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130-448: Tarot cards were invented in northern Italy around 1420 for the purpose of playing cards. With their appearance came the first of the two great innovations in trick-taking games since they arrived in Europe: the concept of trumps. At around the same time or slightly earlier, a similar concept arose in the game of Karnöffel . In this south German game played with an ordinary pack, some cards of

260-418: A packet. The cards apportioned to each player are collectively known as that player's hand and are only known to the player. Some games involve a set of cards that are not dealt to a player's hand. These cards form the stock. (see below) It is generally good manners to leave one's cards on the table until the deal is complete. The player sitting one seat after the declarer (one with the highest bid and not

390-452: A tarot deck. The trionfi/tarots formed essentially a fifth suit without the ordinary ranks but consisting of trumps in a fixed hierarchy. One can get a similar effect by declaring all cards of a fixed or randomly determined suit to be trumps. This method, originating with triomphe , is still followed by a number of modern trick-taking games that do not involve an auction. Trumps were retroactively added to some games, such as trappola . It

520-465: A King or the Pagat . The usual tarot rules or play and card point values applied. The winner was the one with the most points in tricks and was paid an amount by the losers based on the difference in scores. Tarot card games are played with decks having four ordinary suits, and one additional, longer suit of tarots, which are always trumps . They are characterised by the rule that a player who cannot follow to

650-572: A Queen, Cavalier and Ten are worth 3 + 1 ⁄ 3 + 2 + 1 ⁄ 3 + 1 ⁄ 3 = 6 points, producing the same result as the second method. A variant of this method is used for Tarot Nouveau or French tarot, where low cards are each worth half a point, and are combined with a counting card. The fractional values of each of the cards are as follows: Oudlers and Kings - 4 + 1 ⁄ 2 , Queens - 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 , Cavaliers - 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 , Jacks - 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 and low cards - 1 ⁄ 2 each. The same method

780-490: A card of the suit led), in the first phase of trick-play (before the stock is empty) players generally need not follow suit. A widespread game of this type is the Marriage group . In a contract game the winning and scoring conditions are not fixed but are chosen by one of the players after seeing their hand. In such games, players make bids depending on the number of tricks or card points they believe they can win during play of

910-435: A card played early to a trick will win or lose. When all cards have been played, the number or contents of the tricks won by each player is tallied and used to update the score. Scoring based on the play of tricks varies widely between games. In most games either the number of tricks a player or partnership has won ( plain-trick games), or the value of certain cards that the player has won by taking tricks ( point-trick games)

1040-428: A favorable enough hand to open the bidding. With shuffling between deals it is unlikely that any one player will be willing to bid on the hand dealt; this leads to multiple redeals before a hand is actually played. If a player's hand contains no trumps or no court cards (roi, dame, cavalier, valet), the player can declare Misère, which gives the declarer 30 points and subtracts 10 from the other players scores. This bonus

1170-547: A general term for trick-taking games, Triomphe in French, Trumpfen in German and Trump in English, and persisted as the name for the trumps in tarot packs even when they had been renamed Tarocchi . Other different games claimed the name without any use of Tarocchi cards. The first basic rules for the game of Tarocco appear in the manuscript of Martiano da Tortona, the next are known from

1300-601: A half-point card to replace the Fool. When the last trick has been played, the round ends. The taker counts the number of oudlers and the point value of all cards in the taker's scoring pile. Alternatively, if the taker has taken the majority of tricks, the defenders can pool their scoring piles and count their oudlers and points; the taker has all remaining points. Cards for scoring purposes are divided into two groups: "counters" (face cards and oudlers ) and "ordinary" cards or cartes basses (any suited pip card, and any trump except

1430-485: A player states their confidence that they will be able to meet a set contract (see below ) and sets the terms by which they will try to do so. If a player does not wish to bid, they may "pass" but may not bid after having passed previously. One may only bid higher than the previous bidders. The preneur ("taker", sometimes called declarer as in Bridge ) is the one who wins this auction and who must subsequently try to achieve

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1560-422: A player unable to satisfy any other instruction is at liberty to play any card. Usually a low-ranking card or one from a short suit is sacrificed. The former is used to protect a higher ranking card while the latter is to help void a suit so as to allow trumping a future trick. For example, consider the following Whist hand, in a game where diamonds ♦ are the trump: North leads the deal with K♠ . Now, all

1690-453: A player who has no trump except the Petit can still play, but the Petit is played like the Fool; if it does not take the trick, it is given back to its owner in exchange for a half-point card. In Petit sec ("dry Petit"), a player who has the Petit but no other trump nor the Fool must announce this; the hand is voided and this round will be redealt by the next dealer. Common house rules also allow

1820-459: A single low card is rounded down to zero. This is the simplest method but it doesn't work if a player does not have enough low cards for every counter. The second method, popular in Vienna, was developed later: counting in threes with a 2-point deduction. Cards are grouped in threes again, but the composition is irrelevant. Within each triplet the card values are added and then 2 points are deducted from

1950-609: A spade card, and plays 2♠ . South's trump card, gives him an opportunity to escape following suit, and he wins the trick. French Tarot The game of French Tarot is a trick-taking strategy tarot card game played by three to five players using a traditional 78-card tarot deck. The game is played in France and also in French-speaking Canada. It should not be confused with French tarot, which refers to all aspects of cartomancy and games using tarot cards in France. France

2080-519: A tarot deck. The unique feature that distinguishes French Tarot from other forms of tarot games is the overtrumping rule. In France it is just known as jeu de Tarot . Cards appeared in Europe towards the end of the 14th century and may have been introduced first through Italy or Catalonia . Tarot cards are first mentioned in the mid-15th century in Italy. Initially called trionfi , meaning "triumph", whence

