A Most Trionfi Adventure

Boooo, Happy Halloween, everyone!  Today, we’re finally going to tackle the reason the Tarot deck was invented, the game of Trionfi….sort of.  The first Tarot deck was commissioned around 1425, by Filippo Maria Visconti, duke of Milano, as part of a Triumph (trionfo) celebration for the birth of his first child, even if it was by his mistress.  Up until then, he had believed himself unable to have children.

He had recently been visited by the Greek emperor for aid against the Ottoman Empire, and it is believed he developed an interest in the greek pantheon of gods at that time.  So he made it a theme of this deck of cards.  The artist used the story of Apollo and Daphne as the core of this theme, which is interesting for another reason.  Daphne is mainly known for having been stalked by Apollo, because he’d had an argument with Eros, the god of love.  Eros made Apollo love Daphne, but Daphne hate Apollo, so she fled his attempts at seduction.  He chased her, and just as he was about to catch her, Daphne pleaded for her father to help, and she was transformed into a laurel tree.  Such was his obsession, though, that Apollo vowed to wear her always in his hair, which is why he is pictured with laurel branches as a sort of crown.  He also used his powers of eternal youth to make the tree evergreen.

What is relevant, though, is that among Apollo’s titles, he is the god of oracles.  Despite the fact that the tarot deck would not be used for divination until around 300 years later, this is a fascinating coincidence.

Now, the first deck was basically for show, and only had 16 of the trump suit (what we know today as the major arcana).  From the spotty records, it seems the rules were unpolished and not finalized with the full 78-card deck until a few years later.  Trionfi’s exact original rules have sadly been lost, but while tarot games have expanded to a wide variety of different ones, the closest modern equivalent to the original ruleset is found in Bolognese Tarot, also known as Ottocento.

A true Bolognese deck is tricky to find, as the trump suit is numbered a bit differently.  There are four cards between the begato (the 1 of trumps, or the magician) and the 5.  These are called the four Moors and are un-numbered.  They are all considered to have the same rank.  The top 4 cards are un-numbered, as well (Angel, World, Sun, and Moon, in rank from high to low).  The best guessed reason for the difference in numbering is that the ranks were chosen before the cards had numbers, so when the numbering was introduced, they shifted to keep 13 associated with the Death card.  I also notice that in my deck, the World is numbered 21, while the Angel is 20.

Since I was unable to acquire a Bolognese deck, I will be using a modern Italian Tarocco deck, which is numbered like a standard tarot deck.  Since there will be some minor conversions, I will go over the card ranks when using a normal deck.  The description on pagat.com recommends ranking based on the symbols, which would put the Angel (20) above the World (21), among others.  This is one of those instances where I’m more concerned with the teachability of the game, so I’m minimizing changes in card ranks by number.

The Cards

First, the non-trump suits are shortened, with the cards numbered 2-5 removed.  In Swords and Batons, the ranking is what we would be normally used to, while in Cups and Coins, the ranks are partially reversed, as shown below (from high to low):

Swords, high to low

 

• Swords & Batons: King, Queen, Knight, Page, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, Ace
• Cups & Coins: King, Queen, Knight, Page, Ace, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Cups, high to low

 

Trumps are ranked in normal card order from high to low, except that the 2, 3, 4 & 5 are of equal rank, as these used to be the four Moors.  If more than one is played to a trick, and no higher trump is played to beat them, then the last one played wins (for example, if the 2 is played after the 5, the 2 wins the trick).

The Matto, also known as the Fool, or Excuse, has no rank.  Its main use is to play one time to avoid the requirement to follow suit, as well as one if the wild cards in bonus combinations.

The top two trumps (21 &20), the begato (1), and matto (excuse) together make up the Tarocchi, and are worth more points than the other trumps.

Above, the Tarocchi. Below, the 4 Moors, which are all of equal rank.

