Playing card deck

“ When the talon is exhausted, the combinations that have been made are taken into the owner's hand, and the last eight cards belonging to both players are disposed of the same way as in Whist, the second player following suit, and heading the trick, if he can possibly do so, either by trumping or playing a higher card. ”

“ Any player during the play of a trick, or after the four cards are played and before they are touched for the purpose of gathering them together, may demand that the cards be placed before their respective players.
If either of the dealer's adversaries, prior to his partner's playing, should call attention to the trick, either by saying it is his, or, without being requested so to do, by naming his card or drawing it toward him, the dealer may require that opponent's partner to play his highest or lowest card of the suit led, or to win or lose the trick. ”

“ The object is to make certain cards, not prepared, slip off easier than others in shuffling. You can part or break the deck to an ace or king, and easily 'put up threes,' no matter where they lay in the deck. This fine advantage works fine single handed, or when the left-hand man shuffles and offers the cards to be cut. These cards are ten times better than readers or strippers, and they get the money faster. Price $2 per pack by mail, $20 per dozen packs. ”

“ It is now nearly four hundred years since the playing cards were first introduced, and with the exception of material and kind, of finish and design, there has been no change in the first original, fifty-two card pack, and never will be. The first original game of "Whist" could have had no previous history, no previous law and no rule beyond that adopted and practiced by the first original players for the edification, entertainment and amusement of their honored Egyptian king and queen, by whom their game was named, and will so remain, unchanged so long as playing cards continue in use. ”

“ The dealer takes great care in shuffling that he shall not disturb the lower part of the pack. The point at which the deck is cut makes considerable difference in the success of this maneuver. If, after cutting, it is found that all of the pack, except the cut, is necessary to supply the players with the requisite number of cards, then the pair will fall to the hand which has the last card, for the reason that the player who receives the bottom card must necessarily have also received the other ”

“ The person playing a stop always leads next.
At any time during the game, should an ace, king, queen, knave of trumps, pope, matrimony, or intrigue be played, the owner of any of these cards is entitled to receive all the counters in the corresponding compartments of the board. The player who first announces himself to be without cards is the winner of the game, receiving, therefore, all the stakes in that compartment of the board, and also from the rest of the players a counter for each card they may still have in hand. ”

“ A person with a hard hand and stiff joints should never think of playing deception with the cards, as clumsy fingers will not do. In showing tricks with cords, the principal point consists in shuffling them nimbly, and yet keeping one certain card either at the bottom or in some known place of the pack, four or five cards from the bottom ”

“ It is not our purpose to historically trace the evolution of cards—this is a subject beyond the reach of the present article—but a look farther afield will give us evidence that during the last three centuries there has been a constant adaptation of cards to purposes which take them beyond their intention as the instruments for card playing only. ”

“ When you are playing with the pack, drop out the diamonds, from the ace to the ten, and contrive without being perceived, to get all the other cards with their heads in the same direction; then request a person to choose a card; do not force one, but let him choose whichever he pleases: while he has it in his hand and is looking at it, carelessly turn the pack in your hand, so that the position of the cards may be reversed; then bid him put the card he has chosen into the centre of the pack ”

“ The following is the method adopted for playing the game:—
The ace is the highest card, and deuce is the lowest.
After having cut and shuffled a pack of fifty-two cards in the ordinary way, the dealer gives six to each player. If there be but two players, he turns up the thirteenth card; but if four players, he turns up the twenty-fifth card, the suit to which the turn-up belongs being trumps. Should the turn-up be a knave, the dealer scores one point. ”

“ Divide the players equally and seat them in two rows facing each other. The leader of each row is provided with a pack of playing cards. At a given signal, each leader passes one card to the next person, who in his turn gives it to the next person, and so on down the line until the last one drops it on the floor beside him. ”

“ Sometimes the cards are cut fairly, and the extra card comes in the middle of the deck; in such a case, when the dealer arrives where the aces are arranged, he is aware of it and acts in the same manner as has been already described when they are placed so as to fall in the last turn. Sometimes two odd cards are added to the deck, making the pack consist of fifty-four cards. When properly manipulated, the dealer has the advantage of being able to manage two turns instead of one. ”

“ In dealing, you may not play a card from any row until that row is complete. After dealing each row, pause and examine the tableau, playing and marrying all suitable cards, and refilling vacancies, both in the rivers and helps, with cards from the pack. In filling up vacancies in the rivers, those in the uppermost rows must first be refilled.
After the entire pack is exhausted, the skill of the player will be required. The four packets of help cards may now be increased to eight. ”

“ The decks are still full of life, tacks have to be boarded, “small pulls” are wanted here and there, and the running gear has to be coiled away; the light from the binnacle lamp puzzles your eye, and when you lift your gaze from the illuminated card the darkness seems to stand around you like a wall ”

“ It is usual to deal these latter one at a time when going round with the regular hands, but they may be taken all at one time from the top of the pack, after the players have received their cards. The player on the left-hand side of the dealer then plays a card from his own hand, and takes with it every card of the same denomination among those exposed on the table, as well as all that will combine and make the same number. ”

“ No matter how often the game is played (provided the cards are re-shuffled) the unexpected always happens, and it is usually so absurd as to be quite too much for a room all ready for laughter. The number of blanks in the story should be equal to the number of cards, and in order that the story may run on smoothly it is well for the next player always to glance at his top card just before his turn, so as to bring it out readily and naturally. The following story, which makes provision for nearly fifty cards, should be found serviceable until a better and more personal one is written. ”

