The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (52 page)

played when a hand is passed by al three players, even though the

‘of icial rules’ forbid it. In fact it is a highly intriguing and skilful

game in its own right. Schieberamsch (from schieben, ‘to shove’) is

the most popular modern form.

Preliminaries Three play with a 32-card French or German pack

having the fol owing card-point values:

French Ace Ten King Queen Jack 9-8-7

German Ace Ten King Ober Unter 9-8-7

counting 11 10 4

3

2

0

The Jacks or Unters do not belong to the suits marked on their

faces but form a separate four-card trump suit of their own, ranking

from high to low as fol ows:

In non-trump suits, the order is A-T-K-Q(or Ober)-9-8-7. Deal

Deal ten each in batches of 3-(2)-4-3, the (2) going face down to the

table to form the skat.

Object Normal y, to avoid taking most card-points in tricks. Before

play begins, however, each in turn has one chance to bid ‘grand

hand’, which is an undertaking to win at least 61 card-points in

tricks and without picking up the skat. (See Grand hand, below.)

The skat Forehand may take the skat, add it to his hand, and

discard any two cards face down in its place. Each in turn thereafter

may do the same, taking as the skat the previous player’s discards.

(Hence the title: the skat is shoved round from player to player.) It

is permissible to discard either or both of the cards picked up, but

many players forbid the discard of any Jack. A player with

suf icient confidence in his hand may simply pass the skat on to the

next player without looking at it. This has the ef ect of doubling the

eventual score, so that, for example, if al three play ‘from the hand’

the score wil be octupled.

Play Forehand leads. 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 Jack if any are played, and the

winner of each trick leads to the next. At end of play, any card-

points contained in the skat are added to those of the player who

took most (or, variant, to whoever won the last trick).

Score Whoever won most card-points records that number as a

penalty score, increased by as many doubles as apply, and rounded

down to the nearest 10. For example, if two players doubled by not

taking the skat, and the loser took 82 card-points, he scores 4 × 82

taking the skat, and the loser took 82 card-points, he scores 4 × 82

= 328 ÷ 10 = 32 (ignoring remainder). If two tie for most, they

both count the same penalty. The amount is doubled (before

rounding down) if one opponent took no trick at al . If, however,

both took no trick, then the player who took al ten wins. His

penalty score is then reduced by 120, doubled for each opponent

who did not look at the skat.

Grand hand If one player bids ‘grand hand’, the skat remains

untaken but is turned up and added to the soloist’s won tricks at

end of play. An opponent may double the contract (‘Kontra’), and

the soloist may then redouble (‘Rekontra’). The score at grand hand

is calculated in the manner of Skat, from which it is borrowed, and

which see for further explanation. (Briefly: base value 24,

multiplied by the fol owing factors: number of consecutive top

trumps original y held or not held, 1 for game, 1 for hand, 1 if

schneider made, 1 if schwarz made, 1 if schneider bid, 1 if schwarz

bid.) Doubles and redoubles are applied before rounding down. If

the soloist took 61 or more card-points, the resultant score is

deducted from his penalty total, otherwise it is added.

Note that Jacks constitute a separate suit and do not belong to the suits

marked on their faces. If a Jack is led, you must play a Jack if possible. If a non-trump is led, you cannot follow suit by playing its Jack, but may trump with any Jack if unable to follow.

Ramsch

In the original game the skat was not touched but merely taken in

with the last trick, and whoever took fewest card-points won an

agreed stake from each opponent. A player who took no tricks at

al (a ‘virgin’), or who took al ten, won double. There was no

grand hand bid.

Augenramsch (Point-Ramsch)

As Ramsch, but whoever takes most card-points counts that number

as a penalty.

Mit elramsch (Middle-Ramsch)

As Augenramsch, but whoevertakesthemiddling numberofcard-

points loses, and records that number as a penalty.

Vierzigeramsch (Forty-Ramsch)

As Schieberamsch, but the aim is to take the middling number of

card-points, which in practice means as close to 40 as possible. This

is recorded as a positive score. If two players tie, the third scores

either what he makes, or the amount scored by each opponent,

whichever is the greater. If al take 40, it is scored by the winner of

the last trick.

I Bassadewitz (Bassarovitz)

3-6p (4 best), 32 cards

A forerunner of Ramsch, probably defunct, but not without

interest.

Preliminaries Cards rank and count as fol ows:

A K Q J T 9 8 7

11 4 3 2 10 0 0 0

Dealer contributes 12 chips to a pool (or each of four players

contributes three) and deals the cards round evenly. If two remain,

leave them face down and add them to the last trick.

