Trente et Quarante

Last updated
Table layout for Trente et Quarante Hoyles Games Modernized 464.jpg
Table layout for Trente et Quarante

Trente et Quarante (Thirty and Forty), also called Rouge et Noir (Red and Black), is a 17th-century gambling card game of French origin played with cards and a special table. [1] It is rarely found in US casinos, [2] but still very popular in Continental European casinos, especially in France, Italy, and Monaco. It is a simple game that usually gives the players a very good expected return of more than 98%. [3]

Contents

History

Trente et Quarante is recorded as early as 1694 in a French dictionary that simple says it is a "type of card game". [4] By the mid-18th century it had reached England, Lyonell Vane recording that he played it alongside Quadrille and Basset, [5] and its rules are recorded in an English Hoyle in 1796. [6]

The game also reached Germany and was played in 18th-century Holstein in northern Germany under the Low German dialect name of Dör den Hund ("Through the Dog"), because, having been introduced by French migrants, many inexperienced players "went to the dogs" i.e. were ruined by playing it. [7] [8]

Rules

Two croupiers sit on each side of the table, one of them being the dealer; behind the two on the side opposite to the dealer a supervisor of the game has his seat. Six packs of fifty-two cards each are used; these are well shuffled, and the croupier asks any of the players to cut, handing him a blank card with which to divide the mixed packs. The game consists of the dealer dealing two rows of cards face up, the first (upper) row called noir and the second (lower) row called rouge. There are only four bets in trente et quarante: rouge and noir, known as the grand tableau, and couleur and inverse, known as the petit tableau. [9] Rouge and noir bets are concerned with which row wins, and the couleur and inverse bets with whether the first card in the winning row is the same (couleur) or opposite (inverse) to the color of the row.

Aces are worth 1 point, court cards 10 and pip cards their face value. [10] A tie is a stand-off, and on a 31-point tie, players may double or quit on the next coup or immediately lose half their stake. [11] The winning total will range between 30 and 40 card points, which is from where the name of the game derives. [12]

Winning row

Cards for each row are dealt until its total exceeds thirty (trente). The row whose total is closest to thirty is the winning row. If, for example, the cards dealt in the first row were 8, 7, K, and 9 and those in the second row were A, 2, J, Q, and 10 the noir total would be 34 and the rouge total would be 33, so that rouge would win. If the color of the first card in the rouge row also were red (in this example an ace of diamonds or hearts), the couleur bet also would win and the dealer will announce "Rouge gagne et la couleur." However, if the first card dealt were black (an ace of clubs or spades), the dealer announces "Rouge gagne et la couleur perd." Indeed the dealer always announces, in French, the winning or losing of rouge and colour, as follows:

It frequently happens that both rows of cards when added together give the same number. Should they both, for instance, add up to thirty-three, the dealer will announce "Trois après," and the deal goes for nothing except in the event of their adding up to thirty-one. [13] [9]

Refait

Un apres (i.e. thirty-one) is known as a refait; the stakes are put in prison to be left for the decision of the next deal, or if the player prefers it he can withdraw half his stake, leaving the other half for the bank. Assurance against a refait can be made by paying 1% on the value of the stake with a minimum of five francs. When thus insured against a refait the player is at liberty to withdraw his whole stake. It has been calculated that on an average a refait occurs once in thirty-eight coups. [9] Refaits are the source of the sole house advantage in the game.

After each deal the cards are pushed into a metal bowl let into the table in front of the dealer. When he has not enough left to complete the two rows, he remarks "Les cartes passent" (The cards pass); they are taken from the bowl, reshuffled, and another deal begins. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baccarat</span> Gambling card game

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". There are three popular variants of the game: punto banco, baccarat chemin de fer, and baccarat banque. In punto banco, each player's moves are forced by the cards the player is dealt. In baccarat chemin de fer and baccarat banque, by contrast, both players can make choices. The winning odds are in favour of the bank, with a house edge of at least 1 percent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basset (banking game)</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faro (banking game)</span> French gambling card game

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brag (card game)</span> British card game

Brag is an 18th century British card game, and the British national representative of the vying or "bluffing" family of gambling games. It is a descendant of the Elizabethan game of Primero and one of the several ancestors to poker, the modern version just varying in betting style and hand rankings. It has been described as the "longest-standing British representative of the Poker family."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Primero</span> Gambling card game

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thirty-one (card game)</span> Gambling card game

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.

