In retaining the suit, the second-best is led if three or more remain, and on the third round, or in a discard, the highest is played, always retaining the fourth-best and those below it. For instance: With the 8 7 5 2 of a suit which partner leads, the 5 is played to the first round. If the suit is returned, the 7 is played; and next time the 8. Holding only three originally, the lowest is played to the first round, and the higher of two returned, in the usual way. The chief value of this signal is that the return of the lowest of a suit shows absolutely no more, instead of leaving the original leader in doubt as to whether it is the only one, or the lowest of three remaining. It is also a great exposer of false cards. _=Discard Signalling=_ is another method of indicating plain suits. When a player is known to have no trumps, and therefore cannot be calling for them, he may use the trump signal in any plain suit which he wishes led to him. As a general rule, a player should not use this signal unless he has a certain trick in the suit in which he signals. Some players use what is called the reverse discard; a signal in one suit meaning weakness in it, and an invitation to lead another.
The word Cricket is given in Lawson s _Upton-on-Severn Words and Phrases_ as a low wooden stool. He continues, The game of Cricket was probably a development of the older game of Stool-ball, a dairymaid s stool being used for the wicket. Wedgwood (_Etym. Dict._) suggests that the proper name for the bat was cricket-staff, A.-S. _criec_, a staff. See Bittle-battle, Stool-ball. Crooky An old game called Crooky was formerly played at Portarlington, Queen s co., and Kilkee, co.
At the last word they all fall down. See Merry-ma-tansa. Jinkie A game among children, in which they run round a table trying to catch one whose business is by quick turns to elude them.--Jamieson. Jock and Jock s Man A juvenile sport in which the _bon camarada_ is to repeat all the pranks which the leader can perform.--Brockett s _North Country Words_. See Follow my Gable, Follow my Leader. Jockie Blind-man Scotch name for Blind Man s Buff. --Jamieson. See Blind Man s Buff.
_=SETTLING THE VALUE OF THE TRICKS.=_ The trump suit having been announced, the first hand or leader, A, before he plays a card, has the privilege of doubling the value of the tricks if he thinks the opponents cannot win the odd trick with the trump named. To do this, he simply says: “I double.” If he does not feel justified in doubling, he transfers the opportunity to his partner, by asking him: “Shall I play?” That is to say, “shall we play without doubling?” If his partner will not double, he answers: “Yes.” Either A or B having doubled, it becomes the privilege of the player who made the trump to double him again; making the value of the trick four times greater than that given in the table. If he does not do so, he says: “I pass”; and his partner then has the privilege. If either the dealer or his partner doubles, the adversary who first doubled may repeat it; or if he passes, his partner may double. This doubling may be continued until the value of each trick over the book is 100 points, when it must cease. _=IRREGULARITIES IN DOUBLING.=_ If the pone doubles before his partner has asked him “Shall I play?” the maker of the trump shall say whether or not the double shall stand.
If a player takes a card too many from the stock, he may replace it if he has not put it with the other cards in his hand. If he has seen it, he must show it to his adversary. If the superfluous card has been taken into the hand, the player must have too many cards, and can score nothing that deal. This does not prevent the adversary from scoring anything he may have in hand or play, even if it is inferior. If a player is found to have too few cards after the draw, he may still play and count all he can make, but he cannot win a capot, because he has no card for the last trick, which must be won by his adversary. _=The Stock.=_ If a player looks at one of his adversary’s cards in the stock before or during the draw, he can count nothing that hand. If he looks at a card left in the talon after the draw, which he is not entitled to see, his adversary may call a suit from him as many times as he has seen cards. If a card of the talon is accidentally exposed, the player to whom it would naturally belong may demand a fresh deal. _=OBJECTS OF THE GAME.
_=Making the trump.=_ Each player in turn, beginning with the dealer, bids to make a certain number of tricks, from seven to thirteen, with a suit of his own choosing, which he names when he makes his bid. The suits outrank one another in the order of hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades, hearts being the best. No-trumps are higher than hearts. A bid of seven tricks is usually called “one” in hearts, or whatever the suit may be. A bid of “two” means to win eight tricks, or two over the book. _=Bidding.=_ If a player wishes to go over the first offer made, he must either bid the same number of tricks in a better suit, or he must increase the number of tricks. No player can increase his own bid unless he is overbid in the interval, but there is no limit to the number of times that players may outbid one another. Observe that the dealer may bid or pass, and each player after him in turn may bid or pass.
