The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (62 page)

Tressette

4 players (2 × 2), 40 cards

Tresset e is one of Italy’s major national card games, together with

Scopone and Briscola. Although it appears very old, in that it lacks

trumps, and ranks Threes and Twos above Aces, it is known only

from the early eighteenth century. Its name, meaning ‘three Sevens’,

may refer to a scoring combination no longer recognized, or to the

fact that it is played up to 21. The game appears in many formats

and for any number of players up to eight. Mediatore is a non-

partnership version for four, Rovescino a trick-avoidance variety,

Madrasso a uniquely Venetian hybrid of Tresset e and Briscola.

Described below are the standard partnership game for four and a

classic three-hander popular in Lombardy under the name

Terziglio, sometimes cal ed Calabresel a. Sources: Giampaolo

Dossena, Giochi di Carte Italiani (Milan, 1984); Rino Fulgi Zaini,

Giochi di Carte (Milan, 1934-77), Anon., Giochi diCarte (Milan,

1969).

Preliminaries Four players sit crosswise in partnerships and play to

the right.

Cards A standard 40-card pack, lacking numerals 8-10, with

suitmarks of swords, batons, cups, coins (t I u O equivalent to

), and courts of Re (King), Caval (Knight), Fante (Footsoldier).

Object A stake is agreed, and the winners are the first side to reach

a score of 21, 31 or 51 (as agreed) over as many deals as necessary.

Points accrue for declaring combinations, winning card-points in

tricks, and winning the last trick.

Rank and value of cards Cards rank and count in descending order

as fol ows:

3 2 A K Q J 7 6 5 4

1/3 1/3 1 1/3 1/3 1/3 0 0 0 0

Any fractions occurring in the final total are ignored (they are

said to ‘drop on the floor’).

Deal Deal ten cards each in two batches of five. A player whose

counters total less than 1 point may annul the hand, and the same

dealer deals again.

Declarations Before the opening lead, a player dealt a particular

card combination may announce ‘Buon gioco’, then declare and

score it when the trick is over (regardless of who won it). The valid

combinations are:

Four Threes, Twos or Aces:

4 points

Three Threes, Twos or Aces:

3 points

3-2-A of a suit (napoletana):

3 points

All 10 cards of a suit (napoletana decima): wins the game outright.

The suit of a napoletana must be stated, as must the suit missing

from three of a kind. It may be agreed not to include combinations,

in which case the game is normal y played up to 21.

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.

Signals Each player, upon leading to a trick, may signal to his

partner by making an announcement or performing an equivalent

action as fol ows.

Busso (bunch one’s fist on the table): ‘Win the trick if you can,

Busso (bunch one’s fist on the table): ‘Win the trick if you can,

and return this suit.’

Volo (slide the card slowly on to the table): ‘This is the last or

only card I have of this suit.’

Striscio (skim the card rapidly on to the table): ‘This is my

best suit.’

The third convention is not always admit ed.

Score The side winning the last trick scores an extra point. The total

value of points available in one deal is 112/3, rounded down to 11

by counting 1 for each group of three fractional cards and ignoring

the final fraction. Normal y, the game ends as soon as one side

claims to have reached 21, any remaining cards being left unplayed.

If the claim is correct, that side wins the stake (even if the others

scored more without claiming); if it is false, they lose it.

Alternatively, any of the fol owing special events ends the game:

Cappot o. One side takes al ten tricks. This wins a double

stake.

Cappot one. A single player takes al ten tricks. This wins

sixfold.

Stramazzo. One side takes al the counters, but not al the

tricks. This wins treble. Its also prevents the losing side from

scoring a point for winning the last trick, as also does:

Strammazzone. A single player takes al the counters, but the

opponents win at least one trick. This wins eightfold.

Col atondrione. A player declares al 10 of a suit. This wins

sixteenfold.

Comment The chal enge of Tresset e lies in accommodating oneself

to the absence of trumps. This increases the incidence of

‘squeezing’, whereby players unable to fol ow suit may be uncertain

which other suits to discard and which to keep guarded. It also

tends to reduce the amount of information obtainable by

conventional play, which is why partners are instead al owed to

conventional play, which is why partners are instead al owed to

convey information through conventional announcements. Scoring

for declarations also imparts useful information, and is therefore

significant to the play in a way that scoring for honours in Whist

and Bridge is not.

Variants

Tresset e con la Chiamata del Tre

(4p) A version with floating instead of fixed partnerships. After

each deal, eldest hand before leading to the first trick cal s a suit in

which he lacks the Three. Whoever holds that card becomes his

partner for the deal, sharing in any wins or losses, but may reveal

himself only by playing the cal ed card.

Rovescino

(3-8p) This is the negative member of the Tresset e family, the

main aim being to avoid taking card-points in tricks. Its name

original y applied to an early seventeenth-century game, the

ancestor of Reversis and, ultimately, Hearts. In fact it has many

names (Traversone, Perdi-vinci, Vinciperdi, Ciapanò and others)

and is played throughout Italy in a multiplicity of local variations.

Deal al the cards out until everyone has the same number and as

many as possible. Any leftovers are dealt face down to the table as

a monte. Play as at Tresset e. The monte, if any, goes to the last

trick-winner, together with any card-points itmay contain. Points

are counted and rounded down as at Tresset e, including one for

last, but are recorded as negative or penalty points. The first to

reach 21 loses, or the winner is the player with the lowest score

when that happens.

Fourormore may playit asanelimination game, with each

successive loser dropping out of play until only three remain.

