If you do bluff, bluff when you are winning, and have established a fear of your hands in the minds of your opponents.

To bluff when losing is insanity.

In actual play there are few maxims which hold good for all cases.

All depends on what is termed luck, and nearly every Poker player recognises luck, whatever that may be, as an important factor in the game--one they often allow to override calculable chances. Some players seem to have almost persistent good luck, and win with comparatively poor hands. Others are just as unlucky, losing with high cards.

With a pair, if you decide to play, discard the remaining three cards.

You have then three chances of triplets.

With triplets discard one, your chance of getting fours is remote, and you leave your opponents in doubt as to whether you are not trying for a flush.

With triplets you may generally risk _seeing_ your opponent.

Never try for the completing card of a sequence. If, for instance, you have 3, 4, 6, 7 and king, do not play--[47] discarding the king on the chance of receiving a 5. Throw up your hand. With a sequence you may generally wait till your opponents think fit to see you.

With fours, discard the odd card, in order to mislead your opponents.

This hand, or anything better, so seldom comes to a player, that he is justified in staking as much as possible upon it.

Be content to pa.s.s sometimes with the better hand. The best players do so, since it costs less than the habit of calling.

Neither borrow nor lend a penny at the table.

_RULES OF THE GAME_.

_The Deal_.

1. The cards shall be the ordinary pack of fifty-two cards.

2. The players, after being seated, shall each draw a card from the pack, face downwards, and the player drawing the card lowest in value (ace being lowest), shall deal in the first game. If two or more players draw cards of equal value, such cards being the lowest, such players only shall draw again for the deal.

3. Any player may demand to shuffle the cards, but the dealer shall have a right to the last shuffle before the cards are cut.

4. The pack shall be shuffled by the dealer, and cut by the player on the right of the dealer, before every deal.

5. The cards shall be shuffled, face downwards, above the table.

6. The cards shall be dealt, face downwards, so that their faces cannot be seen; and they must be placed by the dealer on the table in front of the players to whom they are severally dealt.

[48]

7. The dealer shall give one card from the top of the pack to each player in turn from right to left, beginning with the player at his left hand, and in this order shall give to each player five cards.

8. If the cards be dealt without the pack having been cut, and if the fact be pointed out to the dealer before the deal is finished, it is a misdeal, and there shall be a new deal by the same dealer.

9. If the fact that the cards have been dealt without the pack having been cut for such deal be not pointed out to the dealer before such deal is finished, the deal shall stand.

10. If a card be found face upwards in the pack before the deal is finished, it is a misdeal, and there shall be a new deal by the same dealer.

11. If the dealer, while dealing, accidentally expose a card, such card shall be accepted by the player to whom it is dealt, as though it had not been exposed, and the dealer shall not, nor shall any player, exchange such exposed card for another, except in the regular course of discarding after the deal is completed.

12. If any player have more or less than five cards dealt to him, and if such player, or any player, announce the fact before the cards are raised from the table, it is a misdeal, and there shall be a new deal by the same dealer.

13. If any player have more or less than five cards dealt to him, and if the fact be not announced before any portion of the hand is raised from the table, such hand is a foul hand, and the player to whom it is dealt shall place his cards, face downwards, on the table, and retire from the game, and shall forfeit his stake in that game.

14. If a player be compelled to retire from the game in consequence of having a foul hand dealt to him, his stake, [49] if he has staked, shall remain in the pool, and the dealer shall refund such player the amount of his ante or straddle only in that game.

15. No player shall speak to the dealer while the cards are being dealt..

16. If any player speak to the dealer, or distract him by noise or gesture, while the cards are being dealt, such player, and not the dealer, shall refund, as provided by Rule 14, the ante or straddle of any player to whom a foul hand is dealt in that deal.

17. The deal shall be finished when every player has received five cards.

18. The duty of dealing shall devolve upon each player in turn, from right to left; the player to the left of the last dealer shall be the dealer in the next game. If the dealer in a game pa.s.s and retire, he shall continue his duty as dealer in that game.

_The Ante_.

19. The ante shall not exceed one-half the amount of the limit.

20. The ante shall be staked by the player to the left of the dealer before the cards are dealt.

21. The right to straddle shall belong to the player to the left of ante.

If he does not straddle, no other player shall, do so; but if he does straddle, the succeeding players shall have, in turn from right to left, and ending with the dealer, the right to increase the straddle in every case by the amount of the ante.

22. The ante shall not be straddled by a player, or by successive players, to an amount exceeding one-half the limit.

23. If the ante be not straddled, the player to the left of [50] ante shall have first say after the deal, and ante shall have the last say.

24. If the ante be straddled, the player to the left of the straddler (or of the last straddler, if there be more than one) shall have first say after the deal, and the last straddler shall have the last say.

_The Play_.

25. The turn to say shall pads from right to left, and the player who has first say after the deal shall, if he open the game, stake a sum at least double the amount of ante.

26. Each succeeding player shall, if he play, at least make good his stake to that of the preceding player.

27. If a player pa.s.s, he shall place his cards, face downwards, on the table, and shall not again take them into his hand, and he shall forfeit unconditionally his stake and his right to play in that game.

28. A player who retires from the game shall not divulge the cards nor the value of the hand he has thrown down.

_The Jack-pot_.

29. If the game be not opened by any player, the ante and straddles, if any, shall remain in the pool, and the next game shall be a Jack-pot.