 

Ottocento is a point-trick partnership game, in which the goal for each team is to capture the most card points.  There are also bonus points for certain combinations of cards, which can be Declared before the first trick from your hand, or scored at the end based on tricks you captured.  The basic values are:

• Tarocchi (21, 20, 1 of trumps, and the Matto): 5 points
• Kings: 5 points
• Queens: 4 points
• Knights: 3 points
• Pages: 2 points
• All Other Cards: 1 point
• Winning the Last Trick: 6 points

Cards are counted together in pairs, and 1 point is deducted from each pair (this basically makes each card worth half a point less, which we’ve seen before).

Game Play

After the shuffle and cut, each player is dealt 3 packets of cards in sets of 5, for a total of 15.  Dealing this way gives the dealer 7 cards on the last pass.  Everyone picks up their cards, and the dealer discards 2, to reduce their hand to the same 15 as everyone else.  These cards will count towards the tricks won by the dealer and their partner (unless the other team wins every trick, in which case, they also get these last 2 cards).  The discards may not be any of the 5-point cards (Tarocchi and Kings).

After the deal, the players may score bonus points by declaring sequences and/or cricche (3 or 4 cards of a kind) in their hands.  Only certain cards qualify for these bonuses, and for some of them, the begato and matto may be used as wild cards.  Since combinations will be looked at for scoring again after all the tricks are played, I will go into them in detail in the Scoring section.  The dealer may not include their discards in the declarations.

By now, you know the drill.  Any card may be led, and players must follow suit if possible.  In this game, as is common in tarot games, if you cannot follow suit, you must trump if you can, although Ottocento does not require you to beat a previous trump.  The trick is won by the highest trump, or the highest card of the suit led.  The first trick is led by the eldest hand, and the winner of each trick leads to the next one.

As in many tarot games, the matto is an exception.  It may be played in place of an otherwise required card, avoiding the requirement to follow suit.  It is retained by the player who used it, but they must give a single-point card from their captures in its place.  If they have not yet taken a trick, the matto may be left face-up as a reminder to give a card later.  If the player has not won a trick by the end of the hand, then the matto is lost.

Signals

In Ottocento, there are 3 signals that are legal to give your partner, but only when leading to a trick.

• Toss a card in the air (volo): “This is my last card in this suit.”
• Strike the table with your first (besso): “Please play your highest card.  If you win, play the same suit.”
• Scrape the card on the table (striscio): Please lead trumps.

It is forbidden to use any other signals (although cheating players back then had lots more of them).

Scoring

After the last trick is played, each team’s scores are calculated in the following order (remember, declarations were scored before the first trick)

1. Lay out your team’s cards, sorted by rank, in a grid.  This makes checking for bonus points easier.
2. Score for cricche, and remember to double the points if 3 or more different cricche are scored by a single side.
3. Score for sequences, again remembering to double the points if 3 or more sequences are scored by one side.
4. Score the card points (the easiest way to do this is to put a 1-point card with any of higher rank, so you can score them as 5, 4, 3, or 2.  Count the remaining single-point cards in pairs, at 1 point per pair.
5. Finally, add 6 points for winning the last trick.

Cricche

These are when you have 3 or 4 of a kind of the higher-value cards.  No wild cards are used when counting cricche.  If one team score 3 different cricche at the end of the game, the points are doubled.  If scoring for declarations, all three must be by the same player.

Cards	Any 3	All 4
Tarocchi	18	36
Kings	17	34
Queens	14	28
Knights	13	26
Pages	12	24

Sequences

A sequence is a group of 3 or more cards of the following specific sets.  They score 10 points for the first 3 cards, plus 5 points for each additional card.  The begato and matto are used as wild cards to fill in sequences, and may be used in all sequences, so they are extremely valuable.  In the list below, when I say a card must be real, that means a wild may not be substituted for it.  The valid sequences are:

• Trump: the 21 (must be real), and at least two of the next 3 trumps, at least one of which must be real.  Wild cards may only be used once in a trump sequence to fill gaps, and two wilds in a row end the sequence.
• Suit: the King (real), and at least 2 of the other court cards in suit (Queen, Knight, Page), at least one of which must be real.  Once this set is valid, you may also add the Ace of the suit.
• Moors: at least 3 of the Moors (2-5 of trumps), and at least 2 of them must be real.
• Aces: at least 3 Aces, and at least 2 of them must be real.

