The true elements of success in whist lie in the happy combination of all the resources of long and short suits, of finesse and tenace, of candour and deception, continually adjusted to varying circumstances, so as to result in the adversaries’ losing tricks. _=HOW TO STUDY WHIST.=_ Any person, anxious to become an expert whist player, may attain to considerable proficiency in a short time, if he will content himself with mastering the following general principles one at a time; putting each into practice at the whist table before proceeding to the next. The science of modern whist may be divided into two parts: 1st. _=Tactics=_; or the purely conventional rules for leading, second and third hand play, returning partner’s suits, etc., all of which may be learnt from books, or gathered from more experienced players. 2nd. _=Strategy=_; or the advantageous use of the information given by the conventional plays. This is largely dependent on personal ability to judge the situation correctly, and to select the methods of play best adapted to it. _=CONVENTIONAL PLAYS.
[_Or, at Market Drayton._ Shift your feet with nimble light, And you ll be there by candle-light.] Open the gates as wide as the sky, And let King George and his lady go by. --Market Drayton, Ellesmere, Whitchurch, (Burne s _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 522). XVI. How many miles to Bethlehem? Three score and ten. Shall we get there by candle-light? Yes, there and back again. So open the gates and let King George and his family go through. --Hayton, near York (H.
In the four-handed game, partners may take in one another’s builds, or may make builds which can be won by the card declared in the partner’s hand. For instance; One player builds an 8, and his partner holds Little Cassino. If there is a 6 on the table, the Cassino can be built on it, and “two Eights,” called, although the player has no 8 in his own hand; the 8 already built by his partner is sufficient. If a player has built a 9 which has been taken in by an adversary, he still holding the 9 he built for, his partner may build for the declared 9 in the same way. _=Sweeping.=_ If at any time a player is able to win everything on the table with one card, it is a sweep, and counts a point. For instance: He holds an 8, and there are upon the table four cards only:--5 3 6 and 2. By combining the 6 and 2, and the 5 and 3, two Eights will be formed, and the sweep is made. Sweeps are usually marked by leaving the cards with which they are made face upward at the bottom of the tricks taken in by the player. Sweeps made by opposite sides are sometimes turned down to cancel one another.
The music is continued for any length of time the player pleases, the children running round the chairs as long as the music goes on. The player stops the music suddenly, when all the children endeavour to take seats. One will be unable to find a seat, and this player remains out. A chair is then taken away, and the music and dancing round begins again. There should always be one chair less than the number of players.--A. B. Gomme. In Ellesmere, Miss Burne says, Snap-tongs, called in other circles Magic Music or Musical Chairs, is thus played. Five players take part; four chairs are set in the middle, and one of the players, who holds a pair of tongs, desires the others to dance round them till the clock strikes a certain hour, which is done by snapping the tongs together so many times.
=_ The right of first move must be determined by lot. The player having the first move must always play with the white men. The right of move shall alternate, whether the game be won, lost or drawn. The game is legally begun when each player shall have made his first move. Whenever a game shall be annulled, the party having the move in that game shall have it in the next game. An annulled game must be considered, in every respect, the same as if it had never been begun. _=Concessions.=_ The concession of an indulgence by one player does not give him the right of a similar, or other, indulgence from his opponent. _=Errors.=_ If, during the course of the game, it be discovered that any error or illegality has been committed, the moves must be retraced and the necessary correction made, without penalty.
In piccolissimo, the penalties are the same as in misère. _=PAYMENTS.=_ If the caller succeeds in winning the proposed number of tricks, he is paid by each of his adversaries according to the value of his bid, as shown in Table No. 1. Over-tricks if any, and honours, if played, are always paid at the uniform rate of five white counters each. If the caller fails, he must pay each adversary the amount he would have won if successful, with the addition of five white counters for every trick that he falls short of his proposal. For instance: He bids nine hearts, and wins six tricks only. He must pay each adversary 115 white counters. TABLE No. 1.
The call of an exposed card may be repeated until it be played. LEADS OUT OF TURN. 76. If either adversary of the declarer’s lead out of turn, the declarer may either treat the card so led as exposed or may call a suit as soon as it is the turn of either adversary to lead. Should they lead simultaneously, the lead from the proper hand stands, and the other card is exposed. 77. If the declarer lead out of turn, either from his own hand or dummy, he incurs no penalty, but he may not rectify the error unless directed to do so by an adversary.[16] If the second hand play, the lead is accepted. 78. If an adversary of the declarer lead out of turn, and the declarer follow either from his own hand or dummy, the trick stands.
There are two varieties of this old English game; single, and three-stake Brag. Both are played with a full pack of fifty-two cards; the positions of the players, arrangements for counters, decision of the betting limit, etc., being the same as in Draw Poker. Three to twelve players may form a table. There is a special value attached to three cards which are known as _=braggers=_. These again have a rank of their own; the best being the _=ace of diamonds=_; then the _=Jack of clubs=_, and then the _=nine of diamonds=_. All other cards rank as in Poker. A player to whom any one of these braggers is dealt may call it anything he pleases. If he has a pair of nines and a bragger, or a nine and two braggers, he may call them three nines, and bet on them as such. In this respect braggers resemble mistigris, already described in connection with Draw Poker; but in Brag a natural pair or triplet outranks one made with the aid of a bragger.
Every boy who has ever put together model villages knows how to do these things, and the attentive reader will find them edifyingly represented in our photographic illustrations. There has been little development since that time in the Country. Our illustrations show the methods of arrangement, and the reader will see how easily and readily the utmost variety of battlefields can be made. (It is merely to be remarked that a too crowded Country makes the guns ineffective and leads to a mere tree to tree and house to house scramble, and that large open spaces along the middle, or rivers without frequent fords and bridges, lead to ineffective cannonades, because of the danger of any advance. On the whole, too much cover is better than too little.) We decided that one player should plan and lay out the Country, and the other player choose from which side he would come. And to-day we play over such landscapes in a cork-carpeted schoolroom, from which the proper occupants are no longer evicted but remain to take an increasingly responsible and less and less audible and distressing share in the operations. [Illustration: Showing the war game in the open air] [Illustration: The war game in the open air] We found it necessary to make certain general rules. Houses and sheds must be made of solid lumps of bricks, and not hollow so that soldiers can be put inside them, because otherwise muddled situations arise. And it was clearly necessary to provide for the replacement of disturbed objects by chalking out the outlines of boards and houses upon the floor or boards upon which they stood.