If correct, the guesser obtains the object; if incorrect, the player who performs Handy dandy keeps it. (_c_) This game is mentioned in _Piers Plowman_, p. 69 of Wright s edition. Douce quotes an ancient MS. which curiously mentions the game as men play with little children at handye-dandye, which hand will you have (ii. 167). Johnson says: Handy dandy, a play in which children change hands and places: See how yon justice rails upon yon simple thief! Hark, in thine ear: change places, and, handy dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief? (_King Lear_, iv. 6). Malone says, Handy dandy is, I believe, a play among children, in which something is shaken between two hands, and then a guess is made in which hand it is retained. See Florio s _Italian Dictionary_, 1598: Bazzicchiare, to shake between the hands; to play Handy dandy.
His adversary then has the right either to play his hand, or to exchange it for the one on his right; but the dealer must play the hand dealt to him. THIRTEEN AND THE ODD. This is Humbug Whist without the discard. The dealer gives thirteen cards to his adversary and to himself, one at a time, and turns up the next for the trump. The trump card belongs to neither player. The winner of the odd trick scores a point. Five points is game. MORT. WHIST À TROIS; OR FRENCH DUMMY. _=MORT=_ means simply the dead hand; and is the equivalent of the English word Dummy; the partner being known as _=Vivant=_, or the living hand.
This protects him, by forcing the command of the suit, if it does not win the trick. Having led the Ten from K J 10 x, if the Ace or Queen wins the first trick, the K should be next led. Having led the Four from Q J 6 4 2, if Ace or King falls to the first trick, the Queen should be led. If the Jack, Queen, and Ace fall to the first trick, a player holding both Ten and Nine should lead the Ten. After leading high cards from some combinations, and winning the trick, they may no longer contain either the best or the second and third best. Such are the following:-- [Illustration: 🂡 🂭 🂧 🂤 🂢 | 🂾 🂽 🂺 🂴 🃁 🃋 🃉 🃄 🃃 | 🂮 🂭 🂧 🂤 🃑 🃙 🃘 🃔 🃓 | 🃎 🃋 🃊 🃄 ] The rule in all such cases is to follow with the card of uniformity, the original fourth-best. If the combinations are those from which the fourth-best had been led originally, and the leader has neither the best, nor both second and third best to go on with, he should continue with the lowest card in his hand, unless he had six or more in suit; in which case he may go on with the remaining fourth-best. _=AVOID CHANGING SUITS.=_ A player having once begun with a suit, either for the purpose of establishing it, or of taking tricks in it, should not change it until he is forced to do so. Running off to untried suits is one of the beginner’s worst faults.
_=PARTNERS.=_ Before playing, the successful bidder may call for a partner if he chooses to do so. The player accepting him undertakes that the two together shall win three tricks more than the number bid. For instance: A has successfully bid seven in diamonds, and asks for a partner. If Y accepts him they make no change in their positions at the table, but play into each other’s hands, just as at Solo Whist, B and Z being partners against them. A and Y together must win ten tricks, with diamonds for trumps. If no one makes a proposal of any sort, _=Misère Partout=_ is played; there being no trump suit. The player or players taking the least number of tricks win or divide the pool. There are no other losses or gains in Misère Partout. _=HONOURS.
Where do you gather your nuts in May? On Galloway Hill we gather our nuts. Who will you gather for nuts in May? We ll gather ---- for nuts in May. Who will you send to fetch her away? We ll send ---- to fetch her away. --Bocking, Essex (_Folk-lore Record_, iii. 169). V. Here we go gathering nuts away, Nuts away, nuts away, Here we go gathering nuts away, On a cold and frosty morning. [Then follow verses beginning--] Whose nuts shall we gather away? We ll gather [Minnie Brown s] nuts away. Whom shall we send to fetch them away? [And the final verse is--] We ll send [Johnny Cope] to fetch them away, Fetch them away, fetch them away, We ll send [Johnny Cope] to fetch them away, On a cold and frosty morning. --Newbury, Berks (Mrs.
