A 'marriage' | |
Origin | Finland |
---|---|
Type | Trick-taking |
Players | 4 |
Cards | 36 (24-36 in variants) |
Deck | French |
Rank (high→low) | A 10 K Q J 9 8 7 6 |
Play | Clockwise |
Related games | |
Mariage • Bondtolva •Huutopussi |
Marjapussi is a traditional Finnish trick taking game for 4 players playing in 2 partnerships and is one of the Mariage family, its key feature being that the trump suit is determined in the middle of the play by declaring a marriage (a king and a queen of a same suit). There are variants of marjapussi for two and three players.
Marjapussi is Finnish for 'bag of berries', but is derived from the French mariage which is the name of the game ancestral to it in which a 'marriage' is a king/queen combination held by one of the players. According to Kokko, the game was originally Spanish, [1] although Mariage itself, despite its French name, appears to be a 17th-century German game.
Later, marjapussi evolved into huutopussi ("auction bag"), which involves bidding and contracts. The exact winning condition was dropped, but the trump determining process remained. In fact, in huutopussi the trump suit may even change in the middle of the play if players declare further marriages.
Marjapussi is a trick taking game for four players in fixed partnerships with the partners sitting opposite one another. [2]
Marjapussi is played with a pack of 36 French-suited Finnish pattern cards. This may be replicated by removing the 2s, 3s, 4s, and 5s from a standard 52-card pack. Cards rank in the usual ace–ten order: A > 10 > K > Q > J > 9 > 8 > 7 > 6. The aces and tens are called 'checkmaters' (mateiksi) and play a key role in scoring points.
The first dealer may be chosen by any method. [2] After the first deal, the player who was forehand in the previous hand deals. The dealer gives an equal number of cards to each player.
In the first deal, forehand, the player who leads to the first trick, is either the one who has the ♣A [3] or is the player to the left of the dealer. [2]
Forehand leads to the first trick and then, clockwise and in turn, each player plays a card to the table. A trick is formed when each player has played one card on the table. Players must follow suit if possible. Once a trump is determined, players who cannot follow, must play a trump if able. Players must always head the trick if possible, even if their partner has played the best card so far. The trick is taken by the person who played the highest trump or by the highest card of the led suit if no trumps are played and that person leads to the next trick. The tricks are collected face down in front of the player separately from the cards in the hand. The game continues until everyone runs out of cards and points are counted. After this, a new deal is started.
A deal always starts as a no trump game, but a suit can be declared trumps during a hand. A player who has won a trick may declare trumps if a 'marriage', i.e. king and a queen of the same suit, is held. There are three options: [2]
After each trick, the winner of the trick is entitled to one of the actions mentioned above. Once trumps have been declared:
Each suit can be declared only once during a hand.
Rank | A | 10 | K | Q | J | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pips | 11 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Game points are scored as follows: [3] [2]
The card points are counted after all cards have been played. Game is 10 [2] or 12 game points. [3] To win, a team must score exactly 12. If they get more, they go back down to 7 game points. If a team takes no tricks in a deal, they lose all their points so far. [2] [3] This is sometimes called 'going to Porvoo'.
This two-handed variant of marjapussi is known as avomarjapussi ("open marjapussi"). Each player is dealt four hand cards, followed by a row of seven downcards on the table and a row of seven upcards on the top of the downcards. To declare marriages and play cards to tricks, the players can use both their own upcards and hand cards. When a player plays an upcard to a trick and there is a downcard beneath it, the latter is turned face up. [4]
Other rules are the same as the four-handed game, except that there are no partnerships, and consequently the rules on asking a partner for a whole or a half do not apply. [4]
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"). [5]
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.
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 Charles 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.
Euchre or eucre is a trick-taking card game commonly played in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, and the Midwestern United States. It is played with a deck of 24, 25, 28, or 32 standard playing cards. There are normally four players, two on each team, although there are variations for two to nine players.
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 game of Klaberjass and is one of the most popular card games in the Netherlands, traditionally played in cafes and social clubs. It offers a considerable level of complexity and depth. It has numerous variants, but its basic rules are universal.
Tute is a trick-taking card game of the ace–ten family for two to four players. Originating in Italy, where it was known as tutti, during the 19th century the game spread in Spain, becoming one of the most popular card games in the country. The name of the game was later modified by Spanish speakers, who started calling the game tute. The game is played with a deck of traditional Spanish playing cards, or naipes, that is very similar to the Italian 40-card deck.
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.
Mariáš or Mariasch a three-player, solo trick-taking game of the king–queen family of ace–ten games, but with a simplified scoring system. It is one of the most popular card games in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, but is also played in Bavaria in Germany as well as in Austria. The Hungarian national card game Ulti is an elaboration of Mariáš.
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.
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.
Brusquembille or Briscambille is a 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.
Chratze is a trick taking card game, mainly played in the German-speaking part of Switzerland as well as in Bavaria. It is one of over 70 variants of Jass and played with a pack of 36 cards, either a Swiss-German or French one. It appears to be related to the Austrian game, Kratzen.
Watten, regionally also called Waddn, Watteln or Wattlung, is a card game that is mainly played in Bavaria, Austria, Switzerland and South Tyrol, including Ladinia. There are several main variants: Bavarian, Bohemian, South Tyrolean (Stichwatten), (Austrian) Tyrolean, Kritisch and Blind Watten. It is usually a 4-player game, which is "by far the most interesting", but it may also be played by 2 or 3 players. According to Parlett, Watten is "hard to describe [but] fun to play and easy to learn."
Officers' Schafkopf is a German point-trick card game for two players which is based on the rules of Schafkopf. The game is a good way to learn the trumps and suits for normal Schafkopf and to understand what cards one is allowed to play. It is similar in concept to Officers' Skat.
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.
Norseman's knock or Norrlandsknack is a classic Swedish card game for 3 to 5 players, known since the mid-1800s. It is traditionally played for money. The game is about winning as many tricks as possible and above all not being completely left without a trick.
Sjavs is a Danish card game of the Schafkopf family that is played in two main variants. In Denmark, it is a 3-player game, played with a shortened pack of 20 cards; in the Faroe Islands, where it is very popular, it is a four-hand, partnership game using a standard piquet pack of 32 cards.
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.
Zwikken is a Dutch gambling game of the trick-and-trump type using playing cards and designed for three to six players. It is "an old soldiers' game", still popular among the military today.