This soon brought about another change, which was to raise the values of all the suits except spades and to cut down the no-trumper. This was done in 1912, and made it possible for any suit to go game on the hand. All the well known writers on whist and bridge came out with text-books on auction, and the newspapers took up the subject in weekly articles. Although to many the game now seemed perfect, there were those that felt the helplessness of weak hands to offer any defence in the bidding against a run of no-trumpers or hearts and royals. To remedy this, F.C. Thwaites of the Milwaukee Whist Club suggested the introduction of the nullo. This was a bid to lose tricks, at no trump only, and its value was to be minus 10, that is, it was to be outranked only by a no-trumper to win. At first, this bid was largely used simply as an additional game-going declaration, and was strongly objected to by many leading players. But as its true place as a defensive bid became better understood it soon came into favour.
A revoke may be corrected by the player making it before the trick in which it occurs has been turned and quitted. The card played in error must be left face up on the table, and must be played when demanded by the adversaries, unless it can be got rid of previously, in the course of play. In America, the revoke penalty is two tricks. _=The Honours=_ are the four highest trumps, A, K, Q, and J; and _=after tricks have been scored=_, partners who held three honours between them are entitled to count two points towards game; four honours counting four points. If each side has two honours, neither can count them. It is not enough to score them; after the last card has been played, they must be claimed by word of mouth. If they are not claimed before the trump is turned for the following deal, they cannot be scored. Partners who, at the beginning of a deal, are at the score of four, cannot count honours; they must get the odd trick to win the game. Should one side be out by tricks, and the other by honours, the tricks win the game, the honours counting nothing. _=Rubber Points.
xxvii.) CAMBRIDGESHIRE-- Cambridge Mrs. Haddon. CHESHIRE { Darlington s, Holland s, Leigh s, and { Wilbraham s _Glossaries_. Congleton Miss A. E. Twemlow. CORNWALL { _Folk-lore Journal_, v., Courtney s { _Glossary_. Penzance Miss Courtney, Mrs.
| -- | -- | -- | |33.| -- | -- | -- | |34.| -- | -- | -- | |35.| -- | -- | -- | |36.|Get a dog to watch all| -- | -- | | |night. | | | |37.|If that dog should run| -- | -- | | |away. | | | |38.|Give that dog a bone | -- | -- | | |to pick. | | | |39.
If he is Fourth Hand, he may be able to win the trick more cheaply. If the original leader has several cards, equally the best, such as A Q J remaining after having led the King, he should continue with the lowest card that will win the trick. This should be an indication to his partner that the card led is as good as the best, and that therefore the leader must have the intermediate cards. _=Following King=_, which has been led from these combinations:-- [Illustration: 🂡 🂮 🂭 🂫 | 🂱 🂾 🂻 🂷 🃁 🃎 🃍 🃆 | 🃑 🃞 🃔 🃓 ] Leading the Jack on the second round would show both Ace and Queen remaining. Leading Queen would show Ace, but not the Jack. Leading Ace would show that the leader had not the Queen. In combinations which do not contain the best card, the lead may be varied in some cases to show the number remaining in the leader’s hand, or to indicate cards not shown by the first lead. _=Following King=_, which has been led from these combinations:-- [Illustration: 🃎 🃍 🃋 🃊 | 🃞 🃝 🃛 🃖 ] Leading the Ten on the second round would show both Queen and Jack remaining. Leading the Jack would show the Queen; but not the ten. _=Following the Jack=_, led from this combination:-- [Illustration: 🂾 🂽 🂻 🂷 🂶 ] Leading King on the second round would show five cards in the suit originally.
If you lead the ♡ 4, the only chance for it to win is that one player has no hearts, and that the 2 and 3 are divided. The odds against this combination of circumstances will vary with the number of hearts you hold with the 4, but may be generally stated on the average as about 50 to 1. It is usually considered a safer lead than a high card of a plain suit, even if you have only three of the suit. If your only heart is the 5, and you propose to lead it, the chances that the 2, 3, and 4 are not each in separate hands are about 19 in 25, or 19 to 6 against it, which is about 3 to 1. If you lead the 5, the odds against your winning the trick decrease as the number of hearts you hold with the 5 increases. If you have four hearts, the 5 being the lowest, the odds against its winning the trick, if you lead it, are about 29 to 11. If you have eight hearts, the 5 being the lowest, it is about an even chance. If your only heart is the 6, it is about an even chance that it will win the trick; but the odds against you increase rapidly with the number of additional hearts that you hold. If you propose to lead the 7, the chances that it will win the trick are 2 to 1 under the most favourable circumstances, which are when it is your only heart. These odds against you increase rapidly with the number of additional hearts that you hold.
