A trick-taking game is a card game

Card game

A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...

 or tile-based game

Tile-based game

A tile-based game is a game that uses tiles as one of the fundamental elements of play. Traditional tile-based games use small tiles as playing pieces for gambling or entertainment games...

 in which play centers on a series of finite rounds or units of play, called tricks. The object of such games then may be closely tied to the number of tricks taken, as in plain-trick games such as Whist

Whist

Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game which was played widely in the 18th and 19th centuries. It derives from the 16th century game of Trump or Ruff, via Ruff and Honours...

, Contract Bridge

Contract bridge

Contract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard deck of 52 playing cards played by four players in two competing partnerships with partners sitting opposite each other around a small table...

, Napoleon

Napoleon (card game)

Napoleon or Nap is a straightforward trick taking game in which players receive five cards each; whoever bids the highest number of tricks chooses trumps and tries to win at least that many. It is a simplified relative of Euchre, and with many variations throughout Northern Europe...

, Rowboat, and Spoil Five, or on the value of the cards contained in taken tricks, as in point-trick games such as All Fours, Manille

Manille

Manille is a French trick-taking card game which uses a 32 card deck. It spread to the rest of France in the early 20th century, but was subsequently checked and reversed by the expansion of Belote...

 and Briscola

Briscola

Briscola , one of Italy's most popular games together with Scopa and Tressette, and a little-changed descendant of Brusquembille, the ancestor of Briscan and...

. The domino game Texas 42

42 (dominoes)

42, also known as Texas 42, is a trick-taking game played with a standard set of double six dominoes. 42 is often referred to as the "national game of Texas", and continues to be very popular in much of the state. Tournaments are held in many towns, and the State Championship tournament is held...

 is an example of a trick-taking game that is not a card game.

Trick-and-draw games are trick-taking games in which the players can fill up their hands after each trick. Typically players are free to play any card into a trick in the first phase of the game, but must follow suit as soon as the score is depleted.

Basic structure

Certain actions in trick-taking games with three or more players always proceed in the same direction. In North and West Europe and Russia, the rotation is typically clockwise, i.e. play proceeds to the left; in South and East Europe and Asia it is typically counterclockwise, so that play proceeds to the right. When games move from one region to another, they tend to initially preserve their original sense of rotation. For two-player games the rotation does not matter.

In each hand or deal, one player is the dealer. This function moves from deal to deal in the direction of play.
The dealer shuffles the deck and hands out the same (prescribed) number of cards to each player. The cards apportioned to each player are collectively known as that player's hand and are only known to the player. Any remaining undealt cards form the stock, which may or may not play a role in the game. In many games all cards are dealt and the stock is empty.
The player sitting after the dealer is known as the eldest hand.

The eldest hand leads to the first trick, i.e. places a card face up in the middle between the players. The other players follow in the direction of play. When every player has played a card to the trick, the winner of the trick takes the cards, places them face down on a pile, and leads to the next trick.

The player who leads to a trick is usually allowed to play an arbitrary card from their hand. The following players must follow suit if they can, i.e. they must play a card of the same suit if possible. A player who cannot follow suit will have to discard a card, i.e. play a card of a different suit. A trick is won by the player who has played the highest-ranked card of the suit led, i.e. of the suit of the first card in the trick.

When all cards have been played, the winner of the deal is determined, e.g. by counting the tricks won by each player (in plain-trick games) or by counting the card points in the cards won by each player (in point-trick games).

In the above description some fine points have been omitted for simplicity. After shuffling and before dealing, the dealer passes the deck to the previous player for cutting, i.e. the previous player divides the deck into two parts and places the lower part on top of the upper part. The player who sits after the dealer receives the first batch of cards. Players do not take up their hands before the dealer has finished and everybody has received the full number of cards. Further details, such as how many cards each player receives and the size of the batches in which they are distributed, or what to do when the dealer makes a mistake, differ from game to game and may not even be well defined, especially for folk games.

It can be an advantage to lead to a trick, because the player who leads controls the suit led. On the other hand it can also be an advantage to be the last player who plays to the trick, because at that point one has full information about the other cards in the trick.

