In order to score, the cards composing the given combination must be all at the same time in the hand of the player. A card played to a trick is no longer available (unless a brisque) to score.
A player can only "declare" after winning a trick. Having won a trick, he is at liberty to score any combination he may hold, laying the cards forming it face upwards on the table. If the cards exposed show two combinations he may declare both, but must elect which of them he will score, reserving the other till he again wins a trick. Thus, having king and queen of spades and knave of diamonds on the table, he would say, "I score 40 for Bézique, and 20 to score." When he has again won a trick, having meanwhile retained the needful cards unplayed, he can then score the second combination (Marriage).
A card which has once scored cannot be again used to form part of a combination of the same kind: e.g. a queen once used to form a Marriage cannot again figure in a Marriage, though it may still score as part of a Sequence, or as one of "Four Queens." In like manner, a card which has once figured in "Bézique" cannot be used to form part of a second Bézique, though it may be used to score Double Bézique. Neither can a card which has been
declared in a given combination again be declared in a combination of an inferior order; e.g. if a king and queen have been declared as part of a Sequence, a Marriage cannot afterwards be declared with the same cards—though their having figured in a Marriage would be no bar to their subsequent use as part of a Sequence.
The declared cards, though left face upwards on the table, still form part of the hand, and are played to subsequent tricks at the pleasure of the holder.
When no more cards are left in the stock, the method of play alters. No further declarations can be made, and the only additional score now possible is for the brisques (aces or tens) in the remaining tricks (scored by the winner of the trick), with ten for the last trick, as before stated.
The mode of play as to these last eight tricks is according to Whist rules. Each player must now follow suit, if he can; if not, he is at liberty to trump.[[8]]
Hints for Play.
In the earlier stage of the game, tricks are of no value save in so far as they contain brisques, or enable the winner to "declare," the scoring of the different combinations being the main object of the game. The player will probably at the outset find that he has in hand some of the component parts of two or more combinations; but as he must furnish a card to each trick, he will be forced to abandon
the one or the other. In choosing between them, two points should be considered; viz. first, the value of the combination, and, secondly, the prospect of making it. As to the last point, he may derive important information from the cards declared by his opponent. Suppose, for instance, that he holds a queen of spades and two knaves of diamonds. These he would naturally retain at any cost, in the hope of making Double Bézique; but should his adversary declare a marriage in spades, showing that he holds the remaining queen of that suit, all hope of Double Bézique is clearly at an end. In the case supposed, it would be the policy of the opponent, knowing or suspecting that Double Bézique was aimed at, to keep the queen of spades in his hand as long as he possibly could, even at some considerable sacrifice.