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Introduction
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A card game is any game that uses playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, whether the cards are of a traditional design or specifically created for the game (proprietary). Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card games played with traditional decks have formally standardized rules with international tournaments being held, but most are folk games whose rules may vary by region, culture, location or from circle to circle.
Traditional card games are played with a deck or pack of playing cards which are identical in size and shape. Each card has two sides, the face and the back. Normally the backs of the cards are indistinguishable. The faces of the cards may all be unique, or there can be duplicates. The composition of a deck is known to each player. In some cases several decks are shuffled together to form a single pack or shoe. Modern card games usually have bespoke decks, often with a vast amount of cards, and can include number or action cards. This type of game is generally regarded as part of the board game hobby. (Full article...)
Selected general articles
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Image 1
Femkort ("Five Cards") is a classic Swedish card game for 3 to 8 players "with an unusual object", known since the 17th century, being mentioned in 1658 in Georg Stiernhielm's epic poem, Hercules (Herkules) as Fämkort. It is traditionally played with some kind of bet. (Full article...) -
Image 2Card game played in Nanjing, China
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.
The game is most commonly played with two decks of cards, which can be called bāshí fēn (八十分, 'eighty points'), tuō lā jī (拖拉機, 'tractor'), shuāng kōu (雙摳, 'double digging out'), or shuāng shēng (雙升, 'double upgrade'); another variant is called zhǎo péngyǒu (找朋友, 'Finding Friends'), which has five or more players and two or more decks. Alternatively, it can be played with one deck, in which case the game may be called dǎ bǎi fēn (打百分, 'competing for a hundred points') or sìshí fēn (四十分, 'forty points'). (Full article...) -
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Hindersche or Hintersche [ˈhɪntɐʃə], also known as 4-Strich, is an unusual card game, of the trick-avoidance genre, that is still played in the Black Forest region of Germany. The game includes the unique feature – known as schleipfen – of allowing a player to take a trick won by an opponent, provided no-one objects. (Full article...) -
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Bura (Russian: Бура, "cutter") is a Russian ace–ten card game that is "particularly characteristic of Russian prisoners and ex-prisoners. Its alternative name of thirty-one refers to the combination of three trump cards that wins the game. One of the main variants of this game is known as Kozel ("goat") or Bura Kozel. It is a point-trick game with the unusual feature that players may lead several cards of the same suit at once. (Full article...) -
Image 5
humb (Full article...)
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Trischettn or Treschetten is an old card game from the South Tyrol for two players. The game is clearly an Austrian variant of Tresette, the major differences being that it is played with a 32-card, German-suited pack rather than a 40-card Italian pack, resulting in a different card ranking, the Tens and Nines becoming the highest rankers in each suit. It also features points for declaring certain combinations such as four Nines. The game is played for 31 points. It used to be one of the three most common card games in South Tyrol, along with Stichwatten and Labbieten, but is threatened with extinction today. (Full article...) -
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Perlaggen (regionally also Perlåggen), formerly Perlagg-Spiel ("game of Perlagg"), is a traditional card game which is mainly played in the regions of South Tyrol in Italy, the Tyrolean Oberland and the Innsbruck areas of Austria. It is the only card game to have been recognised by UNESCO as an item of Intangible Cultural Heritage. (Full article...) -
Image 8Herzblatt or Herzblättchen is a German card game of the ace–ten family for two to five players. It bears a certain resemblance to the extinct 19th-century game of Piquesept, however without the special rules associated with the trump Seven. (Full article...)
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Image 9Thunee is a popular trick-taking card game of the jack–nine family that originated in Durban, South Africa. It is believed that the game was developed by the first indentured Indian labourers. There are variations of the game found in India and Mauritius. The game is mostly confined to the former Indian townships, where it is very popular as a family game and in fund-raising tournaments, but to some extent it has spread to other South Africans and to Indians in other countries. The game Euchre is very closely related. The first thunee world championship was held in Pietermaritzburg in 2003.