My scoring on this hand is absurd, but that’s what happens when I play all 4 hands for a picture.  Here’s the breakdown:

1. Cricche: I had 3 of a kind in the Tarocchi, the Queens, Knights, and Pages.  That’s (18+14+13+12)x2 = 114.
2. Sequences: I had the full suit sequence of Swords (20 points, plus the begato for an extra 5).  Then two of the 4 Moors and the begato to make it the Moors sequence for 10.  Finally, thanks to pulling trumps from everyone, I had from 21 all the way down to 6 (75 points, plus a bonus 5 from the begato).  This makes it (25+10+80)x2 = 230.
3. We won the last trick for 6 points.
4. In card points, we had a total of 57 points.
5. Grand Total: (114+230+6+57) = 407 points.

The game is over when one team reaches at least 800 points.  High score wins.

 

French Tarot

There are several games played with tarot cards throughout Europe, and in a later article, I’ll write about the very first one.  It’s surprisingly complex, however, and I figured I’d start with something a little simpler.  Having just learned about the bidding and gameplay of L’Ombre, it will also seem familiar.

French Tarot is playable by 3-5 players, in which one player, after winning the bid, plays to capture a required number of card points, while the other players cooperatively try to foil the attempt.  In each hand, all points are either won or lost by the taker, the player who wins the bid.  This is similar to the role of Hombre in L’Ombre or Tresillo.  But before we get to the scoring, let’s go over the cards.

The Deck

Obviously, French Tarot is typically played with the 78-card French-suited tarot deck, although almost any tarot deck can be used.  This is good, because a French-suited deck is difficult to find in the US.  As a reminder, Swords=Spades, Batons=Clubs, Coins=Diamonds, and Cups=Hearts.  Each suit consists of 14 cards – Ace (lowest) through 10, Valet, Knight, Queen, and King.  The trump suit is what we know today as the Major Arcana – it contains 21 numbered cards.  Finally, there is the Fool/Excuse card, which is essentially the lowest-ranked card in the game – it cannot win a trick at all, except for the extremely rare case that it is led to the last one after a team has won all other tricks.

An important subset of cards is called the bouts – this consists of the Fool, the 1 of Trumps (Magician), and the 21 of Trumps (World).  Capturing these specific cards determines the minimum number of points required to win if you are the taker.

I will cover scoring in detail later, but for now, know that the Bouts and Kings are worth 4.5 points, Queens are 3.5, Knights are 2.5, Valets are 1.5, and everything else is worth half a point.  The point values seem strange, but they came about due to how points in many tarot games used to be counted – basically they started from 4 and went down to 1 for the valet, and the rest were “empty cards,” worth 0.  You would score 1 point for each trick, then add up the points of cards in that trick.  Since this changed with the number of players, the French opted to count in pairs, consistently, and allow half-points for games where a player took an odd number of cards.

Honestly, it’s still kinda weird to me, but I just go with it.  Heck, it’s apparently weird to the modern French, too, because their current deck comes with a point reference card, and all the values are rounded up except the 0.5-point cards – you still count those in pairs to get one point.

The Deal

Officially, the deal and play are both counter-clockwise, but in a casual game, this is not important, so you may deal and play in the direction your group is most comfortable with.  Deal cards to the players in groups depending on the number of players:

• 3 Players: 24 cards each, dealt in groups of 4
• 4 Players: 18 cards each, dealt in groups of 3
• 5 Players: 15 cards each, dealt in groups of 3

During the deal, 6 cards are dealt singly to a separate pile called the chien (the dog).  These can be dealt at any time except for the first 3 or last 3 cards of the deal.  With 5 players, the chien is only 3 cards.

If, after the deal, a player has only the 1 of trumps and neither the excuse nor any other trump, they can declare a cancelled hand, and the cards are redealt.

The Bids

Looks like a hand worth bidding – almost 20 points not counting half-point cards, the top card in two suits, and the highest trump (a bout).

