John McLeod (card game researcher)

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John McLeod (born 1949) is a British mathematician, author, historian and card game researcher who is particularly well known for his work on tarot games as well as his reference website pagat.com which contains the rules for over 500 card games worldwide. He is described as a "prominent member" of the International Playing Card Society [1] and is Secretary of the British Skat Association.

Contents

Life

John McLeod was born in 1949. He studied mathematics at Cambridge University before entering industry. During his time at Cambridge, he came across a pack of tarot cards and "as I opened the box, I was immediately fascinated by the cards. They looked totally different from anything I had seen before". He was then a research student in the mathematics department of the university and spent many evenings playing the Austrian tarock game of Königrufen with his students. [2]

Later McLeod toured Europe to study the individual variants of tarock games and captured his findings in the monumental 2-volume work A History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack which he co-authored with Professor Sir Michael Dummett, the "leading authority on the history of the Tarot". [3] According to McLeod, Tarock belongs to one of the largest and perhaps most interesting families of card games in the world. [4]

In 2005/06 McLeod and fellow researcher, Sally Prime, travelled to Vienna to participate in the international Tarock Cup where McLeod came 35th out of 100 participants. [4]

pagat.com

McLeod created the website www.pagat.com in 1995. [5] It has been described by card game historian, David Parlett as the "most important" card game website, its "intrinsic authority [being] constantly enhanced by the contributions of interested and knowledgeable players from all over the world". [1] The website describes the rules of over 500 contemporary card games world wide. It also categorises games by mechanism, objective and equipment used. The website is in English and German. [6]

Works

Books

McLeod's magnum opus is the two-volume set on the history of tarot card games which he co-authored with Michael Dummett. Volume One deals with games in which the Fool is used to excuse the player from following suit or playing a trump to a trick; Volume Two deals with games played in Central Europe from the late 18th century onward, in which the Fool is used as the highest trump. [7]

Articles (selection)

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarot</span> Cards used for games or divination

The tarot is a pack of playing cards, used from at least the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Tarocchini. From their Italian roots, tarot playing cards spread to most of Europe evolving into a family of games that includes German Grosstarok and modern games such as French Tarot and Austrian Königrufen. In the late 18th century, French occultists made elaborate, but unsubstantiated, claims about their history and meaning, leading to the emergence of custom decks for use in divination via tarot card reading and cartomancy. Thus there are two distinct types of tarot pack: those used for card games and those used for divination. However, some older patterns, such as the Tarot de Marseille, originally intended for playing card games, are occasionally used for cartomancy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Königrufen</span> Card game

Königrufen or Königsrufen is a four-player, trick-taking card game of the tarot family, played in Austria and Southern Tyrol, with variants for two, three and six players. As with other regional tarot card games, it is usually called Tarock by its players. It is the only variant of Tarock that is played over most of Austria and, in 2001, was the most popular card game in Austria after Schnapsen and Rommé. By 2015, it had become "the favourite card game of Austrians". It has been described as the most interesting tarot game for four players, the "Game of Kings", a game that requires intelligence and, with 22 trumps in play, as good "training for the brain".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Troggu</span> Card game

Troggu is a member of the tarot family of card games. Synonyms for the game's name are: Trogga, Tappu and Tappä. It is played in the area of Visp, Switzerland, in Upper Wallis, especially in St. Niklaus and Grächen. After Troccas, it is the second most played tarot card game in Switzerland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bourgeois Tarot</span>

The Bourgeois Tarot deck is a mid-19th century pattern of tarot cards of German origin that is still used for playing card games today in western Europe and Canada. It is not designed for divinatory purposes. This deck is most commonly found in France, Belgian Wallonia, Swiss Romandy and Canadian Québec for playing French Tarot; in southwest Germany for playing Cego and Dreierles; and in Denmark for Danish Tarok.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trappola</span> 16th-century Venetian card game

Trappola is an early 16th-century Venetian trick-taking card game which spread to most parts of Central Europe and survived, in various forms and under various names like Trapulka, Bulka and Hundertspiel until perhaps the middle of the 20th century. It was played with a special pack of Italian-suited cards and last reported to have been manufactured in Prague in 1944. Piatnik has reprinted their old Trappola deck for collectors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarot card games</span> Card games played with tarot decks

Tarot games are card games played with tarot decks, that is, decks with numbered permanent trumps parallel to the suit cards. The games and decks which English-speakers call by the French name Tarot are called Tarocchi in the original Italian, Tarock in German and various similar words in other languages. The basic rules first appeared in the manuscript of Martiano da Tortona, written before 1425. The games are known in many variations, mostly cultural and regional.

<i>Industrie und Glück</i> Pattern of French suited Tarot playing cards

Industrie und Glück is a pattern of French suited playing cards used to play tarock. The name originates from an inscription found on the second trump card. This deck was developed during the nineteenth century in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The earliest known examples were made in Vienna in 1815. After the collapse of the empire in World War I, it remained the most widely used tarot deck in Central Europe and can be found throughout the former parts of the empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tapp Tarock</span>

Tapp Tarock, also called Viennese Tappen, Tappen or Tapper, is a three-player tarot card game which traditionally uses the 54-card Industrie und Glück deck. Before the Anschluss (1938), it was the preferred card game of Viennese coffee houses, for example, the Literatencafés and Café Central. Even today Tapp Tarock is played sporadically. The exact date when it appeared is not possible to identify; some sources suggest it may have been developed in Austria in the early 19th century, but its mention in caricature operas in 1800 and 1806 suggest it was well known even by then and must have arisen in the late 18th century. The oldest description of the actual rules is dated to 1821. Tapp Tarock is considered a good entry level game before players attempt more complex Tarock forms like Cego, Illustrated Tarock or Königrufen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bauerntarock</span> Card game

