User:DraconicDark/Portal:Card games
Portal maintenance status: (September 2018)
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Introduction
A card game is any game that uses playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, whether the cards are of a traditional design or specifically created for the game (proprietary). Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card games played with traditional decks have formally standardized rules with international tournaments being held, but most are folk games whose rules may vary by region, culture, location or from circle to circle.
Traditional card games are played with a deck or pack of playing cards which are identical in size and shape. Each card has two sides, the face and the back. Normally the backs of the cards are indistinguishable. The faces of the cards may all be unique, or there can be duplicates. The composition of a deck is known to each player. In some cases several decks are shuffled together to form a single pack or shoe. Modern card games usually have bespoke decks, often with a vast amount of cards, and can include number or action cards. This type of game is generally regarded as part of the board game hobby. (Full article...)
Selected general articles
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Image 1
500 or Five Hundred is a trick-taking game developed in the United States from Euchre. Euchre was extended to a 10 card game with bidding and a Misère contract similar to Russian Preference, producing a cutthroat three-player game like Preference and a four-player game played in partnerships like Whist which is the most popular modern form, although with special packs it can be played by up to six players.
It arose in America before 1900 and was promoted by the US Playing Card Company, who copyrighted and marketed a deck with a set of rules in 1904. The US Playing Card Company released the improved Avondale scoring table to remove bidding irregularities in 1906. 500 is a social card game and was highly popular in the United States until around 1920 when first auction bridge and then contract bridge drove it from favour. It continues to be popular in Ohio and Pennsylvania, where it has been taught through six generations community-wide, and in other countries: Australia, New Zealand, Canada (especially Ontario and Quebec) and Shetland. Despite its American origin, 500 is the national card game of Australia. (Full article...) -
Image 2humb (Full article...)
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Image 3
Coinche (French pronunciation: [kwɛ̃ʃ]), also called belote coinchée (IPA: [bəlɔt kwɛ̃ʃe]), is a variant of the French belote. The rules of the game are the same, but there are differences in how cards are dealt and how trumps are chosen.
Like most popular games, coinche rules may differ from a geographic area to another. (Full article...) -
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Matzlfangen ("catching tens") is a traditional point-trick, card game for 4 players that originated in the Bavarian province of Upper Palatinate over 200 years ago and spread to Austria. It is still played in a few places today. The game is named after the ten or Matzl, which plays a key role. (Full article...) -
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Tapp (Swabian: Dapp or Dappen) is a trick-taking, card game for 3 or 4 players using 36 French-suited cards that is played in the south German region of Swabia, especially in the former Kingdom of Württemberg. It is the French-suited offshoot of German Tarok; its German-suited form being called Württemberg Tarock (German: Württembergischer Tarock) in that region. Tapp is one of a family of similar games that include Bavarian Tarock, the Austrian games of Bauerntarock and Dobbm, and the American games of frog and six-bid solo. Although probably first played in the early nineteenth century, the game of Tapp is still a local pastime in its native Württemberg, albeit in a greatly elaborated form. (Full article...) -
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Bierlachs, also Bierskat, Bierscat, Lachs or Beer Skat, is a variant of Germany's national card game, Skat, in which the winner is the first to score a fixed number of points. It is predominantly played for beer in pubs and restaurants. (Full article...) -
Image 7Pedro is an American trick-taking card game of the All Fours family based on Auction Pitch. Its most popular variant is known as Cinch, Double Pedro or High Five which was developed in Denver, Colorado around 1885 and soon regarded as the most important American member of the All Fours family. Although it went out of fashion with the rise of Auction Bridge, it is still widely played on the western coast of the United States and in its southern states, being the dominant game in some locations in Louisiana. Forms of the game have been reported from Nicaragua, the Azores, Niobe NY, Italy and Finland. The game is primarily played by four players in fixed partnerships, but can also be played by 2–6 individual players.
