After something of a decline in popularity, card games are once again beginning to peak peoples’ interest. However, many people coming to card games for the first time are now unfamiliar with the once commonplace terms and conventions of play. Tarot shares much with regular card games but has a few little quirks of its own and so, in this section I’ll introduce you to the cards and game-play in general. If you are experienced with card games, in particular, trick-taking games, then you may just want to skim this part of the book for anything you don’t recognize and then move on to the games themselves.
In my experience, many of you who do play card games may have most of your experience in gambling games, and in particular, Poker. I have never been a great fan of gambling but if that is your thing, then you will find that tarot offers something more sophisticated for you – like most card games, tarot games were formulated with gambling in mind. However, you will find a very different method of play. In Poker and the rest of its ilk, there is a heavy emphasis on chance. You can help your chances if you have a good head for maths and enjoy a game of bluff but all of this reduces the social element and much of the excitement of the game rests on the stakes on the table. Tarot doesn’t require much of a stake to keep it interesting – or, indeed, any stake at all. You will find here a perfect blend of chance and strategy.
For those of you who have played trick taking games, such as whist, solo, skat, or bridge, you will find much that is familiar here. Anyone who has played whist or solo and been disappointed with bridge will be in their element. I disliked bridge the day I learned it, simply because it didn’t seem much fun - with too much emphasis on the bidding and not enough on playing the hand for my taste. Tarot, like solo or bid whist, has a bidding round in most games but it is simple and quick, allowing a greater social dimension to the game.
Trick Games & Point-Trick Games
In a trick taking game, players are dealt a hand of cards with the first to play decided either by whom is next to Dealer or by a round of bidding. This person will ‘lead’ to the ‘trick’ by playing a card face up in the middle of the table. Each player in turn will then have to ‘follow suit’ by playing a card of the suit led. The highest card played will win the trick and those cards will go into that player’s trick pile, this player shall also lead to the next trick. The person, or team, that has the highest number of tricks will win the game. In many of these games there will be a suit of trumps. For games with a regular pack, that suit is chosen either at random by cutting the pack, or perhaps by bidding. The best known trick games in the English speaking world are probably whist and bridge.
Tarot games are an example of point-trick games. These differ from trick games in that it is not the number of tricks taken that decides the winner. In these games, different cards carry different point values and so it is the number of card points in your tricks that will win or lose you the game.
The Cards
If you were to see a game of tarot being played today, there is a good chance that you would not recognise it as such.
The cards that we think of as tarot tend to be the Italian design trumps and suits, these are the cards that occultists have adopted – not to mention, heavily redesigned – for their practices. They contain four regular suits of swords, batons, cups, and coins. Each of these suits contains 10 ‘pip’ cards and four court cards: King, Queen, Cavalier, and Valet. There is then a suit of trump cards numbered, often in roman numerals, I – XXI, and featuring a range of medieval Christian figures. Finally, there is an un-numbered card called the Fool.
While these cards are still used in Italy, Sicily, and parts of Switzerland, the rest of Europe uses what is called the German pattern. This has the more familiar French suits of Spades, Clubs, Hearts, and Diamonds. The trumps in these packs are usually split top and bottom and show simple rural scenes, while the Fool, still un-numbered, features a musician. Of course there are many novel designs available, sporting themes such as French national dress, or Asterix comics. Another variation is in the number of cards. Many central European games are played with a reduced pack, omitting some of the pip cards. The most common packs of this kind have just 54 cards and are usually known as tarocks, though they can use as few as just 40 cards.
Most tarot games can be played with cards of either kind – if you buy a 78 card pack, you can always remove unwanted pip cards for those games that play with shorter packs. However, there are some games that require very special packs: the Bolognese tarocchi, the Sicilian Tarocchi, and Minchiate. Sadly, Minchiate died out in the 1930s but you can still find reproduction packs available from time to time, I have included the rules here because it really is an extraordinary game, well worth a revival. The cards for the other two games can be purchased easily via the internet.
