EUCHRE, OR YOUKER.
This game, of German origin, was taken by the Hessian and Alsatian
emigrants to the United States, and of late years, thanks to English
travellers being indoctrinated with its mode of playing on the Atlantic
steamers, and throughout America, has become a little known in London
and Liverpool. It is played thus in this country. With every pack of
playing cards sold, there is one blank card at the top of the deck,
used in America frequently as a marker. But we English make a better
use of this whitefaced card. We include it in the suits, making
fifty-three to the deck, instead of fifty-two, and to the euchre deck
thirty-nine instead of thirty-two cards. This blank card at first was
called Louis Napoleon, but that name has been corrupted into the less
euphonious title of yerker, ghost, spectre, or phantom. The
yerker, then, is the highest ranking card in the euchre deck, having
capacity to capture either of the bowers or the ace, so that a player may be
euchred with even the ace and bowers. Whenever the yerker is turned up
by the dealer, that person has the privilege of making the trump, and
can make it to the most advantageous suit in his hand. The game is
short and lively, but, like others, is subject to various cheats, such
as marking the cards, sometimes stocking, playing by signs, playing two
and three secret partners against one, stealing out and retaining cards
from one deal to another; besides, a man will often take, when it is
his deal, more cards than his proper number, and secrete some of the
poorest until a good opportunity for putting them back in the pack
arrives. A jack is the most desirable card to retain, as it will be a
trump in two suits. In playing four-handed, the game may be played in
partnership. If two of the company should be of the card-sharping
order, they are certain to beat the other two players; this they will
do by signs previously concerted on between them, by which they will
tell one another what is in their hands, when to turn the trump down,
what to make the trump when it is their turn, how to play when it is
the other's lead, as follows: A and 0 are sitting opposite, and are, in
secret, partners ; B and D are partners, but not one of the order of
thieves; B, who sits to the left of C, has the deal, and plays alone. 0
knows, by marks, what he holds in his hand, and if he has an odd card
that is not a trump, C will give a sign to lead that suit if he has it,
and if B's card is larger, 0 will trump it, and break his march, and B
can then make but one point; when, if A and C had not played by signs,
B would have made four points; for even if B should hold ace of the
suit which A led he must play it, and C would win it by trumping.
Another case in which signs are much used, is this: B may deal, and all
the players may pass; B, the dealer, for the want of good cards, turns
the trump down; it then becomes A's turn to make the trump; C, his
partner, holds a hand sufficient to venture alone; he gives A the sign,
and A makes the trump to suit him, and he plays alone, and makes four
points, where he might not, but for this artifice, have made anything.
Again, by the artifice of signs, they know how to preserve trumps, and
not play two when one will answer : B may lead—A will not trump,
knowing by signs that 0, his partner, has a high trump. He will play
some unimportant card, and let the trick still belong to B; D may trump
or leave it B's trick, but C will by all means win it by high
trumping, if he must; this artifice saves A's trump for
another trick. Then the cheat of so scratching and bending the corners
of the aces and jacks, and some other principal cards, that one cut, so
that his partner or himself would get them, is often practised by a
swindler.
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