Much like Tresillo, the bidding in French Tarot is a declaration that you can win the hand against everyone else, although in this case, you are going for card points, rather than a number of tricks.  Starting with the first hand dealt, players have one chance to either bid or pass.  The possible bids from lowest to highest, and how a winner with that bid proceeds is detailed below:

• Petite (Small) or Prise (Take): The taker reveals the chien for the table to see, then takes them into their hand.  Next, they discard 6 (or 3, with 5 players) cards face down to rebuild the chien.  The chien cards count toward their points to win.  These discards may not include Trumps, Kings, or the Excuse.  If this rule cannot be obeyed to to an extremely lucky deal, the discarded Trump, King, or Excuse must be shown to the other players as it goes into the chien.
• Garde (Guard): Functionally identical to Petite, although it doubles the stakes of the game (detailed under scoring)
• Garde sans le chien (Guard without the dog): Nobody looks at the chien, but the card points count towards the taker’s score to win.
• Garde contre le chien (Guard against the dog): Nobody looks at the chien, and the card points do not help the taker.

In teaching this game, the most common confusion with the bidding is having to unlearn the modern way of outbidding a quantity, whether it is number of tricks or points.  The first person to bid is basically saying, “I have a good enough hand to win the game.”  Someone who outbids them is essentially saying, “Oh yeah?  Well I think I can win the game better than you!”  Their bid is to accomplish the same thing, but with more difficult restrictions, like tying one hand behind your back in a fight.

Think of it like that, without the connotations of “bidding,” and it makes a lot more sense.

The Partner (only with 5 players)

One unique thing about the five-player version of the game is that the taker has a partner, rather than working alone against all the other players.  This is likely due to the greater number of cards working against the taker.

After the discard, but before beginning play, the taker names a King of a suit.  The player holding that king is now the taker’s partner, and their tricks will count together for determining the taker’s success.  If nobody has the named king, the taker names the Queen of a suit, and so on.

What intrigued me, though, is that the partner is secret for much of the game.  Their identity is not revealed to anyone until they actually play the named king in a trick.  This allows them to surreptitiously “lose” higher-point cards to the taker for a while.  This is especially cool to me, considering the “recent” game mechanic of having a hidden traitor in otherwise cooperative games, which are also thought to be a modern invention.

The Play

The player to the dealer’s right (or left, if you dealt clockwise) begins by leading a card to the first trick.  In the order dealt, players must then play a card of the same suit if they can.  If not, they must play a trump card if they have one, and if the trick has already been trumped, they must play a higher trump. If the player does not have a higher trump, they must still play a trump, or any card if they have no trumps left either.

After all players have played a card, the trick is won by the player with the highest trump, or the highest card of the suit led, if no trumps were played.  The winner claims the cards and leads to the next trick.

The Fool/Excuse card may be played to any trick to excuse the player from having to follow suit, even if they have another card they could play.  The Fool cannot win a trick, and when the trick is claimed, the player who played the Fool keeps it, giving the winning player any half-point card from their won tricks instead.  You can lead the Fool to a trick, in which case the second player determines the suit led with any card they chose to play.

There are special rules if the Fool is played in the last trick, however.  In the last trick, the Fool is claimed by the winner of the trick.  And in extraordinarily rare games, if the taker’s team or the opponent team has won every trick so far and leads the fool to the final trick, this is the only way the Fool can win a trick.

Bonuses

I’m covering bonus points before the main score, because they do not count toward the card points needed to win the hand.  They may be won or lost by the taker in addition to what they may gain or lose for the hand.

Poignée (Handle)

This is a bonus for declaring a certain number of trumps held before playing a card to the first trick.  It varies according to the number of players, which I will show as (3-#/4-#/5-#) next to the different bonus amounts.

• Single Poignée: 20 points (3-13/4-10/5-8)
• Double Poignée: 30 points (3-15/4-13/5-10)
• Triple Poignée: 40 points (3-18/4-15/5-13)

Petit au Bout (Small at the End)

This is a 10-point bonus for playing the 1 of Trumps in the last trick.  If winning all the tricks and taking the last one with the Fool, petit au bout is scored by playing the 1 of Trumps in the next-to-last trick.  The points are won by the team that takes the last trick.  That is, if the taker doesn’t win this trick, they deduct 10 points during scoring.  This bonus is also multiplied based on the bid – see below.

