Hazard (game)

“ We now proceed to losing hazards, which with most amateurs form the mainstay of the game; partly because being easier than winning hazards, they are usually taught first, but mainly because they are possible with a slovenly style and inaccurate striking which effectually prevent success with winners. In reality, however, they will repay care and accuracy as much as any other stroke, because, unless ball 2 be struck in the proper place, it will not travel in the desired path, and the result of a poor stroke may be success as regards the hazard, coupled with leaving ball 2 hopelessly safe. ”

“ Most extraordinary runs of luck have occurred at hazard, a player having sometimes thrown five, seven, and even eleven mains in a single hand. In cases of runs like this the peculiar feature in the French game became valuable, the bank being prepared to pay all winnings, while, generally speaking, a hand of six or seven mains at English hazard would exhaust all the funds of the players, and leave the caster in the position of "setting the table" and finding the stakes totally unnoticed or only partially covered. ”

“ Everything that has been said about pyramids applies equally to shell-out; but as it is a game of all against all, safety is not so much an object as hazard striking, it being clearly useless for A. to leave B. safe so that C. may profit by it. It may also be remembered that if, say, four are playing, the individual has practically a bet of three to one about each stroke. The game, in fact, is more for amusement than for scientific play, though naturally the scientific player will in the long run get more pleasure and profit out of it. ”

“ Hazard, which is now practically obsolete, seems to have made an irresistible appeal to the gaming instincts of former generations, and the financial ravages for which it was responsible eventually provoked such scandals that the game was rendered illegal in 1845. It was a somewhat complicated form of gambling, and in these days, when so [Pg 76] many easy forms of speculation exist, would in all probability have died a natural death even without the intervention of the law. ”

“ All hands are against every man, so that general rules are impossible, but ‘When in doubt play safety’ is a capital rule. Another useful maxim is, ‘Play for safety with safety-players, play for hazards with hazard strikers,’ as the latter, if they play out boldly, are sure to sell the safety-player sooner or later—i.e. will leave his ball in a position of great danger. But if the next player is close to the cushion, one is justified in playing for a hazard when, under other conditions, safety would be the right game. ”

“ The best safety of all is to leave the adversary far away from a ball and as near to a cushion as possible; but if he can retaliate in kind, not much good will have been done. Watch the score, and play to the score. The leader should play a cautious rather than a dashing game, as a losing hazard not only diminishes his score by a point, but also gives his adversary the advantage of playing from baulk with an extra ball on the table. ‘When in doubt play for safety,’ is a golden rule, but a doubtful hazard may often be tried when one can get safety as well. ”

“ Games partly or wholly hazardous are very common among all ranks of this people. The game of cards is almost always played for money or for some other stake, and is called by way of distinction “the game of hazard.” ”

“ In French Hazard a bank is constituted at a board of green cloth, and the proceedings are carried on in a more subdued and regular mode than is the case in the rough-and-ready English game. Every stake that is "set" is covered by the bank, so that the player runs no risk of losing a large amount, when, if successful, he may win but a trifling one; but en revanche, the scale of odds is so altered as to put the double zero of roulette and the "aprez" of Rouge et Noir to the blush, and to operate most predjudicially to the player. ”

“ He remarks:—“Certainly Hazard is the most bewitching game that is played on the dice, for when a man begins to play he knows not when to leave off; and having once accustomed himself to play at Hazard, he hardly ever after minds anything else.” ”

“ From the preceding remarks it will be gathered that whilst for practice the manual prescribed for an ordinary table may be followed, in a game the player must pursue a different policy. Hazards which require strength greater than No. 2 should be avoided, and the ordinary idea of bringing the object ball back to the middle of the table after a middle-pocket hazard, half-ball or finer, should be superseded by playing with reduced strength, and, when the object ball is the red, being contented with leaving it in play, that is, between the lines PM, QN, laid down on many of the diagrams. ”

“ To be successful in throwing the dice is one of the most fickle achievements of fickle fortune; and therefore the principal game played with them is very properly and emphatically called 'Hazard.' It requires, indeed, some exertion of the mental powers, of memory, at least, and a turn for such diversions, to play well many games at cards. ”

“ It is played with only two dice; 20 persons may be engaged, or as many as will. The chief things in the game are the Main and the Chance. The chance is the caster's and the main is the setter's.
There can be no main thrown above 9, nor under 5; so that 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 are all the mains which are flung at Hazard. Chances and nicks are from 4 to 10. Thus 4 is a chance to 9, 5 to 8, 6 to 7, 7 to 6, 8 to 5, and 9 and 10 a chance to 5, 6, 7, and 8; in short, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 are chances to any main, if any of these 'nick' it not. ”

“ Many times the game can only be won or saved in case the cards lie in a certain position, and the dealer must assume that the cards are favourably placed and play the hand accordingly.
When the game is saved, but with no possibility of winning it, the seventh trick should be the objective point in the dealer’s play. When you cannot reach game, never hazard the odd trick in an attempt to win two tricks. In a no-trump declaration, the risk would be twenty-four points for a possible gain of twelve points; and if you lose the odd trick, it may enable the adversaries to win the game on their deal. ”

“ Neither the greenhorn nor the player who is wise in his own conceit takes into consideration the enormous odds in the one game, or the large “rake off” in the other, regulated only by the conscience (?) of the dealer, and his knowledge of just what the players will stand. Therefore the harvest is ripe and is quickly garnered. Hazard has never been much of a favorite, the play being scarcely extensive enough to meet expenses; while on the other hand, the stud poker tables have always been well patronized. ”

