By far the best Nap table is made up of four players, because then dash and
prudence must be pretty well equalised to play well. With three players
great risks are commonly run, and with six, failures are so frequent that
the game often gets tedious through a monotonous series of "two" calls.
There are so many better games for two players that we need say little
about what is called Single Nap. It consists of a series of bluffing calls,
experience soon teaching that it is safer to call three or four on a weak
hand than to allow your adversary to take the lead.
"Three" Nap is very nearly a game of chance. Only fifteen cards, or
practically one quarter of the pack, are in play, so that the chances are
nearly three to one against any given card being out. Consequently great
risks are run, and these risks are for the most part justified. A player
should call Nap on any hand of one suit headed by an honour, however small
the remaining cards; while he has a tolerable chance of making the same
call upon any hand consisting of two suits, if he has four cards of the
first suit headed by an honour, and an ace, king, or queen to fill up his
hand. Where the hand consists of three or four suits, the cards that are
not trumps should be aces or kings to make the call a prudent one.
Reverting to the game as played by four or five players, the novice may be
advised to lead trumps against the caller when he only requires one more
trick, and, as a general rule, to let trumps alone when {103} the caller
has more than one trick to make to establish his declaration.
In conclusion, remember that on an ordinary call your first discard should
be from your shortest and weakest suit, and bear the fact in mind as you
note the discards of other players. In a Misery, your original discard
should be your highest card of your shortest suit--a single card for
preference, unless it be a deuce or tray.[31]
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