“ Each player receives three cards, and three more are turned up as a “pool.” The first player may exchange one or two of his cards for one or two of the exposed cards, putting his own, face upwards, in their place. His object is to “make his hand” (see below) , but if he changes all three cards at once he cannot change again. The next player can do likewise, and so on. Usually there are as many rounds as there are players, and a fresh card is added to the pool at the beginning of each. If a player passes once he cannot exchange afterwards. ”

“ The third card will be Home and SEAM or the 3 of Spades.
With practice you will be able to take the fifty-two cards of the deck. At first it is advisable to take only twenty or twenty-five, so that you can recall your pictures soon after they have been made. The more cards you take, the stronger picture you must make to hold it accurately in mind without review. ”

“ The cards must be arranged in sets, as soon as they have been picked up off the table. If a player has only two cards of one set, he must hand an isolated card to the player on his right, who takes it, if it is of any service to him, and, in his turn, hands one of the cards in his hand to his neighbour on the right. ”

“ It would have been a matter of regret if, because of any unfortunate association connected with the game, we should have been deprived of the benefit of it, for it is second to none in its power of affording amusement. It is easy to learn, and yet it is a scientific, clever game, and one that we can well imagine would be selected as a favourite among all other card games by proficient card-players.
It is played by two persons with a pack of thirty-two cards, all the twos, threes, fours, fives, and sixes being thrown out in preparing the pack. ”

“ There is a fine moment at the last shuffling of the cards, a moment when free will and fatalism are indistinguishably merged.
I am ready to lay down eight cards in a horizontal row off my double deck. Who will say that the precise number of shuffles I have given to it was preordained?
"I do," exclaims an obliging fatalist. "The sequence of every one of those cards was determined when we were yet star-dust." ”

“ The "playing cards" are the production of an ingenious human device, derived from the divine origin of time; the history of which but little has heretofore been known and understood by the world of card players and the public in general. So far as the author is informed, no like historic record has ever been published, and card players have, seemingly, taken little or no interest to learn and know the historic origin of the greatest enterprise known to the sixteenth century, the period of their advent, so valuable and important to the present generation. ”

“ The cards are shuffled and dealt round, four each, and the game is for each player to complete a set of four. You do not, as in [Pg 80] "Old Maid," select one from the cards that are offered, face downward, but each player hands whatever card he likes to the next player, who is bound to accept it. Directly a player has a set of four complete he lays the cards on the table, either very stealthily or with a bang, whichever he likes. ”

“ You must be careful to invite the different persons to call for their cards in the reverse order to that in which they are replaced in the pack. Thus, you first address the person who last returned his card, and then the last but one, and so on. You must tax your ingenuity for devices to take off the attention of the spectators from the pack at the moment when it is necessary to turn it over; and as each repetition of the process increases the chance of detection, it is well not to allow more than three or four cards to be drawn. ”

“ The performer ensures the corresponding cards being drawn by using a forcing pack, made up of repetitions of the three cards in question, which we will suppose to be the queen of spades, the ten of hearts, and the seven of diamonds, with some other single card at the bottom. The tin case, in the original form of the trick, has two compartments—the one to the front being large enough to hold a complete pack, but the hinder one adapted to contain six or eight cards only. ”

“ If when so placed the whole pack is suddenly dropped out of the hand, the cards, all excepting the top card, will fall on their faces, while the projection of the top card, finding resistance in the air as it falls should, during its descent, turn over and fall face upwards. ”

“ Spread the cards a little, and fling them into the air, clutching at them with the right hand as they descend, and at the same moment bring the chosen card to the tips of the fingers. The effect to the spectators will be as if you actually caught it among the falling cards.
This feat also may be performed without the aid of a long card, and without the necessity of forcing a card. In this case, as in the pocket-picking trick, you make the pass as soon as the card is returned to the pack, in order to bring it to the top, and palm it; then offer the pack to be shuffled. ”

“ Holding ace, ten, and a small one, your partner leading the nine of the suit, pass it; for if he holds an honour you make two tricks, counting your ace for a certain trick.
With king, queen, or queen and knave, and another play one of the high cards in all cases when you are second hand. With an average remainder of trumps and good cards, having one certain loser, throw it away at your first opportunity; it may enable your partner to make his second best of the suit. When your partner does not trump a winning card you may be quite sure that he means you to play trumps. ”

“ Confederates, mirrors, words, signs and hold-outs are used. A player dealing from a stacked deck will inform his confederate how many cards to draw by uttering a sentence containing that number of words. Men lounging behind a player will "tip off" his hand. Cards are marked in a manner imperceptible to the eye of the novice, and sometimes liquid refreshment is spilled on the table in front of the dealer, so that his opposite can read the reflections of the cards as they are dealt face downward across the board. The last-named scheme is used where the table has no covering. ”

“ An extra pack of cards is required for the third other player; so that, in the case of three, the trump card is the twenty-fifth. The game is always played from left to right, the first player on the left of the dealer commencing. Three-handed bézique is sometimes played with two packs of cards, suppressing an eight, thus rendering them divisible by three. ”

“ The above delusive offer to show “how it’s done” can be equally well adapted to many other tricks, and never fails to create amusement.
A Card having been thought of, to make such Card Vanish from the Pack, and be Discovered wherever the Performer pleases.—This trick should be performed with twenty-seven cards only. You deal the cards, face upwards, in three packs, requesting one of the company to note a card, and to remember in which heap it is. ”