Canada Bill Jones's Motto: It's morally wrong to allow suckers to keep their money. Canada Bill Jones's Supplement: A Smith and Wesson beats four aces.
A Smith & Wesson beats four aces.
"Those are really aces and twos which you see, but my shots have turned them into threes, fives, sevens, eights, nines, and tens." Albert approached. In fact, the bullets had actually pierced the cards in the exact places which the painted signs would otherwise have occupied, the lines and distances being as regularly kept as if they had been ruled with pencil. "Diable," said Morcerf.
This delay and the halt at the Carrefour Rollin to consult with his agents came near causing him to lose the trail. He speedily divined, however, that Jean Valjean would want to put the river between his pursuers and himself. He bent his head and reflected like a blood-hound who puts his nose to the ground to make sure that he is on the right scent. Javert, with his powerful rectitude of instinct, went straight to the bridge of Austerlitz. A word with the toll-keeper furnished him with the information which he required: "Have you seen a man with a little girl?" "I made him pay two sous," replied the toll-keeper. Javert reached the bridge in season to see Jean Valjean traverse the small illuminated spot on the other side of the water, leading Cosette by the hand. He saw him enter the Rue du Chemin-Vert-Saint-Antoine; he remembered the Cul-de-Sac Genrot arranged there like a trap, and of the sole exit of the Rue Droit-Mur into the Rue Petit-Picpus. He made sure of his back burrows, as huntsmen say; he hastily despatched one of his agents, by a roundabout way, to guard that issue. A patrol which was returning to the Arsenal post having passed him, he made a requisition on it, and caused it to accompany him. In such games soldiers are aces. Moreover, the principle is, that in order to get the best of a wild boar, one must employ the science of venery and plenty of dogs. These combinations having been effected, feeling that Jean Valjean was caught between the blind alley Genrot on the right, his agent on the left, and himself, Javert, in the rear, he took a pinch of snuff.
The winner of the last trick can declare anything hitherto undeclared in his hand. After this all declarations cease. The winner of the last trick takes the last card of the stock, and the loser the turn-up card (or seven exchanged for it). All cards on the table, that have been declared and not played, are taken up by their owners. The last eight tricks are then played, but the second player must follow suit if able, and must win the trick if able. Finally, each player counts his tricks for the aces and tens they may contain, unless (as is often done) they are scored at the time. If a player revokes in the last eight tricks, or does not win the card led, if able, the last eight tricks belong to his adversary. The deal then passes on alternately until the game (1000) is won. If the loser does not make 500, his opponent counts a double game, or double points, according as they have agreed. The score is best kept by means of a special bézique-marker. Entry: A
The marks of the suits on the earliest cards (German) are hearts, bells, leaves and acorns. No ace corresponding to the earliest known pack has been discovered; but other packs of about the same date have aces, and it seems unlikely that the suits commenced with the deuces. Entry: CARDS
_History._--Dice were probably evolved from knucklebones. The antiquary Thomas Hyde, in his _Syntagma_, records his opinion that the game of "odd or even," played with pebbles, is nearly coeval with the creation of man. It is almost impossible to trace clearly the development of dice as distinguished from knucklebones, on account of the confusing of the two games by the ancient writers. It is certain, however, that both were played in times antecedent to those of which we possess any written records. Sophocles, in a fragment, ascribed their invention to Palamedes, a Greek, who taught them to his countrymen during the siege of Troy, and who, according to Pausanias (on Corinth, xx.), made an offering of them on the altar of the temple of Fortune. Herodotus (_Clio_) relates that the Lydians, during a period of famine in the days of King Atys, invented dice, knucklebones and indeed all other games except chess. The fact that dice have been used throughout the Orient from time immemorial, as has been proved by excavations from ancient tombs, seems to point clearly to an Asiatic origin. Dicing is mentioned as an Indian game in the _Rig-veda_. In its primitive form knucklebones was essentially a game of skill, played by women and children, while dice were used for gambling, and it was doubtless the gambling spirit of the age which was responsible for the derivative form of knucklebones, in which four sides of the bones received different values, which were then counted, like dice. Gambling with three, sometimes two, dice ([Greek: kuboi]) was a very popular form of amusement in