Rouge et Noir is a patience card game which is played using two decks of playing cards. It is a unique game where two types of building are done in the same game.

Sueca is a 4 player-partnership point trick-taking card game of the ace–ten family, and a popular variant of the Bisca card game. The game is played in Portugal, Brazil, Angola and other Portuguese communities. Its closest relative is the very similar German game Einwerfen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Napoleon (card game)</span>

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.

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

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilet (card game)</span> 16th-century Italian gambling card game

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".

Einwerfen or Zählspiel is a German 8-card point-trick game for four players in two teams of two and using a 32-card German-suited pack. Its closest relative is the popular Portuguese game Sueca. Perhaps the most basic and typical representative of the ace–ten card games, this game was first described as early as 1811, but may be considerably older.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poch</span> Card game, recorded as early as 1441

Poch, Pochen or Pochspiel is a very old card game that is considered one of the forerunners of poker, a game that developed in America in the 19th century. An etymological relationship between the game names is also assumed. Games related to Poch are the French Glic and Nain Jaune and the English Pope Joan. Other forerunners of poker and possible relatives of the game are the English game, Brag, from the 16th century and the French Brelan and Belle, Flux et Trente-et-Un. Poch is recorded as early as 1441 in Strasbourg. In north Germany it was called by the Low German name of Puchen or Puchspill, and the board was a Puchbrett.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belle, Flux et Trente-et-Un</span>

Belle, Flux et Trente-et-Un, is an historical, gambling, card game that was widespread in France and Germany during the 17th and 18th centuries. As a relative of Brag and Poch, from which the game of Poker developed, it is of cultural-historical interest.

Rouge et Noir is French for "red and black" and may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Twenty-One (banking game)</span> Card game

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mouche (card game)</span> French card game

Mouche, also known as Lanterlu, is an old, French, trick-taking card game for two to six players which has elements, such as bluffing, reminiscent of the much later game of poker. It is a member of the Rams family of games and, although it is a gambling game, often played for small stakes, it is also suitable as a party game or as a family game with children from the age of 12 upwards. It is named after the mouche, a term that variously refers to its winning hand, the basic stake and the penalty for failing to take any tricks. Although also called Bête, it should not be confused with the older game of that name from which it came and which, in turn, was a derivative of Triomphe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pontoon (banking game)</span> Card game

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."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norseman's knock</span> Classic Swedish card game

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quarante de Roi</span>

Quarante de Roi or Quarante de Rois is an historical French, point-trick, card game for four players in partnerships of two. The name comes from its highest scoring combination of four Kings which is worth 40 points.

References

  1. Parlett, David (2008). The Penguin Book of Card Games. London: Penguin Books. p. 604.
  2. Harold L. Vogel, Travel industry economics: a guide for financial analysis pg. 206 Cambridge University Press (2001) ISBN   0-521-78163-9
  3. William Norman Thompson Gambling in America: an encyclopedia of history, issues, and society pg. 379 ABC-CLIO (2001) ISBN   1-57607-159-6
  4. Le Dictionnaire de L'Académie Françoise (1694), p. 600.
  5. Vane (1754), pp. 34–35.
  6. Jones (1796), pp. 285–288.
  7. Lehman & Handelmann (1858), p. 259.
  8. Schütze (1801), p. 172.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Chisholm (1911), p. 251.
  10. Gayle Mitchell Easy Casino Gambling: Winning Strategies for the Beginner pg. 213 Skyhorse Publishing (2007) ISBN   1-60239-011-8
  11. David Parlett, The Oxford Dictionary of card games, pg. 311 Oxford University Press (1996) ISBN   0-19-869173-4
  12. Diagram Group The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Card Games pg. 348 Sterling (1995) ISBN   0-8069-1330-4
  13. Jean Boussac. The Trente-et-Quarante or the Red and Black, Paris, 1896. Transl. from French, 2017.

Bibliography