All fours
All Fours (English, in German about Alle Viere ) is a card game popular in Trinidad and Tobago , originally from the United Kingdom. The game of tricks , usually played by four, historically also played by two, was first described in 1674 in Charles Cotton 's standard game work The Compleat Gamester . Because of the way it is counted, All Fours contains a large gambling element.
Idea and equipment
A full deck of 52 cards is used for All Fours . The rank of the cards is from high to low: Ace, King, Queen, Jack and then the numerical values from 10 to 2. The players collect points by cleverly playing cards within a game and by being lucky when they are dealt; The aim of the game is to achieve 14 points by winning tricks with scoring cards in them over several rounds.
Game flow
General
All Fours is played with four players, with two players each forming a team and sitting opposite each other. The dealer of the current round is determined according to a previously agreed procedure, for example by drawing a card by each player, the player with the highest card being the first dealer; for all further rounds the dealer changes counterclockwise in turn.
Preparations
The dealer shuffles the deck of cards and deals six cards face down to each player. The remaining cards are placed face down in a pile on the table. The top card is revealed and determines the current trump suit . Only the dealer and the player to his right ( forehand ) are allowed to see their cards.
The forehand player starts a game to play the election, a card or to "beg" (English beg ). He usually does the latter if he is dissatisfied with the cards he has been assigned. If the forehand player “begs”, the dealer has two options to choose from: He can accept the “begging” of the player and deal three more cards face down to each player, including himself; In this case, the trump card is pushed under the pile and the top card is revealed as the new trump card. If the new trump card is the same color as the previous one, the process is repeated. Alternatively, he can refuse the player's “begging” and credit the opposing team with one point for the overall ranking. In this case, the current trump suit remains. The dealer usually chooses this alternative when he is satisfied with his cards.
Course of a round
The player whose turn it is at the moment (i.e. the forehand player in round 1) plays a card, then the game continues counterclockwise until all players have played a card. The next player must either serve, i.e. play the same suit, or play a card of the trump suit. If he has neither the specified nor the trump suit, he can play any card. The player with the highest card wins, whereby the trump suit trumps the given suit. The winner of the current round starts the next and thus determines the next game color. When all cards have been played, the current game is over.
Counting system
Within a round, the cards won count as follows:
- As: 4
- King: 3
- Queen: 2
- Jack: 1
- Ten: 10
This means that 80 round points are possible within one round, but since the players usually only have some of the cards in their possession, this value is more theoretical.
All Fours relies more on luck than other trick-taking games when awarding points. Certain cards give the team that is dealt them one point each, namely the cards ace and two in the current trump suit. These are called "sure points" safe points , as they will be credited to the original owner in any case. If the dealer reveals a jack as a trump card at the beginning of a round, the dealer will receive three points for the total game.
In the game itself, only one to five points are to be scored per round. The party that wins the round gets one point. At the end of a round, the cards won are counted - a ten gives ten round points, an ace four, a king three, a queen two and a jack one round point. The party with the most round points wins the round. The jack of trumps is a specialty. If this is in play and if the holder of the card loses it to the opposing team in one trick, it receives three game points.
The party that scored 14 game points first wins.
history
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All Fours belongs to the group of high-low-jack games and founded it. The name ( Alle Viere ) comes from the point system: you write a point for "high" ( high, i.e. holding the highest trump card in the game), "low" ( low, meaning holding the lowest trump card in the game or winning (today)) , "Jack" ( Jack i.e. catching the trump jack) and "Game" ( Game i.e. winning the most points in the tricks), so a total of four game points in one game round. David Parlett locates the origins of the game in the 17th century and considers Holland to be the place of origin, as the game demonstrably appeared as part of the Stuart Restoration in England and this began with the return of King Charles II from exile in Holland. The contemporary poet Charles Cotton located the origins of the game in 1674 in the southeastern county of Kent . The name comes from the fact that points can be scored in four different ways. Originally, All Fours was a game for two players, the way of playing with two teams competing against each other developed later.
With the English colonial rulers, the game came to Trinidad around 1800 and was initially popular with slaves there. The play element of "begging" only developed in Trinidad and was not previously common. In the early 19th century, All Fours was the most popular card game in the United States. In the decades that followed, it was supplanted by the Euchre and Poker games .
In Trinidad, All Fours players are organized in the Trinidad and Tobago All Fours Federation (TTAFF). In 2018, the association hosted an All-Fours World Championship in Couva . There are regular tournaments in the country with high prize money.
variants
- All fives
Identical game with an alternative method of counting, in which tricks with certain trump cards yield points for the overall game and the goal of the game is correspondingly higher.
- California Jack
The trump suit is determined randomly, and each player is dealt only three cards at the start.
- Don
Variant with alternative counting method developed in Ireland in the 19th century.
- Pedro
Pedreaux too. A simplified version of the game that emerged in the American Midwest in the late 19th century and was at times the most popular all-fours card game in the country.
- Phat
A four-player variant with a different way of counting.
- Pitch
Also known as auction pitch, it was very popular in the United States in the 19th century. In pitch, the trump suit is determined by the forehand player, not by drawing a card.
reception
Charles Cotton described All Fours in 1674 as "trivial and inconspicuous", but at least in the county of Kent large sums of money are played for. David Parlett classifies it as a "lower class game" for the time after its creation, which was played in cheap pubs and on ships of the Royal Navy . Parlett found that All Fours has a ludohistorical significance insofar as it was the first game in which the “Jack” playing card was referred to as “jack” in the Anglo-American region, a designation that later became popular - the card was previously in English referred to as "knave" (outdated for " knappe ").
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pagat.com: All Fours. Retrieved July 28, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c d David Parlett: The Penguin Book of Card Games . 2nd Edition. Penguin Books, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-14-103787-5 , pp. 175 ff .
- ↑ Pagat.com: Card Games: All Fours Group. Retrieved July 28, 2020 .
- ↑ Britannica.com: All fours. Retrieved July 28, 2020 .
- ↑ TheGuardian.com: All fours. Retrieved July 28, 2020 .
- ↑ Trinidad and Tobago All Fours Federation: World All-Fours Championships 2018. Accessed July 28, 2020 . (via Facebook )
- ↑ $ 400k in prizes at Lime 101.7 all fours . In: Trinidad Newsday . 26th August 2019.
- ↑ Pagat.com: Nine Card Don, Irish Don, Phat. Retrieved July 28, 2020 .
- ^ Charles Cotton: The Compleat Gamester . 5th edition. J. Wilford, London 1725, p. 80 .