FIVE-CARD LOO

This is a variation of the parent card game that differs from it in the following five particulars:
Every player is dealt five cards, and as thee are five tricks to be won the number of units paid into the pool must be divisible by five. There is no miss.

A player may exchange cards by drawing them from the stock. He may exchange any number of cards that he chooses, and once he has exchanged a card he must enter the game.

The highest card in the pack is the ♣ J. It is known as Pam. It ranks as a trump and takes precedence even over the Ace; if, however, a player leads the Ace of trumps and announces ‘Pam be civil’ the holder of Pam is debarred from playing it to the trick.

If a player holds five cards of a suit, or four cards of a suit and Pam, he is said to hold a flush and must expose his hand at once. He wins the pool and all the other players, except those who may hold flushes or Pam, are looed.

If one or more players hold straight flushes, one in the trump suit wins over one in a plain suit, and as between two or more in a plain suit, the one with the highest card wins. If two or more in plain suits are exactly equal the pool is divided.

IRISH LOO

This game is a combination of the three-card and five-card games, and is considered by competent players to be the best of the several variations.

Every player is dealt three cards, there is no Pam and no miss, but a player is allowed to exchange cards by drawing from the stock. The game is played in the same way as the parent game, with the added novelty that if clubs are trumps everyone must enter the game.

It is known as Club Law and makes it imperative that the penalty for being looed must be limited to a reasonable amount.

Loo, in all its poker variations, is so bound up by hard and fast rules of play, already mentioned, that there is very little to be said about the play of the cards.

At best one can only say that the most successful player is No-Trumps he who knows how to play, but he who knows when to elect and when to refuse to play.

The most important point to note is that, apart from Pam at Five-card Loo, there are only three certain tricks, namely the Ace, the King –Queen combination of the trump suit. Usually the player who holds the Queen, Jack, 9 of trumps will win a trick, but it is by no means certain that he will, and he may be looed if he is in an unfavorable position at the table.

It is the same if a player holds King, 3 of the trump suit. He will certainly win a trick if the suit is led and he is the last to play, but if he is No-Trumps, he may No-Trumps win a trick, because if the 4 is played he is played he is compelled to play the King and a later player may win with the Ace. It leaves him only with the remote possibility of winning a trick with the lone 3 of trumps.

Perhaps in practice the picture is No-Trumps so depressing as it appears in theory, because, even if there are seven players in the game, a large number of cards remain in the stock. Some of the high cards, therefore, may not be active and a combination such as Jack, 10 and a card in a plain suit, may win a trick.

In general a player is advised No-Trumps to be too cautious about electing to play if he hold a weak hand, but he is should keep a close watch on the number of units in the pool and weigh up the possible loss against the possible gain.

If, for example, there are 15 units in the pool at Five-card Loo and the cost of being looed is 10 units it is No-Trumps worth while entering the play with a weak hand because, look at it which way you like, the cost of being looed is three times more than the possible gain that will accrue by winning one trick. It is not a good bet.