Trumps

In many games, one of the four suits is identified as the trump suit. In the simplest case, there is a static trump suit such as spades in the game Spades. More often a dynamic trump suit is determined randomly from hand to hand (e.g. as the suit of the bottom card of the upper part of the deck when cutting), it may be set according to a fixed schedule from one hand to the next, it may be decided by eldest hand or by an auction. In the case of Rowboat, the trump suit is even more dynamic, as it changes throughout the course of the hand.

In most modern games with trumps, the rules for following suit do not distinguish between the trump suit and the plain suits. However, if a trick contains any cards of the trump suit, it is won by the highest-ranked card of the trump suit rather than the highest-ranked card of the suit led. If a trick begins with a plain suit card and a later player cannot follow suit, the player may choose freely to either discard a card of another plain suit, or trump the trick by playing a trump. Any following players must still follow the original suit, and may only discard or trump if they do not hold a card of the suit led.

In some games certain fixed cards are always the highest trumps, e.g. the Jacks in Skat.
In tarot games

Tarot, tarock and tarocchi games

Tarot, tarock, tarocchi, etc., are a group of card games played with the tarot deck. The first basic rules appear in the manuscript of Martiano da Tortona written before 1425...

 there are special fixed trump cards that can be thought of as the members of a fifth suit that is always trumps. In tarot games and some other games, such as in Pinochle

Pinochle

Pinochle or Binocle is a trick-taking game typically for two to four players and played with a 48 card deck. Derived from the card game bezique, players score points by trick-taking and also by forming combinations of cards into melds. It is thus considered part of a "trick-and-meld" category...

, there are also additional restrictions on what cards a player may play. E.g. a player who cannot follow suit may be obliged to trump, if possible.

If a player who can follow suit does not do so, or in games with additional restrictions on card play, not following these restrictions is known as a revoke

Revoke

To annul by withdrawing.In trick-taking card games, a revoke is a violation of important rules regarding the play of tricks serious enough to render the round invalid...

, or 'renege'. A revoke typically cannot be discovered at the time when it is committed, but when a player discards, competent opponents will make a mental note that the player does not hold the suit led, and will notice later if that is not the case. The situation is similar for other types of revoke. Most game rules prescribe a severe penalty for a revoke.

Winning and scoring a deal

When all tricks have been played, the winner of the deal and the players' scores can be determined. The determining factor in plain-trick games (the most popular form of trick-taking games in English-speaking countries) is how many tricks each player has won. In point-trick games the card point values of the cards won by each player need to be summed up. E.g. in Skat, Pinochle and many other games an Ace is worth 11 points, a Ten is worth 10 points, Kings, Queens and Jacks are worth 4, 3 and 2 points, respectively, and all other cards have a value of 0. In Hearts

Hearts (game)

Hearts is an "evasion-type" trick-taking playing card game for four players, although variations can accommodate 3–6 players. The game is also known as The Dirty, Black Lady, Chase the Lady, Crubs, and Black Maria, though any of these may refer to the similar but differently-scored game Black Lady...

, the Queen of spades is worth 13 points, each rank of hearts is worth 1 point, and all other cards have a value of 0.

In the most common positive or race games, players seek to win as many tricks or card points as possible. To win a deal, a player typically needs to win a minimal number of tricks or card points. A player who wins more than the number of tricks or card points necessary for winning the deal may be rewarded with a higher score.

There are also negative or evasion games, in which the object is to avoid tricks or card points. E.g. in Hearts each card point won in a trick contributes negatively to the score. A special type is misère games, which can only be won by not winning a single trick.

Other criteria also occur. Sometimes the last trick has special significance. In marriage games such as Pinochle the winner of the last trick receives 10 points in addition to the card points, while in final-trick games such as Cắt Tê

Cắt Tê

Cắt Tê, , or catte, is a trick taking card game popular in Vietnam and expatriate Vietnamese communities. Unlike other trick games, in which the objective is either to collect tricks, avoid tricks, or fulfill a contract; the object of Cắt Tê is to win the last trick in a given round...

 only the winner of the last trick can win a deal.
There are also blends between positive and negative games, e.g. the aim may be to win a certain prescribed number of tricks. Some negative games like Hearts have the additional feature that a player who wins all tricks, or all card points, wins the game with a high score.