2210-461: A trick in the first phase of the game, but must follow suit as soon as the stock is depleted. Trick-avoidance games like reversis or polignac are those in which the aim is to avoid taking some or all tricks. The domino game Texas 42 is an example of a trick-taking game that is not a card game. The earliest card games were trick-taking games, as evidenced by the rank-and- suit structure, originating from China and spreading westwards during

2340-500: A trick with a card of the suit led must play a trump to the trick if possible. Tarot games have introduced the concept of trumps to card games. More recent tarot games borrowed features from other games like bidding from Ombre and winning the last trick with the lowest trump from Trappola . Tarot decks did not precede decks having four suits of the same length, and they were invented not for occult purposes but purely for gaming. In 1781, Court de Gébelin published an essay associating

2470-424: A trick, because the player who leads controls the suit that is led and which others must follow. The leading player playing a suit of which he has many, decreases the chance that anyone else would be able to follow suit. Playing a suit of which he has few, allows him to rid his hand of that suit, known as voiding the suit, freeing him from the restriction to follow suit when that suit is led by another player. On

2600-406: A trump suit is credited to ombre , the most popular card game of the 17th century. Rather than having a randomly selected trump suit, players can now hold an auction for it. The most popular game of the 18th-century was tarot which experienced a great revival. During this time, many tarot games were borrowed bidding over the stock ( taroc l'hombre ). In the 20th century, whist , now with bidding and

2730-438: A wager of game points to be won or lost. In others, the bid is a number of tricks or card points the bidder is confident that they or their partnership will take. Either of these can also include the suit to be used as trumps during the hand. Common bids include slam (winning all the tricks), misère (losing all the tricks), ouvert (the contractor's hand is exposed), playing without using the stock or only part of it, and winning

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2860-424: Is Karnöffel, where specific ranks of one suit were named Karnöffel, Devil, Pope etc. and subject to an elaborate system of variable powers. However, these were not trumps in the sense of a suit whose cards uniformly beat all other suit cards. Around 1440 in Italy, special cards called trionfi were introduced with such a function. These special cards are now known as tarots , and a deck augmented by tarots as

2990-475: Is a common house rule and is not considered "official" by the Fédération Française de Tarot for tournament purposes. If a player has 10 or more trumps in their hand, they can declare a single (10+), double (13+), or triple (15+) "handful" ( poignée ), right before playing their first card. A single handful adds 20 to the scoring. Doubles and triples add 40 and 60, respectively. The bonus is always added to

3120-878: Is added to the game and makes it more difficult to cheat if the trump suit is only chosen after dealing. In some games, in addition to or separately from a trump suit, certain fixed cards are always the highest trumps, e.g. the Jacks in Skat , the Jacks or Jokers in Euchre , and the Rook Bird card in Rook . They are called matadors after the high trumps in Ombre . Matadors either have high point values or special abilities as in Spoil Five where they can revoke legally. Some games have more than one trump suit, such as

3250-462: Is believed to be an intermediary form linking the older tarot games to the Central European ones. The individual Tarock game variants differ too widely from one another to give a general description of play. However, they can be grouped by sub-type: The last group is a family of games that emerged as result of the attempt to play Grosstarock with a normal 36-card German-suited pack. Instead of

3380-424: Is counting in threes with low cards. A player gathers the cards won in tricks and groups them into triplets each comprising one counting card and two low cards. Each triplet scores the value of the counter only e.g. a Queen and two low cards scores 4. A triplet of three low cards scores exactly 1 point. In some games, players may end up with one or two cards over. Two remaining low cards are rounded up to score 1 point;

3510-403: Is determined by the next card. A player who cannot follow suit must play a trump card if able, and additionally, the player is compelled to overtrump if able (The "Petit" or 1 is valued lowest, and the "Monde" or 21 is valued highest). If a player must trump but cannot overtrump, they can play any trump. A player who cannot follow suit or trump may play any card to the trick, however it cannot win

3640-428: Is featured. More often, a dynamic trump suit is determined by some means, either randomly by selection of a card as in oh hell and the original form of Whist , or decided by the winner or winning bid of an auction as in contract bridge and some forms of Pinochle . In certain games, such as Rowboat and Rage, the trump suit may change during the course of the hand, even from trick to trick. Some psychological variety

3770-455: Is important. In many games such as hearts and oh hell , all players play individually against each other. In many four-player games such as bridge , euchre and spades , the players sitting opposite to each other form a fixed partnership. Some games such as pinochle are commonly played with or without partnerships, depending on the number of players. In some contract/auction games for three or more players, e.g. most tarot variants,

3900-418: Is much rarer for trumps to be removed. The invention of trumps became so popular that very few European trick-taking games exist without them. This did not stop the two-handed piquet from becoming the most popular card game in Europe during the 16th century. Parlett suggests the invention of trumps let players in games involving more than two a greater chance of heading a trick. The invention of bidding for

4030-430: Is multiplied according to the contract; if the contract is Guard Without, the gain or loss for a single hand score is adjusted by 40 points one way or the other. To Slam (in French, chelem ) is to take every trick in the round. "Announced" Slam (made while bidding in the auction) gains 400 points if made. It grants the taker the right (and obligation) to start the first trick. Otherwise, a non-announced Slam made by either

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4160-405: Is no trump suit for that hand. Making such a contract is regarded as harder to accomplish. In most cases for "no trump" deals, any card other than the leading suit played has no value. In some games such as Oh, hell , where the player may need to not get more tricks to win, playing cards other than the leading suit can be useful. In some games such as Piquet , Tarocchini , and Belote , before

4290-492: Is played to the last trick and the side playing it has taken every previous trick. However, it never changes sides, unless played to the last trick and the side playing it has not won every trick. After playing the Fool to a trick, the player who played it simply takes the Fool back, places it into their scoring pile and gives the side who took the trick an "ordinary" card (worth a half-point; see scoring below) from their scoring pile. The official FFT tournament rules do not cover