Gomme). In Cornwall the leader, when at fault, says-- Uppa, uppa, holye! If you don t speak My dogs shan t folly. --Courtney (_Folk-lore Journal_, v. 73). Other versions of this holloa are-- Whoop, whoop, and hollow! Good dogs won t follow Without the hare cries, Peewit. --Halliwell s _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 66. Sound your holler, Or my little dog shan t foller. --Northall s _English Folk Rhymes_, p. 357.
They form a ring by joining hands, and they then all move in one direction, about half way round, while singing the first line, lubin; then back again in the opposite direction, while singing the second line, light, still keeping the ring form, and so on for the third and fourth lines. In each case the emphasis is laid upon the Here of each line, the movement being supposed to answer to the Here. The Dorsetshire version (Miss M. Kimber) is played by the children taking hands in pairs, forming a ring, and dancing round. At Eckington (S. O. Addy) the children first pretend to wash their hands, then their face, while singing the words; then comb their hair and brush their clothes; then they join hands and dance round in a ring singing the words which follow, again suiting their actions to the words sung. In the Scottish version a ring is formed as above. One sings, and the rest join, to the tune of Lillibullero, the first line. As soon as this is concluded each claps his hand and wheels grotesquely, singing the second line.
If any adversary of a misère player leads out of turn, or exposes a card, or plays before his proper turn in any trick, the caller may immediately claim the stakes, and the individual player in fault must pay for himself, and for his partners. _=METHODS OF CHEATING.=_ While the practice of dealing three cards at a time gives a little more opportunity to the greek than would occur if they were dealt as at Whist, there is little to be feared if two packs are used, unless two greeks are in partnership. When such partners sit next each other, there is more or less danger, if only one pack is used, that one may shuffle so that the other may cut understandingly; or that a good shuffler may run up six cards for a dealer that is not embarrassed by the cards being cut. A shrewd greek can often help a silent partner who is playing under the disguise of a single caller, especially in misère. Persons who play in the many public cafés of Europe should be especially careful to avoid this style of partnership, where it is very common. _=SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAY.=_ Apart from the general principles common to all forms of Whist, such as the play of high or low cards, trumps or plain suits, etc., there are several points peculiar to Solo Whist which require attention. _=Proposing.
If it is a Jack, for instance, it will go face up under the first pile in the third row. Then take the top card from the second pile, and so on, keeping the left hand as a marker on the pile last drawn from. When you come to a pile which is complete, all the cards being face up, you can skip it, and go on to the next. If at the end you find that the last card to be turned up lies on its proper pile, and needs turning over only, you win; but if you have to remove it to another pile, you lose. _=TRY AGAIN.=_ Shuffle and cut the pack, and deal the cards face upward into four heaps. You are not obliged to deal to each pile in succession, but may place the cards on any of the four piles, according to your judgment or pleasure. In dealing out in this manner it is not good policy to cover one card with a higher, unless you are compelled to do so. Every time you come to an ace, separate it from the others, placing it in a new row, as a foundation for an ascending sequence, which may be continued regardless of the suit of the cards used. The top cards of the four piles are used to build up the sequence.
_=TURNING THE KING.=_ If the King is turned up, the dealer marks one point for it immediately. If a wrong number of cards has been dealt, and a King is turned, it cannot be scored, because it was not the eleventh card. _=PROPOSING AND REFUSING.=_ The cards dealt, the pone examines his hand, and if he thinks it strong enough to win three or more tricks, he stands; that is, plays without proposing, and says to the dealer: “_=I play=_.” If he thinks he can improve his chances by drawing cards, allowing the dealer the same privilege of course, he says: “_=I propose=_;” or simply: “_=Cards=_.” In reply the dealer may either accept the proposal by asking: “_=How many?=_” or he may refuse, by saying: “_=Play=_.” If he gives cards, he may also take cards himself, after having helped his adversary. If he refuses, he must win at least three tricks or lose two points; and if the pone plays without proposing, he must make three tricks, or lose two points. The hands on which a player should stand, and those on which the dealer should refuse are known as _=jeux de règle=_, and will be found in the suggestions for good play.