Contracts and auctions

In a contract game the winning and scoring condition and the trump suit are not fixed but are chosen by one of the players after seeing their hand. Perhaps the simplest example are games such as early forms of Skat, in which the dealer or eldest hand has the privilege of choosing the trump suit but must win more card points than all opponents together.
Often the contractor can obtain a higher score by undertaking to reach a higher target.
A player who is set, i.e. fails to fulfill their contract, receives a penalty.

In auction games, bidding players are competing against each other for the right to designate trumps (or notrumps) and to designate the number of tricks to be taken - the contract. The highest bid becomes the contract and the highest bidder is the contractor, known in some games as the declarer, who then plays either with or without a partner. The other players become opponents, whose main goal is to prevent the contract being met. Popular examples include Contract bridge

Contract bridge

Contract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard deck of 52 playing cards played by four players in two competing partnerships with partners sitting opposite each other around a small table...

, Pinochle

Pinochle

Pinochle or Binocle is a trick-taking game typically for two to four players and played with a 48 card deck. Derived from the card game bezique, players score points by trick-taking and also by forming combinations of cards into melds. It is thus considered part of a "trick-and-meld" category...

, tarot games

Tarot, tarock and tarocchi games

Tarot, tarock, tarocchi, etc., are a group of card games played with the tarot deck. The first basic rules appear in the manuscript of Martiano da Tortona written before 1425...

, Skat, Belote

Belote

Belote is a 32-card trick-taking game played in France, and is currently one of the most popular card games in that country. It was invented around 1920, probably from Klaverjas, Klaverjassen, a game played since at least the 17th century in the Netherlands...

 and Twenty-Eight

Twenty-eight (card game)

This is one of a group of Indian trick-taking card games in which the Jack and the Nine are the highest cards in every suit.-Players and cards:28 is usually played by four players in fixed partnerships, partners facing each other. 32 cards from a standard 52-card pack are used for play. There are...

. In many auction games eldest hand leads to the first trick, regardless of who won the auction, but in some, such as Contract Bridge

Contract bridge

Contract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard deck of 52 playing cards played by four players in two competing partnerships with partners sitting opposite each other around a small table...

, the first lead is made by the player next in rotation after the contractor, so that the contractor plays last to that trick.

In precision games, all players choose their winning condition independently: to win precisely a predicted number of tricks (Oh Hell

Oh Hell

Oh Hell is...

) or card points (Differenzler). This type of game began to mature in the 20th century. Ninety-nine, a very high-quality game following this principle, is due to David Parlett.

Stock

In some games not all cards are distributed to the players, and a stock remains. In some games the stock remains untouched throughout the trick play.

In Ombre

Ombre

Ombre, English corruption of the Spanish word Hombre, arising from the muting of the H in Spanish, is a fast-moving seventeenth-century trick-taking card game with an illustrious history which began in Spain around the end of the 16th Century as a four person game...

 the contractor has the privilege of discarding some cards and replace them by cards from the stock. In tarot games and Skat, the contractor takes up the entire stock and then discards the same number of cards.

In some games, especially two-player games, after each trick every player draws a new card. This continues while the stock lasts. Since revokes would normally make it very unlikely that a revoke can be detected, in the first phase of trick-play (before the stock is empty) players generally need not follow suit. A widespread game of this type is Schnapsen/66/Marriage.

Partnerships

In many games such as Hearts

Hearts (game)

Hearts is an "evasion-type" trick-taking playing card game for four players, although variations can accommodate 3–6 players. The game is also known as The Dirty, Black Lady, Chase the Lady, Crubs, and Black Maria, though any of these may refer to the similar but differently-scored game Black Lady...

 and Oh Hell

Oh Hell

Oh Hell is...

, all players play individually against each other, but in other games there are fixed or varying partnerships.

• In many four-player games such as Bridge
  Contract bridge
  Contract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard deck of 52 playing cards played by four players in two competing partnerships with partners sitting opposite each other around a small table...
  
   and Spades
  Spades
  Spades is a partnership trick-taking card game devised in the United States in the 1930s, in which the object is for each pair or partnership to take at least the number of tricks they bid on before play began. Spades is a descendant of the Whist family of card games, which also includes Bridge,...
  
