The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (25 page)

at least four. Base value 12

(+4 per over/under-trick).

Grande misére.

To lose all thirteen tricks at

no trump. Base value 32

Nine. To win at least nine

tricks in the named suit. Base

value 15 (+5 per over/under-

trick).

Though holding four Aces,

to lose all thirteen tricks at Base value

Four-ace misére.

no trump, but with

40

permission to revoke once

in the first ten tricks.

Ten. To win at least ten

tricks in the named suit. Base

value 18 (+6 per over/under-

trick).

To lose every trick at no

trump after making one

Base value

Petite misé re ouverte.

discard, face down, exposing 48

Boston 55

one’s hand on the table, and

playing to twelve tricks.

Eleven. To win at least

Base value 21 (+7 per

eleven tricks in the named

over/under-trick).

suit.

after

laying

Grande misé re ouverte.

To lose all thirteen tricks at one’s

Base value 56

no trump,

hand, face

up, on the

table.

The same, but

. Twelve. To win at least

Boston. To win all thirteen 10.

with one’s

twelve tricks in the named

tricks in the named suit.

Boston

cards face up

suit. Base value 24 (+8 per

Base value 100.

Ouvert.

on the table.

over/under-trick).

Base value

200.

Note: In petite misére, whether or not ouverte, only the bidder

discards, and only twelve tricks are played.

SupportThe declarer in a bid of five, six, seven or eight may either

play alone or, before the first trick is led, cal for a supporter. If

anyone accepts the cal , the two play as temporary al ies and share

in any wins or losses. Though playing in concert, they store their

won tricks separately, as the supporter is obliged to win a

minimum number as stated in the Table, above.

PlayIn any ouvert game, the hand is exposed before the opening

lead. Eldest always leads first. 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

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

winner of each trick leads to the next.

ScoringIn a solo contract (unsupported), the amount won or lost is

found by taking the base value quoted in the schedule above and

increasing it as fol ows:

1. Add (except in miséres and Bostons) the stated premium for

each overtrick, if any, or undertrick, if lost.

2. Add (except in miséres and Bostons) the equivalent of two

overtricks if the soloist held three honours, or four overtricks

if al four. The honours are Ace, King, Queen, Jack of trumps.

3. Double this total if the trump suit (or, in miséres, the

nominal trump) was clubs, treble it if diamonds, quadruple it

if hearts.

If, in a supported contract, both players either fulfil or fail their

individual contracts, each one’s win or loss is calculated as

described above, but is then halved before being recorded. (For a

supporter, an overtrick or undertrick is that in excess of, or short of,

the three or four that were personal y contracted.) If only one

member of the al iance succeeds, he scores zero, while the other

loses half the value of his lost contract plus half the value of his

al y’s won contract.

A French schedules include an apparent but unexplained contract of Boston á

deux ranking between bids of five and six tricks. Its base value is 50 – that is, half the value of a solo Boston contract. It sounds like a bid to win Boston with the aid of a partner, though it is hard to see why a bid of six should overcall it.

Perhaps it is merely a premium score applied when, in a supported game, each

makes his contract and both take all thirteen tricks between them.

Ombre(Hombre,L’Omber)

3 players,40cards

A game of cards that the bet er sort of people play three together

at.

Vanbrugh,The Provok’d Husband (1727)

A game for card gourmets and snobs…

Grupp, Kartenspiele (1975)

Ombre is the Anglicized French name of one of the greatest games

in card history, the ancestor of al bidding games, including Bridge.

It was original y a sixteenth-century Spanish game cal ed Hombre,

meaning ‘man’, and denoting the solo player. Original y for four, it

was as a three-hander that Ombre swept Europe towards the end of

the seventeenth century. It was the height of fashion at the court of

Charles I , a fact exploited to dramatic ef ect in Magdalen King-

Hal ’s twice-filmed The Wicked Lady. The same game is depicted to

equal ef ect byAlexander Pope in The Rape of the Lock. The

modern game survives in Spain as Tresil o, in Denmark as

L’hombre, in Peru as Rocambor, and no doubt elsewhere. Al

substantial y resemble the fol owing nineteenth-century English

game, here taken from a treatise by Lord Aldenham, published

privately in 1902. Preliminaries Three players, 40 cards,

AKQJ765432 in each suit. Each player starts with at least 40 chips

or counters. A game is any number of deals divisible by three. Deal,

bid and play to the right. The dealer antes five chips to the pool,

deals nine cards each in threes, and sets the last 13 face down in the

middle as a stock.

Rank of cardsThe rank of cards varies with the colour of each suit

and whether it is plain or trump. Cards run, from highest to lowest:

black suits (plain)

K Q J 7 6 5 4 3 2

black trumps

A +2 A K Q J 7 6 5 4 3

red suits (plain)

K Q J A 2 3 4 5 6 7

red trumps

A +7 A A K Q J 2 3 4 5 6

MatadorsThe top three trumps are cal ed Spadil e ( A), Manil e

(trump 2 if black or 7 if red), and Basta ( A). They are col ectively

cal ed matadors and have special powers. In a red trump suit the

fourth highest is its Ace, cal ed Punto, but it is not a matador.

AuctionEldest, the player at the dealer’s right, speaks first, and each

in turn may pass, make an opening bid, or overcal a previous bid.

The highest bidder is designated Hombre, chooses trumps, and aims

to win more tricks than either opponent individual y. Thus five or

more always wins, and four wins if the others split three-two. The

bids are, from lowest to highest:

1. Entrada. Before play, Hombre announces trumps, makes any

number of discards and draws the same number of

replacements from the top of the stock.

2. Vuelta (voltereta). Hombre turns the top card of stock face up

to determine trumps, then discards and draws as before.