trick-taking game

History

The earliest card games were trick-taking games, as evidenced by the rank-and-suit structure, originating from ancient China and spreading westwards during 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 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 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 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 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.

Basic structure

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 the dealer.

Partnerships

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, 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 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 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.

Stock

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 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, 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 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 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.

Bidding

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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

Trumps

Trump cards are a set of one or more cards in the deck that, when played, are of higher value than 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, 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 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 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 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.

Declarations

In some games such as Piquet, Tarocchini, and Belote, before 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.

Follow suit

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 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 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 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 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 holds: A♠ K♠ 4♥ 9♦

East holds: 7♠ 5♦ Q♣ 10♣

South holds: 3♥ 2♦ J♦ A♣

Scoring

When all tricks have been played, the winner of the hand and the players' scores can be determined. The determining factor in plain-trick games, the most popular form of trick-taking games in English-speaking countries, is simply how many tricks each player or partnership has taken. In point-trick games, certain card values are worth varying points. The players sum the points from cards in their "scoring piles" that were accumulated by taking tricks.

Points for cards, and the method of counting points, vary by game. In Rook, for example, the 5-card of each color is worth 5 points, the 10 and 14 (or Ace) is worth 10, and the Rook Bird (or Joker) is worth 20, while all other cards are worth nothing. Many Chinese card games like Finding Friends use a very similar system, in which each 5-card is worth 5 points, and the 10 and King are each worth 10 points.

Pinochle has many popular scoring variants usually based on point values for face cards and Aces, while pip cards score no points. In French tarot, all cards have a value including a half-point, and are traditionally scored in pairs of a high-value and a low-value card which results in a whole-point value for the pair.

In the most common positive or race games, players seek to win as many tricks or card points as possible. To win a hand, a player typically needs to win a minimal number of tricks or card points; this minimal threshold is usually called the "contract", and may be defined by the game's rules (a simple majority of total available points or tricks, or tiered thresholds depending on which player or side has captured certain cards), or the result of an "auction" or "bidding" process. A player who wins more than the number of tricks or card points necessary for winning the hand may be rewarded with a higher score, or conversely (in exact-prediction games) they may be penalized.

There are also negative or evasion games, in which the object is to avoid tricks or card points. E.g. in Hearts each card point won in a trick contributes negatively to the score. A special type is misère games, which are usually variants of positive games which can only be won by not winning a single trick.

Other criteria also occur. Sometimes the last trick has special significance. In marriage games such as Pinochle the winner of the last trick receives 10 points in addition to the card points, while in final-trick games such as cắt tê only the winner of the last trick can win a hand. There are also blends between positive and negative games, e.g. the aim may be to win a certain prescribed number of tricks. Many card games, regardless of their normal scoring mechanism, give bonuses to players or partnerships who win all tricks or possible points in a hand, or conversely lose all tricks or points.

Special variations

Variations to basic rules

Numerous further variations to the basic rules may occur, and only a few examples can be mentioned here:

Certain games require the holder of a certain card value to play it as the lead to the first trick of a hand; Hearts, as commonly played in North America, requires the player holding the 2♣ to play it as the lead-off card. Variants of Pinochle sometimes require the first player to the left of the dealer that holds a dix (9♣) to lead off.

There may be restrictions on leading certain suits; a common Hearts rule is that a player may not lead a Heart until at least one trick has had a Heart played off-suit to another trick. Spades has a similar but less-common variation regarding its trump suit.

There are trick-taking games played with Domino tiles instead of playing cards. These include the Chinese Tien Gow and Texas 42. Giog is played with Chinese chess tiles.

Many games are played with one or more stripped decks (a deck from which certain card values are removed). The most common stripped deck is a piquet deck, used for piquet, Belote, Skat, Euchre, Bête, Écarté, Bezique and (with two piquet decks) Pinochle, among others. Rook's main variant, Kentucky Discard, uses the equivalent of a 52-card deck with all card values 2–4 removed. Most regional Tarot variants, especially Central European and Italian variants like Tarock and Tarocco, use some subset of the "full" 78-card Tarot deck.

In Bridge the partner of the contractor or declarer is called dummy and does not actively participate in the play; dummy's hand is instead laid on the table face-up after the opening lead, and declarer chooses the cards from dummy's hand to play during dummy's turns.

In Hachinin-meri and Truf, trumps are played face down. When the trick is finished, the trumps are revealed to see who won the trick.

In many trumpless games that do not require following suit, sloughing is done face down. This is done in Madiao, Tien Gow, Tam cúc, Six Tigers, Ganjifa, Kaiserspiel, and Brazilian Truco.

Rules in Austrian and German games

In games derived from Austria and Germany, trick-taking is governed by the rules called Zwänge. The three main ones are Farbzwang, Stichzwang and Trumpfzwang. Although they broadly equate to rules in English-speaking countries, there are no single-word equivalents. For many games of this type, applying these rules correctly is crucial to the type of contract being played.

Farbzwang (or Bedienzwang) literally means "suit compulsion" and is the rule that players must follow the suit of the first card to be led to the trick, provided that they have a card of that suit. If a player does not have a card of the led suit, rules vary depending on whether the other Zwänge apply.

Stichzwang means "trick compulsion" and is the rule that players must attempt to win the trick if they are able, either by playing a higher card of the led suit or by playing a trump card to a side suit lead.

Some games apply Farbzwang and Stichzwang together, which means that a player, when it is his or her turn, must:

take the trick with a higher card of the led suit. If unable to do so, the player must

discard a lower card of the led suit. If that is not possible, the player must

take the trick with a trump card, but if that is also not feasible, the player may

discard any card.

Farbzwang, the requirement to follow suit, almost always takes precedence over Stichzwang. A player is not allowed to take the trick with a trump if able to follow suit. There are rare instances where e.g. All Fours rules apply i.e. a player with a card of the led suit may either follow suit or trump, but only if unable to follow may a player discard.

Trumpfzwang means "trump compulsion" and requires that a player must play a trump if unable to follow suit. In other words, the player may not simply discard, if unable to follow.

Examples

Trick-taking games may be divided into point-trick games and plain-trick games. Examples of each are as follows:

Point-trick games

Point-trick game are those in which win or loss is determined by the total value of the "counters" in the tricks. The counters are cards with a point value, sometimes referred to as "card points" to avoid confusion with "game points" awarded for winning the game and/or bonuses.

Examples include:

Plain-trick games

Plain-trick games are those in which the outcome is determined by the number of tricks taken, regardless of their content.

Examples of plain-trick games include:

In games that consist of several successive, different, trick-taking contracts, such as Herzeln or Quodlibet, it is not possible to categorise them as either point- or plain-trick games.

Last trick games

In a very few games the aim is to win the last trick. These include:

Agram

Femkort

Letzter Stich

Toepen

Trick-avoidance games

Trick-avoidance games are those in which the aim is to avoid taking certain tricks or to avoid taking all tricks. Misere or bettel are contracts in which the declarer undertakes to win no tricks. There are also contracts like Piccolo in the game of Königrufen, in which the aim is to take only one trick. Examples include:

Bassadewitz

Gong Zhu

Grasobern

Hearts

Polignac

Slobberhannes