Kop (card game)

Kop is a very fast-paced card game for four players with a traditional French hand that is played primarily in Poland . The trick game is played with a deck of only 16 cards and is similar to the Baśka , also played in Poland , as it is derived from the German Schafkopf . The very fast game with only four tricks per game is often played for amounts of money.

history

Like Skat and some other card games, the game is one of the offshoots of the German Schafkopf game and was probably developed in the 19th century in the Greater Poland province around Posen , where a large German population group existed. The name "Kop" is probably derived from the German "Schafkopf" as a Polinized form; the Polish word means “kick”. The game is often still played for money today and game tournaments are also held in some villages and towns.

Style of play

Card values ​​and trumps

As a card game only to be aces , the tens, the women and the boys from the four colors of a French sheet used in total is the game according of 16 cards. The cards have fixed card values ​​that correspond to those of related games: Ace = 11, 10 = 10, Queen = 3 and Jack = 2. This means that the total of points for all cards is 104 (with Skat and Schafkopf it is 120, since there are also kings be used). The aces and tens are called “całe” (“full”) because of their high value. The map points are called "oka" (in the singular: "oko").

All queens and jacks are trumps , but the highest trumps are the ace of hearts and the 10 of hearts and the lowest trumps are ace of diamonds and 10 of diamonds. For the queens and jacks, the trumps count in the order of clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds. So there are a total of 12 trumps and only 4 cards in the two suits of clubs and spades are not trumps. Trumps are called “trumfy”, other cards are called “obce” (singular “obca”, German “foreign” or “strange”). The black queens are called “stare” (“the old ones”), the lowest two całe trumps, ace of diamonds and 10 of diamonds, are the “ryzyka” (“risk”).

colour	Rating
Trump card	Ace, 10, queen, queen, queen, queen, jack, jack, jack, jack, ace, 10
cross	Ace, 10
Spades	Ace, 10

Giving and stimulating

The game is played with four people, with two players playing together as partners. The partnership is determined by the possession of the two black women, the owners of these cards play together against the other two players. The cards are dealt clockwise and the game also takes place clockwise.

The dealer shuffles and, after his right-hand neighbor has cut, deals all 16 cards individually to the four players, so that each player has four cards. The role of the dealer changes to the left neighbor after each game. After all players have their cards, they can make various announcements ( bidding ) - according to tournament rules, this is done in the order of play, in practice the players can also shout at each other.

Usual announcements are:

• Contra , Re and other answers: With the contra announcement, a player doubles the game value. If you answer a contra with Re or Rej , there is a further doubling. Other doubling announcements are Bok and Słup . The doubles are only valid in the rating if they come from players of the competing teams, which is only revealed in the game. A series of two or more consecutive doubles by the same team counts as one doubling only. In the private game, further doubling announcements can follow via the slup , which are then given fantasy names .
• Wesele (wedding): At the wedding, a player declares that he owns both black queens and that he wishes to play with the player with the highest jack who is not in his hand.
• Zolo describes a solo game, with this announcement the player declares that he wants to play against the other players.
• Zolo du refers to a solo game in which the announcer also claims to take all the tricks.

Only the highest bid is valid for the game, whereby the “Zolo du” is higher than the “Zolo” and this higher than “Wesele”. If one of these three announcements is made, all previously announced doubles become invalid, but they can then take place again in relation to the announced game. The player to the left of the dealer opens the game if he does not receive an answer to his question “May I (play)?”.

partnership

Partnerships
Queen of Spades Cross lady The players with the two black women form a team, the old ones

If a player announces a Zolo or a Zolo du , he plays alone against the three other players, in all other cases two players each form a team. The formation of the teams depends on the distribution of the two queens (spades and clubs queens) and the two players who have these cards, the "Starzy" (the old ones), play as a team against the other two players, the "Młodzi" (the young). If both black queens sit on a player's hand, he can play a Zolo or a Zolo du or a “Cicha” (silent solo), in which he plays alone without an announcement and without the knowledge of the other players. Alternatively, he can announce “Wesele” (wedding) and then play with the player who has the highest jack that he himself does not have in hand.

The partnerships do not become generally known until the named cards are played, even if this may be obvious earlier due to the game.

game

The first card is played by the player to the left of the dealer (forehand). A trick is always won by the highest trump or, if there is no trump, by the highest card of the suit led. The winner of the trick then plays the next card. Colors or trumps that have been played must be served (obligation to operate), and the players must take the highest card that has been in the trick up to that point. If a player cannot serve or take over, he can play any card.

Since there are only four tricks, a round of Kop is played very quickly.

Scoring and winning

The winning party is the party that received the majority of the 104 points, i.e. at least 53 points. If there is a tie of 52:52, one speaks of a "boki", the team that announced the last doubling or loses if no doubles have been announced, the old ones or the solo player. If the losing party has 26 or more points, this is called a “wyjście” (“exit”). "Bez wyjścia" is a game in which the loser has received less than 26 points (similar to the tailor in other trickery games), "bez bitki" is a game in which the loser does not receive any points (corresponds to black ).

The points of the winner of the game are counted. These are doubled with a "bez wyjścia" and tripled with a "bez bitki". In a solo game, the declarer gets four times the value for a silent solo “Cicha”, five times the value for a trendy “Zolo” and ten times the value for a “Zolo du”. If the solo player loses, all other players get the value. There is no increase through “bez wyjścia” or “bez bitki” in solo play, whereby a “bez wyjścia” can be doubled and with a “bez bitki” only be won if the solo player has taken all the tricks. The announcements double the value of the game, but only if they were announced by players from different teams.

When playing for money, the points are converted into amounts of money, which are then paid by the losers to the winners.

variants

In addition to the classic head, there are individual variants that change the game slightly. The most important variant is a change in the classic trump sequence, which is referred to as “as – dycha” (“ace - ten”), to a trump sequence with the name “as – trzy dychy” (“ace - three tens”) to which the black tens are also superordinated to trumps and the queens and the 10 of hearts:

colour	Rating
Trump card	Ace, 10, 10, 10, queen, queen, queen, queen, jack, jack, jack, jack, ace, 10
cross	Ass
Spades	Ass

Another option is to allow the Wesele player to give himself a counter , but this is not possible with Zolo and Zolo Du . An announcement of the dream boy in a Wesele can also be played as a variant.

The card game Baśka, which is also played in parts of Poland and is very closely related to the Kop, is considered an independent game, even if it shares many rules with Kop . The main differences are that, in addition to a solo, a player can also play a gran in which only the jacks are trumps and all other cards are ranked. There are also differences in the rating of the games.

supporting documents

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} Kop / Baśka , rules of the game for Kop and Baśka on pagat.com; Retrieved July 7, 2016.

Web links

• Kop / Baśka , rules of the game for Kop and Baśka on pagat.com