IX

BELGIAN PATIENCE (WITH ONE WHIST PACK)

DEAL out thirteen cards, face upwards, in a row. If there should be any aces among them, take them out, and place them above the board, to be built upon upward according to suit. Also put out upon any such ace any cards of the same suit that will follow on, from the 2 upwards, and fill up all vacant spaces from the pack.

Now examine the board to see what cards are on it of equal denomination. Since there are thirteen cards, and no ace, there must always be at least one pair. Discard into a waste heap one card from the pair of highest value — unless there should be three of a kind, when two of these must be discarded, even if the value of the trio be lower than that of one or all of the pairs. Similarly, a set of four cards will take precedence of a trio. For instance, should there be two kings on the board, and three 4's, you must discard two of the 4's, even though you thereby block the game. Sometimes, however, you may restore a desirable card to the board, by filling up vacancies from the rubbish-heap instead of from the stock, as is illustrated in the example below.

BELGIAN PATIENCE.

The cards of the rubbish-heap are shown spread open, for clearness, but in practice they will lie in a squared packet, with the last discard, the 9 of diamonds, on top.

You must now discard two of the three 2's, and you leave the 2 of diamonds because the 3 is on the board. The cards dealt into the vacancies thus made (by removal of 2 of clubs and 2 of hearts) are the knave of hearts and ace of clubs. The ace of clubs is put out, and you can now put the 2 of clubs upon it from the waste-heap, and restore the 2 of hearts to the board. The highest pair being the two knaves, you discard that of hearts because the knave of spades will form sequence with the 8, 9, 10 of that suit. You next deal (and discard) in succession the knave of diamonds, the queen of clubs, and the 10 of hearts. The next dealt is the 3 of hearts, which goes on to the board, and you must now discard one of the 8's. For the reason already stated, you turn out the club and leave the spade. The next card dealt is ace of diamonds, which is put out, and upon it are built the 2 and the 3. The cards next dealt (into the three vacancies) are 2 of spades, 6 of diamonds, 7 of spades. Discard 7 of clubs. The 4 of diamonds is dealt, and goes out on the 3. The 4 of hearts is dealt. Discard 6 of clubs. The 3 of clubs is dealt and is built on the 2 the 8 of hearts is dealt and discarded; the ace of spades is dealt, and goes out, and on it is built the 2.

The 3 of spades is dealt and goes out. The 5 of diamonds is dealt and goes out, and also the 6. The next cards dealt are king of spades, 5 of spades, and 8 of diamonds. The last card must unfortunately be discarded, so as to keep the spade sequence intact. The 4 of clubs is dealt and goes out. The 10 of clubs is dealt and discarded. The ace of hearts is dealt, and forms a new foundation.

The top (exposed) card of the waste-heap may at any time be taken to fill a vacancy on the board, instead of dealing from the stock. Fill from the waste the four vacancies now existing; as there will then be three 8's on the board, you put back two of them again on to the waste; in so doing, put the 8 of diamonds on top. The cards next dealt are queen and 4 of spades, so you can now build up the whole sequence of spades, and put on to the board ten cards from the waste-heap to supply the vacancies. Discard queen of clubs (because the knave is still buried). Deal 7 of hearts, and discard knave of diamonds. Deal 6 of hearts, and discard 10 of clubs. Deal 7 of diamonds, when the 8 and 9 go out, making three spaces, which you fill from the waste-heap, leaving the 10 of diamonds exposed at top thereof. This also goes out, as well as the knave of diamonds. Putting knave of clubs on to board from the waste-heap, the card next exposed on that heap is the queen of diamonds, which goes out.

The waste-heap is now exhausted, and the cards on the board — the order in which they stand is immaterial — are those shown at side.

As there are but six cards left in stock, the game is secure. You discard one of the queens (say, queen of clubs), and the card next dealt is king of clubs. The next is 9 of clubs; the next is king of diamonds (which goes out); the next is 5 of clubs. Now all the clubs can be built up; and as there are plenty of vacancies on the board, the same can be done at once with the only suit remaining — the hearts.

The skill of play in this game consists in discarding to advantage, so as to make long sequences which will run out at once, thus clearing the waste-heap and exposing needful cards which would block the game if they remained buried.