The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (97 page)

pinochles

40

300

600 1200

b four eight twelve sixteen

Aces

100 1000 2000 3000

Kings

80

800

1600 2400

Queens

60

600

1200 1800

Jacks

40

400

800 1200

dixes

10

20

30

40

a. Not possible with only 16 cards dealt.

b. Four, eight, twelve and sixteen of a kind are valid only if

represented by an equal number of each suit.

Six receive sixteen each and play as three teams of partners. If a

trump is turned, the first holder of a dix left of the dealer exchanges

it for the last card and counts 10 for it; otherwise, trumps are

established by one-bid or free auction. The last trick may be set at

20 instead of 10 to give a maximum of 500 for cards (instead of

490). Game is 3000, 4500 or 6000 up.

Eight receive twelve each and play as four teams of partners.

Quadruple melds cannot be made.

Binocle

(2/4p, 32c) Swiss variety of one-pack Bezique. The 32 cards rank

ATKQJ987 per suit, the top five counting 11-10-4-3-2 respectively.

Two start with eight cards each and play as at Bezique, the first

marriage determining trumps. The Q J combination, cal ed

binocle, counts 40; grand binocle is K Q J for 80. If four play, al

the cards are dealt and the holders of Q J are automatical y

partners, or one player is the soloist if dealt both. Players must

fol ow suit and head the trick if possible; otherwise they must

trump and overtrump if possible. Only the winner of a trick may

trump and overtrump if possible. Only the winner of a trick may

meld.

Binokel

(2-4p, 48c)Thestil -popularGermangame fromwhichPinochlederives

is played, if by three, as at Auction Pinochle but with some

dif erences. Melds are: family (ATKQJ of a suit) 100, trump family

150, double family 1500, marriage 20, trump marriage 40, diss (†7)

10, binokel ( Q- J) 40, double binokel 300, four Aces l00 or Kings

80 or Queen 60 or Jacks 40, eight of a kind 1000, roundhouse (four

marriages, one in each suit) 240. A marriage may not be scored

separately if forming part of a family or roundhouse. Bidding starts

at 200 or 300 as agreed. Besides taking the widow, highest bidder

may cal for any card not in his hand. Whoever has it must

exchange it for whatever the soloist gives him (face down). The

opponents may also individual y meld, but they score only if they

win a trick. A player who takes al 15 tricks scores a bonus of 1000;

this may be bid beforehand. Some localities recognize a bid of

bet el (misère). Players must fol ow suit and head the trick if

possible; otherwise trump and overtrump if possible. If the soloist

makes his bid, he scores everything he makes; if not, he loses twice

the value of his bid. Game is 1500 up. Four play as partners with

eleven cards each and a four-card widow. Two play as at two-hand

Bezique/Pinochle with twelve cards each.

Don’t forget…

Play to the left (clockwise) unless otherwise stated.

Eldest or Forehand means the player to the left of the dealer

in left-handed games, to the right in right-handed games.

T = Ten, p = players, pp = in fixed partnerships, c = cards,

T = Ten, p = players, pp = in fixed partnerships, c = cards,

† = trump,

= Joker.

11 Jack-Nine games

Clob, Clobiosh or Klaberjass, a two-hander of widespread

popularity, is probably the best-known member of a family of

games originating in the Netherlands and most highly developed in

Switzerland.

Jass games are distinguished bythe promotionof the Jack to

highest position in trumps, with a point-value of 20 like the

marriage itself. It is fol owed as second-highest trump by the trump

Nine, which counts 14 points and bears some such name as Menel,

or Nel (from manil e). As in Euchre, the result is that the ranking

order of cards dif ers as between trumps and plain suits, and you

have to take this into account when deciding which suit to entrump.

The games are al much alike, so if you can play one you can easily

learn another. Belote is the national game of France, Klaverjas of

the Netherlands, and Jass of Switzerland. (J sounds like Y, as you

can easily remember by singing ‘Jass, we have no bananas’ in a

Cockney accent.)

First mentioned inthe Netherlands in 1721, Jas(s)is supposedly

short for Jasper, a name being applied by the Dutch to the Knave at

about the same time as the English were dubbing him ‘Jack’ in the

game of Al Fours (also probably of Dutch origin). In 1796 a writer

in Switzerland describes it as a new game introduced byDutch

mercenaries. Since then the Swiss have developed countless

varieties of it, typical y played with cards bearing the traditional

Swiss suit symbols of acorns, flowers, shields and bel s, and now

known as Jasskarten from their most characteristic use. So popular

have they become that many so-cal ed Jass games are in fact

adaptations of completely unrelated games for use with the same

cards, such as Hearts and Crazy Eights.

Klaberjass

(Clob, Clobby, Clobiosh, Klob, Kalabriasz, Bela, Cinq Cents, Zensa)

2 players, 32 cards

This popular and widespread two-hander has so many names,

mostly variations on the same one, that it is hard to know which is

best for universal recognition. Klaberjass is probably closest to the

original. Kalábriász or Kalabaer is an ancestor of Alsós, long

popular in Hungary, where Klaberjass itself is known as Klob. Bela,

which denotes the combination of the King and Queen of trumps, is

a Hungarian male forename (as in Béla Bartó k), but is bet er spelt

bel a as it ultimately derives from the French bel e. An old game