mount of
the maximum over one hand.

_DESCRIPTION_.

The object of the players is to secure from their cards--the pips on
which count as already mentioned--twenty-one points, or as near that
number as possible; hence the title. During the progress of the game
the dealer pays those players who secure better hands than his own,
and receives from all who over-draw, or whose points are lower or equal
to his, the only exception being in the case of a tie with a natural
Vingt-un, when neither the holder nor the dealer pays anything to the
other, the tie in such a case [62] simply nullifying matters between the
two. If the dealer over-draws, he only pays to those who are standing in,
and does not return anything to those players who have paid him on their
over-drawing; and herein lies the main advantage of the deal, for, as will
be found in practice, the majority of hands are decided by over-drawing,
which must necessarily be to the benefit of the dealer.

The dealer having been decided upon, takes the pack of cards and shuffles
them, after which he has the pack cut by the player on his right-hand side,
and then proceeds to distribute one card, face downwards and unexposed,
to each player, dealing in regular order from left to right.

Each player, in turn, looks at his card, and stakes on it whatever amount
he chooses--which he usually does by placing coins or counters in front
of him. In deciding on the amount of his stake, a player is guided by
the chance he considers the card gives him of ultimately making twenty-one,
or a near approach thereto. When it comes round to the dealer's turn,
he also looks at his card, but does not stake anything upon it; he may,
however, if he considers his card a good one, double the stakes of the
other players, which he does by calling "double." In that case the
individual players add the "double" to their stake, and the amounts being
thus settled all round, the dealer gives a second card to each player,
in the same order as the first, and also unexposed. The dealer then looks
at his own two cards, and if he should have received a natural Vingt-un,
he at once declares it; throws the two cards, face upwards, on the table,
and collects the stakes from the other players, the amount in this case
being double from each, as the result of the Vingt-un; so that, if the
dealer had previously doubled, as he probably would have done when he
found his first card was an ace or a 10 (or court c