 A "cricca" in the suit of cups. | |
| Origin | Italy |
|---|---|
| Alternative names | Marafone, Maraffa, Beccacino |
| Type | Trick taking |
| Family | Tresette group |
| Players | 4 (2 per team) |
| Skills required | Tactics |
| Cards | 40 cards |
| Deck | Italian |
| Play | Counter-clockwise |
| Card rank (highest first) | 3 2 A K C J 7 6 5 4 |
| Random chance | Low |
| Related games | |
| Tressette | |
Marafon, Maraffa or Beccaccino is a trick-taking card game for four players from the Italian province of Romagna that is similar to Tressette, but features trumps. [1]
The game is played with a deck of 40 Italian-suited cards, ranked 3 2 A K C J 7 6 5 4 when determining the winner of a trick. In terms of points aces are worth a full point, while deuces, treys and court cards are worth ⅓ of a point; all other cards are worth no points. Each hand is composed of 10 tricks, at the end of a hand the points won are rounded down to a whole number and the winner of the last trick is awarded 1 point. The match continues until a team reaches 41 points. [1]
Players split into two teams, with teammates sitting at opposite sides of the table. The dealer shuffles the deck and the player to his left cuts it. Ten cards are then dealt to each player, in batches of five. [1]
In the first hand of a match the player holding the 4 of coins (or diamonds, if playing with French-suited decks) christens the trump suit, called trionfa and leads the first trick. In all following hands the player sitting to the dealer’s right will christen the trionfa. [1]
If a player holds a cricca (ace, deuce, trey) of the trionfa they may declare it for an award of 3 bonus points. [1]
Players must follow suit if they can and may therefore only play a trump only if they don’t own any card of the leading suit. The trick is awarded to the player of strongest card in the leading suit if no trump was played, or to the player of the strongest trump otherwise. The winner of the trick must lead the next trick. [1]
At the end of each hand the points are tallied and the player who led the first trick becomes the new dealer.
It is not allowed to talk during the game.
Trionfo or Trionfino is a five-player variant where two play against three and there are no bids of marafona or cricca. In other variants:
Pinochle, also called pinocle or penuchle, is a trick-taking, Ace-Ten card game typically for two to four players and played with a 48-card deck. It is derived from the card game bezique; players score points by trick-taking and also by forming combinations of cards into melds. It is thus considered part of a "trick-and-meld" category which also includes the game belote. Each hand is played in three phases: bidding, melds, and tricks. The standard game today is called "partnership auction pinochle".
Sheepshead or Sheephead is an American trick-taking card game derived from Bavaria's national card game, Schafkopf. Sheepshead is most commonly played by five players, but variants exist to allow for two to eight players. There are also many other variants to the game rules, and many slang terms used with the game.
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 Whist, Contract bridge, Spades, Napoleon, Euchre, Rowboat, Clubs and Spoil Five, or to the value of the cards contained in taken tricks, as in point-trick games such as Pinochle, the Tarot family, Mariage, Rook, All Fours, Manille, Briscola, and most evasion games like Hearts. The domino game Texas 42 is an example of a trick-taking game that is not a card game. 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.
All Fours is a traditional English card game, once popular in pubs and taverns as well as among the gentry, that flourished as a gambling game until the end of the 19th century. It is a trick-taking card game that was originally designed for two players, but developed variants for more players. According to Cotton, the game originated in Kent, but spread to the whole of England and eventually abroad. It is the eponymous and earliest recorded game of a family that flourished most in 19th century North America and whose progeny include Pitch, Pedro and Cinch, games that even competed with Poker and Euchre. Nowadays the original game is especially popular in Trinidad and Tobago, but regional variants have also survived in England. The game's "great mark of distinction" is that it gave the name 'Jack' to the card previously known as the Knave.
Skat is a 3-player trick-taking card game of the Ace-Ten family, devised around 1810 in Altenburg in the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. It is the national game of Germany and, along with Doppelkopf, it is the most popular card game in Germany and Silesia and one of the most popular in the rest of Poland. John McLeod considers it one of the best and most interesting card games for 3 players, and Kelbet described it as "the king of German card games."
Spades is a trick-taking card game devised in the United States in the 1930s. It can be played as either a partnership or solo/"cutthroat" game. The object is to take the number of tricks that were bid before play of the hand began. Spades is a descendant of the Whist family of card games, which also includes Bridge, Hearts, and Oh Hell. Its major difference as compared to other Whist variants is that, instead of trump being decided by the highest bidder or at random, the Spade suit always trumps, hence the name.
Marjapussi is a traditional Finnish partnerships trick taking game. The speciality of Marjapussi is that the trump suit is determined in the middle of the play by declaring a marriage. To win a game, a partnership must get exactly twelve points. A very similar game evidently related to Sixty-six, but with a curious resonance of All Fours is played in Sweden under the name Bondtolva, Farmer's Dozen.
