French tarot

French Tarot or (French) Tarot is a French card game that is played with a special hand of 78 cards. It belongs to the large family of tarot card games that are played in large parts of Europe.

The game consists of the four standard colors of hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs with the familiar figure and number cards in each color. However, there is an additional figure card, the Cavalier (Cavall or Reiter), so that there are 14 cards in each suit. In addition to the four standard suits, there are 21 separate trumps (atouts) from 21, the highest trump, to 1, the lowest trump. Finally, there is a special card, the Excuse. The three cards, trump 1, trump 21 and the excuse are particularly important in this game and are called tips. (In France these are called: Les Bouts or, less commonly, Oudlers ) The tips not only count for a particularly high number of points, if you have them in your tricks , this also reduces the number of points required to win the game. Tarot is usually played with four people. The game for five is also very popular. Sometimes tarot is played by three people.

Special cards

Excuse

The excuse is a card on which there is a picture of a juggler. The excuse is neither a trump nor a suit, but can be played instead of a trump or a suit. The excuse can never win a trick. As usual, the trick goes to the one with the highest trump or the highest suit card, but the excuse itself is not lost, but comes to your own trick pile. If the trick goes to the opposing party, there would only be three cards in the trick. In order to compensate for this, the opposing party receives any card as requested by the excuse lead (usually an “empty card”) from their own trick pile. If the affected party does not have a trick yet, this will be done as soon as possible. The excuse may also be played as the first card in the trick. In this case the next player determines the suit or trump for this trick. If the excuse is played in the last trick, however, it goes to the party that wins the trick and can therefore be lost. The only and very rare exception in which the excuse can win a stab is during the so-called walk - through .

Le Petit

Le Petit is the lowest trump and bears the number 1. If it is played in the last trick, whoever wins it receives 10 points multiplied by the level (see below). However, these points do not affect whether declarer wins his game or not.

Cavalier

Each of the four colors has a cavalier (rider). This card shows an illustration with a tab and is usually marked with the letter C in the upper left corner . In the jump-off, the cavalier is placed between queen and jack.

Hand out

A lot will be drawn to see who will deal first. As with all tarot and tarot games, the game is played counter-clockwise. As a result, the cards are dealt the same way around. It is customary in the region to never mix. The person to the left of the dealer takes off for the time being. Then it is given. In a 4-player game, each player receives 18 cards in three layers. During the deal, 6 cards are placed face down in the center. These cards are called the talon (stick). The cards in the talon are placed individually, but neither as the first nor the last card. (Ex .: 3, 3, 3, 3, 1 - 3, 3, 3, 3, 1 - 3, 3, 3, 3, 1 - 3, 3, 3, 3, 1 - 3, 3, 3, 3, 1 - 3, 3, 3, 1, 3) If a player has the naked trump 1, i. H. without having another trump in hand (here the excuse also counts as a trump), the player concerned must report this immediately. The cards are thrown together and the next player deals new cards.

Stimulating

Each player, starting with the person sitting to the right of the dealer and continuing counter-clockwise, can only bid one bid or pass. So you always have to think carefully about which bid you bid, because it could be outbid by the following bidders. If someone bids, the following players have the choice to make a higher offer or to pass. If all four players fold, and this happens fairly often, the cards are thrown together and the next player deals. In ascending order, the four possible bid offers are as follows:

Simple (petite or pinch) However, they say: "I play". Here you can pick up the stick to improve your sheet (see below).
Double (Guard) However, they say: "I play double", otherwise the game is the same as the simple, except that it represents the higher bidding requirement.
Hand (Garde sans le chien) However, they say: "I play hand". The stick is not revealed, but counts as one of the declarer's tricks at the end of the game.
Hand against the stick (Garde contre le chien) However, they say: “I play hand against the stick”. The stick is not revealed. Here the cards count towards the tricks of the opposing party at the end of the game.

The one who makes the highest bid is the declarer. The remaining three players are in the opposing side for the duration of the game and try to prevent declarer from getting the required number of points in his tricks.

Put skat

With Single or Double, declarer turns over the cards on the stick so that everyone can see the cards on the stick. When everyone has seen the stick, declarer picks up the six cards from the stick and “presses” six cards face down. These pressed cards are known as skat. At the end of the game, the Skat counts towards the tricks of the declarer. However, you may never put any of the points (1, 21 or Excuse) or kings in the Skat. Trumps may only be pressed if this is not possible otherwise. In this case, the trump cards held must be shown to the other players.

How many eyes the declarer has to score in the tricks depends on how many of the three cards 1, 21 and excuse he has before starting the lead. The more of them he has in hand, the fewer eyes he has to achieve when stabbing. The declarer must achieve the following numbers:

With 3 tips: 36 eyes
With 2 tips: 41 eyes
With 1 point: 51 eyes
Without points: 56 eyes

Report

Before the first card is played, 10 or more trumps can be reported. This message is called a poignée ( handful ). It does not necessarily count in favor of whoever reported it, but in favor of the party that wins the game. The reported trumps must be shown to the other players. The winner also receives the following number of points:

10 trumps: 20 points
13 trumps: 30 points
15 trumps: 40 points.

If a player has too few trumps for one of these three reports and only then, he may replace the missing trump with the excuse.