Whatever its origin, Euchre has always been the most respectable member of the family, and the game of all others that has best served the card-playing interest in social life. Spoil Five probably comes next in point of respectability; but Écarté has often fallen into evil hands, and the very name is in some places regarded as synonymous for gambling. The same is true of Napoleon, but in less degree. Euchre, unlike the other members of the family, is not essentially a gambling game, but belongs rather to the intellectual group of card games; a position which we hope it may long maintain. EUCHRE. _=CARDS.=_ Euchre is played with what is commonly known as the piquet pack, 32 cards, all below the 7 being deleted. In plain suits the cards rank as at Whist; but in the trump suit the Jack is the best, and it is called the _=Right Bower=_. The Jack of the same colour as the trump suit, red or black, is the second-best trump, and it is called the _=Left Bower=_; so that if clubs were trumps the rank of the nine cards in the trump suit would be as follows:-- [Illustration: 🃛 🂫 🃑 🃞 🃝 🃚 🃙 🃘 🃗 ] The rank of the cards in the other suits would be:-- [Illustration: 🂡 🂮 🂭 🂪 🂩 🂨 🂧 🂱 🂾 🂽 🂻 🂺 🂹 🂸 🂷 🃁 🃎 🃍 🃋 🃊 🃉 🃈 🃇 ] When the _=Joker=_, or blank card is used, it is always the best trump, ranking above the right bower. In cutting, the ace is low, the other cards ranking as in plain suits.
It is to be noted that it was a popular belief in ancient times that to wed with a rush-ring was a legal marriage, without the intervention of a priest or the ceremonies of marriage. Poore, Bishop of Salisbury (circa 1217), prohibited the use of them-- With gaudy girlonds or fresh flowers dight About her necke, or rings of rushes plight. --Spenser s _Queen_. And Shakespeare alludes to the custom in the lines-- As fit as ten groats for the hand of an attorney, as Tib s rush for Tom s forefinger. --_All s Well that Ends Well._ The rejoicing and bestowal of the blessing by the ring of friends give an almost complete picture of early Scotch marriage custom. A version of this game, which appeared in the _Weekly Scotsman_ of October 16, 1893, by Edgar L. Wakeman, is interesting, as it confirms the above idea, and adds one or two details which may be important, _i.e._, the choose your maidens one by one, and sweep the house till the bride comes home.
=_ There have been many alleged infallible receipts for winning at Poker. Proctor thought that refusing to go in on less than triplets would prove a certainty; but in the same paragraph he acknowledges that the adversaries would soon learn the peculiarity, and avoid betting against the player. Triplets before the draw occur about once in every 45 hands. If five were playing, a person following Proctor’s advice would have to blind 9 times, and ante in at least 12 jack pots in every 45 hands, to say nothing of fattening. This means an outlay of at least 75 counters. When the triplets come, will he get back 75 counters on them? He will probably win the blind, and one or two antes; but the moment he makes his own ante good, every player who cannot beat triplets, knowing his system, will lay down his hand. An extensive observation of the methods of the best players has led the author to the conclusion that the great secret of success in Poker, apart from natural aptitude for the game, and being a good actor, is to _=avoid calling=_. If you think you have the best hand, raise. If you think you have not the best, lay it down. Although you may sometimes lay down a better hand than the one that takes the pool, the system will prove of immense advantage to you in two ways: In the first place, you will find it a great educator of the judgment; and in the second place, it will take almost any opponent’s nerve.
_=Pegging.=_ Neither player is allowed to touch the other’s pegs. If the score is erroneous, the player in fault must be called upon to remedy it himself. A player whose pegs are touched by his adversary can score two holes for penalty. If a player removes his adversary’s front peg, the latter may immediately claim the game. If a player displaces his own front peg, he must place it behind the other. If both players displace their front pegs, as by accident, they may agree to replace them where they believe them to have stood; but if they cannot agree they must call the game void. _=Pegging Out.=_ In pegging during the play, the first man to reach his game hole wins, no matter what either may have in hand or crib. If neither can peg out in play, the non-dealer has the first show.
6. To entitle one to enter a table, he must declare his intention to do so before any one of the players has cut for the purpose of commencing a new game or of cutting out. In _=Boston=_, _=Cayenne=_, and _=Solo Whist=_, this rule does not apply. CUTTING. 7. In cutting, the ace is the lowest card. All must cut from the same pack. If a player exposes more than one card, he must cut again. Drawing cards from the outspread pack may be resorted to in place of cutting. SHUFFLING.
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. For instance: If the Five of trumps is led, no one can refuse to follow suit, no matter what trumps he holds; but if the Jack is led, and any player holds the Five alone, he need not play it to the inferior trump lead.
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.” In 1898, Foster’s “Common Sense in Whist,” and in 1900, Fisher Ames’ “Standard Whist.