Pedro uses a regular pack of 52 cards, but some variants add a Joker called the Dom, hence the name Dom Pedro. The game is much simpler than Pitch, in that all points are awarded to the winners of the tricks containing certain specific cards. This includes the Game point, which goes to the winner of the trump Ten. The winner of the Pedro (Five of trumps) receives 5 points. In Cinch or Double Pedro the same holds for the Left Pedro (Off-Five), which counts as a trump. The practice of making sure to win a trick that contains a high-scoring card is referred to as cinching. (Full article...) -
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Bolachen (the stress is on the second syllable; the "e" is also sounded) is a traditional card game for 3 players that is played in parts of southern Upper Bavaria, especially in the Rupertiwinkel area of the Berchtesgaden Land, where there is a cultural influence from Salzburg, and the state of Salzburg itself. It is a Bavarian variant of the more complex, old Austrian game of Préférence. Like its Bavarian cousin, Wallachen, Bolachen is threatened by extinction. (Full article...) -
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Sjavs is a Danish card game of the Schafkopf family that is played in two main variants. In Denmark, it is a 3-player game, played with a shortened pack of 20 cards; in the Faroe Islands, where it is very popular, it is a four-hand, partnership game using a standard piquet pack of 32 cards. (Full article...) -
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Écarté (French: [ekaʁte]) is an old French casino game for two players that is still played today. It is a trick-taking game, similar to whist, but with a special and eponymous discarding phase; the word écarté meaning "discarded". Écarté was popular in the 19th century, but is now rarely played. It is described as "an elegant two-player derivative of Triomphe [that is] quite fun to play" and a "classic that should be known to all educated card players." (Full article...) -
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German Solo or just Solo is a German 8-card plain-trick game for 4 individual players using a 32-card, German- or French-suited Skat pack. It is essentially a simplification of Quadrille, itself a 4-player adaptation of Ombre. As in Quadrille, players bid for the privilege of declaring trumps and deciding whether to play alone or with a partner. Along with Ombre, Tarock and Schafkopf, German Solo influenced the development of Skat. Parlett calls it a "neat little descendant of Quadrille" and "a pleasant introduction" to the Ombre family of games. (Full article...) -
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Bierkopf ("beer-head") is a trick-taking ace–ten card game for 4 players, played in fixed partnerships. It is a simple version of the Bavarian national game of Schafkopf that is played in Franconia (northern Bavaria) and usually for litre-glasses of beer. It is especially popular in the area of Bamburg. The game is popular enough for regular tournaments to be held.
Bierkopf is recorded being played in Franconia just before the Second World War. It is described as a four-hand partnership game played for penalty points called Bolln represented by a blob on the slate, each one "formerly usually worth 1 or even 2 pints [of beer]." At that time a side hoping to take all tricks could announce a Bucher, which is no longer a feature of the modern game. (Full article...) -
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Preferans (Russian: преферанс, IPA: [prʲɪfʲɪˈrans]) or Russian Preference is a 10-card plain-trick game with bidding, played by three or four players with a 32-card Piquet deck. It is a sophisticated variant of the Austrian game Préférence, which in turn descends from Spanish Ombre and French Boston. It is renowned in the card game world for its many complicated rules and insistence on strategical approaches.
Popular in Russia since approximately the 1830s, Preferans quickly became the country's national card game. Although superseded in this role by Durak, it is still one of the most popular games in Russia. Similar games are played in various other European countries, from Lithuania to Greece, where an earlier form of Russian Preferans is known as Prefa (Greek: Πρέφα). Compared to Austrian Préférence, Russian Preferans and Greek Prefa are distinguished by the greater number of possible contracts, which allows for almost any combination of trumps and numbers of tricks. Another distinguishing feature is the relatively independent roles played by the opponents of the soloist. (Full article...) -
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Solo 66 is a trick-taking ace–ten card game for five players, in which a soloist always plays against the other four. It is based on the rules of Germany's national game, Skat, and is played with a French-suited Skat pack of 32 cards. Bidding is for the trump suit. Jacks are ranked within their respective suits and do not form additional trumps over and above the cards of the trump suit. Grupp describes it as "an entertaining game for a larger group." (Full article...) -
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Bräus (or Brus) is an old Swedish card game from the island of Gotland that differs from all others in that not all cards are actually playable. The game is descended from the oldest known card game in Europe, Karnöffel, a fact testified by its unusual card ranking and lack of a uniform trump suit.