Game flow

The course of the game is essentially the same as in other trickery games such as Skat or Doppelkopf . The following sequence of cards applies from top to bottom when playing tricks: King, Queen, Cavalier, Jack, 10, ..., 1 (The color ones are called an ace). As in other games, there is compulsion to operate, that is, if a card of the indicated suit is in hand, it must be played. If a player cannot play a suit, he must play a trump if he has one (forced play). Discarding is only allowed if you cannot serve and have no trumps any more. If a player has to play trumps, he must play a trump card that is higher than the highest one already played in this trick. If this is not possible, he can play any (lower) trump card. If that is not possible either, he can discard a color card.

March through Chelem

If you manage to march through, ie win all the tricks in the game, you receive an additional bonus. The amount of the bonus depends on whether it was announced before the first card was played.

Popular walk-through: 400 points bonus if you get all the tricks and 200 points deduction if you fail to get all the tricks.

Unwanted walk -through: if you get all the tricks without announcing it beforehand, you get a bonus of 200 points

If you have the excuse in such a situation, it wins, played in the last trick, also this last trick, provided that all tricks have been won before. This special rule, which may only apply once in a player's life, allows you to win a march even with the excuse in hand. If the excuse is played in the last trick in this way and trump 1 is played in the penultimate trick, it counts as "one in the last trick".

Billing

After all cards have been played, the players count the eyes in their tricks. The cards count:

Trump 1, 21 and Excuse: 4.5 pips
King: 4.5 eyes
Lady: 3.5 eyes
Cavalier: 2.5 eyes
Jack: 1.5 eyes
all others: 0.5 eyes

The total number of points is 91 points. However, it is easier and more common to count the cards in pairs - for example, a queen and an empty card give four points, two empty cards give one point, etc.

How much the game was won or lost is calculated as follows:

25 points for the game
plus the difference between the card points and the minimum card points required to win.
plus or minus the one in the last trick, depending on whether the opposing party took the one in the last trick.

This sum is multiplied by the bid made by the declarer:

Simple (petite / pinch) × 1
Double (Guard) × 2
Hand (Garde sans le chien) × 4
Hand against the stick (Garde contre le chien) × 6

Then the additional bonuses for a poignée (handful of trumps) and marching through are added. So they are not multiplied by the bidding bid. The calculation can be expressed in the following formula: ((25 + excess card points + one last trick) × bidding bid) + Poignée + march through

If the declarer wins, each opponent pays the calculated points to the declarer, ie the declarer receives three times that amount (double if there are 3 players), while each opponent is charged once. If the declarer loses his game, he pays the calculated points to each opponent. The opponents always win or lose collectively. If z. B. one of the opponents who plays trump one in the last trick all benefit from it.

Spieler...   Anna  Bert  Carl  Dora  SPIEL
Spiel Nr.1   +240   -80   -80   -80    80
Spiel Nr.2   +144  +208  -176  -176    96
Spiel Nr.3   +216  +280  -392  -104    72
Spiel Nr.4   +186  +250  -302  -134    30
Spiel Nr.5   +108  +172  -380  +100    78

Game No. 1: Anna bids a double and at the end can count 56 card points and two points in her tricks. The other players pay (25 + 15) × 2 = 80 points to Anna

Game No. 2: Bert bids a double and at the end can count 49 card points and three points in his tricks and wins the last trick with a one. The other players pay (25 + 13 + 10) × 2 = 96 points to Bert.

Game No. 3: Carl bids a double and at the end can count 40 card points and two points in his tricks. The opponents win the last trick together with trump one. The other players each receive (25 + 1 + 10) × 2 = 72 points from Carl.

Game No. 4: Carl bids a double with 3 points and has 41 card points at the end, but the trump one is "stolen" from him in the last trick. In the end, Carl only has two points left, so he needs 41 points to win the game, which he has achieved in this case. So the opponents pay Carl each (25 + 0 - 10) × 2 = 30 points.

Game No. 5: Dora bids a double and at the end has 40 card points and three tips, the other party has entered a handful of trumps (10 trumps). So the opponents each pay (25 + 4) × 2 + 20 = 78 points to Dora.

Note: To simplify the calculation, some players round up the points to 5 or even 10 points.

Variation for three players

The game is essentially the same as playing with four people. Each player receives 24 cards of 4 cards each. Because everyone has more cards in hand, the number of trumps for the handful of trumps is increased to 13, 15 and 18 trumps. Because there is often an odd number of cards in the tricks, you will count half a point in your tricks. This half card point is always rounded up in favor of the winning party. For example, if the declarer has half a point less than he needs to win at the end, he loses the game with one point difference.

Variant for five players

Each player receives 15 cards. So there are only 3 cards in the stock. The number of trumps for the trump reports are set at 8, 10 and 13 trumps. With five players there are two teams playing against each other. Before the game taker turns the stick, he calls out a king and whoever is holding this king plays in partnership with the crier. If the caller has all four kings, he can call a queen. If the caller has all four ladies, he can call out a cavalier. The one who owns the called king must keep this secret as long as he does not play it. Of course, the other players are just as obliged to keep secret that they do not own the called king. Only when the called king has been played is it clear who is playing with whom. Of course, certain conclusions can be drawn from previous game situations. B. a player is conspicuously helping the calling king. If the called king (or queen) is in the stick, the game taker plays alone against the four other players. Many calculate that the crier gets the win or loss of the game from two opponents, while his partner gets this from only one of the opponents. Others calculate that the two partners divide profit or loss by two. However, this leads to more difficult calculations and often half points result, although this way of counting is the fairer one in terms of the game. If the game is played without a partner, the declarer pays or receives the corresponding winnings from all other players.