The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (18 page)

led, or by the highest heart if any are played, and the winner of

each trick leads to the next.

Score Each player’s score is recorded cumulatively. Bids of 1 to 6

score, if successful, 1 point per trick bid (even if more were made),

or lose 1 per trick bid if unsuccessful. Bids of 7 or more

correspondingly win or lose 2 points per trick bid.

The player who first reaches or exceeds 41 points wins for his

side.

Vint 4 players (2 2), 52 cards

This Russian game is held to be a significant ancestor of Bridge, as it

involves above– and below-line scoring and the same trump

hierarchy as Biritch. A highly elaborate version of Bid Whist, its

name means ‘screw’, in al usion to the competitive way in which

bids are forced up in the auction. The only English-language

descriptions I am aware of go back to that by Hof mann and

Rennenkampf in The Laws and Principles of Vint, 1900. Whereas

the 1900 game is reasonably simple and sedate, the fol owing,

based on a Swedish description of the game described as current in

Estonia, is extremely complex and elaborate. It embodies, however,

Estonia, is extremely complex and elaborate. It embodies, however,

an excel ent scoring principle – namely, that the value of each trick

varies not with the suit but with the level of the contract. In ef ect,

the higher you bid, the more each trick is worth. This could with

profit be applied to Bridge (see Brint).

Preliminaries A session consists of three rubbers. Each involves a

dif erent combination of two partners sit ing crosswise in

partnerships to yield an individual final result. A rubber consists of

two won games fol owed by four extra deals. Scores are made

above and below a line, as at Bridge, but the scoresheet is

necessarily divided into four columns instead of two, and each

member of a partnership scores the same in their respective

columns for any given deal.

Deal Choose the first dealer by any agreed means. Al play goes to

the left. Deal twelve cards each face up and four to the table face

down.

First auction There are two auctions. The first determines the

declaring side, and the second increases their contract. Dealer bids

first, and each successive bid must exceed the previous one. Bidding

is for a number of tricks to be taken in excess of six, as at Bridge,

but starting at the four level, i.e. for ten tricks. The bids from lowest

to highest are 4 nul os (undertaking to lose at least ten tricks at no

trump), 4 , 4 , 4 , 4 , 4 grand (= no trump), then 5 nul os, and

so on upwards to a maximum 7 grand. There is no doubling. The

first auction ends when everyone has passed twice in succession, i.e.

after eight consecutive passes. If no one bids and al pass twice, the

hand is played as a pass-misére (see below).

Declarers exchange The highest bidder becomes declarer. He turns

the table cards face up for al to see, adds them to his hand, and

passes any four cards face down to his partner. His partner adds

them to his hand, then passes any one card face down to each other

them to his hand, then passes any one card face down to each other

player, so that al now have thirteen.

Second auction Declarer now begins the second auction, which

takes place only with his partner. His first bid must exceed his last,

quoting either more tricks in the same suit or the same number in a

higher. This auction ends when both have passed twice in

succession, i.e. after four consecutive passes.

Exchange and doubling Before play, eldest hand (declarer’s left-

hand opponent in a positive contract, right-hand in a nul o) passes

one card face down to his partner, who passes him one in return.

This does not apply, however, in a slam contract of six or seven.

After this exchange, eldest may ‘knock’ to signify that he doubles

the contract, and declarer’s partner may then knock to redouble. If

eldest declines to knock, his partner may do so; similarly, declarer

may redouble if his partner did not. If a contract of four is not

doubled, the defenders usual y concede it as won without bothering

to play.

Play Eldest makes the opening lead. Players must fol ow suit if

possible, otherwise may play any card. The trick is taken by the

highest card of the suit led, or by the highest trump if any are

played, and the winner of each trick leads to the next.

Pass-misére If al pass, dealer deals the table cards around so al

have thirteen. Each player exchanges one card face down with his

partner. Dealer’s left-hand opponent leads to the first of 13 tricks at

no trump, and the aim is to lose the most tricks.

