the declaration
of a "natural" Vingt-un, as explained later on. It must be understood,
however, that with several players engaged it may take a considerable
time for the deal to pass round, unless it be further agreed that each
player shall hold the deal for a limited period, another modification,
and one possessing many advantages over the old system, which was,
in reality, a mere question of chance, and often resulted in the privilege
of dealing being very unevenly divided among those engaged in play.

As already mentioned, the deal is an advantage, and the earliest
consideration should be to decide who is first to enjoy the privilege,
and for how long. By the old system one player retained the deal until
put out by one of the others receiving a natural Vingt-un, that is,
an ace (counting as 11) and a 10, or court card (counting as 10), and, as
a consequence, the deal often remained for a considerable period with the
same person, to the disadvantage of all the others engaged in the game;
and even when a change was made, it was not in any definite order,
but by mere chance, governed by the fall of the cards.

Modern innovations in the method of playing the game have tended to remove
these objections,--firstly, by arranging that the deal shall pass in
regular order from left to right; [61] and secondly, by placing a limit
on the number of rounds to be dealt by each player in turn. Although the
latter of these changes is not yet generally adopted, the former is almost
universal; and we shall now proceed to explain the game on that basis,
ignoring the second point, for the time being, as, although its adoption
may make matters more equal, it has, perhaps, the disadvantage of depriving
the game of one of its main elements of chance, and, in the opinion of
many, thereby robs it of much of its attractiveness.

The limits of the stakes are first determined, and then the dealer
is decided upon. The minimum is usually one coin or counter, and the
maximum whatever may be agreed upon. The maximum is understood to mean
the highest amount that may be staked by a player on his card, and
not the maximum that may be lost or won over any hand, for, by the
rules of the game, the dealer is allowed to double the stakes, even if
a player has staked the maximum. If after that any one secures a Vingt-un,
_i_._e_ twenty-one points, that again doubles the stakes, and thus it
is quite possible for a player to win or lose four times the a