Greece, especially with the upper classes, and was an almost invariable accompaniment to the symposium, or drinking banquet. The dice were cast from conical beakers, and the highest throw was three sixes, called _Aphrodite_, while the lowest, three aces, was called the _dog_. Both in Greece and Rome different modes of counting were in vogue. Roman dice were called _tesserae_ from the Greek word for four, indicative of the four sides. The Romans were passionate gamblers, especially in the luxurious days of the Empire, and dicing was a favourite form, though it was forbidden except during the Saturnalia. The emperor Augustus wrote in a letter to Suetonius concerning a game that he had played with his friends: "Whoever threw a _dog_ or a six paid a _denarius_ to the bank for every die, and whoever threw a _Venus_ (the highest) won everything." In the houses of the rich the dice-beakers were of carved ivory and the dice of crystal inlaid with gold. Mark Antony wasted his time at Alexandria with dicing, while, according to Suetonius, the emperors Augustus, Nero and Claudius were passionately fond of it, the last named having written a book on the game. Caligula notoriously cheated at the game; Domitian played it, and Commodus set apart special rooms in his palace for it. The emperor Verus, adopted son of Antonine, is known to have thrown dice whole nights together. Fashionable society followed the lead of its emperors, and, in spite of the severity of the laws, fortunes were squandered at the dicing table. Horace derided the youth of the period, who wasted his time amid the dangers of dicing instead of taming his charger and giving himself up to the hardships of the chase. Throwing dice for money was the cause of many special laws in Rome, according to one of which no suit could be brought by a person who allowed gambling in his house, even if he had been cheated or assaulted. Professional gamblers were common, and some of their loaded dice are preserved in museums. The common public-houses were the resorts of gamblers, and a fresco is extant showing two quarrelling dicers being ejected by the indignant host. Virgil, in the _Copa_ generally ascribed to him, characterizes the spirit of that age in verse, which has been Englished as follows:-- Entry: DICE
Compound declarations are allowed, i.e. cards added to the open cards can at once be used, without waiting to win another trick, in as many combinations of different classes as they will form with the winner's open cards. For example: A has three open kings, and he wins a trick containing a king. Before drawing again he places the fourth king with the other three, and scores 80 for kings. This is a simple declaration. But suppose the card led was the queen of trumps, and A wins it with the king, and he has the following open cards--three kings, three queens, and ace, ten, knave of trumps. He at once declares royal marriage (40); four kings (80); four queens (60); and sequence (250); and scores in all, 430. Again: ace of spades is turned up, and ace of hearts is led. The second player has two open aces, and wins the ace of hearts with the seven of trumps and exchanges. He scores for the exchange, 10; for the ace of hearts, 10; for the ace of spades, 10; and adds the aces to his open cards, and scores 100 for aces; in all, 130. If a declaration or part of a compound declaration is omitted, and the winner of the trick draws again, he cannot amend his score. Entry: A
In a game of 15 aces, when the score is "13 all" the side which first reaches 13 has the option of "setting" the game to 5, and when the score is "14 all" the side which first reaches 14 has the option of "setting" the game to 3, _i.e._ the side which first scores 5 or 3 aces, according as the game has been "set" at "13 all" or "14 all," wins. In ladies' singles, when the score is "9 all" the side first reaching 9 may "set" the game to 5, and when the score is "10 all" the side which first reaches 10 may "set" the game to 3. In games of 21 aces, the game may be "set" to 5 at "19 all" and to 3 at "20 all." There is no "setting" in handicap games. Entry: BADMINTON
The game is for 15 or, rarely, for 21 aces, except in ladies' singles, when it is for 11 aces; and a rubber is the best of three games. Games of 21 aces are played only and always in matches decided by a single game, and generally in handicap contests. The right to choose ends or to serve first in the first game of the rubber is decided by tossing. If the side which wins the toss chooses first service, the other side chooses ends, and vice versa; but the side which wins the toss may call upon the other side to make first choice. The sides change ends at the beginning of the second game, and again at the beginning of the third game, if a third game is necessary. In the third game the sides change ends when the side which is leading reaches 8 in a game of 15 aces, and 6 in a game of 11 aces, or, in handicap games, when the score of either side reaches half the number of aces required to win the game. In matches of one game (21 aces) the sides change ends when the side which is leading has scored 11 aces. The side winning a game serves first in the next game, and, in the four-handed game, either player on the side that has won the last game may take first service in the next game. Entry: BADMINTON