The usual custom is to fix the amount of the ante in jack pots, a red, or five whites, being the common stake. In some places it is at the option of the holder of the buck to make the ante any amount he pleases within the betting limit. Whichever system is adopted, every player at the table must deposit a like amount in the pool. Players are sometimes permitted to _=pass a jack=_; that is, not to ante nor to take any part in the game until the jack is decided. If this is to be allowed, it should be so understood at the beginning of the game. _=The High Hand=_ jack pot is played whenever a hand of an agreed value, such as a flush or a full, is shown to the board; that is, called. In some places four of a kind calls for _=a round of jacks=_, every player in turn making it a jack on his deal. _=Only Two In.=_ It is a common custom in large parties, say six or seven players, to make it a jack when no one but the dealer will ante. Instead of allowing the blind to make his ante good, and draw cards against the dealer, each player contributes two white counters, the age adding one to his blind, and the cards are redealt for a jack pot.
_=Showing.=_ After the last card is drawn from the stock and passed, each player shows the remainder of his hand, and as neither can combine his cards so as to get eleven down, it is a tableau, and each puts a counter in the pool for the next hand. The deal passes from one player to the other in rotation as long as they continue to play. _=Suggestions for Good Play.=_ Observation of the cards passed will usually show what the adversary is keeping, and what he has no chance for. Toward the end of the stock each player should know what the other holds in his hand by the cards which have not appeared in the drawing. If a player has not a good chance to get eleven down himself, he should play for a tableau, by using nothing that will compel him to discard cards which may put his adversary out. It should be remembered that a player cannot get eleven down in one suit, and careful observation of the cards passed will often show that his runs are blocked, the cards necessary to continue them having been turned down. One peculiar feature of the game is that a player cannot block his adversary and at the same time win the game, because so long as he holds up the card that his adversary wants he cannot get eleven down himself. His only chance is that he may be able to use the card that his adversary needs.
|Build it up with |Build it up with |Build it up with | | |silver and gold. |silver and gold. |silver and gold. | |18.|Silver and gold will |Silver and gold would |Silver and gold I have| | |be stolen away. |be stolen away. |not got. | |19.| -- | -- | -- | |20.| -- | -- | -- | |21.
_=Cards and Players.=_ When Polignac is played by four persons, a Piquet pack is used, and eight cards are dealt to each player, 3-2-3 at a time. When five play, the two black Sevens are deleted, and six cards are given to each player. When six play, each receives five cards. When seven play, the dealer takes no cards. In France, the cards usually rank as in Écarté; K Q J A 10 9 8 7; but in England and America it is more usual to preserve the order in Piquet, A K Q J 10 9 8 7. There is no trump suit. All the preliminaries are settled as at Hearts or Slobberhannes. _=Counters.=_ Each player is provided with ten or twenty counters, as may be agreed upon, and the player first losing his counters loses the game, and pays to each of the others any stake that may have been previously agreed upon, usually a counter for each point they have still to go when he is decavé.
It is frequently an easy matter to locate the cards in the various suits, if it is borne in mind that adversaries who play after the caller get rid of their highest cards. For instance: Right leads the 9; caller plays the 5; left the 10; and the last player finds he holds K Q J 6 of the suit. He should know that the caller has nothing between the 5 and the 9, and must have the Ace; so his cards were probably A 5 4 3 2. While it is manifestly impossible to catch him on that suit, it may still be led three times, in order to give the partners discards, as both of them must be short. If this estimate of the caller’s cards is wrong in anything, it is not with regard to the Ace, so there is not the slightest danger in continuing the suit. As a general rule, the suit first led by an adversary should be returned, unless the player winning the trick has a singleton in another suit, when he should lead that. The suit led by the caller, if he was eldest hand, should not be returned. Some judgment of character must be used in playing on a caller’s own lead. An adventurous player will sometimes call a misère on a hand which contains a singleton 5 or 6, and will lead it at once; trusting that second hand will imagine it to be safe, and cover it. Players should be aware of this trap, and never cover a misère player’s own lead if they can help it, unless the card led is below a 4.