The game is part of the jack–nine card games family, which includes twenty-eight, and the much older card games of the Jass family which are German in origin. The game is named after the Tamil word for water. (Full article...) -
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Mulatschak or Fuchzenawa ("Fifteen Down") is an Austrian card game for two to five players that comes from the Salzburg area and is considered the quintessential game of the region. Although Mulatschak has been called the national card game of Salzburg, its rules were almost certainly unpublished before 2004. Mulatschak is a member of the Rams family in which the key feature is that players may choose to drop out of the game if they believe their hand is not strong enough to take a minimum number of tricks. There is a variant known as Murln or Murlen, which is played in Vienna and the Styria. (Full article...) -
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Konter a Matt, Kontra a Matt or Konter a Midd is a Luxembourgish trick-taking card game played by four players. The game is popular enough to have been televised on RTL, Luxembourg's leading TV station and for tournaments to be organised. Konter a Matt is one of a family of similar games, known as the Couillon Group, played in the Benelux area. Other games in the family include the Belgian game of Couillon, known as Kwajongen in Flemish areas and Kujong in Luxembourg, the Dutch game of Troeven and the Belgian games of Brûte and Gamelle. (Full article...) -
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Ramsen or Ramsch is a traditional Bavarian plain-trick, card game for three to five players that is played with a 32-card German-suited pack and is suitable both for adults and for children. It is one of the Rams group of card games that are distinguished by allowing players to drop out if they think they will fail to win the required number of tricks. An unusual feature of Ramsen is the presence of four permanent trump cards that rank just below the Trump Sow (Ace). It should not be confused with the contract of Ramsch in games like Skat or Schafkopf, nor with the related game of Rams which is also called Ramsenin Austria, but is played with a Piquet pack, does not have permanent trumps and has a different card ranking. (Full article...) -
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Dreierschnapsen ("Three-Player Schnapsen"), Talonschnapsen or Staperlschnapsen is a three-hand variant of the popular Austrian card game, Bauernschnapsen (also called Viererschnapsen). 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. (Full article...) -
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Aluette or Vache ("Cow") is an old, plain trick-taking card game that is played on the west coast of France. It is played by two teams, usually of four people, but sometimes also of six. It is unusual in using a unique pack of 48 Spanish playing cards and a system of signalling between playing partners. The French colloquial names for the game, jeu de la Vache or Vache, refer to the cow depicted on one of the cards. (Full article...) -
Image 15Gilé, Giley or Cuarenta y una ("Forty-one") is a point-trick card game of the Envite family which uses a Spanish pack and has the feature of discarding. (Full article...)
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Image 16
Knock-out whist or knockout whist is a member of the whist family known by a variety of names including trumps in Britain, reduction whist, diminishing whist (from the way one fewer card is dealt each hand) and rat. It is often simply called whist by players who are unfamiliar with the game properly called whist. It is a basic trick-taking game and is a good way to teach the concept of tricks to children. (Full article...) -
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Oh hell or contract whist is a trick-taking card game of British origin in which the object is to take exactly the number of tricks bid. It was first described by B. C. Westall around 1930 and originally called oh! well. It was said to have been introduced into America via the New York clubs in 1931. Phillips and Westall describe it as "one of the best round games." (Full article...) -
Image 18Préférence, a painting by Viktor Vasnetsov
Preferans (Russian: преферанс, IPA: [prʲɪfʲɪˈrans]) or Russian Preference is a 10-card plain-trick game with bidding, played by three or four players with a 32-card Piquet deck. It is a sophisticated variant of the Austrian game Préférence, which in turn descends from Spanish Ombre and French Boston. It is renowned in the card game world for its many complicated rules and insistence on strategical approaches.
Popular in Russia since approximately the 1830s, Preferans quickly became the country's national card game. Although superseded in this role by Durak, it is still one of the most popular games in Russia. Similar games are played in various other European countries, from Lithuania to Greece, where an earlier form of Russian Preferans is known as Prefa (Greek: Πρέφα). Compared to Austrian Préférence, Russian Preferans and Greek Prefa are distinguished by the greater number of possible contracts, which allows for almost any combination of trumps and numbers of tricks. Another distinguishing feature is the relatively independent roles played by the opponents of the soloist. (Full article...) -
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King is a Russian compendium card game of the Hearts family for 3 or 4 players that goes back to the 1920s. It may be related to Barbu, but its country of origin is unknown. (Full article...) -
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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. (Full article...) -
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Solo 66 is a trick-taking ace–ten card game for five players, in which a soloist always plays against the other four. It is based on the rules of Germany's national game, Skat, and is played with a French-suited Skat pack of 32 cards. Bidding is for the trump suit. Jacks are ranked within their respective suits and do not form additional trumps over and above the cards of the trump suit. Grupp describes it as "an entertaining game for a larger group." (Full article...) -
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Clag Scottish rules scoresheet. Note bids in smaller text.
