In case of a clear board, should the player next to the person who has made the clear board not have any cards to take, he must throw one down. At the end of the game, the cards that each player has taken are counted up, and the points made accordingly.
After the last trick has been taken there are sure to be some cards left on the board, and these go to the winner of the last trick. It should always be the object of the player to secure as many spades as possible. For instance—if he has a nine of hearts and a king of spades in his hand, and there is a nine and a king on the board, he should take the king in preference to the nine, as it will secure him a spade. It is well, however, to get as many cards as possible. Supposing a player to have in his hand a nine and a king, and there is a six and three and king on the board, he would do wisely to take the six and three, as, that will help to a majority in cards.
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.