Play
The dealer or banker stakes a certain sum, and this must be met by the nearest to the dealer first, and so on. When the stake is met, the dealer turns up one card and lays it to his right, for the table or the players, and another card in front of himself for the bank. He then keeps on turning up cards (while keeping the first two cards visible), until a card turns up with a value matching either of the first two cards. For instance, if the five of diamonds has been laid down for the bank, then any other five, regardless of suit, constitutes a win for the banker. If the table's card is matched first, he loses, and the next player on the left becomes banker and proceeds in the same way.
When the dealer's card turns up, he may take the stake and pass the bank; or he may allow the stake to remain, whereupon it becomes doubled if met. He can continue thus (doubling on each win) as long as the cards turn up in his favour (i.e., before the table's card appears, causing the banker to lose only his original stake) – having the option at any moment of giving up the bank and retiring for that time. If he does that, the player to whom he passes the bank has the option of continuing it at the same amount at which it was left. The pool may be re-made up by contributions of all the players in certain proportions (now including the previous bank player). The terms used respecting the standing of the stake are "I'll see" (à moi le tout) and Je tiens. When jumelle (twins), or the turning up of similar cards on both sides, occurs, then the dealer takes half the stake.
Robert-Houdin explained a mechanism by which a card sharp could cheat at lansquenet, by palming and then placing atop the deck a packet of cards in prepared order. [1]
A card game is any game that uses playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, whether the cards are of a traditional design or specifically created for the game (proprietary). Countless card games exist, including families of related games. A small number of card games played with traditional decks have formally standardized rules with international tournaments being held, but most are folk games whose rules may vary by region, culture, location or from circle to circle.
Pai gow poker is a version of pai gow that is played with playing cards, instead of traditional pai gow's Chinese dominoes. The game of pai gow poker was created in 1985 in the United States by Sam Torosian, owner of the Bell Card Club.
Baccarat or baccara is a card game now mainly played at casinos, but formerly highly popular at Victorian house-parties. It is a comparing card game played between two hands, the "player" and the "banker". Each baccarat coup has three possible outcomes: "player", "banker", and "tie".
Basset, also known as barbacole and hocca, is a gambling game using cards, that was considered one of the most polite. It was intended for persons of the highest rank because of the great losses or gains that might be accrued by players.
Faro, Pharaoh, Pharao, or Farobank is a late 17th-century French gambling game using cards. It is descended from Basset, and belongs to the Lansquenet and Monte Bank family of games due to the use of a banker and several players. Winning or losing occurs when cards turned up by the banker match those already exposed.
Primero, is a 16th-century gambling card game of which the earliest reference dates back to 1526. Primero is closely related to the game of primo visto, if not the same. It is also believed to be one of the ancestors to the modern game of poker, to which it is strikingly similar.
Thirty-one or Trente et un is a gambling card game played by two to seven people, where players attempt to assemble a hand which totals 31. Such a goal has formed the whole or part of various games like Commerce, Cribbage, Trentuno, and Wit and Reason since the 15th century. 31 is popular in America and Britain.
Post and Pair or Post and Pare is a gambling card game that was popular in England in the 16th and 17th centuries — another name of the game was Pink. It is based on the same three-card combinations, namely prial, found in related games of this family.
Lanterloo or loo is a 17th-century trick taking game of the trump family of which many varieties are recorded. It belongs to a line of card games whose members include Nap, euchre, rams, hombre, and maw. It is considered a modification of the game of "all fours", another English game possibly of Dutch origin, in which the players replenish their hands after each round by drawing each fresh new cards from the pack.
Bostogné, Boston or Boston Whist is an 18th-century trick-taking card game played throughout the Western world apart from Britain, forming an evolutionary link between Hombre and Solo Whist. Apparently named after a key location in the American War of Independence, it is probably a French game which was devised in France in the 1770s, combining the 52-card pack and logical ranking system of partnership Whist with a range of solo and alliance bids borrowed from Quadrille. Other lines of descent and hybridization produced the games of Twenty-five, Préférence and Skat. Its most common form is known as Boston de Fontainebleau or French Boston.
Monte Bank, Mountebank, Spanish Monte and Mexican Monte, sometimes just Monte, is a Spanish gambling card game and was known in the 19th century as the national card game of Mexico. It ultimately derives from basset, where the banker (dealer) pays on matching cards. The term "monte" has also been used for a variety of other gambling games, especially varieties of three-card poker, and for the swindle three-card monte.
Gilet, also Gile, Gillet, is a 16th-century Italian gambling card game that probably predates the game of Primero. Rabelais, in 1534, gives it pride of place in his list of games played by Gargantua, and Cardano, in 1564, describes it as Geleus, from the word Geleo, meaning "I have it".
Le her is a French card game that dates back to the 16th century. It is quoted by the French poet Marc Papillon de Lasphrise in 1597. Under the name coucou it is mentioned in Rabelais' long list of games. Le Her belongs to the family of Ranter-Go-Round games. It is played with a standard deck of 52 cards by two people, designated the dealer and the receiver. King is ranked high and ace low.
Tippen, also known as Dreiblatt, Dreikart, Drei Karten, Dreekort, Kleinpréférence or Labet, is an historical German 3-card, plain-trick game which was popular as a gambling game for three or more players. The Danish version of the game was known as Trekort and more elaborate Swedish variants include Knack and Köpknack. It appears to be related to the English game of Three-Card Loo. It was banned as a gambling game in some places.
Lourche was a French board game that was played in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was played, like backgammon, on a tables board. The rules of the game have been lost, Furetière (1727) describing it simply as a "kind of trictrac game", trictrac being the name given to the board used for tables games. The game is referred to in the English expression 'left in the lurch', parallel to the French demeurer lourche, referring to the hopeless losing position a player of the game could end up in.
Twenty-one, formerly known as vingt-un in Britain, France and America, is the name given to a family of popular card games of the gambling family, the progenitor of which is recorded in Spain in the early 17th century. The family includes the casino games of blackjack and pontoon as well as their domestic equivalents. Twenty-one rose to prominence in France in the 18th century and spread from there to Germany and Britain from whence it crossed to America. Known initially as vingt-un in all those countries, it developed into pontoon in Britain after the First World War and blackjack in Canada and the United States in the late 19th century, where the legalisation of gambling increased its popularity.
Pontoon, formerly called Vingt-Un, is a card game of the banking family for three to ten players and the "British domestic version of Twenty-One," a game first recorded in 17th-century Spain, but which spread to France, Germany and Britain in the late 18th century, and America during the early 19th century. It is neither a variant of nor derived from Blackjack. Both are descended from the early British version of Vingt-Un. In Britain, it first became known as Pontoon during the First World War, the name apparently being a soldier's corruption of its former French name. The game has no official rules and varies widely from place to place. It is a popular family game, but also widely played by children, students, and members of the armed forces. In 1981, Pontoon was the third most popular card game in Britain after Rummy and Whist. It has been described as "an amusing round game and one which anyone can learn in a few minutes."
Losing lodam is an historical English card game for three or more players. It is a 'negative' game like hearts whereby the aim is to avoid taking tricks with certain cards known as loaders. Ulf Martin has described it as "an early version of Ramsch."
Papillon is an old French card game of the fishing type for three or four players. It has been described as "perfect for children who know how to count".
Chouine is a very old French card game of the ace–ten family for two players that is still played today in the Loire Valley, especially in north Touraine. It is a point-trick game that uses a piquet pack of 32 cards. It appears to be a variant of Brisque or Briscan. The game has regained local popularity in recent decades. John McLeod assesses chouine as a good entry point for games of the Mariage family, thanks to its relatively relaxed rules.
