Round Games with Cards / A Practical Treatise on All the Most Popular Games, with Their Different Variations, and Hints for Their Practice

by W. H. Peel

THE JACK-POT.

If all the players reject their cards, declining to play, ante’s stake remains in the pool; and the deal passes to him. Before he deals, however, he and every other player must put into the pool a sum equal to the ante. The next hand is called a Jack-pot, and the game cannot be opened by any player unless he has at least a pair of knaves in his hand. Any better hand entitles him to open the game of course, but he must have at least two knaves. If there be no players in a Jack-pot, the stakes still remain in the pool, every player again puts in a sum equal to the ante, and the deal passes on as before. In this second Jack-pot, however, two queens is the lowest hand with which the game may be opened. If there are again no players, the pool is again replenished, and the next game cannot be opened with anything less than two kings; then the Jack-pot comes down to two knaves again, and continues the same series of minimum hands—­2 knaves, 2 queens, 2 kings—­until the game is opened by a player holding the requisite or a better hand. A Jack-pot having been opened, the winner takes the accumulated pool, and the succeeding game reverts to the ordinary conditions, i.e. may be opened by any player in his turn and without reference to his hand. If a player open a Jack-pot, and all the other players pass, he must, before he can claim the pool, show, by laying his cards face upwards on the table, that he really does possess the minimum hand necessary to open the game with. If he have the minimum hand, or better, he takes the pool; but if he have not, the next game is a Jack-pot, just as if the previous game had not been opened, and the player who opened the game improperly must pay a sum double that of the ante into the pool as a penalty. [41]

MODIFICATIONS.

Modifications of the game have been from time to time introduced, but few have any claim to permanence or popularity. The best known in this country are the Blaze and the Joker.

The Blaze is an additional hand which consists of five court cards. It takes precedence of two pairs, but is beaten by triplets. The relative values of two or more blaze hands are fixed by the highest card, a hand containing ace or aces being best.

The Joker is an additional card, sometimes included in the pack, and to which any value may be given by the player holding it. If for instance, a player hold king, queen, knave, and ten of hearts, and the joker, he may call the joker ace of hearts, and so claim a sequence flush. The joker is a higher card, moreover, than the actual card whose name it takes, i.e. a joker which is called the king of spades is better than the real king of spades.

TECHNICAL TERMS.

For convenience of reference we annex explanations of the few technical terms used in Poker.

Age.—The eldest hand, i.e. the player to the left of the dealer. Generally called the ante-man or “ante.”

Ante.—The first stake in the game. It must be made before the cards have been dealt, by the player on the left of the dealer. It is the only compulsory stake, and for this reason the amount is fixed, and is generally small. It must not exceed one half the limit.