Card Names and Functions
Suits: A suit is a sub-set of a pack of cards sharing a theme. In traditional playing cards there are four suits. The earliest suits in Europe are the Italian ones of Swords, Batons, Cups, and Coins. The popular French suits are Spades, Clubs, Hearts, and Diamonds. Other nations have also experimented with suit designs. In Germany, though mostly just in the South these days, there are Leaves, Acorns, Hearts, and Bells. The Swiss have the Jass pack of Shields, Acorns, Bells, and Roses.
Black Suits: These are the Spades and Clubs. Their equivalents in other patterns are Swords and Batons, Leaves and Acorns, Shields and Acorns. Swords and Batons are sometimes called Long Suits but this term usually has a different meaning, so I’ll stick to calling them Black Suits.
Red Suits: These are the Hearts and Diamonds. Their equivalents in other patterns are Cups and Coins, Hearts and Bells, Roses and Bells. They are sometimes called the Round Suits but for continuity, I’ll stick to Red Suits.
Trumps: These are the fifth suit of cards unique to tarot, when played they beat any card of the other suits.
The Fool: Also unique to tarot but not originally a trump. This card is often called the Excuse – or some derivative thereof – and can be played at any time to avoid playing a card that the rules would otherwise require be played. However, there are many games, mostly central European, in which this card is used not as an excuse, but as the highest trump. If, as an excuse, it is led to a trick, then the suit for other players to follow is set by the second player, who may play any card. Usually, the only time that the Fool, when used as an excuse, can be won is when a slam is being played, that is when a player wins all the tricks in a game.
The Pagat: This is the 1 of trumps, the hardest to keep from losing and because of this it carries a high point value. There is often a special bonus for winning the last trick with the Pagat called the Pagat Ultimo.
The Mond: This is the 21 of trumps – it is the ‘world’ card. It is worth noting that in some Italian games, the Angel (usually numbered 20) ranks as highest trump instead.
The Honours: These cards are also called the Bouts or Oudlers in the French game, the Trull in some others. They are the Fool, the Pagat, and the Mond. They are always among the highest scoring cards in the game. In some Italian games, the Angel often replaces the Mond as both the highest trump and Honour.
The Birds: Some countries, where the French suited cards are used, have the tradition of naming the four lowest trumps as birds. The Pagat was sometimes called the Sparrow, the II is called the Owl or Eagle Owl, the III is called the Cockatoo, Pelikan or Canary, and the IV is called the Marabou (an African Stork), or Bearded Vulture.
Court Cards: There are four court cards in each of the four plain suits, they are named and ranked King, Queen, Cavalier ( a rider / horseman), and Valet. Of course, different nations have different names for some of them and their cards will have indices for those names – for example, French Kings will have an ‘R’ for Roi. Their pictures make clear their ranks however, and I shall abbreviate them K, Q, C, V.
Pip Cards: These are the cards numbered 1-10 in the regular suits. Some of these cards may be omitted in some games, usually to make a 54 card pack. They are sometimes called ‘spot’ cards but I shall call them pips.
Ace: This is the pip card numbered 1 in a regular suit and usually abbreviated to A.
Deuce: This is the pip card numbered 2 in a regular suit.
Rationalized Ranking: All the regular suits rank K, Q, C, V, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Irrational Ranking: This is something unfamiliar to most people in English speaking countries but quite common in continental Europe. The black suits rank normally but the red suits rank K, Q, C, V, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. It seems like an odd quirk but is common to most tarot games and easy enough to get used to. As the pip cards are of low value, it tends to make little practical difference.
Singleton: If you have just one card of a suit, it is called singleton.
Doubleton: If you have just two cards of a suit, they are called a doubleton.
Short Suit: If you have only a small number of cards in a given suit, it is called a short suit.
Long Suit: If you have a large number of cards in a given suit, it is called a long suit.
Void Suit: If you have no cards of a given suit, it his called a void suit.
Empty Card: This is any card that only carries 1 point, or sometimes no points.
Counting Cards: Any cards that carry a value of 2 or more points.
Terms and Conventions of Play
The Name of the Game: Although the family of games is often referred to as ‘tarot’, only the French call it that. In Italy, where the cards were invented, it is called tarocchi. There are other names throughout the world though, such as: tarock, tarokk, taroky, troccas, ottocento, and cego.