  , the players sitting opposite to each other form a fixed partnership.
• In some contract/auction games for three or more players, the contractor plays alone against all opponents, who form a partnership.
• In some games the partnerships are decided by accident like in some Schafkopf
  Schafkopf
  Schafkopf, also called Schaffkopf, is a late 18th century German trick-taking card game most popular in Bavaria, but also played in other parts of Germany as well as other German-speaking countries like Austria. Its modern descendants are Doppelkopf, Skat and the North American game of Sheepshead...
  
   variants in which the two players holding the black Queens are partners. Such games need special rules in case a single player holds both black Queens.
• In some games the contractor forms a partnership with the winner of the first trick, or with the player who holds a certain card.

Some games such as Pinochle

Pinochle

Pinochle or Binocle is a trick-taking game typically for two to four players and played with a 48 card deck. Derived from the card game bezique, players score points by trick-taking and also by forming combinations of cards into melds. It is thus considered part of a "trick-and-meld" category...

 are commonly played with or without partnerships, depending on the number of players.

Special variations

Numerous further variations to the basic rules may occur, and only a few examples can be mentioned here:

• In Hearts
  Hearts (game)
  Hearts is an "evasion-type" trick-taking playing card game for four players, although variations can accommodate 3–6 players. The game is also known as The Dirty, Black Lady, Chase the Lady, Crubs, and Black Maria, though any of these may refer to the similar but differently-scored game Black Lady...
  
   as commonly played in North America
  North America
  North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
  
  , the player holding the 2♣ must lead it on the first trick.
• There are trick-taking games played with Domino tiles instead of playing cards. These include the Chinese Tien Gow
  Tien Gow
  Tianjiu is a Chinese trick-taking gambling game for 4 players.The game is played with a set of Chinese dominoes."Tianjiu" means literally heaven and nine...
  
   and Texas 42
  42 (dominoes)
  42, also known as Texas 42, is a trick-taking game played with a standard set of double six dominoes. 42 is often referred to as the "national game of Texas", and continues to be very popular in much of the state. Tournaments are held in many towns, and the State Championship tournament is held...
  
  .
• Point-trick games are normally played with a stripped deck
  Stripped deck
  A stripped deck is a set of playing cards from which some cards have been removed. The removed cards are usually in the range from 2 to 9. The standard Anglo-French suited deck of 52 cards itself can be regarded as a stripped tarot deck from which the 21 numbered trumps, the fool and the 4 mounted...
  
  . Some games are played with several identical (stripped) decks shuffled together, in which case various rules exist for dealing with the case that a trick contains two identical cards.
• In Bridge the partner of the contractor or declarer is called dummy and does not participate in the play, dummy's hand being fully exposed after the opening lead, and declarer playing the cards from both hands at their respective turns.

History

According to card game researcher David Parlett

David Parlett

David Parlett is a games scholar from South London, who has studied both card games and board games. His published works include many popular books on games and the more academic volumes "Oxford Guide to Card Games" and "Oxford History of Board Games", both now out of print...

, the oldest known trick-taking game, Karnöffel

Karnöffel

Karnöffel is a card game which probably came from the upper-German language area in Europe in the first quarter of the 15th century. It first appeared "listed in a municipal ordinance of Nördlingen, Bavaria, in 1426 among the games that could be lawfully played at the annual city fête...

, was mentioned in 1426 in the Bavarian town Nördlingen

Nördlingen

Nördlingen is a town in the Donau-Ries district, in Bavaria, Germany, with a population of 20,000. It is located in the middle of a complex meteorite crater, called the Nördlinger Ries. The town was also the place of two battles during the Thirty Years' War...