Bräus is designed for four players and is played with 36 cards of a French pack, each of the four suits comprising the cards 6-10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace. However, only 22 of these cards may be played. (Full article...) -
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Aluette or Vache ("Cow") is an old, plain trick-taking card game that is played on the west coast of France. It is played by two teams, usually of four people, but sometimes also of six. It is unusual in using a unique pack of 48 Spanish playing cards and a system of signalling between playing partners. The French colloquial names for the game, jeu de la Vache or Vache, refer to the cow depicted on one of the cards. (Full article...) -
Image 17Ramsch, formerly also called Mike in East Germany, is a card game based on the contract of the same name in the popular German card games, Skat and Schafkopf. However, thanks to its interesting mode of play it has since developed into an independent game in its own right which is only loosely based on Skat or Schafkopf. It should not be confused with the games of the Rams family – Ramsen and Ramscheln – that also go by the name Ramsch. (Full article...)
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Image 18Ristikontra or ristiklappi, sometimes translated as cross-clap, is a Finnish point-trick game for four players using a standard 52-card pack. Card suits do not play a role in this game, and there is no ranking order. A trick is won by the last player to play a card of the same rank as the card led.
The game is a highly unusual member of the ace–ten family, immediately related only to the Central European card game known as Sedma, Hola or Zsírozás. (Full article...) -
Image 19
The card game of Bauernschnapsen (also called Viererschnapsen) is an expanded form of the popular Austrian card game of Schnapsen, played by four players. This variant of Schnapsen is played throughout the whole of Austria. (Full article...) -
Image 20
Mulatschak or Fuchzenawa ("Fifteen Down") is an Austrian card game for two to five players that comes from the Salzburg area and is considered the quintessential game of the region. Although Mulatschak has been called the national card game of Salzburg, its rules were almost certainly unpublished before 2004. Mulatschak is a member of the Rams family in which the key feature is that players may choose to drop out of the game if they believe their hand is not strong enough to take a minimum number of tricks. There is a variant known as Murln or Murlen, which is played in Vienna and the Styria. (Full article...) -
Image 21
Bête, la Bête (French: Jeu de la Bête), Beste or la Beste (Jeu de la Beste), originally known as Homme or l'Homme (Jeu de l'Homme), was an old, French, trick-taking card game, usually for three to five players. It was a derivative of Triomphe created by introducing the concept of bidding. Its earlier name gives away its descent from the 16th-century Spanish game of Ombre. It is the "earliest recorded multi-player version of Triomphe".
During the 17th century, the Ombre concept of bidding was incorporated into Triomphe resulting in the game initially called l'Homme ("Man") and, later, la Beste or la Bête (German Labet, Dutch LaBate, English Beast). La Bête, or just Bête or Beast in English, later gave rise to the variants of Mouche and Mistigri, the latter still being played today. It may also have been antecedent to the games of the Rams family although it does not share their characteristic of allowing players to drop out of the current deal if they consider their hand to be too poor. (Full article...) -
Image 22
Bauerntarock ("farmers' tarot") also called Brixentaler Bauerntarock or Brixental Tarock, is a point-trick card game played in the Brixental, Austria. It may have originated in the 19th century either as an adaptation of 54-card Tapp Tarock onto the cheaper and smaller 36-card German pack. Another possibility is that it was adapted from the 78-card Grosstarock or Taroc l'Hombre game as the ratio of trumps to non-trumps is almost the same. It uses the Skat Schedule found in popular regional games such as Jass and Schafkopf. It is closely related to Bavarian Tarock, German Tarok, Württemberg Tarock and especially Dobbm. Like Bavarian Tarock and Tapp, Brixental Bauerntarock and Dobbm do not belong to the true tarot games, but have adopted rules from Tapp Tarock. The most fundamental difference between these games and true tarot games is in the use of German or French decks instead of true Tarot playing cards. (Full article...) -
Image 23
Pilotta (in Greek Πιλόττα) is a trick-taking 32-card game derived from Belote. It is played primarily in Cyprus, being very popular among the Cypriot population, especially the youngsters, who usually arrange “pilotta meetings” in places such as cafés and cafeterias. Its counterpart played in Greece is named Vida (in Greek βίδα). (Full article...) -
Image 24Toepen (/ˈtupə(n)/) is a trick-taking Dutch card game for three to eight players, and is often played as a drinking game. Typically the number of players is 4. (Full article...)
