The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (94 page)

the Table below for other scores and details.

Cards See the Table. No card is turned for trump, and no score or

significance at aches to the trump Seven.

Four-, six- and eight-pack Bezique features

Four Six Eight

Number of cards dealt

9

12

15

Carte blanche

50 250 -

Sequences

Trump sequence (ATKQJ) 250 250 250

Non-trump sequence

150 150 150

Marriages

Royal marriage (trump KQ) 40 40

40

Common marriage

20 20

20

Beziques

Double

500 500 500

Treble

1500 1500 1500

Quadruple

4500 4500 4500

Quintuple

-

-

9000

Quartets, quintests

Any four Aces

100 100 100

Any four Tens (if agreed)

90 90

90

Any four Kings

80 80

80

Any four Queens

60 60

60

Any four Jacks

40 40

40

Four trump Aces

-

1000 1000

Four trump Tens

-

900 900

Four trump Kings

-

800 800

Four trump Queens

-

600 600

Four trump Jacks

-

400 400

Five trump Aces

-

-

2000

Five trump Tens

-

-

1800

Five trump Kings

-

-

1600

Five trump Queens

-

-

1200

Five trump Jacks

-

-

800

Extras

Winning the last trick

50 250 250

Add for game

500 1000 1000

The rubicon is:

1000 3000 5000

If loser fails to reach it, add 500 loser’s total

Carte blanche Except ineight-pack Bezique, a player dealtnocourt

may show the hand and score for carte blanche (see the Table).

Thereafter, so long as each successive card drawn fails to be a court,

he may show the drawn card and score carte blanche again.

Trump suit Play starts at no trump. The first marriage or sequence

declared establishesatrump suit, which remains

unchangedthroughout.

Bezique If agreed, bezique may be redefined as the Queen of

trumps and the appropriate Jack of opposite colour – spades with

diamonds, clubs with hearts. In this case, the trump may be

established as that of the Queen if a bezique is declared before a

marriage. Also, the same suit may not be entrumped twice in

successive deals. The score for a multiple bezique obtains only if al

cards involved are on display at the same time.

Additional melds

1. Sequences may be declared in plain suits as wel as trumps.

2. In six- and eight-pack Bezique, trump quartets are declarable

as shown in the Table.

3. It may be agreed to double the score for a quartet if al four

suits are represented.

4. Four Tens may be admit ed for a score of 90, or 900 in

trumps.

Re-forming melds A meld that has been broken up by the play of

one or more cards to a trick may be re-formed and scored again by

the addition of matching replacements.

Brisques do not count in multi-pack variants, except to break ties in

the four-pack game.

Game score Final scores are rounded down to the nearest 100 and

the winner scores the dif erence, plus a bonus if the loser fails to

‘cross the Rubicon’ – that is, fails to reach the target score specified

in the Table for that purpose.

Single Bezique (Cinq Cents, Binage)

(2p, 32c) The ancestor of two-pack Bezique, played with 32 cards

and up to 500 points. Captured cards count Ace 11, Ten 10 etc.; Q

J is cal ed binage; a trump sequence scores 250, plain sequence

120; royal and common marriages count, but not quartets.

Marjolet

2 players, 32 cards

A simpler relative of Bezique, popular in the west of France

(Vendee, Marais poitevin, Aunis, Saintonge). The Queen-Jack

liaison appears in an unusual and possibly ancestral form. Marjolet,

liaison appears in an unusual and possibly ancestral form. Marjolet,

the name at ached to the trump Jack, relates to mariole, denoting

someone sly and crafty, a trickster. It may also be significant that

mari means ‘husband’.

Preliminaries Deal six cards each in twos or threes from a 32-card

pack, ranking ATKQJ987 in each suit. Turn the next for trump and

half cover it with the face-down stock. If it is a Seven, dealer scores

10 for it.

Object To reach 500 (or 1000 or 1500) points over as many deals

as necessary, each dealing alternately. Scores accrue for col ecting

and declaring melds, as detailed below, and for winning brisques

(Aces and Tens) in tricks, these counting 10 each.

Play Elder leads any card to the first trick. Suit need not be

fol owed. The trick is taken by the higher card of the suit led, or by

a trump to a plain-suit lead. The winner of a trick draws the top

card of stock, waits for his opponent to do likewise, and leads to

the next. Before drawing, the trick-winner may show and score for

any of the fol owing melds:

Four Aces 100, Tens 80, Kings 60, Queens 40. (No Jacks.)

Trump marriage 40, common marriage 20

Mariage de Marjolet = trump Jack and trump Queen 40, or

any other Queen 20

More than one combination may be scored at a time.

Combinations remain on the table but continue to form part of the

hand. Marjolet maybe retained and married on dif erent occasions

to dif erent Queens, and any given Queen may be married both to

Marjolet and to her matching King.

Trump Seven A player drawing or dealt the trump Seven may

exchange it for the turn-up and score 10. He may do so only upon

winning a trick and before making a draw. The loser of the tenth

winning a trick and before making a draw. The loser of the tenth

trick scores 10 upon drawing the last, faced card.

End-game The stock exhausted, players take their melds into hand

for the last six tricks. The second to a trick must fol ow suit and

head the trick if possible, otherwise play a trump. The winner of

the final trick scores 10, or 50 if he took al six.

Score Each player then sorts through his won cards and scores 10

for each brisque he has taken. The winner is the player with the

higher score at the end of the deal in which either player reached

the target. (Presumably. Source not explicit.)

Pinochle

2-8 players, 2 × 24 cards

Pinochle, pronounced pea-knuckle and formerly spelt Penuchle or

Pinocle, ranked second only to Bridge in the af ections of American

card-players in the first half of the twentieth century, but has

subsequently declined in popularity. American Pinochle developed

in nineteenth-century immigrant communities from Binokel, which

stil remains a popular family game in Wurt emberg and parts of

Switzerland. There are versions for various numbers of players.

Two-hand Pinochle is much like two-hand Bezique. Auction

Pinochle is an excel ent game for three, but is equal y playable by

four. Adaptations for more than four seem long past their sel -by

date.

Pinochle: general features