Chelem (Slam)

If one side wins all the tricks, they score for chelem.  The amount depends on whether it was announced in advance.

• Chelem Annoncé: The team (usually the taker, since I can’t imagine bidding without being able to take at least one trick) announces chelem before the first play, and leads to the first trick.  If successful, the bonus is 400 points.  Failure is -200 points.
• Chelem non annoncé: The team wins all the tricks without announcing it.  The bonus is 200 points.

Scoring

After the last trick, the taker (together with their partner, in 5-player games) adds up their total card points, including those in the chien, unless they bid Garde Contre le Chien.  I found it easiest to pair bouts and face cards with half-point cards to just round up.  In games with an odd number of cards, the half point is rounded up if the taker wins, and down if they lose.  Once again, remember that the bouts are the Fool, the 1 of Trumps, and the 21 of Trumps.  Card values are:

• Bouts and Kings: 4.5 points
• Queens: 3.5 points
• Knights: 2.5 points
• Valets: 1.5 points
• All other cards: 0.5 points

So close. I took 39 card points with 2 bouts, which puts me short by 2 points. Assuming a Petite bid, that is 27 points I owe each of the other players, as I didn’t gain any bonuses, either.

As mentioned earlier, the bouts are extremely important to win in tricks, as they are not only worth 4.5 points each, but they determine the total number of card points the taker needs in order to win their bid.  The required amounts are:

• 3 Bouts: 36 card points
• 2 Bouts: 41 card points
• 1 Bout: 51 card points
• 0 Bouts: 56 card points

The scored points are calculated as follows, from the perspective of the taker:

(Base score x bid multiplier) + Poignée + Chelem

The Base Score has several components, added together:

• 25 for the game
• Plus the difference between card points needed by the taker, and those they actually won.  For example:
  • If 31 card points were taken with 2 bouts, the difference is 10 points (so a base score of 35)
  • If 51 card points were taken with 3 bouts, the difference if 15 points (base score 40)
• Plus or minus the Petit au Bout bonus

Take that total, and multiply it based on what the taker bid, even if they didn’t succeed:

• Petite (x1)
• Garde (x2)
• Garde sans le chien (x4)
• Garde contre le chien (x6)

Scorekeeping is based on a payment system.  It’s pretty straightforward, but a little non-intuitive at first.

For example, if the taker wins with a calculated score of 80 points in a 4-player game, the recorded score on the pad is 240.  This is because each other player “pays” the 80 points.  So if in this case, the taker was player A, they would have 240 points, and each other player would have -80 points.  Conversely, if the taker lost, but the score was calculated at 80, then player A would have a recorded score of -240, and the others would each have been “paid” 80 points.

A detailed example of the scoring over several hands can be found on Pagat.com’s rules page for French Tarot.

Closing Thoughts

This was the first Tarot game I learned to play, as well as the first time I researched rules for a game from history.  My wife and I were going with a third to a renaissance festival that was themed around the Three Musketeers.  I thought it would be neat to learn a game from that time period, and was amazed to discover rules for a historically accurate card game played with a tarot deck, of all things.  Even better, it only needed 3 players!

So there we were, in costume, playing with original artwork tarot cards in their tavern, and nobody understood what we were doing.  It was a delicious little secret to be playing something from the right time period.

Much later, I had the good fortune to play this with a full complement of 5 players, three of which hadn’t played any trick-taking games before, not even Spades or Hearts.  Since I only had an Italian deck numbered in Roman numerals, it took them a bit to get the hang of it, but by the second hand, they understood enough to have confidence to raise the bid, and teach yet another new player how to follow suit and trump.

Granted, we kept it simple and just added up the card points to determine whether the bid was won or lost, as they weren’t planning to play long enough to keep score, but the fact remained that once you start playing, the game is pretty easy to understand.  More astounding, though, was that at a board game club meet-up, I drew 4 people away from modern games with shiny bits and complex play to join me in a humble little card game from 400 years ago.

