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.
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, 28, or 32 standard playing cards. There are normally four players, two on each team, although there are variations for two to nine players.
Cribbage, or crib, is a card game, traditionally for two players, that involves playing and grouping cards in combinations which gain points. It can be adapted for three or four players.
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."
Cassino, sometimes spelt Casino, is an English card game for two to four players using a standard, 52-card, French-suited pack. It is the only fishing game to have penetrated the English-speaking world. It is similar to the later Italian game of Scopa and is often said, without substantiation, to be of Italian origin. Cassino is still played today in Madeira, probably due to English influence.
Ruff and Honours, Ruffe and Trump or Slamm was an English trick-taking card game that was popular in the 16th and 17th centuries; it was superseded in the 18th century by Whist.
Polignac is a French 18th century trick-taking card game ancestral to Hearts and Black Maria. It is played by 3-6 players with a 32-card deck. It is sometimes played as a party game with the 52-card pack; however, it is better as a serious game for four, playing all against all. Other names for this game include Quatre Valets and Stay Away. Knaves is a variant and it is also similar to the Austrian and German games, Slobberhannes, Eichelobern and Grasobern.
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.
Twenty-five is the Irish national card game, which also underlies the Canadian game of Forty-fives. Charles Cotton describes it in 1674 as "Five Fingers", a nickname applied to the Five of Trumps extracted from the fact that the Irish word cúig means both 'five' and 'trick'. It is supposed to be of great antiquity, and widely believed to have originated in Ireland, although "its venerable ancestor", Maw, of which James I of England was very fond, is a Scottish game.
Truc, pronounced in France and in Spain, is a 15th-century bluff and counter-bluff trick-taking card game which has been likened to poker for two. It is played in Occitania, Sarthe, Poitou (tru) and the Basque Country (truka), and is still very popular in the Valencia region. More elaborate versions are widely played in Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Paraguay and Brazil under such names as Truco, Truque and Truquiflor. The French version Le Truc has become more widely known in the English-speaking world and among hobbyist gamers after Sid Sackson included it in his popular book A Gamut of Games (1969), it being a translation of E. Lanes' 1912 book, Nouveau Manuel Complet des Jeux de Cartes.
Quinze, Quince, also known as Ace-low, is a 17th-century French banking game of Spanish origin that was much patronized in some parts of Europe. It is considered a forerunner of the French Vingt-et-un, a game very popular at the court of Louis XV, and also a two-player simplification of the modern game of Blackjack.
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.
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. For glossaries that relate primarily to one game or family of similar games, see Game-specific glossaries.
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.
Gleek is an English card game for three persons. It is played with a 44-card pack and was popular from the 16th century through the 18th century.
Penneech or Peneech, sometimes called Penicth, is an unusual historical English card game for two players played with hands of seven cards. English point-trick games are rare anyway, but the unique feature of this game is that the trump suit changes with each trick. Parlett describes it as a "jolly little two-hander".
Costly Colours, sometimes just called Costly, is an historical English card game for two players and a "fascinating relative of Cribbage". The game "requires a moderate amount of skill in playing, and is well adapted to teach quickness in counting". It has more combinations than Cribbage and retains the original scoring system for points, but does not use a 'crib'. In the 19th century it was described as "peculiar to Shropshire."
Queen Nazarene or Queen Nazareen is an old English card game recorded by Charles Cotton as early as 1674. It is an ancestor of Newmarket.
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.
Laugh and Lie Down or Laugh and Lay Down is an historical English card game for five players and the earliest example of a European game of the fishing family.