In order to play backgammon well, it is necessary to know all the chances on two dice and to apply them in various ways. The number of different throws that can be made is thirty-six. By taking all the combinations of these throws which include given numbers, it is easily discovered where blots may be left with the least probability of being hit. For example, to find the chance of being hit where a blot can only be taken up by an ace, the adversary may throw two aces, or ace in combination with any other number up to six, and he may throw each of these in two different ways, so that there are in all eleven ways in which an ace may be thrown. This, deducted from thirty-six (the total number of throws), leaves twenty-five; so that it is 25 to 11 against being hit on an ace. It is very important to bear in mind the chance of being hit on any number. The following table gives the odds against being hit on any number within the reach of one or two dice: - Entry: BACKGAMMON
The usual game is for two players. The players cut for deal, and the higher bézique card deals. The objects of the play are: (1) to promote in the hand various combinations of cards, which, when declared, entitle the holder to certain scores; (2) to win aces and tens, known as "brisques"; (3) to win the so-called last trick. The dealer deals eight cards to each, first three, then two, and again three. The top card of those remaining (called the "stock") is turned up for trumps. As sometimes played, the first marriage, or the first sequence, decides the trump suit; there is then no score for the seven of trumps (see below). The stock is placed face downwards between the players and slightly spread. The non-dealer leads any card, and the dealer plays to it, but need not follow suit, nor win the trick. If he wins the trick by playing a higher card of the same suit led, or a trump, the lead falls to him. In case of ties the leader wins. Whoever wins the trick leads to the next; but before playing again each player takes a card from the stock and adds it to his hand, the winner of the trick taking the top card. This alternate playing and drawing a card continues until the stock (including the trump card or card exchanged for it, which is taken up last) is exhausted. The tricks remain face upwards on the table, but must not be searched during the play of the hand. Entry: BÉZIQUE
The best move for some throws at the commencement of a game is as follows:--Aces (the best of all throws), move two on your bar-point and two on your five-point. This throw is often given to inferior players by way of odds. Entry: BACKGAMMON
DICE (plural of die, O. Fr. _de_, derived from Lat. _dare_, to give), small cubes of ivory, bone, wood or metal, used in gaming. The six sides of a die are each marked with a different number of incised dots in such a manner that the sum of the dots on any two opposite sides shall be 7. Dice seem always to have been employed, as is the case to-day, for gambling purposes, and they are also used in such games as backgammon. There are many methods of playing, from one to five dice being used, although two or three are the ordinary numbers employed in Great Britain and America. The dice are thrown upon a table or other smooth surface either from the hand or from a receptacle called a dice-box, the latter method having been in common use in Greece, Rome and the Orient in ancient times. Dice-boxes have been made in many shapes and of various materials, such as wood, leather, agate, crystal, metal or paper. Many contain bars within to ensure a proper agitation of the dice, and thus defeat trickery. Some, formerly used in England, were employed with unmarked dice, and allowed the cubes to fall through a kind of funnel upon a board marked off into six equal parts numbered from 1 to 6. It is a remarkable fact, that, wherever dice have been found, whether in the tombs of ancient Egypt, of classic Greece, or of the far East, they differ in no material respect from those in use to-day, the elongated ones with rounded ends found in Roman graves having been, not dice but _tali_, or knucklebones. Eight-sided dice have comparatively lately been introduced in France as aids to children in learning the multiplication table. The teetotum, or spinning die, used in many modern games, was known in ancient times in China and Japan. The increased popularity of the more elaborate forms of gaming has resulted in the decline of dicing. The usual method is to throw three times with three dice. If one or more sixes or fives are thrown the first time they may be reserved, the other throws being made with the dice that are left. The object is to throw three sixes = 18 or as near that number as