Bauerntarock also called Brixentaler Bauerntarock or Brixental Tarock, is a point-trick card game played in the Brixental, Austria. It may have originated in the 19th century either as an adaptation of 54-card Tapp Tarock onto the cheaper and smaller 36-card German pack. Another possibility is that it was adapted from the 78-card Grosstarock or Taroc l'Hombre game as the ratio of trumps to non-trumps is almost the same. It uses the Skat Schedule found in popular regional games such as Jass and Schafkopf. It is closely related to Bavarian Tarock, German Tarok, Württemberg Tarock and especially Dobbm. Like Bavarian Tarock and Tapp, Brixental Bauerntarock and Dobbm do not belong to the true tarot games, but have adopted rules from Tapp Tarock. The most fundamental difference between these games and true tarot games is in the use of German or French decks instead of true Tarot playing cards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Talon (cards)</span>

In card games, a talon is a stack of undealt cards that is placed on the table to be used during the game. Depending on the game or region, they may also be referred to as the blind, kitty, skat, stock, tapp or widow (US).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dobbm</span>

Dobbm or Tappen is a card game played in the Stubai valley in Austria and is one of a family of games derived from the Tarot game of Grosstarock by adapting its rules to a regular, shortened pack of 36 cards. The ranking and point value of the cards in Dobbm is typical of the family and, like its other members, one player always plays as a soloist against all the others. It is highly popular in the Stubai valley among card players of all generations, but is unknown in the surrounding regions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neunzehnerrufen</span>

Neunzehnerrufen is an Austrian card game of the Tarock (tarot) family for four players. Under the name Taroky or Czech Taroky it is the national Tarock variant of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, but - with certain variations – is also played in parts of the Austrian states of Upper Austria, Lower Austria and the Styria as well as in Poland south of the River Vistula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Point Tarock</span> Three-player tarot card game

Point Tarock was a three-player tarot card game, played mainly in Austria, which used the 54-card Industrie und Glück deck. It is probably extinct. Furr describes it as being "identical to Tapp but for the addition of a special announcement, allowing a Declarer to capitalize on a very good hand... spicing up the game considerably." Point Tarock is sometimes confused with its close cousin, Illustrated Tarock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Droggn</span>

Droggn, sometimes called French Tarock is an extinct card game of the Tarock family for three players that was played in the Stubai valley in Tyrol, Austria until the 1980s. Droggn is originally local dialect for "to play Tarock", but it has become the proper name of this specific Tarock variant. An unusual feature of the game compared with other Tarock games is the use of a 66-card deck and that, until recently, there was no record in the literature of a 66-card game and no current manufacturers of such a deck. The structure of the game strongly indicates that it is descended from the later version of Tarok l'Hombre, a 78-card Tarock game popular in 19th-century Austria and Germany, but with the subsequent addition of two higher bids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blank (playing card)</span>

A blank is a playing card in card-point games that is a non-counter, or is worth nothing. In Poker, the term refers to a community card which is extremely unlikely to help any remaining player.

Grosstarock is an old three-handed card game of the Tarock family played with a full 78-card Tarot pack. It was probably introduced into the southern German states around 1720 but spread rapidly into Austria and northwards as far as the Netherlands and Scandinavia. It only survives today in Denmark where it is called Tarok.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ace-Ten games</span> Type of card game in which the Aces and Tens are of particularly high value

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Husarln</span> Card game, an Austrian variant of Hungarian Tarok

Husarln ("Hussar") is a mid-20th century, three-hand card game of the Austrian branch of the Tarot family. It is a 42-card variant of Illustrated Tarock and appears to be a close Austrian relative of the 42-card Hungarian tarock card games. The game is dominated by the distribution of Tarocks, giving it a "brisk and energetic feel" that is reflected in its name. It is also known as Block Tarock, although that name was given to a quite different and older game.

Viennese Grosstarock is a modern, three-player Austrian card game of the Tarock family that emerged in Vienna during the 1950s and 1960s. The game died out in the 1970s, but was revived in 2004 and further developed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dreierles</span> Popular German card game

Dreierles is a three-handed, trick-taking Tarot card game that is popular in the German region of central Baden. It is very old and appears to be a south German cousin of Tapp Tarock, the oldest known 54-card Tarot game. Dreierles is played with Cego cards - the only surviving German Tarot cards still produced. German soldiers fighting with Napoleon almost certainly introduced a Spanish modification to Dreierles that produced Baden's national game of Cego. Its relative simplicity makes it a good introduction to games of the central European Tarot family, usually called Tarock games.

References

  1. 1 2 Parlett 2008, p. xii.
  2. McLeod 2003, p. 11.
  3. History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack Volume One at mellenpress.com. Retrieved 3 Jan 2020.
  4. 1 2 Auch Südpolen gehört noch zum Reich Tarockaniens at www.wienerzeitung.at. Retrieved 3 Jan 2020.
  5. Pagat 20th birthday at www.pagat.com. Retrieved 24 Mar 2020.
  6. PAGAT.com. Retrieved 21 Apr 2020.
  7. A History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack at tarotgame.org. Retrieved 3 Jan 2020.

Literature