Card Points and Game Points: Card points are those points won from the cards in your trick pile, it is these that count towards winning. Game points, on the other hand, are the points that you win from other players, these may be affected by the number of card points that you win and, for gamblers, translate to money.
Order of Play: Tarot, like a number of European games, is played counter-clockwise.
Dealer and the Deal: The first Dealer is chosen at random, sometimes by cutting the cards, after that, the deal moves to the right. Dealer shuffles and Dealer’s left cuts the cards, then Dealer hands out the cards – deals them – to the players starting with his/her right.
Packets: In most tarot games, cards are not dealt singly but 2 or more cards at a time - these are called ‘packets’.
Eldest: This is the player to Dealer’s right. Sometimes known as forehand.
Cutting the Cards: With the pack on the table, lift two or three piles from it and then stack them together in a different order. Sometimes cutting the cards is not done as a part of shuffling but to randomly reveal a card - in this case, part of the pack is lifted and the card revealed in the lifted part is selected. This may be done to select first Dealer, partners, or, in non tarot games, this is sometimes to select a trump suit.
Maria’s Rule: You probably won’t find this in any rule book, it was a rule given to me by an old friend from Spain. Her rule is that the cards should not be shuffled between hands - only cut. The reasoning was that we got more interesting hands that way. And so we did!
Stock: In many games a number of cards are dealt to the table as a stock. These cards are sometimes called the Talon, or the Chien. These cards will often be counted towards a player’s or a team’s tricks but are not added to their trick pile until the hand has been played.
Scart: A discard pile. Many games involve a player taking the cards in the stock into his/her hand and then discarding an equal number of cards into a scart. These cards will often be counted towards a player’s or a team’s tricks but are not added to their trick pile until the hand has been played.
A Hand: The cards dealt to a player are known as his/her hand. A round of play, as part of a game is also called ‘a hand’.
A Game: A game usually consists of as many hands as there are players. For example, if playing a tarot for three players, then a complete game will consist of three hands being dealt and played, with each player taking one turn to deal.
The Declarer: Many Tarot games involve one player, Declarer, playing against all the other players. Declarer is usually decided by a round of bidding.
The Defenders: These are the players working as a team to prevent Declarer winning the game.
Bidding: The bidding round is sometimes called an auction. Players evaluate their hands and decide if they want to bid to be Declarer, playing against all the other players. While the risks are greater for a Declarer, the rewards for winning are much greater also. Games with a bidding round can be played in different ways of varying difficulty for Declarer to win. The harder the type of play bid for, the higher the stakes in game points. The player that bids to play the hardest type is Declarer.
Contras: Not all games have this feature and those that do, implement it a little differently. After the bidding round, each player will have the chance to double the stakes by calling contra, they can also re-contra to double again. Re-contra will usually have a limit, often ending with a call of sub-contra. This can increase the points won or lost considerably, so if you are playing for money, you might want to limit this or disallow altogether.
Playing a Trick: Declarer (or, if the game does not have a Declarer, then eldest) begins by playing a card face up in the middle of the table. This is called leading to the trick. The suit of the first card played is the suit that has been led. Each player in turn, moving to the right, must play another card of the same suit, this is called following suit. If they cannot follow suit, then they must play a trump. If they can neither follow suit nor play a trump, then they may play any card – though it cannot win. The highest card played of the suit led, wins the trick unless a trump has been played, in which case the highest trump wins it. The player, who won the trick, takes the cards, places them face down beside him/her to form a trick pile and leads to the next trick. (if playing in a team, those players keep a joint trick pile)
The Ultimo: The ultimo is the last trick of a hand and there is often a bonus for winning this with the Pagat - called the Pagat Ultimo - which is harder than you might realise.
Counting the Card Points: Tarot’s counting is notoriously odd. There are a number of different methods used by the different games and contrary to appearances they will, for the most part, give the same results. I have listed the methods to be used with each game but have tried to create some consistency between them and used the simplest methods available.