And that makes all the research worthwhile.

Playable Apps

French Tarot on iOS -Allows for a modern miseré house rule, in which a player can declare that they have no Trump or Court cards, scoring 30 points (-10 to all other players)

French Tarot on Android

And You Thought I Only Meant Card Games

When someone mentions trick-taking games, they almost always mean card games.  But of course, almost is the key word there.  Today, we’re going to be playing with dominos, looking into the official domino game of my home state that I never heard of before digging into historic games.

Texas 42 may not have a sordid past, but it does have a murky one.  There are at least two different stories of how it was invented.  The one most commonly passed around is from a 1985 newspaper article, which cited an interview from 1927 with William Thomas.  He claims to have co-invented the game with a friend of his when he was 12, after they were caught playing cards in the hayloft of a barn in Garland (then called Trappe Spring) around 1887.  Their town was devout Baptist, and they were punished for sinful card playing, but dominos were allowed, so they figured out a way to play cards, specifically trick-taking, with dominos.

The other version is from an article in 1915, which states the game was invented in Mineral Wells, by a brakeman who worked on the Santa Fe rail line, while he was on vacation, and bored in his hotel room. The paper only gave his last name, Giescke, and explained that he’d been musing over the properties of dominos.  Games played with multiples of 5 were pretty popular, and he noticed that between the 1-4, 2-3, 5-0, 5-5, and 6-4 that there were a total of 35 points in a double-six set.  Since there were also 28 total dominos, a 4-player partnership trick-taking game would have 7 tricks.  Add 35 and 7 together, and you get a total of 42 points, which is how he came up with the name.

The process described in the second story sounds more feasible from a game-design perspective, but keep in mind that both stories were written after the game was incredibly popular.  Since Texas is known for tall tales, it’s not unreasonable to think that people would claim to be the inventor of a well-known game, since these things are extremely difficult to prove when the game is mainly passed around through word of mouth.

Regardless, Texas 42 is a 4-player partnership point-trick game.  The goal is to bid how many points you will take, then earn “marks” for reaching your bid.  If you fail to make your bid, the opposing team scores the marks you would have earned.  These marks, oddly enough, are drawn on a score-pad to form the word ALL, with each mark earning one line segment, like Hangman.  Counting it up, it looks like 7 marks wins the game.

Domino “Suits”

In a standard set of double-six dominos, there are 28 tiles, and 7 “suits.” That is, the numbers 0-6 on either side of the domino determine the tile suit.  In Texas 42, the double of each suit is the highest-ranking domino, followed in descending order by the rest of the tiles sharing the same suit number.

This by itself is intuitive enough, but the problem that comes to mind is how do you decide which suit a tile is when you play it?  The official ruling is that when a non-trump tile is led to a trick, it is the suit of whatever the higher number is.

As an extreme example, let’s imagine that the suit of 3s is trump for the hand.  You have the lead, and you lead with the 0-6, under the mistaken belief that you just played the six of the zero suit, just one tile less than the double-blank.  Unfortunately, you immediately lose the domino to the 1-6, because you actually played the zero tile of the sixes suit, the lowest ranked tile if the suit.  Of course, then they lose it to the 0-3, and threes are the trump suit.  Later in the same hand, someone leads the 3-5.  Because threes are trump, it counts as being a member of the threes suit, so it actually is the five of threes.

Clear as mud?  Good, me too.  The computer stomped me for like half an hour before I caught on how to lead properly.  I’m also terrible at choosing the appropriate bid for the hand, even though I understand the rules.  Just because you know the game well enough to teach it, it does not mean you are actually skilled at playing it.

To sum it up:

• Trump Suit: Double high, followed by the six of that suit down to blank, always
• Non-Trump Suit, When Led: Counts as a member of the higher suit number on the tile
• Non-Trump Suit, Following Led Suit: Ranking within the led suit is still double high, followed by the six down to the zero.  So leading a 2-4 sets the trick suit to fours, and the 5-4 is still a member of the fours suit during the trick.

