The chances are most in favour of the number 7; it may be formed first by 6 and ace; second, by ace and 6; third by 5 and 2; fourth, by 2 and 5; fifth, by 4 and 3; sixth, by 3 and 4.
The numbers which follow these, decrease in the same proportion as the preceding ones have augmented; therefore there are five chances for number 8, as there are for number 5; the 9 like the 4 has four chances; the 10 is gained in three ways like the 3; and the 11 is made by two different combinations like the 2; lastly, the number 12 can be produced only by the double 6.
It is very necessary to understand these combinations at the games of tric-trac, or
backgammon; the knowledge of them, in fact, constitutes the whole art of placing the men skilfully.
Players at different games, down even to the very game of goose, have made use of these combinations in order to calculate the probable chances of the different numbers. There is an infinite variety of drawings upon pasteboard designed for these games. The game of the goose, and similar ones, are disposed from 9 to 9; but you cannot stop there, and it is not possible to arrive at the last number 63, till you have surmounted a great number of obstacles. As a proof of this, we need only observe how often it happens, that when a person is nearly at the end of the game, and upon the point of winning it, he throws 6, which is one of the most common throws, and thus going beyond the required number is obliged to begin the game again. The bridge, the well, the prison, and death, that is to say, the figures which represent these quicksands, are arranged in such a manner, that one falls into them by the numbers 6, 7, and 8, which come every instant. In speaking upon this subject, Ernestina said facetiously, that a comic poet was not in the wrong in making one of his personages say:—
These games I prefer, which the spirit amuse,
And ’tis a nice game, this same game of the Goose.
Adela, who had seen her parents play at tric-trac, asked the meaning of the words
carmes, sonnes, &c., which she had heard pronounced at this game. Madame D’Hernilly informed her, that they call the two aces leset; the two trays ternes; the two fours carmes; the two fives, quines; the two sixes sonnez. There is no particular denomination for the double deuce.
With three dice, the chances are still more multiplied, and it would be very easy to calculate them; three points alike are called raffle, that is to say, a raffle of aces, a raffle of trays, a raffle of sixes, &c. &c.