I DOUBT IT.
This is a good round game, any number taking part. The full pack of fifty-two cards is dealt round, one card at a time as far as it will go equally, the remainder being left in the centre of the table, face down. Any one can deal.
The player to the left of the dealer starts the game by taking from his hand any three cards he pleases and laying them on the table in front of him face down. He then announces, “These are three jacks,” or anything he likes to call them, there being no obligation to tell the truth about it, so the cards might actually be a six four and a deuce.
Each player in turn to the left can doubt the statement that the cards are three jacks, or he can pass. If any player in his proper turn says, “I doubt it,” the three cards are at once turned face up. If the statement is not correct, the three cards are at once taken back into the player’s hand, together with all the cards lying face down in the centre of the table at the time. Should the statement turn out to be true, the player who doubted it must take the three jacks and all the cards on the table.
That settled, the next player to the left lays out three cards and announces that they are three of a kind of something or other, each player to the left passing or doubting it. If no one questions the correctness of a statement, no explanation is given by the player who laid out the cards. He simply pushes them to the centre of the table with the others, face down. If he shows them, or any one of them, as some may do in a spirit of bravado, he must take all three back into his hand and all on the table with them. The object of doubting is simply to prevent a player from getting rid of three cards, but toward the end of the game one must be careful, as triplets are gradually gathered for that stage.
If any player has less than three cards in his hand when it comes to his turn to lay down, he must draw from the table, face down, enough to make three. He may look at what he draws before announcing. If there are no cards on the table, he must pass his turn.
The first to get rid of all his cards gets a chip from each of the others for each card they hold.