The Deal and Bidding

The dealer for the hand shuffles the tiles by “washing” (mixing) them face-down on the table, and each player receives 7 dominos.  The dealer’s opposing team get to draw first, followed by the dealer’s partner, and finally the dealer.  Then each player, starting with the dealer’s left, gets one bid for points or marks.

Bids are a declaration of how many points you think you can take during the game, or how many marks you are willing to risk if you think you can take all the tricks.  30 points is the lowest bid, all 42 points is 1 mark, and the opening bid is maxed out at 2 marks, although the bid itself can go higher.  If all 4 players pass, their hands are turned in, and the next dealer shuffles.

Trying for a bid of 30, declaring ones as trump

 

The Play

Tricks won by me (left) and my partner, on order from bottom to top, left to right, with the first domino being the tile led, and all suits at the bottom: won by 1-2 (11), won by 1-3 (6), won by 1-6 (1), won by 1-1 (6), won by 3-6 (1), won by 1-5 (6). Our final score is 31, so we made the bid and gain 1 mark.

Normally, after winning the bid, the declarer declares the trump suit and leads to the first trick.  The led suit must be followed, if possible, or may be trumped if you have none of the led suit.  Remember, trumps belong to the trump suit and nothing else.  For example, if twos are trump, and someone leads the 4-6, and you have both the 3-6 and 2-6 in your hand, you must lose the 3-6 to follow suit.  Tricks are taken by the highest-ranked domino of the suit led, or the highest trump.

The declarer may also call no trumps, or “follow me.”  This means there is no trump suit for the hand, and the suit for the trick is always determined by the higher side of the domino led.  Remember, the double of each suit counts as the highest tile in that suit.

Tricks remain face up and are displayed next to the winning player in sets of 4, presumably to check for mistakes in who won the trick.  If playing for all 42 points, these may be stacked to only show the 8 dominos of the last two tricks taken.

Special Contracts

However, there are a couple of special contracts the declarer can attempt instead.  During the bidding, they just bid the appropriate number of marks, and announce the contract before beginning play.

• Nello: If every player before them has passed, the declarer may bid 1 or 2 marks and go Nello instead of passing and going to the next hand.  This bid is to attempt losing every trick.  The declarer’s partner turns down their dominos and is out of play for the hand, making it a 3-hand game.  There are no trumps, and doubles are a separate suit, from 6-6 down to 0-0.  A led domino counts as a member of the higher-numbered suit, as usual, and a double may not be played to the trick unless no other dominos of the led suit are in hand.  In this bid, the point tiles do not matter, only successfully losing all the tricks.
• Plunge: The declarer must hold at least 4 doubles to choose this contract, and must have bid al least 4 marks (this is the only way an opening bid can be higher than 2 marks), or 5, if the bid was already 4 before their turn to bid.  The declarer’s partner chooses the trump suit, with no hints from the declarer.  They must then win all 7 tricks.

Variations of Play

In some games, there are a few other trump options, or differences in the contracts.  These are all optional rules, and should be agreed on by all players before beginning the game.

Follow Me (no trumps) declarations may choose whether doubles count as high or low within their suit.

Doubles Trump is a declaration that the doubles themselves are a trump suit, and no longer count as a member of their own suit.  This means that if a double is led, players must play a double to follow suit, or discard any tile if they have no doubles.

Nello players may choose how doubles are treated during their attempt.

• Doubles high: Doubles are the highest tile in their suit
• Doubles low: Doubles are the lowest tile in their suit
• Doubles take doubles: Doubles are a separate suit, ranked 6-6 down to 0-0, and not a member of their numbered suit.  This is the normal way Nello is played.
• Doubles take doubles, inverted: Doubles are a separate suit, ranked 0-0 down to 6-6.

Splash is similar to a Plunge bid, but only requires 3 doubles, and a bid of 2 marks.  The declarer’s partner chooses the trump suit, as usual, but they also lead to the first trick.  Again, all 7 tricks are required to win.

Sevens is another special contract in which the point tiles do not matter.  A trick is won by a domino whose pips total is closest to 7.  If more than one tile is tied, the first one played wins the trick.

