This game, which has recently come into favour among card-players, consists
essentially of the task of laying out twenty-five cards face upwards on the
table, in five rows of five cards each. A full whist pack of 52 cards is
shuffled and cut, and the cards are dealt by the player, one by one, in
order from the top.
Each card, after the first, must be laid down, as it is dealt, next to one
already on the table, either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. That
is to say, it must be placed immediately above, or below; to the right, or
to the left; or corner to corner. The resultant oblong is considered as
comprising ten Poker hands (of five cards each), five hands being reckoned
horizontally (which we will call the rows) and five vertically (which we
will call the columns). The object is to lay out the cards so that the
aggregate total score of the ten Poker hands shall be as large as possible.
The score-table is as follows (for definition of terms, see page 124):--
Straight flush 30 | Threes 6
Fours 16 | Flush 5
Straight 12 | Two pairs 3
Full 10 | One pair 1
(It will be noticed that the relative values differ from those in Poker
proper.) {268}
The game may be played by two or more players, each against all. Each
player is provided with a separate pack. One is appointed dealer; his pack
is shuffled and cut in the ordinary way. The packs of the other players
should, for convenience, be sorted out previously into suits. As a card is
dealt, the dealer names it aloud; each of the other players then selects
the same card from his own pack. Every one uses his own judgment as to the
laying-out of the cards; and when the twenty-five are all played, and the
_tableaux_ are complete, the total scored by each player is added up, and
the losers pay the winners on an agreed scale.