4420-476: Is played. However, it is important to note that details of play outside of officially sanctioned tournaments may vary from circle to circle so that the known rules and terminologies are more typical than definitive. In the late 18th century in France, Tarot cards first became associated with fortune telling, a practice that eventually spread to much of the Western world. However, the cards preferred for divination are

4550-493: Is the second most popular card game after Belote . In Austria , Tarock games, especially Königrufen , have become widespread and there are several major national and international tournaments each year. Italy, the home of tarot, remains a stronghold. Games of the tarot family are also played in Hungary, Slovenia, Liechtenstein, Czechia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Denmark, south Germany and south Poland. Tarot games have yet to be common in

4680-432: Is to make as many points as possible from the cards taken in tricks , the cards having different point values. Those cards which have little or no point value are called various names – Skartins , Ladons or cartes basses depending on the region – but may be referred to as low cards . Cards which have a higher point value may be called counting cards or counters. They usually include the Fool ( Excuse or Sküs ),

4810-517: Is used as above but counting only two cards. For example, a Queen (worth 3 1/2 points) and a low card (1/2 point) would be counted together to make 4. For the purpose of the rules, the numbering of the trumps is all that matters. The symbolic tarot images have no effect in the game itself other than influencing the naming of a few of the cards (Fool, Mond, Pagat, Little Man). The design traditions of these decks evolved independently, and they often bear only numbers and whimsical scenes arbitrarily chosen by

4940-537: Is widely recorded in French literature of that century, the earliest reference being that by Rabelais in Gargantua in 1534. By 1622 it had become more popular in France than chess and the earliest account appeared around 1637 in Nevers . This describes a three-player, 78-card game played with an Italian-suited pack with the Fool acting as an Excuse and the suits ranking in their 'original' order i.e. with numeral cards in

5070-562: The Black Forest or the Vosges , and the countries within the boundaries of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy , for which even the name 'Tarockania' ( Tarockanien ) has been coined. The Austrian variation of the game and the variations thereof is still widely popular among all classes and generations in Slovenia and Croatia . In Hungary different rules are applied. The Swiss game of Troggu

5200-579: The British Isles or the Iberian Peninsula . The cards of the special suit in these games are variously called Tarocks, tarocs, taroks, tarocchi or tarots . In French Tarot , they are just called the atouts . Dummett classified tarot games into three distinct types: Tarocchi (Italian, singular Tarocco ), and similar names in other languages, is a specific form of playing card deck used for different trick-taking games . An earlier name of

5330-580: The Cultural Revolution . Certain actions in trick-taking games with three or more players always proceed in the same direction. In games originating in North and West Europe, including England, Russia, and the United States and Canada, the rotation is typically clockwise, i.e., play proceeds to the left. In South and East Europe, South America, and Asia it is typically anticlockwise, so that play proceeds to

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5460-461: The Qing dynasty , these multi-trick games evolved into the earliest draw-and-discard games where the players' objective was to form melds and "go out" rather than capture the opponents' cards. Khanhoo is an example of a multi-trick game that became a draw-and-discard game. Multi-trick games are also probably the source for climbing games like Zheng Shangyou and dou dizhu , which first appeared during

5590-565: The Tarot card games have this rule. Some games, notably French tarot and a variation of Rook , use a special card (in French Tarot's case, the Excuse ) that can be played at any time. If not, he has the choice of playing a trump to possibly win the trick, or rough (waste) a different suit. If unable to follow suit or trump, any card can be played. Each trick must contain one card per player, and hence

5720-595: The Tarot de Marseille came to be viewed as Italian and were replaced by French designs, notably the Tarot Nouveau . There is some evidence that Napoleon's troops introduced Tarot, in the form of Droggn – a Tarot game with similarities to old French Tarot – into Austrian Tyrol. It is also recorded that French soldiers were issued with Tarot packs during the Franco-Prussian War (1870), First World War (1914–18) and Algerian War (1954–62), leading in each case to

5850-458: The atouts while lacking reversible court cards and trumps and corner indices. For ease of play, the late 19th century French-suited " Tarot Nouveau " or "Bourgeois Tarot" supplanted the Marseilles Tarot with depictions of typical fin de siècle genre scenes of French life and leisure. In English, the game is referred to as French Tarot or sometimes as French tarot , however,

5980-425: The atouts , 21 are numbered from 1 to 21, and a non-numbered card called " Fou " ("Fool", also called " Mat " or " L'Excuse " in play) which "excuses" the player from following suit. Of the atouts , only the Fool and trumps 1 and 21 are considered to be "counting" cards because they are worth more than 1 point. Winning the last trick awards bonuses only if it is won with the lowest trump. Tarot games from Piedmont ,

6110-410: The petite (small) and the pousse (push). The prise is still sometimes known as petite . There are also some players who play without the prise contract, with garde as the minimum allowable bid. First hand leads the first trick, and play proceeds anticlockwise, with every player playing a card to the trick. Tricks are evaluated in a similar fashion as other trick-taking games with a trump suit;

6240-491: The "player" plays alone against the rest. In Doppelkopf , the two players holding the black queens are partners for that hand. Special rules are provided for the case where a single player holds both black queens. In some games not all cards are distributed to the players, and a stock remains. This stock can be referred to by different names, depending on the game; supply , talon , nest , skat , kitty , and dog are common game-specific and/or regional names. In some games

6370-445: The 1 and 21). Cards are paired, with each counter matched to an ordinary card, and remaining ordinary cards are also paired. The values of pairs are then counted and summed: Each card thus has an individual value; the pairing simply makes it easier to count points. If a card cannot be paired, because there are an odd number in the scoring pile (common with three or five players) or more counters than ordinary cards: The number of points

