There are three great principles in playing against Dummy:-- 1st. Lead through the strong suits, and up to the weak. 2nd. Do not lead through a fourchette. 3rd. Do not lead up to a tenace. These rules must not be blindly followed in every instance. They are simply general principles, and some of the prettiest _=coups=_ arise from the exceptional cases. _=Leading Through Dummy.=_ The eldest hand, when he does not deem it advisable to go on with his own suit, may be guided in his choice by the strength or weakness of certain suits in Dummy’s hand.
Whatever the arrangement employed for laying out the tableau in fortune telling, the result of the reading will always be dependent on the person’s ability to string together in a connected story the meanings which are attached to the various cards. According to Eittella, the father of all fortune telling, only 32 cards should be used, and it is essential that they should be single heads, because a court card standing firmly on its feet is a very different thing from one standing on its head. If single-head cards are not at hand, the lower part of the double-head cards must be cancelled in some manner. The following are the interpretations of the various cards, the initial _=R=_ meaning that the card is reversed, or standing on its head. _=HEARTS.=_ Ace. The house, or home. King. A benefactor. _=R.
I guided the tip of his hypodermic into a vein in her right arm, the one that still had blood coursing through it. He depressed the piston, pumping the antidote into her bloodstream. Little by little I let up on the clamp on her wounded left arm, dribbling the poisoned blood into her system, so that the antidote could react with it gradually. She stayed unconscious. Then I felt it. Her heart muscle tugged back at my lift. It was struggling to beat on its own. I matched my lifts to its ragged impulses, feeling it steady to a normal seventy-two as the antidote took effect. Her eyes opened at last, and we stopped respiration. Billy Joe! she smiled.
None of these methods have proved attractive enough to be popular, however, although the first is the one commonly adopted for club tournaments, adding fifty points bonus for the higher trick score, regardless of any games or rubbers. All the additions of percentages require special score cards and the services of some alleged expert to run the game, and even then they are not attractive. The problem of duplicate bridge remains as yet unsolved, so far as a popular game is concerned. _=SIX-HAND BRIDGE.=_ This is played by six persons, sitting with two card tables pushed together so as to make one. Each dealer sits at the long end of the table, the two dealers being partners. On each side of one sits a pair of adversaries so that the initial arrangement, if pair A had the deal, would be this:-- [Illustration: B C +-----+-----+ | 5 | 6 | | | | A |1 | 4| A | | | | 2 | 3 | +-----+-----+ B C ] Numbers are placed on the tables to indicate the positions to which the players shall move after each deal. The player at 6 goes to 5; 4 to 3; 3 to 2; 2 to 1, and 1 to 6. Each pair of partners, as they fall into the end seats, have the deal. If the dealer at either end will not declare on his own cards, he passes it, and the Dummy hand opposite him must be handed to the dealer that sits at the other end of the long table, who must declare for his partner.
The number to be reached is 9, instead of 21, and if a player has a 9 natural, he receives from the banker three times his stake; if an 8 natural, he receives double, and for a 7 natural, he is paid. If the banker has an equal number of points natural, it is a tie; and if the banker has a 7, 8, or 9 natural he receives from each of the others once, twice, or three times the amount of their stakes. If none of these naturals are shown, the players draw in turn, as at Vingt-et-un, and the dealer receives from those who have less points than he, or who are créve, and pays those who have more, but have not passed 9. FARMER. Any number of persons may play. All the 8’s and all the 6’s but the ♡6 are discarded from a pack of fifty-two cards. All court cards count for 10, the ace for 1, and all others at their face value. A pool is then made up by each player contributing one counter. This is the farm, and it is sold to the highest bidder, who must put into it the price he pays for it. He then becomes the farmer, and deals one card to each player, but takes none himself.
=_ The table being complete with two, at the end of a rubber a new table must be formed. _=SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAY.=_ The player should first carefully examine the exposed hands, and by comparing them with his own, suit by suit, should fix in his mind the cards held by his living adversary. This takes time, and in many places it is the custom to expose the four hands upon the table. Players who have better memories than their opponents object to this, for the same reason that they prefer sitting on the right of the living player. It is not at all uncommon for a player to forget that certain cards have been played, to his very serious loss. The hands once fixed in the mind, some time should be given to a careful consideration of the best course to pursue; after which the play should proceed pretty rapidly until the last few tricks, when another problem may present itself. There is nothing in the game beyond the skilful use of the tenace position, discarding, and establishing cross-ruffs. Analysis is the mental power chiefly engaged. There are no such things as inferences, false cards, finesse, underplay, speculative trump leads, or judgment of human nature.
_=Suggestions for Good Play.=_ It is very risky to bid seven without the Joker, the odds being 11 to 1 against finding it in the widow. A bid of ten should not be made without both Joker and Right Bower, and all the other cards winners and trumps. To bid twenty, a player should have a practically invincible hand, with at least five winning leads of trumps. The first bidders are always at a disadvantage, because they know nothing of the contents of the other hands; but after one or two players have made a bid, those following them can judge pretty well how the cards lie. For instance: The seven players are _=A=_ _=B=_ _=C=_ _=D=_ _=E=_ _=F=_ _=G=_. _=A=_ deals, and _=B=_ bids 2 in hearts. _=C=_ and _=D=_ pass. _=E=_ bids 3 in clubs; and _=F=_ says 4 in hearts. It is evident that _=F=_ is bidding on _=B’s=_ offer in hearts, and intends to choose him for a partner.
(_b_) Dr. Tylor says: It is interesting to notice the wide distribution and long permanence of these trifles in history when we read the following passage from Petronius Arbiter, written in the time of Nero:-- Trimalchio, not to seem moved by the loss, kissed the boy, and bade him get up on his back. Without delay the boy climbed on horseback on him, and slapped him on the shoulders with his hand, laughing and calling out, Bucca, bucca, quot sunt hic? --_Petron. Arbitri Satiræ_, by Buchler, p. 84 (other readings are _buccæ_ or _bucco_). --_Primitive Culture_, i. 67. Buck i t Neucks A rude game amongst boys.--Dickinson s _Cumberland Glossary_. Buckerels A kind of play used by boys in London streets in Henry VIII.