The Marriage group is a large family of point-trickcard games in which the 'marriage' of two cards, usually a king and queen, plays an important role and attracts a bonus. They are believed to be descended from a German game, Mariagenspiel or Mariage, which dates back to at least 1715. Well-known games in this group include bezique and the national card games of Austria (Schnapsen), Hungary (ulti), France (belote), Switzerland (Jass) and the Netherlands (klaverjas).
Mariagenspiel (German for mariage game, using the original French word for marriage rather than the German word, Heiraten) is the earliest and most typical representative of the group. It was first described in a 1715 ladies' encyclopedia printed in Leipzig. The game's entry said that the game was popular among ladies, and the entry for playing card listed Mariage first among nine card games played with the German pack. Despite the marriage theme, the Queen was replaced by the equivalent male character in the German cards. Apart from the standard queen/Ober, jack/Unter translation, the game was described precisely as detailed at Mariage.[1]
Games in this family are typically played by 2–4 players using a pack of 20–40 cards, with aces and tens scoring 11 and 10 points in tricks, respectively, and marriages scoring 40 points in trumps and 20 points in a plain suit.[2]:261ff[3]
An elaborated form of Mariagenspiel known under various names including Klaberjass and Bela is especially popular among Jewish communities and spread worldwide. Its offshoots form the Jass group, or jack–nine card games, characterized by the fact that the jack and nine of the trump suit are the highest trumps.[2]:305[4]
A 'pair' of the Ober and Unter of leaves
According to David Parlett, the modern German/Austrian variant of Mariagenspiel, sixty-six, which remains close to the original, is "one of the best two-handers ever devised".[2]:261 The "marriage" theme seems to have originated in France in the context of unrelated card games. Two-handed Schnapsen and three-handed Mariáš and Ulti are the most popular card games in the area of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.[5][6][7][8]Klaberjass, first documented in the Low Countries as a Jewish game, developed into Dutch Klaverjas, Swiss Jass and French Belote. Bezique and its variants, Binokel and Pinochle, are further examples of popular games in the King–Queen or marriage family.[2]:305ff
The Marriage group is further subdivided into three:
King–queen games are the largest group in which the marriage of a king and queen (or pairing of a king and Ober) attract a bonus
Queen–jack games in which there is a special bonus for a certain combinations of queen and jack (or Ober and Unter)
Jack–nine games, in which the trump jack and nine are the top trumps.
In this subfamily, the jack ("Jass") and nine (the "manille", meaning second-higher trump) of the trump suit are the highest trumps. Games in this family are typically played by four players with the 32 French-suited cards of a piquet pack.
The family contains the closely related French (belote, belote contrée) and Dutch (klaverjas) national card games. The Swiss national card game (Jass) is also a close relative but features a number of peculiarities, has spawned numerous variants, and is played with 36 cards. The popular South Asian card games twenty-eight and twenty-nine are derivatives of this family and share many of its characteristics.
The earliest known games of this family were two-handed, such as Klaberjass (also known as Bela) which is still played worldwide
A stripped deck or short deck (US), short pack or shortened pack (UK), is a set of playing cards reduced in size from a full pack or deck by the removal of a certain card or cards. The removed cards are usually pip cards, but can also be court cards or Tarot cards. Many card games use stripped decks, and stripped decks for popular games are commercially available.
A trick-taking game is a card or tile-based game in which play of a hand centers on a series of finite rounds or units of play, called tricks, which are each evaluated to determine a winner or taker of that trick. The object of such games then may be closely tied to the number of tricks taken, as in plain-trick games such as contract bridge, whist, and spades, or to the value of the cards contained in taken tricks, as in point-trick games such as pinochle, the tarot family, briscola, and most evasion games like hearts. Trick-and-draw games are trick-taking games in which the players can fill up their hands after each trick. In most variants, players are free to play any card into a trick in the first phase of the game, but must follow suit as soon as the stock is depleted. Trick-avoidance games like reversis or polignac are those in which the aim is to avoid taking some or all tricks.
Bezique or bésigue is a 19th-century French melding and trick-taking card game for two players that came to Britain and is still played today. The game is derived from piquet, possibly via marriage (sixty-six) and briscan, with additional scoring features, notably the peculiar liaison of the Q♠ and J♦ that is also a feature of pinochle, Binokel, and similarly named games that vary by country.
