Bidding. In all games in which there is any bidding for the privilege of playing or of making the trump, or any betting on the value of the hands, the privilege must be extended to each player in turn, beginning on the dealer’s left. Any bid or any bet once made can neither be taken back nor amended. If any bid is made out of turn in any partnership game, it must be assumed that undue information is conveyed, and the player in error, or his partner, must lose his bid. In round games there is no penalty.
Exposed Cards. No player can exact a penalty for his own error, so that if an adversary of the dealer exposes one of his own cards he cannot claim a misdeal, but the dealer’s side may. There should be no penalty for a player’s having exposed a card unless he can derive some benefit from the exposure, such as from his partner’s having seen it. If there is no partner, there should be no penalty, because the player injures himself only. All exposed cards must be left on the table, and may be called upon by the adversaries to be led or played.
The same principles apply to Leading out of Turn. If the player in error has no partner, or his partner is a dummy, and the lead is taken back, no harm is done except to the player himself, and there should be no penalty. If the adversaries fail to observe that the lead was irregular, they are equally at fault with the player, who must be assumed to have erred unintentionally. In games in which a lead out of turn conveys information to a partner, the usual penalty is to call a suit.
If a player is led into error through a previous error on the part of an adversary, he should not suffer any penalty for it, but may take back his card. This is particularly true of following suit to erroneous leads, or playing after a revoke which is afterward amended.
Irregularities in the Hands. In all games in which the player need not follow suit unless he chooses, such as Seven-up, there should be no penalty if the player has not his full complement of cards, because he cannot possibly gain anything by playing with a short hand. But in all such games as Whist, where the absence of a card in plain suits might enable a player to trump, a penalty must be enforced for playing with less than the proper number of cards. In all such games as Poker, it is only to the player’s own disadvantage to play with too few cards, provided he is not allowed to call four cards a flush or a straight, and there should be no objection to his playing with a short hand. Many good players “squeeze” their cards, and if they find a good pair in the first two, they put up the ante without looking further. It is manifestly unfair to bar them out of the pool because the dealer has given them only four cards, which gives them no possible advantage, but rather the reverse. This is in accordance with common sense, and is the law in Cribbage and Piquet.
Discrimination. No person should be allowed any advantage over another which is not compensated for in some way. In Seven-up, for instance, the non-dealer counts game if it is a tie; an advantage which is offset by the dealer’s counting Jack if he turns it. In Auction Pitch the dealer has no such advantage, because no trump is turned, and therefore the non-dealer cannot count ties for game. It is a common error among Cassino players to hold that a player cannot build on his own build, but that his adversary may do so. A player holds two deuces, an Eight and a Ten, and builds a Six to an Eight. It is claimed that an adversary may increase this build to ten, but the original builder may not. This is manifestly unfair, because there is no compensating advantage to the player that is denied the privilege to justify its being allowed to his adversary.
Benefiting by Errors. No player should be allowed to win a game by committing a breach of the laws. If a person revokes, for instance, there is a certain penalty, but in addition to the penalty it is always stipulated that the revoking player cannot win the game that hand.
Double Penalties. No person can be subjected to two penalties for one offence. If a player leads out of turn, and a suit is called, the card played in error cannot be also claimed as exposed and liable to be called. If a player revokes, and his adversary wins ten tricks, the revoke penalty adds three tricks to the ten already won; but these thirteen tricks will not entitle the player to score any points for a slam, because that would be exacting a double penalty; the tricks for the revoke, and the points for the slam.
Intentional Error. In all games it must be assumed that the player’s intentions are honest, and that any errors that arise are committed through inadvertence. Some of our law-makers have attempted so to adjust their codes as to provide against the manœuvres of the blackleg. This is simply impossible. Laws are made for gentlemen, and when it is obvious that a player does not belong to that class the remedy is not to appeal to the laws of the game for protection, but to decline to play with him.