Macao is an old, European gambling card game played with French playing cards that is related to Baccarat. It was first mentioned in 1774, [1] and may have originated in Hungary or Italy. [2] It was described as being popular with the soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the 19th century, [3] although the game was later banned as a game of chance. [4]
Macao may be a forerunner of Baccarat. It is a gambling game using cards that resembles others of its genre such as Onze et Demi, Vingt Un, Trente Un or Siebzehn und Vier. The idea of Macao is also used in a dice game of the same name.
The following rules are from Meyer: [5]
Each punter is dealt a card by the banker; additional cards may be 'bought'. The Ace counts as one point, Tens and court cards as nought, and the remaining cards count their pip value. The aim is to acquire nine points or as close as possible to nine points, in one's hand cards as quickly as possible.
If a player's first card is a Nine, this is a großer Schlag and wins double, unless the banker also has a großer Schlag in which case the banker collects a double stake from all players except for the punter who also had a nine, who just loses a single stake. An Eight as first card is called a kleiner Schlag.
Whoever goes bust (verkauft), i.e. ends up with more than nine points, immediately loses his stake. If the banker goes bust, all players win if they have nine or fewer points. If a player has more points than the banker, he wins a single stake; if he has fewer, he loses his stake. If a player has the same number of points as the banker, the number of cards is the decider. Whoever has fewer cards wins; if both points and cards are the same, the banker always wins.
In Macao a player may 'buy' as many cards as possible; but if he exceeds nine points, he loses immediately. In some variants of Baccarat the player may only draw one card. If a player exceeds nine points in Baccarat only the one place counts, i.e. a player can get worse by buying, but exceeding nine points does not necessarily mean the loss of the game.
In Macao all the punters receive cards; in Baccara chemin de fer, however, only one punter gets a card and in Baccara banque only two punters (one in each half of the table).
In Arthur Schnitzler's novella, Spiel im Morgengrauen, the game is named "Bakkarat" at one point, but it is clear from the clues in the novella that it is in fact the game of Macao. [6] [ better source needed ]
It is mentioned in The Virginians by William Makepeace Thackeray, spelled macco. [7]
Baccarat or baccara is a card game played at casinos. 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.
Napoleon or Nap is a straightforward trick-taking game in which players receive five cards each and whoever bids the highest number of tricks chooses trumps and tries to win at least that number of tricks. It is often described as a simplified version of Euchre, although David Parlett believes it is more like "an elaboration of Rams". It has many variations throughout Northern Europe, such as Fipsen. The game has been popular in England for many years, and has given the language a slang expression, "to go nap", meaning to take five of anything. It may be less popular now than it was, but it is still played in some parts of southern England and in Strathclyde. Despite its title and allusions, it is not recorded before the last third of the nineteenth century, and may have been first named after Napoleon III.
Troccas is a member of the Tarot family of card games. It is a four player game played in the Romansh speaking part of the canton Grisons of Switzerland. It is not known exactly how this game entered Switzerland but it is generally thought to have arrived from Italy during the 17th century.
Ninety-nine is a simple card game based on addition and reportedly popular among the Romani people. It uses one or more standard decks of Anglo-American playing cards in which certain ranks have special properties, and can be played by any number of players. During the game, the value of each card played is added to a running total which is not allowed to exceed 99. A player who cannot play without causing this total to surpass 99 loses that hand and must forfeit one token.
The following is a glossary of terms used in card games. Besides the terms listed here, there are thousands of common and uncommon slang terms. Terms in this glossary should not be game-specific, but apply to a wide range of card games played with non-proprietary packs. It should not include terms solely related to casino or banking games. For glossaries that relate primarily to one game or family of similar games, see Game-specific glossaries.
Madiao, also ma diao, ma tiu or ma tiao, is a late imperial Chinese trick-taking gambling card game, also known as the game of paper tiger. The deck used was recorded by Lu Rong in the 15th century and the rules later by Pan Zhiheng and Feng Menglong during the early 17th century. Korean poet Jang Hon (1759-1828) wrote that the game dates back to the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). It continued to be popular during the Qing dynasty until around the mid-19th century. It is played with 40 cards, and four players.
Zwicken is an old Austrian and German card game for 4 to 6 players, which is usually played for small stakes and makes a good party game. It is one of the Rams group of card games characterised by allowing players to drop out of the current game if they think they will be unable to win any tricks or a minimum number of tricks. Despite a lack of sources, it was "one of the most popular card games played from the 18th to the 20th century in those regions of what is today Austria."
Wallachen is an Old Bavarian card game, which used to be very popular in eastern Bavaria. Although, by 2012, it had become a rarer sight at pub tables, there have been more recent moves to revive it. Wallachen is a relatively simple three-hander that is easy to learn. As a result, like Grasobern, it has a relatively relaxed character without the mental demands of Schafkopf or the psychological stress of Watten. It is a member of the Préférence family of card games.
Rosbiratschka is a trick-taking, compendium, card game for three or four players that is played with a German-suited pack of 32 or 24 cards.
Tempeln, also known as Meine Tante – Deine Tante, and its 32-card version, known as Naschi Waschi, German Pharaoh, Stoß or Süßmilch, are very simple historical, German, gambling card games played with French or German playing cards. They differ from the more complex Basset and Faro in that they omit aspects such as lappé, paroli, etc.
Silesian Lottery, also called Card Lottery (Kartenlotterie), Card Tombola (Kartentombola), Großes Los, Grüne Wiese or Bullermännchen, is a simple, German, game of chance and gambling card game, that is played with two packs of 32 Bavarian-pattern or French-suited playing cards.
Polish Bank, Polski Pachuck, Grundehrlich, Polish Red Dog or Stitch, is a gambling game using playing cards which resembles Häufeln and Mauscheln. The game is recorded as early as 1836 in the Austro-Hungarian Empire where it was banned on the grounds of being purely a game of chance or hazard.
Makao, Macao or Böse Neun is a simple dice game for any number of players using a single die and a dice cup. It is a game in which the players must reach a specified score without exceeding it, in that way it resembles other dice games like Über 12 ist tot or Fünfzehn ("Fifteen") as well as the card games of Siebzehn und Vier and Black Jack. It is derived from the eponymous card game of Macao, which itself is a possible predecessor of the popular gambling game of Baccara. Like its eponymous cousin, its name comes from the city of Macao, the "Monte Carlo of the East".
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.
Letzter Stich is a card game for 3 or 4 players in which the aim is solely to win the last trick. It originated in Germany and the names mean "last trick" respectively. It has been described as suitable for children, yet having a "surprising wealth of interesting game situations." It should not be confused with Letzter, a reverse game of greater complexity where the aim is to lose the last trick.
Lorum or lórum is an old, Hungarian, compendium card game for 4 players. Although it is the ancestor of the French game, barbu, it is still played today. It uses a German-suited pack of 32 cards and comprises 8 individual contracts, each with different rules, each of which is played four times so that a session consists of a total of 32 individual games and lasts about 1½ hours.
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."
Herzblatt or Herzblättchen is a German card game of the ace–ten family for two to five players. It bears a certain resemblance to the extinct 19th-century game of Piquesept, however without the special rules associated with the trump Seven.
Onze et demie, also Onze et demi, is an historical German banking game for any number of players and a close relative of Vingt et un.