Score Above the linegoscores for the contract, overtricks, and

honours. The contract score varies only with the number contracted,

regardless of whether played in suit, nul o, or grand, thus:

contract declarers if won

defenders if lost

four

1000 (overtricks

400 per undertrick

ignored)

five

2000 + 200 per

500 per undertrick

overtrick

six

3000 + 200 per

600 per undertrick + premium

overtrick

of 400

seven

4500

700 per undertrick + premium

of 1000

Honours in a suit contract are al four Aces and the top five

trumps – nine in al , as the trump Ace counts twice. They are

scorable by either side regardless of win or loss. Whichever side

held a majority of honours (after the exchange, if any) scores the

number of honours held multiplied by 10 times the contract value.

Example: A side that held the trump Ace and two others, plus King, Queen, Ten

of trumps in a contract of five, scores 7 honours times 5 contract times 10 =

350.

Further scores accrue to either side for holding in one hand three

Aces for 200, four Aces for 400, trump AKQ 200, plus 200 for each

lower card in sequence, non-trump AKQ 100, plus 100 for each

lower card in sequence.

At grand, a side that held three or four Aces adds (respectively)

40 or 50 times the contract value. Three or four in one hand count

400 or 800, and suit-sequences headed AKQ count 200 per card

involved.

At nul os, there are no honours, but a side that succeeds in

discarding an Ace to a trick scores 100 times the number of the

trick at which it fel .

At pass-misére, the side winning fewer tricks scores 100 for each

trick dif erence between the two sides, i.e. six tricks 100, five 300,

and so on. Scores for discarding Aces also apply as at nul os.

Scores below the line are what count towards game. Both sides

score below the line the numerical value of the contract multiplied

score below the line the numerical value of the contract multiplied

by the number of tricks it actual y won – except in a pass-misére,

when neither side scores below the line. This applies regardless of

whether the contract was made, and irrespective of doubling.

Example: If the contract was 6 (doubled or not) and the tricks divided 8-5, the

respective scores are 48 and 30.

Game and rubber Game is 60 below the line. The first side to win

two games scores a bonus of 400, and exactly four more deals are

played.

For its third game a side scores 600, for its fourth 800, and so on

(improbably) in increments of 200.

Quinto

4 players (2 × 2), 52 cards

This delightful and imaginative Whist variant was invented by

‘Professor Hof mann’ (Angelo Lewis) around 1900.

Preliminaries Four sit crosswise in partnerships and play to the left.

From a 53-card pack ranking AKQJT98765432 in each suit, and

including a Joker, deal twelve each in ones and leave the last five

face down on the table as a cachet e (Hof mann’s terminology).

Object Game is 250 points over as many deals as necessary. Points

accrue for winning tricks (5 each) and especial y for any ‘quints’

they may contain. The best quint is the Joker, or ‘Quint royal’,

worth 25 points. Additional quints are the Five of each suit, and

two cards of the same suit total ing five (A+4, 2+3) and fal ing to

the same trick. A quint in hearts scores 20, diamonds 15, clubs 10,

spades 5.

Doubling Before play, each has one opportunity to pass, double or

redouble an opponent’s double. A double increases the value of

won tricks from 5 to 10 points in the current deal, a redouble

further increases them to 20 each. An incidental but not

insignificant ef ect is to reduce the relative value of quints to tricks.

Play Eldest leads to the first trick, and the winner of each trick leads

to the next. Suit must be fol owed if possible, otherwise any card

may be played. There is no single trump suit. Instead, the suits rank

in order from low to high: spades, clubs, diamonds, hearts. A player

unable to fol ow suit to the card led may discard from a lower suit

(if any), or may trump by playing from a higher suit (if any). The

trick is therefore taken by the highest card of the highest suit

played. The Joker may not be led to a trick, and cannot win a trick,

but otherwise may be played at any time, whether or not its holder

can fol ow suit. (It fol ows that a player stil holding the Joker at

the eleventh trick must play it if the only alternative is to win the

trick, otherwise he would have to lead it to the twelfth.)

Score During play, the side winning a trick containing a quint scores

immediately for the quint (Joker, Five, A-4, 3-2), according to its