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Auction bridge was the first form of bridge where players bid to declare a contract in their chosen trump suit or no trumps. It was first recorded as being played in Bath around 1904. The Bath Club and Portland Club met in 1908 and issued a super-set of rules for Bridge that covered the bidding and penalty for failing to make a contract in Auction Bridge. Early forms were rudimentary and unbalanced and the British and Americans could not agree over the bidding ranking and use of artificial bids, resulting in The Whist Club of New York and The Portland Club issuing competing sets of rules.
By the 1920s "Royal Auction Bridge with the New Count", had fixed most of the problems. After books on the new game were published by leading Bridge authors it quickly became popular and replaced what remained of Whist and earlier forms of Bridge. It also replaced 500 in much of the US, after that game died out around 1920. (Full article...)
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Selected images
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Image 1The four lowest trumps from an 18th-century animal Tarock pack (from Königrufen)
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Image 2A transitional deck with suits of hearts and crescents (François Clerc of Lyon, late 15th century) (from French-suited playing cards)
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Image 4Austrian-style 54-card Tarock hand (from Königrufen)
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Image 5French Rouen pattern on the left, Spanish Toledo pattern on the right (from French-suited playing cards)
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Image 6Sigmund Freud indulged in Königrufen in his spare time. (from Königrufen)
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Image 8Dondorf Rhineland pattern (from French-suited playing cards)
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Image 9Historically, card games such as whist and contract bridge were opportunities for quiet socializing, as shown in this 1930s magic lantern slide photo taken in Seattle, Washington. (from Card game)
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Image 10North German pattern: the Kings (from French-suited playing cards)
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Image 11Baronesse pattern (from French-suited playing cards)
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Image 13Deck celebrating the union of Brittany and France with Spanish suits but has queens instead of knights (Antoine de Logiriera of Toulouse, c. 1500). (from French-suited playing cards)
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Image 14Chinese mother-of-pearl gambling tokens used in scoring and bidding of card games. (from Card game)
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Image 16The standard English (Anglo-American or International) pack uses French suit symbols. Cards by Piatnik (from French-suited playing cards)
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Image 17Book cover detail of the Illustrirtes Wiener Tarokbuch of 1899 (from Königrufen)
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Image 18Bukovina (orange) (from Königrufen)
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Image 20The values of Königrufen cards. The columns (from l to r) are: Card Type, Number, Card Value (from Königrufen)
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Image 21Russian pattern (from French-suited playing cards)
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Image 22Galicia with today's limits (from Königrufen)
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Image 23Modern pack of Tarock cards by Piatnik; Industrie und Glück design, Type 6 by Josef Neumayer, 1890 (from Königrufen)
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Image 24Petrtyl's deck with Indian and American motifs (from Königrufen)
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Image 25Pagats by a modern, Central European manufacturer; three type 6, one type 5 (here smaller, in Austria however usually larger than type 6) (from Königrufen)
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Image 27The Ober of Bells from a Württemberg-pattern pack (from Binokel)
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Image 28Belgian pattern (from French-suited playing cards)
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