Playable Apps

Texas 42 on iOS

Texas 42 on Android

Trick or Treat!

I felt like doing a theme this month, so all my game posts are going to be about trick-taking card games, and their evolution through history.  Trick-taking games are actually my favorite, because they require a skill in making the most of the hand dealt to you, as well as getting a rough idea what other player’s hold.  You must manipulate the other players to lay down cards advantageous to you, while playing cards with as little value as possible when you cannot take the hand.  There are many distinct classifications of trick-taking games, but in broad terms, they boil down to two basic groups:

• Plain Trick-Taking: What matters is how many hands (tricks) you capture.  Spades is a well-known example, as is Contract Bridge.  Bidding is usually for the number of tricks, and may or may not involve trump suits, partnerships, or a requirement to follow a led suit.
• Point-Trick-Taking: In this group, individual cards have different values, and the goal is to win a certain number of points, or to capture particular cards.  Hearts could be considered to fall into this group, with each heart being worth negative points.

There are other games with a mechanic that is similar to trick-taking, such as Big Two, which has players trying to beat a led combination of cards by laying down the same combination with higher ranks – the hand may continue around the table more than once, until someone cannot or will not match the combination.  On rules sites such as Pagat.com, these are considered quasi-trick-taking games, as the goal is usually to accumulate or get rid of cards, rather than specifically capture tricks.

Early trick-taking games were simply about capturing tricks, and didn’t require following suit, as is taken for granted today.  Each hand was usually won by whomever played the highest card of the led suit.  Given the simplistic play, it looks like these early games were of minimal interest to historians or game collectors, as I could not find any specific named games.

The earliest game to introduce the idea of cards with greater power than the others was Karnöffel, first mentioned in 1426. In this game, a card is dealt face-up to select a suit, in which the Jack, six, and deuce have special ranks. Interestingly, the objection to this game by the gentry had more to do with the lower-ranked cards having power over the “royalty” than the usual complaints about gambling.

Near the same time, close enough that we don’t know which influenced the other, if at all, the point trick-taking game Trionfi was introduced in Italy, later renamed Tarocco.  This was the Tarot deck, which added a 21-card fifth suit specifically to be able to beat all other suits in tricks.  In French, it translated as Triomphe, in German, Trumpf, and in English, Trump.  The French were enamored of the game, and spread it throughout the rest of Europe.

Pretty much all card games that use a trump suit were influenced by the idea introduced by the Italian Tarot deck in the mid-1400s.  Use as a divination tool didn’t occur until around 1780, when some French scholars saw the Italian-suited cards (still using swords, cups, coins, and batons), and interpreted the symbols as being hieroglyphs, creating occult meaning where none existed.

In the 17th century, Spain introduced a game called L’Ombre, a plain trick-taking game that was the first to incorporate bidding.  The game was immensely popular and spread throughout Europe, mainly the Renegado variant.  When I originally heard of it from Pagat, it was from the page about Tresillo, which is a variant still played in Spain today.  Since I was looking specifically for Spanish games to demonstrate on El Camino Real, it made sense to use Tresillo, since the rules for L’Ombre were supposed to be lost.  Fortunately, I recently found a scan of The Compleat Gamester from 1657, so I’ll be plodding through the rules to write about it in my next post.

Now, bidding wasn’t originally specifying a number of tricks – it was betting whether you could win the game with or without choosing trumps or using extra cards that were set aside during the deal.  The most challenging way to capture a majority of tricks would win the bid, and the other players would cooperatively try to prevent the winner of the bid from achieving their goal.  This was a three player game.  If a fourth player was participating, they would sort of rotate into the game, with one player sitting out each hand.

Meanwhile, in England, a game called Ruff and Honors was evolving into Whist, which is a bit more recognizable to modern card players, as it was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries.  Whist is a plain trick-taking game in which trumps is determined randomly, and partners score the number of tricks above 6, as well as for holding the Honors (the Ace and face cards of the trump suit).  From there, the idea of bidding based on how many tricks you think you can take was an inevitability.

Stay tuned, readers….next time, I try interpreting a rambling explanation of game rules from the tail end of the Renaissance.