6500-530: The 1 of trumps ( le petit or "Little one"), the 21 of trumps ( le monde or "The World", a holdover from the name of this card in the Tarot of Marseilles), and the Excuse (the Fool). These cards, when captured by the high bidder , lower the point threshold needed to fulfil the contract. In colloquial French, oudlers are often referred to as bouts (ends). The ranking of the hearts , clubs , diamonds and spades from

6630-416: The 62 card Tarocco Bolognese deck. These games have four face cards in each suit but dropped some of their pip cards early in their history. Both decks include 21 trumps and The Fool , a suitless card that excuses the player from following suit. The French adopted tarot games after their occupation of Milan in the late 15th century. French tarot , known locally as Jeu de Tarot , is one which uses

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6760-455: The 78-card Swiss 1JJ Tarot , another derivative of the Tarot de Marseille. Danish Grosstarok , which focuses on winning the final trick, historically used Animal Tarot decks or decks that replaced the animal motifs with ones featuring Danish architecture, until a dying out of local production and a shift towards exclusively producing stripped 54-card decks among foreign producers of Animal Tarot, resulted in players of this game now also adopting

6890-595: The I ( Pagat Petit , Bagatto or Little Man ) and the XXI ( Mond ) plus all the court cards . In such a case, the low cards are the remaining tarots (II to XX) and all the pip cards . Not all games follow this precisely. In some games, other cards are included among the counters. However, the division of counters and low cards described is the most common and is often accompanied by the following 'standard' card values: The system by which players work out their scores in almost all Tarot games may appear "eccentric and puzzling", but

7020-500: The Italian region bordering France, are more similar to French tarot than other Italian games. These games use the 78-card Tarocco Piemontese deck which was derived from the Tarot de Marseille. The most common Piedmontese tarot games are Scarto , Mitigati, Chiamare il Re, and Partita which can be found in Pinerolo and Turin. Troccas , a Swiss tarot game, is also related and is played with

7150-750: The Latin suits of Cups, Coins, Clubs, and Swords are common in Italy and Spain, and the French suits of Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, and Spades are seen in France, Quebec, West Germany and most of the English-speaking world. This trend continues even to non-Tarot decks such as for the German game of Skat, played with a deck of similar-value cards as in the French piquet deck used for Belote . Players in most of western Germany use French suits, while players in Bavaria and eastern Germany use German suits. The 78-card tarot deck contains: The 54-card 'Tarock' deck contains: Due to

7280-533: The Tarocco Bolognese. Jeu de Tarot is now the most popular card game in France after Belote and many tournaments are held by the Fédération Française de Tarot. A Tarot Nouveau deck consists of 56 cards of four suits and 22 emblematic cards called atouts (trumps). Each suit consists of fourteen cards: ten pip cards , and four face cards : the Roi (King), Dame (Queen), Cavalier (Knight), and Valet (Jack). Of

7410-537: The Tarot Nouveau. Tarock games, Dummett's Type III, differ from other forms in the function of the Fool which is now simply the highest trump. Games of this category include Cego , Zwanzigerrufen and Königrufen . These games use the 54 card French suited Cego or Industrie und Glück decks that strip certain pip cards. The games are widely played in the Upper Rhine valley and its surrounding hills such as

7540-495: The above example would make the taker's score 510, thus it balances out. This is not the only scoring method; the alternative is seen below. After each round, the cards are gathered, cut by the previous dealer, and dealt by the person to the right of the previous dealer. The cards are not commonly shuffled other than the "soft shuffling" that occurs as a natural result of playing the cards. By not shuffling, groups of desirable cards are kept together such that one person generally has

7670-469: The absolute (non-negative) difference between the points earned by the taker and the threshold, and, if any, the Petit au bout bonus. This quantity is multiplied by the appropriate multiplier for the taker's bid level (see Bidding), and then two additional bonuses may be added if they apply; the poignée or "handful" bonus, and the chelem or slam bonus (see below for descriptions of bonuses). Thus, calculation of

7800-407: The antiquity of tarot games, the cards are ordered in an archaic ranking. In the plain suits, Kings are always high. With the exception of modern French tarot and Sicilian tarocchi, the ranking in the Latin round suits (cups and coins) or the French red suits (diamonds and hearts) goes from King (high), Queen, Cavalier, Jack, 1, 2, 3 ... 10 (low). The aim in almost all card games of the Tarot family

7930-492: The bidding round. Before the bidding phase, if one player has a "Petit sec" (only one trump in hand, and it is the Petit, and does not have the Fool), then the player has to announce it and the hand is redealt. If it is discovered later in the game that a player had a "Petit sec", then it is also annulled and redealt by the following dealer. The players look at the cards they have been dealt, and an auction begins, beginning with first hand and rotating anticlockwise. By bidding,

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8060-510: The cards with ancient wisdom, the earliest record of this idea, subsequently debunked by Dummett . As a result of the unsupported theories of de Gébelin and other occultists, tarot cards have since been used for cartomancy and divination as well as gaming, although now fortune-tellers tend to use specially-developed tarot decks rather than those used for games. Tarot games are increasingly popular in Europe, especially in France where French tarot

8190-410: The contract while the other players are the defenders and attempt to prevent the taker from doing so. The level of bid is based on the strength of a player's hand, usually estimated by counting the points within it. See evaluating one's hand below for a method to determine the points within one's hand. The bids are, in increasing importance: If no one bids, the hand is void and the deal passes to

8320-401: The contractor ( declarer or taker ) plays alone against all opponents, who form an ad hoc partnership (the defenders ). In some games the partnerships are decided by chance – the contractor forms a partnership with the winner of the first trick, or with the player who holds a certain card. This practice originated from cinquillo and quadrille . In Königrufen and five-player French tarot