Clag is a trick-taking card game using a standard pack of 52 French-suited playing cards. It is similar to oh hell, and can be played by three to seven players. Clag originated in the Royal Air Force and started as an acronym for Clouds Low Aircraft Grounded. (Full article...) -
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Tarabish, also known by its slang term bish, is a Canadian trick-taking card game of complex rules derived from belote, a game of the Jass family. The name is pronounced "tar-bish", despite the spelling. It is played primarily by the people of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, in Canada, where, according to one source, it was brought in 1901 by a Lebanese immigrant George Shebib. On the other hand, following comprehensive research Kennedy (1996) states that opinions as to its origin vary and that no "definitive roots may ever be determined." (Full article...) -
Image 24
German Solo or just Solo is a German 8-card plain-trick game for 4 individual players using a 32-card, German- or French-suited Skat pack. It is essentially a simplification of Quadrille, itself a 4-player adaptation of Ombre. As in Quadrille, players bid for the privilege of declaring trumps and deciding whether to play alone or with a partner. Along with Ombre, Tarock and Schafkopf, German Solo influenced the development of Skat. Parlett calls it a "neat little descendant of Quadrille" and "a pleasant introduction" to the Ombre family of games. (Full article...) -
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Herzeln is a compendium card game for three or four players in a partie of eight deals (Touren, c.f. Quodlibet). As its name suggests, it is an Austrian game. It should not be confused with other games sometimes called Herzeln, including Barbu and Kein Stich. (Full article...)
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Selected images
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Image 3Bukovina (orange) (from Königrufen)
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Image 4The values of Königrufen cards. The columns (from l to r) are: Card Type, Number, Card Value (from Königrufen)
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Image 5Book cover detail of the Illustrirtes Wiener Tarokbuch of 1899 (from Königrufen)
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Image 7Historically, card games such as whist and contract bridge were opportunities for quiet socializing, as shown in this 1930s magic lantern slide photo taken in Seattle, Washington. (from Card game)
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Image 8A transitional deck with suits of hearts and crescents (François Clerc of Lyon, late 15th century) (from French-suited playing cards)
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Image 9The Ober of Bells from a Württemberg-pattern pack (from Binokel)
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Image 10The standard English (Anglo-American or International) pack uses French suit symbols. Cards by Piatnik (from French-suited playing cards)
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Image 11Petrtyl's deck with Indian and American motifs (from Königrufen)
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Image 13Russian pattern (from French-suited playing cards)
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Image 14Chinese mother-of-pearl gambling tokens used in scoring and bidding of card games. (from Card game)
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Image 15The four lowest trumps from an 18th-century animal Tarock pack (from Königrufen)
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Image 16Galicia with today's limits (from Königrufen)
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Image 17Baronesse pattern (from French-suited playing cards)
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Image 18Pagats by a modern, Central European manufacturer; three type 6, one type 5 (here smaller, in Austria however usually larger than type 6) (from Königrufen)
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Image 20French Rouen pattern on the left, Spanish Toledo pattern on the right (from French-suited playing cards)
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Image 21Modern pack of Tarock cards by Piatnik; Industrie und Glück design, Type 6 by Josef Neumayer, 1890 (from Königrufen)
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Image 22Belgian pattern (from French-suited playing cards)
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Image 23Deck celebrating the union of Brittany and France with Spanish suits but has queens instead of knights (Antoine de Logiriera of Toulouse, c. 1500). (from French-suited playing cards)
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Image 25Sigmund Freud indulged in Königrufen in his spare time. (from Königrufen)
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Image 26North German pattern: the Kings (from French-suited playing cards)
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Image 27Austrian-style 54-card Tarock hand (from Königrufen)
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Image 28Dondorf Rhineland pattern (from French-suited playing cards)
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