the Third Week of Advent
Click here to learn more!
Bible Encyclopedias
All Fours
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or A card game (known also in America as Seven Old Sledge or High-Low-Jack ) usually played by two players, though four may play. A full pack is used and each player receives seven counters. Four points can be scored, one each for high, the highest trump out, for low, the lowest trump dealt, for Jack, the knave of trumps, and for game, the majority of pips in the cards of the tricks that a player has won. Ace counts 4, King 3, Queen 2, Knave 1, and ten ro points. Low is scored by the person to whom it is dealt; High of course wins a trick; Jack is scored by the player who finally has it among his tricks. If Jack is turned up the dealer scores the point. A player who plays a high or low trump is entitled to ask if they are High or Low.; The game is Io or II points. Six cards are dealt to each, the thirteenth being turned up for trumps. The non-dealer may propose or beg if he does not like his hand. If the dealer refuses the elder hand scores a point; if he consents he gives and takes three more cards, the seventh being turned up for trumps, which must be of a different suit from the original trump card; otherwise six more cards are dealt out, and so on till a fresh trump suit appears. The non-dealer then leads; the other must trump or follow suit, or forfeit a point. Jack may be played to any trick. Each pair of cards is a trick, and is collected by the winner. A fresh deal may be claimed if the dealer exposes one of his adversary's cards, or if he gives himself or his adversary too few or too many. In that case the error must be discovered before a card is played (see also Auction Pitch).
These files are public domain.
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'All Fours'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/a/all-fours.html. 1910.