C. C. Bell); Settle, Yorks. (Rev. W. S. Sykes); Derbyshire (Mrs. Harley); Redhill, Surrey (Miss G. Hope); Ordsall, Nottinghamshire (Miss Matthews); Brigg, Lincolnshire (Miss J. Barker); and there are other versions from Hersham, Surrey (_Folk-lore Record_, v.
Should the dealer forget himself in dealing for the discard, and turn up another trump, he cannot refuse his adversary another discard, if he demands it, and the exposed card must be put aside with the discards. If any cards are found faced in the pack when dealing for the discard, the deal stands good if they will fall to the dealer. But if the exposed card will go to the pone, he has the option of taking it, or claiming a fresh deal by the same dealer. During all the discards the trump card remains the same. _=MARKING THE KING.=_ The discards settled, the first and most important thing before play begins is to mark the King. If the King is turned up, the dealer marks one point for it immediately. If the pone holds it, he must _=announce=_ and mark it before he plays a card. If he leads the King for the first trick, he must still announce it by saying distinctly: “I mark the King;” and unless this announcement is made before the King touches the table, it cannot be marked. So important is this rule that in some European Casinos it is found printed on the card tables.
3.=_ This example of the _=Short-suit Game=_ is from Val Starnes’ Short-Suit Whist. This is sometimes called the Gambit opening. The leader, having no reason to lead trumps, even with five, and not having three honours in his long suit, prefers the gambit opening of the singly guarded queen. Y holds what is called a potential or imperfect fourchette, and covers, in order to make A-B play two honours to get one trick. B also makes a gambit opening by returning a supporting spade. Three tricks are gained by the two leads of the supporting cards, and five would have been made but for Y’s covering on the first trick. _=No. 4.=_ This is an example of _=Playing to the Score=_.
The number of cards discarded must be distinctly announced, and the trump is then laid aside, and the cards given from the top of the pack, without further shuffling. It is considered imperative that the player who has proposed should take at least one card, even if he proposed with five trumps in his hand. The pone helped, the dealer then announces how many cards he takes, placing his discards on his left. The dealer, if asked, must inform his adversary how many cards he took, provided the question is put before he plays a card. After receiving his cards, the pone may either stand or propose again, and the dealer may either give or refuse; but such subsequent stands or refusals do not carry with them any penalty for failure to make three tricks. Should these repeated discards exhaust the pack, so that there are not enough cards left to supply the number asked for, the players must take back a sufficient number from their discards. If the dealer has accepted a proposal, and finds there are no cards left for himself, that is his own fault; he should have counted the pack before accepting. The trump card cannot be taken into the hand under any circumstances. _=MISDEALING AFTER DISCARDING.=_ If the dealer gives the pone more or less cards than he asks for, he loses the point and the right to mark the King, unless it was turned up.
The old woman says the first five lines. No question is asked by the lady, she simply takes one child. The old woman shakes hands with this child, and says good-bye to her. When all the children have been taken in by the one who personates the lady, the old woman says the other three lines, and so one by one gets all the children back again. The Berkshire version (Miss Thoyts) is said, not sung, and is played with two leaders, old woman and lover. As the lover chooses a child, that one is sent behind him, holding round his waist. Each child as she goes says, Good-bye, mother, good-bye, and pretends to cry. Finally they all cry, and the game ends in a tug of war. This tug is clearly out of place unless only half the children are selected by one side. Miss Thoyts does not say how this is done.
Unless Dummy plays Ace, you should put on the King, and change the suit. 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.
Hark at the robbers going through, Through, through, through; through, through, through; Hark at the robbers going through, My fair lady. What have the robbers done to you, You, you, you; you, you, you? What have the robbers done to you, My fair lady? Stole my gold watch and chain, Chain, chain, chain; chain, chain, chain; Stole my gold watch and chain, My fair lady. How many pounds will set us free, Free, free, free; free, free, free? How many pounds will set us free, My fair lady? A hundred pounds will set you free, Free, free, free; free, free, free; A hundred pounds will set you free, My fair lady. We have not a hundred pounds, Pounds, pounds, pounds; pounds, pounds, pounds; We have not a hundred pounds, My fair lady. Then to prison you must go, Go, go, go; go, go, go; Then to prison you must go, My fair lady. To prison we will not go, Go, go, go; go, go, go; To prison we will not go, My fair lady. --Shipley, Horsham (_Notes and Queries_, 8th Series, i. 210, Miss Busk). VI. See the robbers coming through, Coming through, coming through, See the robbers coming through, A nice young lady.
