Omaha daily bee., 1896-08-01
REMARKABLE WHIST HANDS.
stories Recalled by the Marlborough
Ai INC nGGGnt AIniGL

of the Recent Match.
One of the most remarkable hands in the
long annals of "the royal game was held
at the recent whist congress in Brooklyn,
says the New York sun. The hand con-
tanned no trumps and no card higher than
a nine, but still took three tricks. 1t has
been figured that the odds against holding
such a hand and taking three tricks are
6,2S4, 600, 600, 600 to /, so that the players
who participated in this game might con-
tinue steadily at whist until they were sew
eral times as old as Methuselah without
having the hand recur.
The hand was what Is technically known
as a Marlborough, but it was not an Or
binary Marlborough either, for that name is
applied to any hand that contains no card
higher than a nine. The chance of holding
a Marlborough is a trife less than 1 in 800,
and the odds against holding a Marlborough
without trumps are $4,000 to 1. The Var
borough hand preserves the fame of a GER
tain whist-playing English lord, who was
once a familiar figure in the card rooms
of the London clubs, but who might by this
time have been forgotten but for his one
hobby which has connected his name with
a certain combination of cards and from
which he is reputed to have obtained sub
%stantial returns during his lifetime.
Proctor says that Lord Yarborough's name
was given to any hand that held nothing
higher than a nine because that gentleman
had a standing offer to bet f.. 600 to fl that
such a hand would not be dealt. Proctor
goes through q calculation to show that
this was a perfectly safe bet, as the odds
against such a hand are 1927 to l.. 1t is
said that Lord Marlborough laid his wager
many thousand times and that on only a
few occasions did he lose. One writer has
figured out that If this noble devotee of the
game made his bet with each member of
a whist party on ninety-one or ninety-two
evenings out of a year for ten years he
should, on the theory of probabilities, have
lnSf twnntV finnS Hig total 1pccpc urpr1J
therefore have been f20 900; but during the
same period he would have won f36, 500,
which would have left him the very re-
spectacle margin Of ZIG, 500, or fl, $50 per
year.
To the inexperienced player the Yarbor-
ough hand seems about as bad as one could
possibly hold, but when properly handled it
may become very effective, as shown by the
illustration given here. Although there
seems to be no recorded instance of a Var
borough without trumps as successful as
this one, nearly every writer on whist has
been able to cite one or more cases where
the holder of a Marlborough has been sue
cessful in using it to throw the control of
the game into his partners hands and in
taking one trick.
One of the most famous games in which
the Marlborough hand figured was played in
Calcutta. An English duke, renowned for
his high play, was sitting in the game and
offered to lay f25, 900 against f5 900 that his
ANU NOulu lahc u IiuJoIl I W IL ITltkS.
The cards on which he offered to bet made
up a magnificent hand, including the COM
mand in trumps, but through the poverty of
his partners hand and the skillful manage
ment Of the Marlborough held by one of his
opponents, the royal gambler lost his f25,-
900.
Though the Marlborough hand is rare
enough so that a man may very possibly
have played whist for many years without
holding one, it is by no means the rarest
hand at whist. AS there are 635, O13, 559, 500
ways in which a whist hand can be made,
there is opportunity for some peculiar COM
binations. One that the young player fire.
quently signs for is that which will give
him all the trumps. When it Is computed,
however, that the chances of all the trumps
being in one hand is l in 15S, 753, 389, 800, the
wish will appear almost hopeless. Still it
Is testimony to the amount of whist playing
that goes on in the world that this hand
has been held several times. OF course,
only the dealer can hold this hand, and the
figures above represent his chances. The
odds against a player getting this hand
when he sits down TO a game are four times
as great.
One instance is related as occurring at the
United Service club, Calcutta, February 8,
1883, when a new pack of cards was dealt
and all the trumps fell to the dealer. The
same thing has been reported at least twice
since then. At the Montauk club in Brook
Ign, on the second deal with a new pack the
cards fell in suits. The hands were framed
and are preserved In the club.
The lowest possible hand that can be
held, counting numerical strength, is made
up OF 4 twos, 4 threes, 4 fours, and l five.
The chance of holding this combination is
also represented by the ratio of / to 15S, 1884,
$3.50, 900.
Another peculiar arrangement of the cards
is that by which one pair of partners holds
all the red cards and the other pair holds
all the black. An instance of this was re-
ported from the Westminster hospital in
1883. 1t is told that four players sitting
down to a game in London drew for part
ners and each man drew an ace. An in
genious mathematician, with nothing better
to do, has figured that IL the same players
continued their game every night except
Sundays this situation would not recur until
they had all reached the ripe old age OF
something over 900 years.