Briscola is one of Italy's most popular games, together with Scopa and Tressette. A little-changed descendant of Brusquembille, the ancestor of Briscan and Bezique, Briscola is a Mediterranean trick-taking, Ace-Ten card game for two to six players played with a standard Italian 40-card deck. The game can also be played with a modern Anglo-French deck, without the eight, nine and ten cards. With three or six players, twos are removed from the deck to ensure the number of cards in the deck is a multiple of the number of players; a single two for three players and all four twos for six players. The four- and six-player versions of the game are played as a partnership game of two teams, with players seated such that every player is adjacent to two opponents.
Sheng ji is a family of point-based, trick-taking card games played in China and in Chinese immigrant communities. They have a dynamic trump, i.e., which cards are trump changes every round. As these games are played over a wide area with no standardization, rules vary widely from region to region.
Smear is a North-American trick-taking card game of the All Fours group, and a variant of Pitch (Setback). Several slightly different versions are played in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Minnesota, Northern and Central Iowa, Wisconsin and also in Ontario, Canada.
Botifarra is a point trick-taking card game for four players in fixed partnerships played in Catalonia, in the northeast of Spain, and parts of Aragon and Castelló province. It is a historical game also played in many parts of Spain, not only in bars and coffee shops. The game is closely related to Manille from which it takes the mechanics, but its rules induce deduction and minimise the effects of luck.
Triomphe, once known as French Ruff, is a card game dating from the late 15th century. It most likely originated in France or Spain and later spread to the rest of Europe. When the game arrived in Italy, it shared a similar name with the pre-existing game and deck known as trionfi; probably resulting in the latter becoming renamed as Tarocchi (tarot). While trionfi has a fifth suit that acts as permanent trumps, triomphe randomly selects one of the existing four suits as trumps. Another common feature of this game is the robbing of the stock. Triomphe became so popular that during the 16th century the earlier game of trionfi was gradually renamed tarocchi, tarot, or tarock. This game is the origin of the English word "trump" and is the ancestor of many trick-taking games like Euchre and Whist.
Russian Schnapsen or Thousand Schnapsen is a trick-taking game for three players, the aim of which is to score over 1000 points to win the game. It is a variant of the popular Austrian game of Schnapsen. Like its parent, Russian Schnapsen features "marriages" which are worth extra points.
Bauerntarock also called Brixentaler Bauerntarock, is a point-trick card game played in the Brixental, Austria. It may have originated in the 19th century as an adaptation of the 54-card Tapp Tarock game onto the cheaper and smaller 36-card German deck. Another possibility is that it was adapted from the 78-card 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, 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.
Officers' Skat (Offiziersskat), is a trick-taking card game for two players which is based on the rules of Skat. It may be played with a German or French card deck of 32 cards which, from the outset of the game, are laid out in rows both face down and face up. As in Skat, tricks are taken and card points counted to determine the winner of a round; game points are then awarded to decide the winner of a game. It is also called Two-hand Skat, Sailors' Skat (Seemannsskat), Farmers' Skat (Bauernskat), Robbers' Skat (Räuberskat) or Coachmen's Skat (Kutscherskat)
The card game of Bauernschnapsen is an expanded form of the popular Austrian card game of Schnapsen, played by four players. This variant of Schnapsen is played throughout the whole of Austria.
Dobbm or Tappen is a card game played in the Stubaital valley in Austria which, like Brixental Bauerntarock, Bavarian Tarock and Württemberg Tarock, is not a true Tarock game, but is one of a family of games derived from Tapp Tarock by adapting its rules to a regular, shortened pack of 36 cards. The ranking and point value of the cards in Dobbm is identical with those of the other variants mentioned. In Dobbm as well, one player always plays as a soloist against all the others. It most strongly resembles the Brixental variant: Dobbm is also played by four players, each player is dealt eight cards, four cards go to the talon and Hearts are the permanent trump suit. The fundamental difference between games of the Tapp family and true tarot games is in the use of shortened German or French packs instead of true Tarot playing cards.
Dreierschnapsen, Talonschnapsen or Staperlschnapsen is a three-hand variant of the popular Austrian card game, Bauernschnapsen. The rules are very similar to those for Bauernschnapsen except that, instead of two teams of two players, one player bids to become the soloist against the other two who form a temporary alliance. Another difference is that the game makes use of a talon with which the soloist may exchange cards to improve his hand, hence its alternative name of Talonschnapsen. The game is usually played with William Tell cards.
Zwanzigerrufen or Zwanz'gerrufen is the leading trick-taking card game of the Tarock family in many regions of eastern Austria. Its rules are simpler than the game of Königrufen which is more widely played in the whole of Austria. As is common in Tarock games, the cards have various point values – the primary goal in an individual game is to win the majority of points.
Tausendundeins, 1001 or Russeln, is an easy-to-learn card game that enables a player to quickly become familiar with the basic concepts of trick-taking and trump-based card games. The name is taken from the score at the end of the game.