Trick 22 North led the ♣ 10, and South played the ♠ Q. North declared the common marriage in hearts (20 points) raising his total to 520 points. North drew the ♠ K, and South the ♠ 7.

Trick 23 North led the ♣ K, and South played the ♠ 7. North drew the ♦ K, and South the ♥ 10.

Trick 24 (last trick) North led the ♣ K, and South played the ♦ Q. North scored 10 points for the last poker trick, bringing his total to 530 points. South’s score was 630 points, and from the time that he had declared double bezique North had little chance to overtake him. He did well, however, to prevent South from declaring four Aces and so adding another 100 points to his score. North drew the ♥ K, and South picked up the ♣ 7 exposed on the table.

After picking up their cards from the table, the hands of the two players were as below

The play to the last eight tricks was:

North	South
♥ K	♥ A
♦ 7	♦ A
♦ K	♦ A
♠ K	♠ A
♥ Q	♥ 10
♠ K	♠ 10
♣ 8	♦ K
♥ K	♣ 7

South was lucky to win all his brisques, giving him a score of 100 points; North won six brisques for a total of 60 points. The final score, therefore, was South 730 points, North 590 points.

Altogether a fine deal, and one worth studying, because it illustrates the importance of playing for double bezique. For the first half of the deal North was well ahead, but after South had won the highest prize that the poker game has to offer, it was practically impossible for North to win the deal, and all his efforts had to be directed towards preventing South from gaining an even bigger lead. North played well to reduce South’s lead of 210 points (gained at the 17th trick) to 140.

RUBICON BEZIQUE

This version of the game has the advantage over the parent game that, as long ago as 1887, a committee of the Portland Club drew up a code of laws under which it should be played. It is very similar to the parent game, and, like it, is a game for two players, but four packs of cards, not two, are used, and there are some differences in the preliminaries, the scoring and the routine of the game.

In the preliminaries, nine cards (not eight) are dealt to each player, either singly or in threes, and there is no turn-up of the top card of the stock, so that the peculiar value of the 7 of trumps is lost.

The scoring is the same as in the parent game, with the following additions: Carte blanche a had without a court card 50

Both players are entitled to score it. before a poker player can score, however, he must show his hand to his opponent. Thereafter, each time that he draws a card from the stock he may show it to his opponent and score 50 points if it is not a court card.

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Games for Five or More Players