The play of Quint Royal is peculiar. It has no trick-taking value at all, and can be scored by the holder only if he can throw it on a trick won by his partner. This he is always allowed to do, whether he holds one of the suit led or not.
With the preceding exception, every player, having one of the suit led, must follow. If he has not, he may trump or over-trump. No selection is made of any particular suit for trumps, but for trumping purposes the suits ascend in power, in Bridge order, from spades to hearts. Thus any spade may be trumped by the deuce of clubs, which may be over-trumped by any other club or by the deuce of diamonds--and so on up to the one card, the ace of hearts, which is a winner against all the rest.
Game is 250 up. A distinction between quints and tricks is that the former are marked up as they occur in course of play, and that, as soon as the scoring of them brings either side up to or beyond 250, that game is at an end, and the rest of the hand is abandoned. The value of the "cachette" may make the winners of it game; if so, the tricks are not counted. If neither side is 250 up after counting all quints, the value of the tricks won is added in. Should such addition bring both parties beyond 250, the higher of the two totals wins. Those who first win two games win the rubber, and score 100 points extra therefor.
There is another method of scoring--by "single," { 266} "double," and "treble" games--but the former way has been preferred wherever the writer has seen the game played.
Before Quint Royal has been played, a player who does not hold it should be always on the alert to give his partner the chance of making it. The original leader, therefore (not holding Quint Royal himself), is always expected to start with the ace of spades, if he has it. If not, with the ace of clubs. The ace of hearts is certainly, and the ace of diamonds probably, too valuable to be led out in this way.
The establishment of a black suit is obviously a hopeless task, for both red suits cannot be got out of the way. Hearts, however, may sometimes be extracted for the benefit of a good long suit of diamonds.
In the case of three players only, one plays a Dummy hand in combination with his own. This being a very decided advantage, the Dummy-player is handicapped 25, that number of points being scored to his opponents' credit before the game begins. Rubbers are not played, each game being settled for separately, and the three players take Dummy in rotation, game by game. The partner of Dummy always takes first deal of each game. When either of Dummy's opponents deals, the Dummy-player must look first at the hand from which he has to lead, and must double or re-double from his knowledge of that one hand only.