| -- | | | |(After No. 25.) | | |19.| -- | -- | -- | |20.| -- |Betsy kissing her | -- | | | |young man. | | |21.| -- | -- |Choose the fairest | | | | |daughter. | |22.| -- | -- | -- | |23.|I ve sent letter to |[He sent letter to | -- | | |turn your head.
Sequences are always valuable, especially those that are Ace high in the elder hand, because they enable him to win a succession of tricks in play. The elder hand should risk a good deal if he has a fair chance to make a pic or repic, which will often settle the game. If there is any choice as to what to keep of two nearly equal chances, always preserve the combination that will be most likely to secure the count for cards. In _=Leading=_, it is best to begin with the point, unless you know that you are leading up to tenace, or to high cards that will bring in a long adverse suit. The piquet player soon learns the importance of tenace and fourchette, and can sometimes see how things must be managed for five or six tricks ahead, so as to secure the odd trick. Tenace is the best and third-best of any suit, such as A Q, while a fourchette is any two cards within one of each other, such as K J, or Q 10, and the lead from such combinations should always be avoided. If you have the odd trick in hand, make it at once, before you risk anything else, because the only difference between the odd trick and eleven tricks is the count for each card led in the tricks. _=The Dealer.=_ The first thing to guard against is a long run of winning leads from the elder hand, which might make the odd trick, or even capot. As there are no trumps it is very important for the dealer to keep guarded Kings and twice-guarded Queens.
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. (b) If they are unequal, then the inferior force is either isolated or (measuring from the points of contact) not isolated. (i) If it is isolated (see (1) above), then as many men become prisoners as the inferior force is less in numbers than the superior force, and the rest kill each a man and are killed. Thus nine against eleven have two taken prisoners, and each side seven men dead.
Suppose a suit so distributed that you have four to the King, and each of the other players has three cards; what are the probabilities that your partner has both Ace and Queen? The common solution is to put down all the possible positions of the two named cards, and finding only one out of nine to answer, to assume that the odds are 8 to 1 against partner having both cards. This is not correct, because the nine positions are not equally probable. We must first find the number of possible positions for the Ace and Queen separately, afterward multiplying them together, which will give us the denominator; and then the number of positions that are favourable, which will give us the numerator. As there are nine unknown cards, and the Ace may be any one of them, it is obvious that the Queen may be any one of the remaining eight, which gives us 9 × 8 = 72 different ways for the two cards to lie. To find how many of these 72 will give us both cards in partner’s hand we must begin with the ace, which may be any one of his three cards. The Queen may be either of the other two, which gives us the numerator, 3 × 2 = 6; and the fraction of probability, 6/72, = 1/12; or 11 to 1 against both Ace and Queen. If we wished to find the probability of his having the Ace, but not the Queen, our denominator would remain the same; but the numerator would be the three possible positions of the Ace, multiplied by the six possible positions of the Queen among the six other unknown cards, in the other hands, giving us the fraction 18/72. The same would be true of the Queen but not the Ace. To prove both these, we must find the probability that he has neither Ace nor Queen. There being six cards apart from his three, the Ace may be any one of them, and the Queen may be any one of the remaining five.
| | Score Card. | | 1st Round.| 2nd Round.| 3rd Round.| | A | B | C | +-----------+-----------+-----------+ +----+----+----+ | A won 33 | A lost 16 | C lost 36 | | +33| +40| +55| | C won 55 | B won 40 | B won 48 | | +17| +88| +67| | C won 12 | A lost 24 | C lost 12 | | -7| | +31| | | | | +----+ +----+ | | | | | | | +19| At the end of the second round a line was drawn under A’s account, which then contained three items; and after the first game in the third round a line was drawn under C’s account. If we suppose the game to be stopped at this point, the scores would be balanced as follows: We take the three scores and bring them down on one line. We draw a line under them, and proceed as follows: First we take A, who has lost 7 to B, and from whom B has also won 88. This gives us 95 minus for A and 95 plus for B. We then compare A and C, and find that A owes C 26; put down as minus for A, plus for C. We now compare B and C, and find that B wins the difference, which is 69 points; put down plus for B, minus for C.
