Talk:Tapp Tarock

Tapp Tarock

In Tapp Tarock, the bids of "Unterer" and "Oberer" are described as requiring one to take the top or bottom 3 cards.

Both "The Game of Tarot" in the References, and "A History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack" mention this only as a variant, documented only in a Piatnik leaflet:

From page 453 of the latter: "The Piatnik leaflet KRT eccentrically lays down that a declarer who bid Unterer exposes the whole of the talon, but must then take for himself the three bottom cards, and the one who bid Oberer must, having exposed the whole talon, take for himself the three top cards." The prior history described in both books, as well as the scoring, makes clear that all 3 bids should be treated the same except the score: Dreier being at the 3rd level, Unterer at the 4th, and Oberer at the 5th, taking the base levels of 1, 2, or 3, and raising them by exposing both halves and then freely choosing either.

I am unaware how often the distinction between the later bids as described in the Piatnik leaflet is observed in play; but perhaps there should at least be a note sourcing that and noting a diversity of opinion. I looked through "Die große Humboldt-Enzyklopädie der Kartenspiele" and didn't find any explanation at all (though my German is not strong, and I may have overlooked it); I could not find "Das große Tarock-Buch" online.

(This is my first comment on a Wikipedia article - please let me know if I should have included more or less information, or anything like that!)

Nisterius (talk) 20:12, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

@Nisterius: I have Dummett's earlier book, The Game of Tarot (1980), as well as others, both older and more recent, in both English and German. The history of Tapp Tarock, its bidding system and the use of the talon are complex and not reflected in the article (which I have edited, but didn't generate the text on its rules). I'll take a look when I have a bit of time. Ideally the article should at least describe the rules of original game and the current one, whilst tracing the history of the main stages of development in between and mentioning the variants. Bermicourt (talk) 08:23, 7 April 2019 (UTC)

Okay, so I've reviewed Dummett (1980) and his account of the development of use of the talon seems to correspond closely with the other sources I have. In all cases a Solo declarer could not use the talon which counted with the defenders' points at the end of the game. There appear to be four main stages which, in brief, are:

• Earliest. 3 contracts: Tapper, Dreier and Solo that scored half, single and double respectively. In Tapper, the declarer used all 6 talon cards; in Dreier only the top 3. Example: Neuestes Allgemeines Spielbuch (1829).
• German - late 19th C. 5 contracts: Dreier, von Unten, Dreifach, Vierfach, Solo worth 100, 200, 300, 400 and 600 points respectively. In a Dreier or Dreifach the top 3 cards were picked up; in an Unten or Vierfach, the bottom 3. However, the declarer could reject the first 3 cards and accept the second 3, raising the game value by 100. If he went back to the first 3, the game value went up by 200.
• Austrian - late 19th/early 20th C. 5 contracts: Dreier, Unterer/Zweimaliger, Oberer/Dreimaliger, Viermaliger, Solo worth 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8 points respectively. In all cases bar Solo, the declarer picked up the top 3 cards of the talon. As before, he could reject those or reject and come back to them for an increase in game value. Example: Ulmann (1890)
• Modern. 4 contracts. Dreier, Unterer, Oberer, Solo worth 3, 4, 5 and 8 points respectively. In all cases bar Solo the whole talon is exposed and the declarer chooses one of the two halves; the other going to the defenders as normal. Examples: Kastner & Folkvord (2005) Die große Humboldt-Enzyklopädie der Kartenspiele, Dummett (1980) Twelve Tarot Games, Parlett (2008), Bamberger (2011).

In addition, there is an unusual mid-19th C Austrian variant - Vanderheid (1866) - with 5 contracts: Tapper, Dreier/Préférence, Zweier/Duo, Einer/Uno, Solo. Tapper is just the right to bid any other contract. Dreier uses 3 talon cards, Zweier 2 and Einer just one.

And in modern Dreiertarock there are 6 contracts: Einser, Zweier, Dreier, Vierer, Fünfer, Solo worth 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 12 points respectively, but otherwise the same as the 'modern' variant above.

Hope that helps. Bermicourt (talk) 19:45, 7 April 2019 (UTC)

In the past year, new research has uncovered a Badenese game with features from the 1821 Viennese games. McLeod recently wrote an article about it in The Playing-Card with a summary on pagat.com seen here: [1]. There is ongoing speculation that Tapp Tarock may have originated in Further Austria or Switzerland before making its way to Vienna during the course of the Napoleonic Wars. The 1821 rules had two variants: one played with 54 cards and another with 42 cards. Both games produced many three-handed variants. Among four-handed games, the 54-card game is the ancestor to Konigrufen and Neunzehnerrufen while the 42-card game produced Zwanzigerrufen amd Hungarian Tarock.--Countakeshi (talk) 04:46, 8 April 2019 (UTC)

Oooh, interesting. Of course, Cego is played in areas that seem to overlap with Further Austria. Perhaps Dreierles preceded both Cego and Tapp, who knows?

Further to the above, I haven't tracked down the Piatnik rules and the only sources I can find that use the talon in the same way as the article describes are a private website here and Furr's e-publication here. Have they both used Piatnik or is there another source out there? It does seem logical that Unterer referred originally to the lower half of the talon and Oberer to the upper half. Bermicourt (talk) 06:23, 8 April 2019 (UTC)

@Bermicourt: The entry for Tapp Tarock in "A Dictionary of Card Games" (David Parlett, 1992) has "Although exchange and solo are the only two biddable games, the lower of them (exchange) can be bid at three different levels, namely 'threes' (Dreier) for a score of 3, 'lowers' (Unterer) for 4, and 'uppers'(Oberer) for 5 points. (So called because they originally referred to which of the two batches of three cards, lower or upper, the soloist was obliged to take. Nowadays he has a free choice.)" (p. 296) Since it seems that the major English-language sources are in agreement, I'd guess that it is only the "logic" of maintaining a distinction in Oberer and Unterer that led to someone "correcting" the rules on those two sites. Nisterius (talk) 15:37, 9 April 2019 (UTC)

I've amended the text to reflect modern practice, but incorporated Parlett's explanation for the terminology. In due course, I'll mention variations to this. Bermicourt (talk) 18:01, 24 December 2019 (UTC)

I've just been reminded that, in Tarock: mein einziges Vergnügen (2001), it mentions as a variant that, in an Unterer, the declarer has to pick the lower 3 cards of the talon, and in an Oberer the upper 3 cards must be taken. This can be done "if you want to make those contracts more difficult." That's already mentioned in the text. So I agree with Parlett that this procedure is the origin of the names for the contracts and that's how we play it at home. We also play out the old Tapper bid which is useful if people are learning or if cards are evenly distributed. Bermicourt (talk) 22:17, 9 June 2020 (UTC)

In his Kleines Lehrbuch des Tarockspiels (1923) Unger appears to describe the practice whereby, in an Unterer, the lower half of the talon is picked up, in an Oberer, the upper half is taken. In a Dreier, the declarer reveals both halves and chooses one, as per normal. He then goes on to say that "in many circles..." the procedure is always to start with the top half (game = single), then go to the bottom half if you don't like the top (game = double), then go back to the top if you don't like the bottom (game = triple). But Dummett seems to have missed this. Bermicourt (talk) 20:55, 23 July 2020 (UTC)