8450-399: The contractor, so that the contractor plays last to that trick. In precision or exact-prediction games, all players choose their winning condition independently: to win precisely a predicted number of tricks ( oh hell ) or card points ( Differenzler ). Each player's bid stands. In partnership games the partners' bids are often combined. Each player or partnership then tries to take exactly

8580-420: The dealer) in normal rotation is known as the eldest hand , also called the forehand in Skat and other games of German origin. The eldest hand leads to the first trick, i.e. places the first card of the trick face up in the middle of all players. The other players each follow with a single card, in the direction of play. When every player has played a card to the trick, the trick is evaluated to determine

8710-444: The dealer. In many games, the following players must follow suit if they can, i.e., they must play a card of the same suit if possible. A player who cannot follow suit may slough a card, i.e., play a card of a different suit. A trick is won by the player who has played the highest-ranked card of the suit led, i.e., of the suit of the first card in the trick, unless the game uses a trump suit . It can be an advantage to lead to

8840-446: The deck (some games use "soft shuffling," where the dealer does not explicitly shuffle the deck), and after giving the player one seat from the dealer opposite the normal direction of play an opportunity to cut , hands out the same prescribed number of cards to each player, usually in an order following the normal direction of play. Most games deal cards one at a time in rotation. A few games require dealing multiple cards at one time in

8970-439: The declarer, may be won by the player of the first trick, or may go to an opposing player or partnership. In some games, especially two-player games, after each trick every player draws a new card. This continues while the stock lasts. Since this drawing mechanism would normally make it difficult or impossible to detect a revoke (for instance, the player may not be able to follow suit, so they play off-suit and then immediately draw

9100-486: The declaring player has no additional trumps. This bonus is not multiplied according to the contract. When the last trick contains the Petit (1 of trump), 10 points is added to or deducted from the hand score before multiplying. Whether it is added or subtracted depends on which would most benefit the side taking the trick with the Petit au bout (One at the End). Usually, when one side (taker or defenders) makes Petit au bout but

9230-429: The dedicated trump suit, Hearts is chosen as the trump suit or at least as a preference suit . This family includes German Tarok , Württemberg Tarock or Tapp , Bavarian Tarock , Bauerntarock , Frog and Dobbm . They are ace–ten games that incorporate features of Tapp Tarock, but are not true Tarock games. The following true Tarock games are known: A complete Tarot deck such as one for French Tarot contains

9360-659: The development of ever more sophisticated card games: the invention of trumps, and the requirement of following suit to constrain their power, in the 15th century; and bidding in the 17th century. According to card game researcher David Parlett , the oldest known European trick-taking game, Karnöffel , was mentioned in 1426 in the Bavarian town Nördlingen – roughly half a century after the introduction of playing cards to Europe, which were first mentioned in Spain in 1371. The oldest known game in which certain cards have additional privileges

9490-475: The dog at any time, but the dealer may not: A common valid dealing order is player A → player B → dog → player C → dealer, but this is just one permutation and the dealer is free to choose the sequence while following the above rules. A maldonne ( misdeal ) occurs when the dealer makes mistakes in the dealing; if this happens, the hand is redealt, either by the same dealer or the next in rotation. Players inspect, sort and evaluate their hands, and then move on to

9620-422: The dummy hand, developed into contract bridge , the last global trick-taking game. The practice of counting tricks, in plain-trick games, may have originated in the counting of cards won in tricks. It was therefore a logical development to accord some cards a higher counting-value, and some cards no value at all, leading to point-trick games. Point-trick games are at least as old as tarot decks and may even predate

9750-499: The early part of the second millennium. Michael Dummett noted that these games share various features. They were played without trumps , following suit was not required but only the highest card of the suit led wins, rotation was counter-clockwise, they were plain-trick games, and the pip cards of one or more suits were in reverse order so that the lower cards beat the higher ones. Two revolutions in European trick-taking games led to

9880-409: The engraver. There are still traditional sequences of images in which the common lineage is visible. E.g. the moon that is commonly visible at the bottom left corner of the trump card 21 stems from confusion of the German word Mond , meaning "moon", with Italian mondo and French monde , meaning "world", the usual symbol associated with the trump card 21 on Italian suited tarots. In the denouement of

10010-404: The entire deck, anticlockwise, starting with first hand. Each player is dealt their cards in packets of three consecutive cards at a time (they will each receive 6 such packets for a total of 18 cards). In addition, a chien (lit. "dog", alt. "kitty", " talon " or "nest") of 6 cards is dealt one card at a time into the centre of the table, while dealing to the other players. A card may be dealt to

10140-405: The first deal ; the person with the lowest-value card deals first, with suits ordered spades > hearts > diamonds > clubs as a tiebreaker. All trumps rank higher than any suited card; anyone who draws the Fool must redraw. From this point, the deal will pass to the right (anticlockwise) for each subsequent deal. The player at the left of the dealer cuts the deck. The dealer then deals out

10270-477: The first volume of Dorothy Dunnett 's Lymond Chronicles , The Game of Kings, the protagonist's life depends on his friend winning a prolonged game of tarocco. Trick-taking game A trick-taking game is a card- or tile-based game in which play of a hand centers on a series of finite rounds or units of play, called tricks , which are each evaluated to determine a winner or taker of that trick. The object of such games then may be closely tied to

10400-655: The full 78-card Tarot deck. Originally played with the Italian-suited Tarot de Marseille , the game is now played with the French-suited Tarot Nouveau . The Tarot Nouveau, of Frankfurt origin, has trumps which depict scenes of traditional social activities. This differs from the Renaissance allegorical motifs found in Italian-suited tarot decks such as the Tarot de Marseille, Tarocco Piemontese and

10530-463: The full 78-card complement. It can be used to play any game in the family, with the exception of Minchiate , an extinct game that used 97 cards. Austrian-Hungarian Tarock and Italian Tarocco decks are a smaller subset, of 63, 54, 40, or even 36 cards, suitable only for games of a particular region. Regional tarot decks commonly feature culture-specific suits . The German suits of Hearts, Bells, Acorns and Leaves are used through most of Germanic Europe,

