ually agreed that the
penalty for a loo on the single shall be half the amount of the ordinary
loo, or the same amount as for a deal. If neither player receives a
higher card of the same suit as that turned up all are looed, and the
amount in the pool remains, being included in the stakes for the next
deal. The amount of the loos having been placed in the pool, as also the
sum agreed upon to be contributed by the next dealer, the cards are
re-gathered, shuffled, and cut, and the second deal is proceeded with.
Three cards are distributed to each player, and a spare hand, or miss,
as it is generally called,* is left in the middle of the table.
The top [19] card of the undealt portion of the pack is next turned up,
to decide which of the suits shall be trump, and then each of the players
--commencing with the one on the left hand side of the dealer--in turn
looks at his cards, and decides whether he will stand, whether he will take
the miss, or whether he will throw up his cards for that deal, unless the
rule for "Club Law" shall have been previously decided upon, when all the
players have to stand, and the miss is withdrawn--see page 26. If he
decides to stand, the player retains the three cards originally dealt him,
and says, "I play"; if he elects to throw up his cards, he places them,
unexposed, on the top of the undealt portion of the pack, and takes no
share in the remainder of that hand, neither paying nor receiving in
connection with the play; while if he determines to take the miss, his
original cards are added to the undealt portion of the pack, as before, and
he takes up the spare hand. In this latter case he is compelled to stand,
that is, it is not optional with him to throw up the miss, when once he has
elected to take it.

*The spare hand is not always called the "miss." Some players
designate it the "cat"; the term possibly originating from its
un-certainty; hence the expression, often used in connection
with the spare hand--"Let us hope she will not scratch us."

The player on the dealer's left having determined which course he will
pursue, the one on his left has to decide, and so on, until the dealer is
reached; he may, in like manner, stand, throw up, or take miss, provided
the spare hand has not already been appropriated. If none of the players
take the miss it is added to the pack, but in that case it must not be
exposed, or looked at by any of the players.

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