Object To take as few card-points as possible of the 120 available.

Play Eldest leads. Players must fol ow suit if possible, otherwise

may play any card. The trick is taken by the highest card of the suit

led, and the winner of each trick leads to the next. There are no

trumps.

Pay-of Whoever takes fewest card-points col ects 5 chips, second-

fewest 4, third 3 chips. Ties are set led in favour of the eldest

player, but a player taking no tricks beats one who merely takes no

card-points.

A player winning every trick receives 4 chips from each

opponent. A player winning 100+ card-points, but not every trick,

pays 4 chips to each opponent. In either case the pool is carried

forward and the same player deals again, as also if everyone takes

the same number of card-points.

Variant: In an earlier incarnation, Ace counts 5 penalties instead of

11, and each player adds 1 per trick to his card-point total (a

maximum of 88 when four play).

I Coteccio (‘Reverse’)

2-7 players, 40 cards

Of several similar Italian games so named, the most interesting is

that played in Trieste, as it is one of the few games extant that

retain the card-point values associated with the ancient game of

Trappola. The fol owing derives from McLeod’s description in The

Playing-Card (XXV, 5).

Preliminaries From two to seven players pay an agreed stake to a

pool and start with a notional four lives. Play to the right. Deal five

each from the 40-card Italian pack ranking 1, Re, Caval, Fante, 7, 6,

5, 4, 3, 2. The top four cards (equivalent to AKQJ) count

respectively 6, 5, 4 and 3 points each. Another 6 for winning the

last trick makes 78 card-points in al . The aim is either to avoid

taking the greatest number of card-points, or to win al five tricks.

Play Eldest leads. Players must fol ow suit if possible, otherwise

may play any card. The trick is taken by the highest card of the suit

led, and the winner of each trick leads to the next. There are no

trumps. A player who wins the first four tricks straight of may

either annul the hand, in which case the same dealer deals again, or

undertake to win the fifth trick by leading to it.

Score Normal y, the player who takes most card-points loses a life.

If two or more tie for most, they al lose a life. If you win four and

successful y go for the fifth, you gain an extra life and the

opponents lose one each. If you fail, you lose a life and the actual

winner of the last trick gains one.

Theoretical y, players drop out upon losing their fourth life, and

the winner is the last left in. However, the game can be long drawn

out. By agreement, a player upon losing his last life may, provided

at least two other players remain alive, ‘cal the doctor’ by paying

(say) a half stake to the pool and receiving in return as many lives

as remain to the player who currently has fewest.

If al live players tie for most and so ‘die’ simultaneously, the

whole game is annul ed and re-started with four lives each and a

new pool added to the old one.

The turn to lead first always passes to the next live player to the

right of the previous first leader, and the deal is always made by the

next live player to the leader’s left.

Don’t forget…

Play to the left (clockwise) unless otherwise stated.

Eldest or Forehand means the player to the left of the dealer

in left-handed games, to the right in right-handed games.

T = Ten, p = players, pp = in fixed partnerships, c = cards,

† = trump,

= Joker.

5 Piquet and others

Piquet is the best known of a group of games fol owing a similar

pat ern. First, you score for any card combinations that you have

been dealt, or can acquire by making discards and drawing

replacements from a stock. Next, you make further scores by

playing your cards out to tricks. Most are now defunct, but Piquet

itself retains a fol owing among card connoisseurs.

Piquet (Picquet, Picket, Cent)

2 players, 32 cards

… the French consider the invention of Piquet as a national point

of honour, and that the native author who should cal it into

question would render himself liable to a suspicion of incivism.

William Chatto, Facts and Speculations on Playing-Cards (1848)

God send you better lucke at pickett than I have with Harry Bennett at

cribbadge.

Charles II in a letter to Ormonde

(Clarendon State Papers, Vol. 3, 1656)

Piquet has long been regarded as the best card game for two. In

1534 Rabelais placed it high on the list of games played by

1534 Rabelais placed it high on the list of games played by

Gargantua, and in 1892 (according to Le Guide Marabout) the

delegates to a card congress held at Vienna voted it the most

‘classic’ of al card games. Perhaps because it was also regarded as

essential y aristocratic and upper-class, and because it takes a good

many words to explain, it has been lit le played since the First

World War. Despite French ancestry, Piquet has been played in

England long enough – probably since the marriage of Charles I to