SPECULATION.
In playing the famous game of Speculation a full pack of fifty-two cards is used, the value of each card being the same as at Whist.
Either counters or halfpennies may serve for stakes, an equal number of which must be allotted to all, the pool being provided by contributions from each player. After cutting for deal the owner of the lowest card deals out three cards to each player, one at a time, face downwards, and no one must on any account look at what has been given him.
The top card of the remaining pack is then to be the trump, and this card the dealer may either keep himself or sell to the highest bidder, making it thus an object of speculation.
The player on the left of the possessor of the winning card then turns up his top card, and if it happen not to be a trump the next player turns up, and so on, until a higher trump than the first make its appearance, when the new comer takes the place of its predecessor, and, if not retained by its owner, is awarded to the highest bidder. If the card be not a trump, but only an ordinary one, it may be beaten by the highest card that makes its appearance of the same suit or by a trump.
At the close of every round the pool is won by the player who holds the highest card of the trump suit. Should the ace of trumps be turned up, the hand is, of course, at an end, the owner of it being the winner.
The game is well named, for the buying and selling business is frequently carried on to a very considerable extent. Sometimes the players will sell their whole hand to each other, or perhaps a single card on the chance of their proving winners.
Although the above method is the most common way of playing, slight variations are frequently made. For instance, an extra hand is dealt by many players and placed in the middle of the table for pool; at the end of the round this hand is examined, and if a better card is found in it than that belonging to the winner, the pool is left undisturbed, and added to the next new pool, making it, of course, double in value. Another variation is, that any player who may turn up a knave or a five of any suit excepting trumps shall pay one counter to the pool.
In order to play well at Speculation great judgment must be used, and also the memory must be in full exercise, but when once thoroughly understood and appreciated there is no game superior to it for a Christmas gathering, and almost any number of players may join in it.