10660-665: The game Trionfi is first recorded in the diary of Giusto Giusti in September 1440 In other early documents it was called ludus triumphorum or similar. In June 1505, the name Tarochi was first used in Ferrara . In December 1505, the name Taraux appeared in Avignon . The names tarocco, tarocchi and tarot developed in later times beside different writing forms. The poet Francesco Berni mocked this word in his Capitolo del Gioco della Primiera written in 1526. The name Trionfi developed later as

10790-484: The given suit had full trump powers, others were partial trumps and the 7s had a special role. These features are retained in games of the Karnöffel family to the present, but are never seen in tarot games. Suits with these variable powers are called chosen or selected suits to distinguish them from trump suits. The introduction of trumps is one of only two major innovations to trick-taking games since they were invented,

10920-416: The hand score depending on whether the taker made or missed the contract. The sum of all scores for each hand, and thus the sum of the running totals after each hand, should be zero. For example, a Garde Sans bid with a simple handful won by player A by a margin of 12 points gives the following hand score: ((25 + 12 + 0) × 4) + 20 + 0 = 168 points. This score is deducted from the scores of all defenders and

11050-429: The hand score is expressed by the formula where: If the taker beats the target score, this hand score is deducted from the score of each defender. If the taker misses the target score, this score is added to the score of each defender. The opposite of the sum of the defenders' gain or loss is then added to or deducted from the taker's score to balance the scores; with four players, the taker will gain or lose three times

11180-400: The hand score, so if a player thinks that his or her side may not win, they might not want to declare a handful, so as not to give the other side points. The declaring player must show at least the number of trump cards for the level of the bonus declared. The Fool counts as a trump for the purposes of declaring handfuls, but if shown it gives information to other players as it usually means that

11310-414: The hand, or may disallow leading a card of a particular suit until that suit has been played "off-suit" in a prior trick, called "breaking" the suit, usually seen in cases of a trump or penalty suit. Other games have special restrictions on the card that must be led to the first trick. Usually this is a specific card, e.g., 2 ♣ . The holder of that card is the eldest hand instead of the person one seat after

11440-417: The hand. One or more of these bids stands as the contract , and the player who made that bid is rewarded for meeting it or penalized for not meeting it. In auction games, bidding players are competing against each other for the right to attempt to make the contract. In a few games, the contract is fixed, normally a simple majority, less often based on certain cards captured during play, and players' bids are

11570-417: The hand. The contractor can declare a recontra which will double the points again. Popular examples of games with auctions include Contract bridge , Pinochle , tarot games , Skat , Belote and Twenty-Eight . In many auction games the eldest hand leads to the first trick, regardless of who won the auction, but in some, such as Contract Bridge , the first lead is made by the player next in rotation after

11700-413: The highest trump, if played, takes the trick, and if trump is not played, the highest-value card of the led suit takes the trick. Every subsequent trick is led by the player who took the last trick. The leader of a trick can play any card they like. Once the leader of a trick has played a card, everyone else must follow suit . If the first card played in a trick is the Fool, the suit which must be followed

11830-421: The huge family of ace–ten card games beginning with brusquembille . Pinochle is a representative of this family that is popular in the United States. Other examples include belote and skat . In contrast to Europe, Chinese trick-taking games did not develop trumps or bidding. They diverged into multi-trick games where melds can only be beaten by other melds provided they have the same number of cards. During

11960-524: The invention of trumps. Elfern and Fünfzehnern are possible candidates, although the earliest references date to the 18th century. Nearly all point-trick games are played with tarot decks or stripped decks , which in many countries became standard before 1600. Neither point-trick games nor stripped decks have a tradition in England. While there are a number of games with unusual card-point values, such as trappola and all fours , most point-trick games are in

12090-408: The last trick or other specific tricks. The highest bid becomes the contract and the highest bidder is the contractor , known in some games as the declarer or taker , who then plays either with or without a partner. The other players become opponents or defenders , whose main goal is to prevent the contract being met. They may announce a contra against the contractor which doubles the points for

12220-469: The latter usually refers to tarot cards of French origin or to cartomantic tarot and not to the game. The name French Tarot is used in English to differentiate the card game from other uses of the tarot deck that are more familiar in the Americas and English-speaking countries, particularly the decks used for cartomancy and other divinatory purposes, and also to distinguish it from other card games played with

12350-424: The leading suit in his hands. There is a large variation of strictness in following suit among games. In most modern games with trump suits, the rules for following suit do not distinguish between the trump suit and the plain suits . If a trick begins with a plain suit card and a later player cannot follow suit, the player may choose freely to either slough (discard a card of another plain suit), or ruff ( trump

12480-745: The manuscript of Martiano da Tortona, written before 1425. The games are known in many variations, mostly cultural and regional. Tarot games originated in Italy, and spread to most parts of Europe, notable exceptions being the British Isles, the Iberian peninsula, and the Balkans. The earliest detailed description of rules for a tarot game in any language were published by the Abbé de Marolles in Nevers in 1637. The abbot learnt this variant from Princess Louise-Marie of Gonzague-Nevers , who introduced some rule variations from

12610-516: The name "trump" in English, the Italians later called them tarocchi as the idea of trumps spread to other card games. Both the Italian word tarocchi and the French word tarot occur from the early 16th century onwards, although it is unclear whether one was derived from the other. Tarot was introduced into France in the early 16th century as a result of the First and Second Italian Wars (1494–1522) and

12740-451: The normal game. It was played by three players with a 66-card pack, obtained by removing the 3 lowest cards of each suit from a standard 78-card, Italian-suited tarot pack. Two players received 21 cards each. The dealer received 25, from which four were discarded. There were payments for declaring certain card combinations at the start, for playing the Ace of Coins and for taking the last trick with