Belote is a 32-card, trick-taking, ace–ten game played primarily in France and certain European countries, namely Armenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Luxembourg, Moldova, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and also in Saudi Arabia. It is one of the most popular card games in those countries, and the national card game of France, both casually and in gambling. It appeared around 1900 in France, and is a close relative of both Klaberjass and klaverjas. Closely related games are played throughout the world. Definitive rules of the game were first published in French in 1921.
Sixty-six or 66, sometimes known as Paderbörnern, is a fast 5- or 6-card point-trick game of the marriage type for 2–4 players, played with 24 cards. It is an ace–ten game where aces are high and tens rank second. It has been described as "one of the best two-handers ever devised".
Jass is a family of trick taking, ace–ten card games and, in its key forms, a distinctive branch of the marriage family. It is popular in its native Switzerland as well as the rest of the Alemannic German-speaking area of Europe, Italian South Tyrol and in a few places in Wisconsin, Ohio, California, Oregon and Washington USA.
Klaverjas or Klaverjassen is a Dutch, four player, trick-taking card game that uses a Piquet pack of 32 playing cards. It is closely related to the internationally popular card game of Klaberjass. Klaverjas is one of the most popular card games in the Netherlands, traditionally played in cafes and social clubs. The game offers a considerable level of complexity and depth. It has numerous variants, but its basic rules are universal.
Klaberjass or Bela is a trick-taking ace–ten card game that is most popular in German communities. In its basic form it is a 9-card trick-and-draw game for two players using a 32-card piquet pack.
Marjolet is a French 6-card trick-and-draw game for two players using a 32-card piquet pack. It is of the Queen-Jack type, and thus a relative of Bezique and Pinochle, albeit simpler. The trump Jack is called the Marjolet from which the name of the game derives.
Schnapsen, Schnapser or Schnapsa is a trick-taking card game of the bézique (ace–ten) family that is very popular in Bavaria and in the territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and has become the national card game of Austria and Hungary. Schnapsen is both of the point-trick and trick-and-draw subtypes.
Mariage or Mariagenspiel is a German 6-card trick-and-draw game for two players in which players score bonus points for the "marriage" of king and queen of the same suit. The game, first documented in 1715 in Leipzig, spawned numerous offshoots throughout continental Europe and gives its name to the marriage group of card games, the widest known of which is probably sixty-six. Many of these are still the national card games of their respective countries.
Jack–nine card games, also known as the Jass group from the German term for the jack, form a family of trick-taking games in which the jack and nine of the trump suit are the highest-ranking trumps, and the tens and aces of all suits are the next most valuable cards. Games in this family are typically played by 2 or 4 players with 32 French-suited cards.
Brusquembille or Briscambille is an historical, French, 3-card trick-and-draw game for two to five players using a 32-card piquet pack. The game has variable trumps. Side-payments are made for keeping or winning aces and tens.
A Piquet pack or, less commonly, a Piquet deck, is a pack of 32 French suited cards that is used for a wide range of card games. The name derives from the game of Piquet which was commonly played in Britain and Europe until the 20th century and is still occasionally played by connoisseurs. In the Netherlands it is referred to as a Jass pack, a term derived from games of the Jass type.
Tarot games are card games played with tarot packs designed for card play and which have a permanent trump suit alongside the usual four card suits. The games and packs which English-speakers call by the French name Tarot are called Tarocchi in the original Italian, Tarock in German and similar words in other languages.
An ace–ten game is a type of card game, highly popular in Europe, in which the aces and tens are of particularly high value.
Scharwenzel, formerly also called Schipper-Schrill, is a traditional north German plain-trick card game of the Schafkopf family that is played by two teams with two to four players on each team. The game is at least three centuries old and is played today only on the island of Fehmarn in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It may be a regional variant of German Solo with which it bears some similarities and it may also have been ancestral to Schafkopf. It is not related to a different game called Scharwenzel or Scherwenzel that was once played in Bavaria.
Briscan is an 18th-century, French ace–ten card game for two players played with a 32-card piquet pack. It is a member of the marriage group of games in which the 'marriage' of a king and queen brings a bonus score, but briscan takes this simple concept to extraordinary lengths.
References
↑ Amaranthes (1715), Nutzbares, galantes und curiöses Frauenzimmer-Lexicon, Leipzig: Gleditsch und Sohn.
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