PUT.
In one respect the game we are about to describe differs from any other card game, and that is in the order in which the cards rank.
Three is the best card, then two, and next the ace, king, and all the rest in succession; four, of course, being the lowest.
Dr. Johnson, in a letter he wrote to his friend Boswell, says:—
"I play at Put, sir, as I indulge in other amusements commonly pursued in society, rather that I may study the real tempers and dispositions of mankind than from any overweening love of personal gain, or any violent desire to take advantage of the ignorance or weakness of my adversaries; for I hold it an indisputable truth that the characters of men and women are more fully and completely discerned at the card-table than in the Senate, the fashionable assembly, or the privacies of domestic life."
Put is played with a full pack of fifty-two cards, and generally by two persons, though frequently three and often four people join in it. The object of the game is to score five points, the player who succeeds first in doing this being winner. After cutting for deal, the player who had the lowest card gives three cards, one at a time, to both or all players, beginning at the non-dealer.
When this is done, if the non-dealer throws up his hand he loses a point; if he plays, and the dealer does not lay down another card to it, he gains one point; but if the dealer either win the same, pass it, or put down one of equal value, making what is termed a tie, the non-dealer is still at liberty to put (or play), and his adversary only scores one point.
Such being the state of things, should both players agree to go on, the one who gains all the three tricks, or two out of the three, scores five points, which make game. If both players get a trick, and the third is a tie, neither player scores.
Four-handed Put differs from two-handed in one point—that is, two of the players give each his best card to his partner, who lays out one of his. The game is played as in Two-handed Put.