Such combinations are therefore always worth 16 points: four runs of three, worth 12, and 4 points for the two separate pairs. [Illustration: 🂡 🂢 🂳 🃔 🃄 ] If the five cards contain one sequence of four, and one duplicate, the combination will always be worth 10 points; 8 for the double run of four, and 2 for the pair. The foregoing should be thoroughly familiar to every player, so that he may know the exact value of the combination the moment he sees the length of the sequence and the number of duplicates. _=Two-card Fifteens.=_ Any combination of two or more cards, the total face value of which is exactly 15, is called _=fifteen-two=_, because each fifteen so formed is worth two points in the pegging. There are only three combinations of two cards which will form fifteen; a Five with any court card or Ten; a Nine and a Six; an Eight and a Seven. The manner of counting duplicates is the same as that employed for the pairs and sequences, and the player should be equally familiar with each variety of combination. The fifteens formed by _=two cards=_ only are the simplest, and should be studied first. [Illustration: 🂮 🂻 🂥 ] It is obvious that if there is in the hand or the starter a duplicate of either of the cards forming the fifteen, no matter which, another fifteen can be formed, and the combination will therefore always be worth 6 points; 4 for the two fifteens, and 2 for the pair. It must not be forgotten that in the case of _=tenth cards=_, as they are called, the duplicates may not form pairs, as for instance with K J 5.
_=Cards.=_ Conquian is played with the Spanish pack, forty cards, the 8 9 10 of each suit being deleted. In America, it is much more common to play with a pack of forty cards from which the three court cards, K Q J, have been discarded, leaving each suit an unbroken sequence from the Ace to the Ten. Some persons play with the full pack, but it spoils the game; as it is then possible to win on a sequence of a single suit. There are no trumps, and the cards have no value as to rank, a sequence of 6 7 J being no better than one of 2 3 4. The Ace is not in sequence with the King. _=Counters.=_ Each player should be supplied with at least ten counters, which may be used in settling at the end of each deal. _=Players.=_ Conquian is played by two persons, one of whom is known as the dealer, and the other as the pone.
If he missed the top, he stooped down and took up his own top by pushing his hand against it in such a manner that the space between his first and second finger caught against the peg and forced the top into the palm of his hand. He then had a go at the recumbent top (I forget what this was called), and sent his own top against it so as to push it towards the Gully. If he missed, he tried again and again, until his own top could spin no longer. If he did not hit the top with his own while it was spinning, his top had to be laid down and the other one taken up, and its owner took his turn at pegging. When a spinning-top showed signs of exhaustion, and the taking it up might kill it, and it was not very far from the down-lying top, its owner would gently push it with his finger, so as to make it touch the other top, and so avoid putting it into the other s place. This was called kissing, and was not allowed by some players. When one player succeeded in sending the top into the Gully, he took it up and fixed it by its peg into a post, mortar of a wall, or the best place where it could be tolerably steady. Holding it by one hand, he drove the peg of his own top as far as he could into the crown of the victim top. This was called taking a grudge. He then held either his own or the victim top and knocked the other against the wall, the object being to split the victim.
Having seen thirteen cards, the bidder names the trump suit, and the hands are then reduced to six cards each. This method gives no clue to the number of trumps originally held, and deprives the dealer of one of the greatest advantages of his position, robbing the deck. Another method is to discard and draw after the trump is named, but to make the dealer take his cards from the top of the pack to complete his hand, without seeing what he is to get. This often leaves counting cards in the remainder of the pack, which must remain face down, and be kept separate from the discards. Such points count for neither side; but any points found among the discards may be counted by the side making the trump, as in the ordinary game. Owing to the uncertainty as to the number of points actually in play, the result is controlled more largely by luck than skill. In some places the _=first lead=_ from the successful bidder must be a _=trump=_. This makes the game too much like Auction Pitch, and spoils some of the finer points in leading. _=Low=_ is sometimes counted for the person to whom it is dealt. Such a rule causes endless confusion and disputes.
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