance: A player holding K J 10 2, would hardly be justified in trumping with the 10 to show number. Some experts, holding the best trump with at least four others, will not lead it; preferring to show number first, by leading the fourth-best. Others, holding four, lead the lowest after trumping with the third-best. _=The Echo in Trumps.=_ When the partner leads high trumps, the Third Hand should echo with four or more, by signalling in the trump suit. The universal form of the echo is to play first the third-best, then the fourth-best. When a player has called, and his partner leads, it is unnecessary for the caller to echo. Players seldom echo on adverse trump leads, even with five trumps.
_, in the North of Scotland). One stack is fixed on as the _dule_ or goal; and one person is appointed to catch the rest of the company, who run out from the _dule_. He does not leave it till they are all out of sight. Then he sets off to catch them. Any one who is taken cannot run out again with his former associates, being accounted a prisoner; but is obliged to assist his captor in pursuing the rest. When all are taken the game is finished; and he who was first taken is bound to act as catcher in the next game. This innocent sport seems to be almost entirely forgotten in the South of Scotland. It is also falling into desuetude in the North. (_b_) The following description of Barley-break, written by Sir Philip Sidney, is taken from the song of Lamon, in the first volume of the _Arcadia_, where he relates the passion of Claius and Strephon for the beautiful Urania:-- She went abroad, thereby, At _barley-brake_ her sweet, swift foot to try. .
4. A game consists of thirty points made by tricks alone. Every deal is played out, whether or not during it the game be concluded, and any points made (even if in excess of thirty) are counted. 5. The ace, king, queen, knave, and ten of the trump suit are the honours; when no trump is declared, the aces are the honours. 6. Honours are credited to the original holders; they are valued as follows: _When a Trump is Declared._ 3[1] honours held between partners equal value of 2 tricks. 4 ” ” ” ” ” ” 4 ” 5 ” ” ” ” ” ” 5 ” 4 ” ” in 1 hand ” ” 8 ” 4 ” ” ” 1 ” { 5th in } ” ” 9 ” 5 ” ” ” 1 ” {partner’s} ” ” 10 ” _When No Trump is Declared._ 3 aces held between partners count 30 4 ” ” ” ” ” 40 4 ” ” in one hand ” 100 7.
” The pone tells him to go, and he pegs one. These three cards are turned down. The pone then plays a Ten, and the dealer marks one for the last card. The hands and crib are then shown. If either player can reach exactly 31, he scores two points for it, whether he has been told to go or not. Suppose the pone begins with a Nine. The dealer plays a Six and pegs 2 for the fifteen. The pone pairs the Six, calls “Twenty-one,” and pegs 2 for the pair. The dealer with two Fives and a Four in his hand, plays the Four, and calls “Twenty-five,” hoping the pone has no small card, which will allow the dealer to make a run of three with one of his Fives if he is told to go. But the pone plays a Five, calling: “Thirty, with a run of three.
Campbell-Walker’s “Correct Card” in 1876; Drayson’s “Art of Practical Whist,” with its new theories of trumps; Fisher Ames, “Modern Whist,” in 1879; “Whist, or Bumblepuppy?” by “Pembridge” [John Petch Hewby], in 1880; G.W.P. [Pettes], in 1881; Proctor’s “How to Play Whist,” in 1885; and the “Handbook of Whist,” by “Major Tenace,” 1885. Then began the long list of American authors (Pettes has already been mentioned): “Foster’s Whist Manual,” by R.F. Foster, appeared in 1890; “Practical Guide to Whist,” by Fisher Ames, in 1891; Hamilton’s “Modern Scientific Whist,” in 1894, and in the same year, Coffin’s “Gist of Whist,” and “Foster’s Whist Strategy.” In 1895, Milton C. Work’s “Whist of To-day,” and “Foster’s Whist Tactics,” giving the play in the first match by correspondence; and in 1896, Val Starnes’ “Short-suit Whist,” and Howell’s “Whist Openings.” In 1897, Mitchell’s “Duplicate Whist.
To justify this expenditure he must have some permanent advantage, and if no such advantage or “percentage” is inherent in the principles of the game, any person playing against such a banker is probably being cheated. At Monte Carlo, everything is perfectly fair and straightforward, but no games are played except those in which the percentage in favour of the bank is evident, and is openly acknowledged. In Faro there is no such advantage, and no honest faro bank can live. It is for that reason that the game is not played at Monte Carlo, in spite of the many thousands of Americans who have begged the management to introduce it. The so-called percentage of “splits” at Faro is a mere sham, and any candid dealer will admit that they do not pay for the gas. Roulette, Rouge et Noir, Keno, and Chuck Luck are all percentage games, although the banker in the latter is seldom satisfied with his legitimate gains. The peculiarity about all percentage banking games is that no system, as a system, will beat them. The mathematical expectation of loss is so nicely adjusted to the probabilities of gain that the player must always get just a little the worst of it if he will only play long enough. Take any system of martingales, and suppose for the sake of illustration that in 1000 coups you will win 180 counters. The mathematical expectation of the game is such that just about once in a thousand coups your martingale will carry you to a point in which you will lose 200 counters, leaving you just 20 behind on every 1000 if you keep on playing.
I ve been in his mind, too. It s the most leering mind in this ship, bar none. Nasty man, said the little girl. She said it declaratively, without reproach. Underhill, looking at her, shivered. He didn t see how she could take Captain Wow so calmly. Captain Wow s mind _did_ leer. When Captain Wow got excited in the middle of a battle, confused images of Dragons, deadly Rats, luscious beds, the smell of fish, and the shock of space all scrambled together in his mind as he and Captain Wow, their consciousnesses linked together through the pin-set, became a fantastic composite of human being and Persian cat. That s the trouble with working with cats, thought Underhill. It s a pity that nothing else anywhere will serve as Partner.
The children in the fortress reply, the four first verses being thus sung alternately. The soldiers then go to the King singing the fifth verse (fig. 3), the remaining verses being thus sung alternately. One of the soldiers then goes to the fortress and endeavours by throwing herself on the clasped hands of the children forming the fortress to break down the guard (fig. 4). All the soldiers try to do this, one after the other; finally the King comes, who breaks down the guard. The whole troop of soldiers then burst through the parted arms (fig. 5). [Illustration: Fig. 1.
Another point of difference is, that the declarer should play false cards whenever possible. He has not a partner who, if he plays the King, might jump to the conclusion that he can trump a suit, or has not the Queen. The more thoroughly the adversaries are confused, the greater the advantage to the declarer, especially in the end game. _=With a Trump.=_ When the winning declaration is a suit for trumps, the declarer’s first consideration upon getting into the lead must be whether or not to lead trumps. As a rule, the trumps should be led at once, so as to exhaust the adversaries; but there are exceptional cases, the principal ones being:-- Do not lead trumps from the strong trump hand if it would be to your advantage to put the other hand in the lead with a plain suit, so as to let the trump lead come from the weaker hand to the stronger, as when a finesse in trumps is desirable. Do not lead trumps if you have no good plain suit, and can make more tricks by playing for a cross-ruff. Do not lead trumps if the weaker hand can trump some of your losing cards first. It often happens that a _=losing trump=_ can be used to win a trick before trumps are led. _=At No-trump.