n played; _E_ would have
to pay one stake to the pool.
As soon as the five cards dealt to each player are exhausted, the next
in order becomes the dealer, and distributes five cards to each player,
as before, and the game is conducted round and round on exactly similar
lines until one of the party has lost the last of his five stakes.
He is then out of the game, and if he has any cards left he must add them,
face downwards and unexposed, to the top of the undealt portion of the
pack. The other players proceed with the game, and as each loses his last
stake he is left out, and no fresh cards are dealt him. This goes on until
all but one have lost their stakes, when, as already described, the game is
finished, and the last in takes the pool.
[93]
If a new game is started on, the first out in the previous game becomes
the new dealer.
The lead is a disadvantage in this game, as, after a few cards have been
played, it is often possible to know that certain cards remaining in hand
are absolutely safe, or nearly so. For instance, suppose two knaves have
been played during the first round or two, and that a third knave is in a
player's hand, that card may be played as an almost safe one, as there is
only one other that can pair with it, and the odds of the fourth knave
being in the next player's hand are very remote. For the same reason a
player having two of a kind in his own hand should always play one of them
when his turn comes round, provided, of course, he is not able to pair with
the player immediately preceding him.
If a player has a card similar to that played immediately before him,
he must play it. In the event of his failing to do so, he has to pay
a double penalty to the pool, while the player who would have been
penalized has to contribute just as though the right card had been played.
These penalties must be enforced before the cards are cut
for the next deal.
VARIATIONS.
This method of playing the game is sometimes varied as follows: Instead
of dealing five cards to each player, the whole of the pack is distributed,
equally; or as nearly equal as possible, among the players, each of whom
starts with five coins or counters, as in the other game. The player on
the dealer's left-hand side, whom we will call _B_, as above, has to lead,
and he keeps on playing one card after another until the opponent on his
left (_C_) can pair one of them. When _C_ succeeds in doing this, he says
"Snip," a
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