12870-413: The number of tricks or points they bid, and are rewarded or penalized for doing so independently of anyone else's success or failure in meeting their bid. This type of game began to mature in the 20th century. Other games generally falling into the exact-prediction category are Spades and Ninety-Nine . Trump cards are a set of one or more cards in the deck that, when played, are of higher value than

13000-445: The number of tricks taken, as in plain-trick games such as contract bridge , whist , and spades , or to the value of the cards contained in taken tricks, as in point-trick games such as pinochle , the tarot family, briscola , and most evasion games like hearts . Trick-and-draw games are trick-taking games in which the players can fill up their hands after each trick. In most variants, players are free to play any card into

13130-463: The older Italian-suited packs or bespoke modern designs, which have occultic symbology, rather than the packs with scenes of everyday life like the French Tarot Nouveau, German Cego and Austro-Hungarian Industrie und Glück packs. The game is played using a 78-card tarot deck. This deck is composed of: Three cards known as oudlers ( honours ) are of particular importance in the game:

13260-448: The other being the idea of bidding . Trump cards, initially called trionfi , first appeared with the advent of tarot cards , in which there is a separate, permanent trump suit comprising a number of picture cards. The first known example of such cards was ordered by the Duke of Milan around 1420 and included 16 trumps with images of Greek and Roman gods. A basic description first appeared in

13390-441: The other hand, it can be advantageous to be the final player who plays to the trick, because at that point one has full information about the other cards played to the trick. The last player to a trick can play a card just slightly higher or lower than the current winning card, guaranteeing they will win or lose it by the minimum amount necessary, saving more valuable high or low value cards for situations where they must guarantee that

13520-540: The other players must follow suit, i.e. play a spade card. East has a spade card, and thus must follow suit by playing 7♠ . South, however, does not have any spade card, and thus is allowed to play any card he wants. If he desires to win the trick, he can override North's K♠ by playing a diamond card (diamond being the trump), for example J♦ . If he does not want to win the trick, he can slough any other suit, such as 3♥ . Let us assume that he plays J♦ , overriding North's card. Now, West still has to follow suit, since he has

13650-421: The other side was successful in either making or breaking contract, the bonus is subtracted; when one side is successful in the contract and also makes Petit au bout , the bonus is added. If the side attempting the Petit au bout wins all the tricks, the player gets the petit au bout bonus if the Petit was played at the second to last trick (and won the trick) and the Fool was played at the last trick. This bonus

13780-464: The previous tricks (see Chelem /Slam below). If the side has taken all previous tricks, the card takes the last trick; if not, it changes hands to the other side, even if the trick is won by a partner or fellow defender of the person playing it. For 3 or 4 players (5 with a simple variation). The 4-player variant is usually considered the most challenging and is the one played in competitions. The following rules are for 4 players. Players draw for

13910-470: The public or private nature of the contents of scoring piles during play. Generally in trick-taking games, the contents of players' scoring piles are not public information during play of the hand, except in cases where a revoke is suspected (a player not following suit, trumping or overtrumping when it was possible for them to do so). A player is neither required to divulge the contents of the score pile nor permitted to look through it except as necessary to find

14040-419: The quasi-trick game Stortok , in which there are two trumps, with one superseding the other. Other games have no trumps. Hearts for instance has no provision for a trump suit of any kind. The Hearts suit for which the game is named has a different significance. Though trump is part of contract bridge , teams can make bids that do not specify a trump suit, called notrump . If that is the winning bid, then there

14170-429: The rationale to it is that, originally, the cards were each valued at one less point than that shown above (e.g. Kings were worth 4 points and low cards had no point value), but every trick taken scored one point. Dummett argues that the tedious work of counting tricks and card points separately led players to fuse the two processes into a single operation. There are several practical methods, but all are designed to achieve

14300-443: The right. On a prise , pousse or garde , the taker may not set aside a king or a trump, except that if the player cannot discard anything else, they may discard a non- oudler trump. In this case, the taker has to display which trumps they set aside. An oudler may never be set aside. In earlier rules, still played outside of competitions, in place of the prise and simple garde , there were two bids, in increasing importance:

14430-421: The right. When games move from one region to another, they tend to initially preserve their original sense of rotation. A region with a dominant sense of rotation may adapt a migrated game to its own sensibilities. For two-player games the order of play is moot. In each hand or deal, one player is the dealer . This function moves from deal to deal in the normal direction of play. The dealer usually shuffles

14560-477: The same aim: a quick and relatively simple way of calculating the score. A very common system used in many 54-card Tarock games is counting in packets of three. Under the original scoring scheme, the pack would have been worth 52 points and there would have been 18 points for the 18 tricks making a total of 70 points in total; thus, in most cases, a declarer needs 36 points to win. Mayr and Sedlaczek described 3 common systems: The first, easiest and oldest method

14690-457: The scoring count, the owner of the Excuse should instead give the winner of the trick a half-point card (a trump other than an oudler , or a suited number card; see Scoring ) from the tricks the Excuse holder has already taken. Two common exceptions to the above procedure occur when the Excuse is played to the last trick, and what happens depends on whether the side playing the Fool has taken all

14820-469: The spread of le jeu de Tarot throughout France according to Dummett and Berloquin. In 1973, the French Tarot Federation ( Fédération Française de Tarot ) was formed and, by the late 20th century, Tarot had become the second-most popular card game in France, only trailing Belote . Part of the reason why French Tarot persisted is the fact that the rules have been very consistent wherever the game

14950-470: The stock remains untouched throughout play of the hand. It is simply a pile of "extra" cards that will never be played and whose values are unknown, which will reduce the effectiveness of " counting cards ", a common strategy of keeping track of the cards that have been played or are yet to be played. In games without bidding, trumps may be decided by exposing a card in the stock as in Triomphe . In other games,