 – roughly half a century after the introduction of playing cards to Europe, which were first mentioned in Spain in 1371. The oldest known trumps appear in Karnöffel, where specific ranks of one suit were named Karnöffel, Devil, Pope etc. and subject to an elaborate system of trumping powers. Around 1440 in Italy special cards called trionfi were introduced with a similar function. These special cards are now known as tarots, and a deck augmented by tarots as a tarot

Tarot

The tarot |trionfi]] and later as tarocchi, tarock, and others) is a pack of cards , used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play a group of card games such as Italian tarocchini and French tarot...

 deck. The trionfi/tarots formed essentially a fifth suit without the ordinary ranks but consisting of trumps in a fixed hierarchy. But one can get a similar effect by declaring all cards of a fixed or randomly determined suit to be trumps. This method is still followed by a number of modern trick-taking games that do not involve an auction. Parlett notes that while trumps were retroactively added to some games, such as Trappola

Trappola

Trappola is an early 16th century Venetian trick-taking card game which spread to most parts of Central Europe and survived, in various forms and under various names like Trapulka, Bulka and Hundertspiel until perhaps the middle of the 20th century...

, no example is known of trumps being removed from a game.

The trick-taking genre includes some of the most historically popular games ever played such as Bridge

Contract bridge

Contract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard deck of 52 playing cards played by four players in two competing partnerships with partners sitting opposite each other around a small table...

, Spades, Hearts

Hearts (game)

Hearts is an "evasion-type" trick-taking playing card game for four players, although variations can accommodate 3–6 players. The game is also known as The Dirty, Black Lady, Chase the Lady, Crubs, and Black Maria, though any of these may refer to the similar but differently-scored game Black Lady...

, Rook, Belote

Belote

Belote is a 32-card trick-taking game played in France, and is currently one of the most popular card games in that country. It was invented around 1920, probably from Klaverjas, Klaverjassen, a game played since at least the 17th century in the Netherlands...

, Skat, Euchre

Euchre

Euchre or eucre, is a trick-taking card game most commonly played with four people in two partnerships with a deck of 24 standard playing cards. It is the game responsible for introducing the joker into modern packs; this was invented around 1860 to act as a top trump or best bower...

, and Pinochle

Pinochle

Pinochle or Binocle is a trick-taking game typically for two to four players and played with a 48 card deck. Derived from the card game bezique, players score points by trick-taking and also by forming combinations of cards into melds. It is thus considered part of a "trick-and-meld" category...

.
Most trick-taking games popular in the English-speaking world descended from the game Ruff and Honours

Ruff and Honours

Ruff and Honours, a successor of the French game Triomphe with many different spellings, is a 17th century card game derivative of Ruff, the ancestor of Whist, which in turn was the forerunner of bridge and many other trick-taking card games like Whisk and Swabbers.-History:This game was first...

, a simple "race"-type game where the object is to take as many tricks as possible. This game evolved into Whist

Whist

Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game which was played widely in the 18th and 19th centuries. It derives from the 16th century game of Trump or Ruff, via Ruff and Honours...

, from which the majority of current plain-trick games was derived.

It is possible that the origin of the practice of counting tricks (in plain-trick games) was the counting of cards won in tricks. It was therefore a logical development to accord some cards a higher counting-value, and some cards no value at all, leading to point-trick games. Point-trick games are at least as old as tarot decks and may even predate the invention of trumps. All point-trick games are played with tarot decks or stripped deck

Stripped deck

A stripped deck is a set of playing cards from which some cards have been removed. The removed cards are usually in the range from 2 to 9. The standard Anglo-French suited deck of 52 cards itself can be regarded as a stripped tarot deck from which the 21 numbered trumps, the fool and the 4 mounted...

s, which in many countries became standard before 1600, and neither point-trick games nor stripped decks have a tradition in England.

While there is a number of games with unusual card-point values, such as Trappola

Trappola

Trappola is an early 16th century Venetian trick-taking card game which spread to most parts of Central Europe and survived, in various forms and under various names like Trapulka, Bulka and Hundertspiel until perhaps the middle of the 20th century...

 and All Fours, most point-trick games are in the huge family of Ace–Ten card games. Pinochle

Pinochle

Pinochle or Binocle is a trick-taking game typically for two to four players and played with a 48 card deck. Derived from the card game bezique, players score points by trick-taking and also by forming combinations of cards into melds. It is thus considered part of a "trick-and-meld" category...

 is a representative of this family that is popular in the United States. Other examples include Belote

Belote

Belote is a 32-card trick-taking game played in France, and is currently one of the most popular card games in that country. It was invented around 1920, probably from Klaverjas, Klaverjassen, a game played since at least the 17th century in the Netherlands...

 and Skat.