I don't know for sure if it's the same game, but a game called "three-up" was described by Henry Mayhew in the mid-nineteenth century, played in Victorian London:
"Shove-halfpenny" is another game played by them; so is "Three up." Three halfpennies are thrown up, and when they fall all "heads" or all "tails," it is a mark; and the man who gets the greatest number of marks out of a given amount--three, or five, or more--wins. "Three-up" is played fairly among the costermongers; but is most frequently resorted to when strangers are present to "make a pitch,"--which is, in plain words, to cheat any stranger who is rash enough to bet upon them. "This is the way, sir," said an adept to me; "bless you, I can make them fall as I please. If I'm playing with Jo, and a stranger bets with Jo, why, of course, I make Jo win." This adept illustrated his skill to me by throwing up three halfpennies, and, five times out of six, they fell upon the floor, whether he threw them nearly to the ceiling or merely to his shoulder, all heads or all tails. The halfpence were the proper current coins indeed, they were my own; and the result is gained by a peculiar position of the coins on the fingers, and a peculiar jerk in the throwing. There was an amusing manifestation of the pride of art in the way in which my obliging informant displayed his skill.
http://www.victorianlondon.org/publications/mayhew1-1.htm
I also notice that it's listed as a card game that's illegal in modern-day Arkansas:
5-66-112. Card games - Betting.
If any person shall be guilty of betting any money or any valuable thing on any game of brag, bluff, poker, seven-up, three-up, twenty-one, vingt-et-un, thirteen cards, the odd trick, forty-five, whist, or at any other game at cards, known by any name now known to the law, or with any other or new name or without any name, he shall, on conviction, be fined in any sum not less than ten dollars ($10.00) nor more than twenty-five dollars ($25.00).
http://www.gambling-law-us.com/State-Laws/Arkansas/
There are also poker games that rely on variations of three "up" cards with various numbers of (face-) down cards, and a solitaire game, by that name.
Don't know if any of this helps, but there you go!
--Eric
Eric D. M. Johnson
Proprietor
The Village Factsmith Historical Consulting & Research
http://www.factsmith.com/
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----- Original Message -----
From: Jim Watkinson
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003 3:45 PM
Subject: game query
Dear listers (and pardon the cross):
I'm reading an indictment for illegal gaming. The games played at Paul
Verdier's tavern in Orange County, VA in 1803 were "whist, Loo, All
fours and three up." I know what the first three are. Can anyone
explain "three up"? By the by, one of those busted at the game was the
future president James Madison. Think of him trying to run TODAY.
Can't you see the headlines and debate topics.
Best wishes and thanks in advance.
Jim Watkinson
James D. Watkinson, Ph.D.
Archives
Library of Virginia
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