possible, the highest throw winning, or, when drinks are to be paid for, the lowest throw losing. (For other methods of throwing consult the _Encyclopaedia of Indoor Games_, by R. F. Foster, 1903.) The most popular form of pure gambling with dice at the present day, particularly with the lower classes in America, is _Craps_, or _Crap-Shooting_, a simple form of _Hazard_, of French origin. Two dice are used. Each player puts up a stake and the first caster may cover any or all of the bets. He then _shoots_, i.e. throws the dice from his open hand upon the table. If the sum of the dice is 7 or 11 the throw is a _nick_, or _natural_, and the caster wins all stakes. If the throw is either 2, 3 or 12 it is a _crap_, and the caster loses all. If any other number is thrown it is a _point_, and the caster continues until he throws the same number again, in which case he wins, or a 7, in which case he loses. The now practically obsolete game of Hazard was much more complicated than _Craps_. (Consult _The Game of Hazard Investigated_, by George Lowbut.) _Poker dice_ are marked with ace, king, queen, jack and ten-spot. Five are used and the object is, in three throws, to make pairs, triplets, full hands or fours and fives of a kind, five aces being the highest hand. Straights do not count. In throwing to decide the payment of drinks the usual method is called _horse and horse_, in which the highest throws retire, leaving the two lowest to decide the loser by the best two in three throws. Should each player win one throw both are said to be _horse and horse_, and the next throw determines the loser. The two last casters may also agree to _sudden death_, i.e. a single throw. _Loaded dice_, i.e. dice weighted slightly on the side of the lowest number, have been used by swindlers from the very earliest times to the present day, a fact proved by countless literary allusions. Modern dice are often rounded at the corners, which are otherwise apt to wear off irregularly. Entry: DICE
_Doubling._--Practically the leader only doubles a no-trump declaration when he holds what is probably an established suit of seven cards or a suit which can be established with the loss of one trick and he has good cards of re-entry. Seven cards of a suit including the ace, king and queen make sound double without any other card of value in the hand, or six cards including king, queen and knave with two aces in other suits. Entry: A
A player who throws doublets must play or enter not only the number thrown, but also doublets of the number corresponding to the opposite side of the dice; thus, if he throws sixes, he must first enter or move the sixes, as the case may be, and then aces, and he also has another throw. Some rules allow him to play either doublets first, but he must always complete one set before playing the other. If a player cannot play the whole of his throw, his adversary is sometimes allowed to play the unplayed portion, in which cases the caster is sometimes allowed to come in and complete his moves, if he can, and in the event of his having thrown deuce-ace or doublets to throw again. If he throws doublets a second time, he moves and throws again, and so on. The privilege is sometimes restricted by not allowing this advantage to the first doublets thrown by each player. It is sometimes extended by allowing the thrower of the deuce-ace to choose any doublets he likes on the opposite side of the dice, and to throw again. The restriction with regard to the first doublets thrown does not apply to deuce-ace, nor does throwing it remove the restriction with regard to first doublets. A player must first be able to complete the doublets thrown. If the player cannot move the whole throw he cannot take the corresponding doublets, and he is not allowed another throw if he cannot move all the points to which he is entitled. Entry: A
_Handball_, of ancient popularity in Ireland and much played in the United States, is practically identical with fives, though there are minor differences. The usual American court is about 60 ft. long, 24½ ft. wide and 35 ft. high at the front, tapering to 33 ft. at the back wall. The front wall is of brick faced with marble, the sides of cement and the floor of white pine laid on beams 10 in. apart. These are the dimensions of the Brooklyn court of the former American champion, Phil Casey (d. 1904), which has been extensively copied. Twenty-one aces constitute a game and gloves are not usually worn. The American ball is a trifle larger and softer than the Irish, which is called a "red ace" when made of solid red rubber, and "black ace" when made of black rubber. Baggs of Tipperary, who was in his prime about 1855, was the most celebrated Irish handball player. In his day nearly every village tavern in Ireland had a court. Browning and Lawlor, who won the Irish championship in 1885, were his most prominent successors. In America Phil Casey and Michael Egan are the best-known names. Entry: FIVES