Tresset e in Due

(2p) Deal ten each and play as above, but leave 20 face down as a

stock. So long as any cards remain in stock the winner of each trick

draws the top card, waits for the other to do likewise, then leads to

the next trick.

Terziglio (Calabresel a)

3 players, 40 cards

See, those priests enter a cafe… They call for cards, and sit down to their

national game. The glassy eyes become bright, and the dull countenances full

of life. They are playing Calabrasella [sic], which we mentioned last month, and which we now proceed to explain.

‘Cavendish’ (Henry Jones), The Westminster Papers (Nov. 1870)

Cavendish’s misspel ing of Calabresel a, now more often known as

Terziglio, and his rationalization of the scoring system by

multiplying everything by three, resulted in an inaccurate English-

language description that remained current through much of the

twentieth century.

Preliminaries Terziglio is Tresset e for three players, using the same

cards and card-point system as in the parent game (see above), but

disregarding card combinations.

Deal Deal twelve cards each and spread the last four face down,

forming a monte.

Object The overal aim is to be the first to reach 21 points. In each

deal, one person plays against two with the aim of capturing in

tricks cards total ing at least 6 of the 11 points available for

counters and the last trick

Bidding Each bids in turn, starting with eldest. Each successive bid

must be higher than the last, and a player who has once passed may

not come in again. The bids from low to high are:

Chiamo (Cal ). The soloist plays after cal ing for a card

lacking from his hand, and receiving it from its holder in

exchange for any card he doesn’t want. If the cal ed card is in

the monte, he may not cal another. Having cal ed, he turns

the monte face up for al to see, adds it to his hand, and

makes any four discards face down in its place. Whoever wins

the last trick wil win the monte, and benefit from any card-

points it may contain.

Solo. The soloist doesn’t cal a card, just takes the monte and

discards as above.

Solissimo. The soloist plays without cal ing a card or taking

the monte, which remains face down and out of play.

Solissimo aggravate. The soloist not only does not take the

monte, he even al ows the opponents to use it. If he says,

‘Half each’ (Dividete), each of them takes two cards without

showing them, and makes any two discards, face down, also

without showing them. If he says, ‘You choose’ (Scegliete),

they turn the four face up and may agree to split them 2-2, 3-

1 or 4-0. Each then discards, face down, as many as he took.

Pass-out (optional rule). If al pass without bidding, the monte is

left intact and the hands are gathered up and redealt by the same

dealer without being shuf led. This time, the minimum bid is a

solo.

Play Eldest normal y leads to the first trick, but it may be previously

Play Eldest normal y leads to the first trick, but it may be previously

agreed that the soloist always leads in a bid of solissimo. 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. The two opponents

may not signal or communicate with one another unless so agreed

beforehand.

Score Whoever wins the last trick not only scores 1 point for last

but also wins the monte as if it were an extra trick. The soloist

counts the points he has won in tricks, as in Tresset e, ignoring

fractions. If he has taken at least 6 points, he scores the appropriate

amount, or is paid it by each opponent; if not, each opponent

scores the appropriate amount, or is paid it by the soloist. The

appropriate amounts are: cal 1, solo 2, solissimo 4, aggravato

dividete 8, aggravato scegliete 16. The appropriate score is doubled

for winning every trick, or trebled for taking al 11 points without

winning every trick.

Game Normal y 21 points, but 31 or 51 may be agreed.

Comment The main aim in exchanging through the monte is to

secure guards for your Aces and only secondarily to replace low

cards with high ones. If not leading to the first trick, you need at

least al four suits headed by 3, or 2-A, or A-x-x, or three suits

headed 3-2. Given the lead, a single suit wil do, if it is long enough

and headed by top cards. Play centres largely on the trapping or

saving of Aces and winning the last trick. The partners must study

each other’s play careful y to discover their strong suits.

I Stovkahra (Trappola)

4 players (2 × 2), 32 cards

The whole male population of Sumice seems to know the game; they play fast,

enthusiastically and loudly, banging the cards down on the table. Many of the

players are farmers; in the winter months when they have little to do, and are

sometimes cut off from the outside world for long periods by snow, they play

cards every day.

John McLeod, The Playing-Card (XXVI, 2)

Playing-card enthusiasts have long been fascinated by a pack of

cards cal ed Trappola, bearing Italian suitmarks and courtly figures,

but distinguished by its peculiar omission of numerals Three to Six.

Early researchers were mystified by the regular appearance of

examples from dif erent parts of Europe at dif erent periods of

time, suggesting various lines of continuity that no one could

disentangle convincingly. Some considered it to be the oldest

European pack, perhaps ancestral to the Tarot. We know from

Cardano, ‘the gambling scholar’, that Trappola was played in

Venice as early as 1524, and was probably invented there. By the

end of that century it was no longer played in Italy, but was

beginning to fan outwards. It continued in Bohemia and Moravia

under the names Trapulka, shortened to Bulka, and Sestadvacet

(meaning ‘Twenty-six’, from a significant score), certainly until the

nineteenth century and perhaps into the twentieth. In the

eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it flourished in Austria and

southern Germany under the alias Hundertspiel, from its target

score of 100 points, while the closely related game of Spady

persisted in Silesia and Czechoslovakia into the twentieth century.

Trappola cards were last manufactured at Prague in 1944. A Greek

dimension is also suggested by the fact that the everyday Greek

word for any pack of cards is trapoula.

Field researches conducted in 1997 by Tomas Svoboda of Prague