Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1884 — A New Game of Whist. [ARTICLE]

A New Game of Whist.

A Philadelphia bachelor has taught some of his friends at Saratoga a game of whist, which I believe, will be new to most people in this country, as it was to me. which can be played by only two persons, and without the usual mode of dummy playing. He was taught it by Max Strakosch, the impresario, last summer oh a railroad train. The game is only for five points (honors, of course, are not counted), and Tour hands are dealt and a trump turned. Each player on looking at his hand must decide whether to retain it or exchange it for that of the dummy. Neither of the dummy hands is exposed, but that on the left of each player can be exchanged for his own. The non-dealer must speak first as to his intentions in regard to such an exchange, and then the dealer must decide, but if he takes the unseen hand he must give up the trump card which would belong in his own hand if he retained that dealt him, whatever the decision of either, but which continues to be the trump. The non-dealer leads, as in other games of whist, and the rule is to lead the highest card in his longest and strongest suit, even if it be she knave, for where there are two unused hands of course there are only twenty-six cards in play, and it may easily be that his opponent will not have the higher cards of that suit. When the Philadelphian asked Mr. Strakosch how and where he learned this game of whist, he said: “Oh, in Paris, of course. I learned it from a very rich banker, who, like many other rich men, can no longer walk. He amuses himself with this style of whist and has the prettiest girl in all Paris to play with him/’— Miss Grtnujut, in New York Graphic.