“ The roulette tables attract the crowd, as well as for the reason that the game opens to the player many modes of proportionate risk, as that it affords him opportunity to play smaller sums on any one event, than he can at hazard. ”

“ If four persons play at pyramids, the rotation is decided by chance, and each plays alternately—partners, as in billiards, being allowed to advise each other, each going on and continuing to play as long as he can, and ceasing when he misses a hazard. Foul strokes are reckoned as in billiards, except as regards balls touching each other. If two balls touch, the player proceeds with his game and scores a point for every winning hazard. When all the red balls but one are pocketed, he who made the last hazard plays with the white and his opponent with the red ”

“ The principal game played here is French Hazard, the director and friends supplying the bank, the premium for which, with what the box-money produces, forms no inconsiderable source of profit. It is ridiculous to suppose any unfair practices are ever resorted to in the general game; in a mixed company they would be easily detected, and must end in the ruin of the house: but the chances of the game, calculation, and superior play, give proficients every advantage, and should teach the inexperienced caution. ”

“ Shrewd players, however, prefer some other main, with the view of having a more favourable chance to depend upon of winning both stake and odds. For example, let us reverse what was mentioned above, and suppose the caster to call 5 and throw 7; he then will have 7 as his chance to win with odds of 3 to 2 IN HIS FAVOUR.
'Such is the game of English Hazard, at which large fortunes have been won and lost. ”

“ The centre of the apex ball covers the second or pyramid spot; and the first player strikes at the mass with a white ball from baulk. Pyramids is a game consisting entirely of winning hazards, and he who succeeds in pocketing the greatest number of balls, wins. A single point is scored for each winning hazard, and a forfeiture of a point for each losing hazard; the game being usually played for a stake—so much (say 6d.) a ball, and so much (say 1s. 6d.) for the game.
2585. Pool
A game played by two or more persons, consisting of winning hazard only. ”

“ The inferiority of losing to winning hazards in respect to influencing the game was conclusively shown when the spot stroke was played, but that stroke was rarely formidable save in professional hands; the amateur, as might be expected, clinging to the easier losing hazard. ”

“ If any bets be laid on the hazard, and the striker should lose the game by a miss, at the stroke in question, it cannot be a hazard, the game being out by a miss. In all cases the betters are to abide by the determination of the players, and the betters have a right to demand their money when their game is over. ”

“ Losing Pyramids, seldom played, is the reverse of the last-named game, and consists of losing hazards, each player using the same striking ball, and taking a ball from the pyramid for every losing hazard. ”

“ I therefore made a successful hazard, and decided the game, to the great chagrin of those who had so warmly opposed me. The person who played with me, declared I had won by mere luck, and random play, and, throwing down his bets with a passionate air, swore he would play me the following day for a larger sum, and give me five points. This finesse prevented any suspicion in the minds of the losers, whom it was our interest to keep ignorant of the combination existing. ”

“ Billiards is the game regarded as the most polite amongst men of education and fashion; but cards, dice and every kind of game, whether of skill or of hazard, are openly played in these sinks of iniquity. ”

“ Hay, hā, n. (Shak.) a home-thrust in fencing. [It. hai, avere—L. habēre, to have.]
Hay, hā, n. a country-dance with winding movement.
Hazard, haz′ard, n. a game played with a dice-box and two dice by any number of players: chance: accident: risk: (billiards) the pocketing of the object ball (winning hazard) , of the player's own ball after contact (losing hazard) : (tennis) the side of the court into which the ball is served: (golf) a general term for all difficulties on a golf-links—bunkers, long grass, roads, water, whins, &c.—v.t. to expose to chance: to risk: to venture.—v.i. ”

“ The Great Father of Life, who made us and gave us these lands to live upon, made the buffalo and other game to afford us subsistence; their meat is our only food; with their skins we clothe ourselves and build our lodges. They are our only means of life, food, fuel, and clothing. But I fear we shall soon be deprived of these; starvation and cold will destroy us. The buffalo are fast disappearing, and before many years will be destroyed. As the white man advances, our means of life will grow less. ”

“ In a long series of events of the same kind the single chances of hazard ought sometimes to offer the singular veins of good luck or bad luck which the majority of players do not fail to attribute to a kind of fatality. It happens often in games which depend at the same time upon hazard and upon the competency of the players, that that one who loses, troubled by his loss, seeks to repair it by hazardous throws which he would shun in another situation ”

“ Accidental circumstances will sometimes give a player overwhelming advantages in the play, of which none but he are aware; and who shall say that he will not avail himself of the opportunity which chance has thrown in his way? Against this sort of thing, however, there is no other safeguard than the watchfulness of the players. Where, then, is the 'game,' the amusement, if one has to play, armed at all points, as it were, and living in dread of pickpockets? ”

“ If, however, the situation is so clearly hopeless that the adversary is not replying move for move, then every stone added to such a group means a loss of two points. At the end of the game such abandoned groups of stones are removed from the board just as if they had been completely surrounded and killed, and it is not necessary for the player having the advantage actually to surround and kill such a group. It is enough if they obviously can be killed. ”

“ Instead of confronting such a tragedy, I found myself in the presence of a large company of quiet people, sitting around long tables, watching a revolving wheel in the center, and listening to the click of the little ivory ball as it slackened and fell into a numbered compartment of the wheel and determined the gain or loss of the players. There are four of these roulette-tables, and two others in an adjoining room, at which only trente et quarante is played, the latter a game of cards. No game lasts over a minute, so that the suspense is not long and agonizing. ”