15080-454: The suit led. If a trick contains any trump cards, it is won by the highest-value trump card played, not the highest-value card of the suit led. In most games with trumps, one of the four suits is identified as the trump suit . In the simplest case, there is a static trump suit such as the Spade suit in the game Spades , or a dedicated trump suit in the Tarot family, in addition to the other four,

15210-513: The suits of Cups and Coins ranking from Ace (high) to Ten (low). This ranking is retained in all Tarot games today except in France and Sicily. In France, Tarot remained in vogue until 1650, but then its popularity steadily waned to the point where, in 18th century France, it was barely played outside the Provence region. The game experienced a revival in the course of the late 18th and 19th centuries. The original Italian-suited cards typified by

15340-430: The sum of this loss is added to the taker's score, hence the scorecard: Some players prefer to round the scores to the nearest 10 points after each game, however care must be taken as the scores should still sum to zero. Rounding each of the above scores independently yields 500 − 170 − 170 − 170 = −10. If rounding is to be done, the defenders' scores should be rounded and the taker's score adjusted accordingly. Doing so in

15470-518: The taker can call out a suit of which he does not possess the king, and is partnered with whomever does have it against the other three. Standard Schafkopf is similar: A "player" can "call" a suit, and the person holding the ace of that suit becomes his partner for the hand. As this is not openly declared, it can be a challenge for the remaining players, to find out who is partnered with whom through cunning playing for several tricks. Aside from that, standard Schafkopf also has several solo options, where

15600-431: The taker needs depends on how many of the oudlers (Excuse, Petit, 21 of trumps) are among the tricks won by the taker. There are 91 points to be taken in a round, so if the taker has: Scoring in Tarot is "zero-sum"; when one player gains points, one or more other players lose an equal number. To calculate the basic "hand score" that is to be added or deducted, the scorer starts with a basic score of 25 points, then adds

15730-451: The taker or the defenders gains 200 points. Failure to fulfill a pre-declared Slam costs the announcer 200 points. This bonus is not multiplied according to the contract. "Petit Slam" is a bid to take every trick but three. It is, like the misère , unofficial. An unannounced Petit Slam is worth 150 points, while an announced slam can gain the taker 300 points or lose them 150 if they make or miss. In Petit imprenable ("untouchable Petit"),

15860-467: The taking of tricks commences, players can expose certain cards or melds (combinations) that they possess for bonus points. While this phase may seem to award players for pure chance, those who do declare risk letting their opponents develop strategies to counter the cards that they have revealed. In many games, following suit is the action of playing a card of the same suit as that of the leading suit. A player must follow suit if that player has cards of

15990-409: The top is: King , Queen , Knight , Jack , 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ( Ace ). The only card with a special effect is the "Fool", L'Excuse . The Excuse may be played on any trick; it "excuses" the player from following suit. However, it normally doesn't win the trick. The card also normally remains the property of the person who played it, not the winner of that trick; to compensate for this in

16120-637: The total. So, for example, a Queen, Cavalier and Ten are worth 4 + 3 + 1 – 2 = 6 points. Players try to ensure that any odd cards left over are low cards. Again, two low cards are worth 1 point and a single low card is worthless. The third method is a new development and the most precise, but also the most complicated and least used: counting in fractions. Cards are given fractional values as follows: Trull cards and Kings – 4 + 1 ⁄ 3 , Queens – 3 + 1 ⁄ 3 , Cavaliers – 2 + 1 ⁄ 3 , Jacks – 1 + 1 ⁄ 3 and low cards – 1 ⁄ 3 each. In this way individual cards can be counted. So

16250-407: The trick by playing a trump card). Subsequent players to the trick must still follow the original suit, and may only discard or trump if they do not hold a card of the suit led. Certain games are "play to beat" or "must-trump". If a player cannot follow suit but can play trump, they must play trump. If they are able, they must beat any trump card already played to the trick. Pinochle and several of

16380-402: The trick. If a trump is led to the trick, the others must play a trump, and each trump must exceed the rank of all trump previously played in the trick if possible. If this is not possible, a lower-ranked trump, or any card if the player has no trumps, can be played. The Fool ( L'Excuse ) may be played to any trick, instead of following suit or trumping. The Fool never wins the trick, unless it

16510-459: The winner of an auction-bidding process, the taker or declarer, may get to exchange cards from his hand with the stock, either by integrating the stock into his hand and then discarding equal cards as in Skat , Rook and French tarot , or in a "blind" fashion by discarding and drawing as in Ombre . The stock, either in its original or discarded form, may additionally form part of one or more players' "scoring piles" of tricks taken; it may be kept by

16640-422: The winner, who takes the cards, places them face down on a pile, and leads to the next trick. The winner or taker of a trick is usually the player who played the highest-value card of the suit that was led, unless the game uses one or more trump cards (see below). The player who leads to a trick is usually allowed to play an arbitrary card from their hand. Some games have restrictions on the first card played in

16770-489: The year 1637. Excluding Piedmontese tarocchi, which is more closely related to French tarot , Italian tarocchi are all of Type I, i.e. they have trumps other than the I and XXI that are worth more than one card point. Winning the final trick ( ultimo ) awards a set number of points. Sicilian tarocchi is played in only four towns with 63 cards from the Tarocco Siciliano deck. Tarocchini is confined to Bologna and uses

16900-417: Was one of the first two countries outside of Italy to start playing tarot, the other being Switzerland. While various types of tarot games were played in France since the 16th century, the dominant form now popular is the 19th-century rule set from Bourgogne-Franche-Comté . Historically, tarot games in France were played with the Italian-suited Tarot of Marseilles which had Renaissance allegorical images on

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