Chess-rooks, hardly to be distinguished from the _roc_ or _roquet_ at the head of a jousting-lance, were borne by Rokewode and by many more. Topcliffe had pegtops in his shield, while Ambesas had a cast of three dice which should each show the point of one, for "to throw ambesace" is an ancient phrase used of those who throw three aces. Entry: A
Fantan is also the name of a card game, played with an ordinary pack, by any number of players up to eight. The deal decided, the cards are dealt singly, any that are left over forming a stock, and being placed face downwards on the table. Each player contributes a fixed stake or "ante." The first player can enter if he has an ace; if he has not he pays an "ante" and takes a card from the stock; the second player is then called upon and acts similarly till an ace is played. This (and the other aces when played) is put face upwards on the table, and the piles are built up from the ace to the king. The pool goes to the player who first gets rid of all his cards. If a player fails to play, having a playable card, he is fined the amount of the ante for every card in the other players' hands. Entry: FANTAN
A hand to be strong enough for a no-trump declaration should be a king and ten above the average with all the honours guarded and all the suits protected. It must be a king and knave or two queens above the average if there is protection in three suits. It must be an ace or a king and queen above the average if only two suits are protected. An established black suit of six or more cards with a guarded king as card of entry is good enough for no trumps. With three aces no trumps can be declared. Without an ace, four kings, two queens and a knave are required in order to justify the declaration. When the dealer has a choice of declarations, a sound heart make is to be preferred to a doubtful no-trump. Four honours in hearts are to be preferred to any but a very strong no-trump declaration; but four aces counting 100 points constitute a no-trump declaration without exception. Entry: A
_Three-handed Bridge._--The three players cut; the one that cuts the lowest card deals, and takes dummy for one deal: each takes dummy in turn. Dummy's cards are dealt face downwards, and the dealer declares without seeing them. If the dealer declares trumps, both adversaries may look at their hands; doubling and redoubling proceeds as at ordinary bridge, but dummy's hand is not exposed till the first card has been led. If the dealer passes the declaration to dummy, his right-hand adversary, who must not have looked at his own hand, examines dummy's, and declares trumps, not, however, exposing the hand. The declaration is forced: with three or four aces _sans atout_ (no trumps) must be declared: in other cases the longest suit: if suits are equal in length, the strongest, _i.e._ the suit containing most pips, ace counting eleven, king, queen and knave counting ten each. If suits are equal in both length and strength, the one in which the trick has the higher value must be trumps. On the dummy's declaration the third player can only double before seeing his own cards. When the first card has been led, dummy's hand is exposed, never before the lead. The game is 30: the player wins the rubber who is the first to win two games. Fifty points are scored for each game won, and fifty more for the rubber. Sometimes three games are played without reference to a rubber, fifty points being scored for a game won. No tricks score towards game except those which a player wins in his own deal; the value of tricks won in other deals is scored above the line with honours, slam and chicane. At the end of the rubber the totals are added up, and the points won or lost are adjusted thus. Suppose A is credited with 212, B with 290, and C with 312, then A owes 78 to B and 100 to C; B owes 22 to C. Entry: A
MATRIMONY (Lat. _matrimonium_, marriage, which is the ordinary English sense), a game at cards played with a full whist pack upon a table divided into three compartments labelled "Matrimony," "Intrigue" and "Confederacy," and two smaller spaces, "Pair" and "Best." These names indicate combinations of two cards, any king and queen being "Matrimony," any queen and knave "Intrigue," any king and knave "Confederacy"; while any two cards of the same denomination form a "Pair" and the diamond ace is "Best." The dealer distributes a number of counters, to which an agreed value has been given, upon the compartments, and the other players do likewise. The dealer then gives one card to each player, face down, and a second, face up. If any turned-up card is the diamond ace, the player holding it takes everything on the space and the deal passes. If not turned, the diamond ace has only the value of the other three aces. If it is not turned, the players, beginning with the eldest hand, expose their second cards, and the resulting combinations, if among the five successful ones, win the counters of the corresponding spaces. If the counters on a space are not won, they remain until the next deal. Entry: MATRIMONY