In yore darlin haid! Fingers worked over my scalp. Oh, there! she gasped. Hit s ahurtin me! Hurtin , hurtin , and I m a draggin it off n yuh! Her backwoods twang sharpened as she aped some contemporary witch. Hurt? She didn t know what it meant. She fired a charge of thermite in my head, and it seared its way down my arm to my fingers. My right arm came off the bed and thrashed like a wounded snake. She wrestled it, climbed onto the bed, and held it down with her boney knees. Her fingers kneaded it, working some imaginary devil out through the fingertips, till the hurt was gone. * * * * * We sat close together on the edge of the bed at last, as I worked and moved my arm, one of us more in awe of what had happened than the other. It was weak--with those flabby, unused muscles, it had to be.
Moreover, he had counted his antagonist wrongly, and thought he could arrange a melee of twenty against twenty. Figure 5b shows the game at the same stage as 5a, immediately after the adjudication of the melee. The dead have been picked up, the three prisoners, by a slight deflection of the rules in the direction of the picturesque, turn their faces towards captivity, and the rest of the picture is exactly in the position of 5a. It is now Blue s turn to move, and figure 6a shows the result of his move. He fires his rightmost gun (the nose of it is just visible to the right) and kills one infantry-man and one cavalry-man (at the tail of Red s central gun), brings up his surviving eight cavalry into convenient positions for the service of his temporarily silenced guns, and hurries his infantry forward to the farm, recklessly exposing them in the thin wood between the farm and his right gun. The attentive reader will be able to trace all this in figure 6a, and he will also note the three Red cavalry prisoners going to the rear under the escort of one Khaki infantry man. Figure 6b shows exactly the same stage as figure 6a, that is to say, the end of Blue s third move. A cavalry-man lies dead at the tail of Red s middle gun, an infantry-man a little behind it. His rightmost gun is abandoned and partly masked, but not hidden, from the observer, by a tree to the side of the farmhouse. And now, what is Red to do? The reader will probably have his own ideas, as I have mine.
=_ A player dealing out of turn, or with the wrong cards, may be stopped before the trump is turned. But if the trump has been turned, and neither player has discarded or played to the first trick, the pack must be set aside, with the cards as dealt, and the trump turned, to be used for the ensuing deal. The other pack is then taken up and dealt by the player whose proper turn it was to deal. If a discard has been made, or a trick played to, the deal stands good, and the packs, if changed, must so remain. There must be a new deal if any card but the eleventh is found faced in the pack. If the dealer exposes any of his own cards, the deal stands good. If he exposes any of his adversary’s cards, the non-dealer may claim a fresh deal, provided he has not seen any of his cards. It is a misdeal if the dealer gives too many or too few cards to his adversary or to himself. If the hands have not been seen, and the pone discovers that he has received more than five cards, he has the choice to discard the superfluous cards at hazard, or to claim a misdeal, which loses the deal. If the pone has received less than the proper number, he may supply the deficiency from the remainder of the pack, without changing the trump card, or he may claim a misdeal.
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. Every system has been carefully investigated, and enormous labour has been expended on the compilation of tables recording for a long series of time every number rolled at Roulette, and every coup raked in at Rouge et Noir, and the result of all systems is found to be the same, the bank succeeds in building up its percentage like a coral island, while the player’s money disappears like water in the sand. VINGT-ET-UN. Any number of persons may play Vingt-et-un, and a full pack of fifty-two cards is used. The _=cards=_ have no rank, but a counting value is attached to each, the ace being reckoned as 11 or 1, at the option of the holder, all court cards as 10 each, and the others at their face value. The cards are thrown round for the first deal, and the first ace takes it.