The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (126 page)

respectively doubled or redoubled. Note that the score for Pagat

obtains independently of the main contract: it is possible for the

soloist to score for game and the partners for Pagat, or vice versa.

Final y, any player whose original hand contained one of the

fol owing features may now claim and score for it:

All three cards of the trull: 3 points

Any two cards of the trull: 1 point

All four Kings:

3 points

(In some circles, these scores are doubled in a solo game.) Play

continues for any agreed number of deals, which should be a

multiple of three.

Variants Many variations of procedure and scoring wil be

encountered. Some permit additional redoubles, and some credit

any player with a score of (say) 2 points for capturing trump XXI

with the Skus. Of greatest interest is that whereby the holder of

Pagat may bid to win the last trick with it even though he is not the

soloist. In this case:

1. The soloist may double the announcement, and its maker or

his partner may redouble.

2. The Pagat announcer may not play it to any earlier trick if he

can legal y avoid doing so.

3. If the Pagat holder plays it to the last trick and loses it to an

opponent – or, having announced it, plays it to any earlier

trick – he is deemed to have been trying to win the last trick

trick – he is deemed to have been trying to win the last trick

with it, and the other side scores the appropriate bonus. (Four

points, doubled in a solo, doubled if announced, and doubled

or redoubled as the case maybe.)

4. Prior agreement must be made as to what happens if, in the

above case, one of the partners plays Pagat to the last trick,

and the other partner wins it. Strictly, the Pagat-player has lost

it, and the soloist scores; but it may be agreed to cal it a

stand-of , and leave the bonus unearned.

Notes on play The game is often won on tarocks, plain cards being

used to plump the value of tricks rather than intentional y to win

them. In assessing a hand for the bid, think first of the possible split

of the tarocks and then of the seven 5-point cards (Kings and trul ).

The most even split is about seven tarocks in each hand and one in

each half of the talon. A minimum bid of threes therefore requires

at least eight tarocks, including several high ones and at least one

card of the trul , but this can be reduced if you have four Kings.

Higher bids require correspondingly higher strength. A very short

side suit is a possible strength factor, as one aim of taking the talon

is to create a void. Solo should not be bid with fewer than three of

the 5-point cards, eleven good tarocks, and at least one void suit or

a singleton King.

In play, the soloist normal y leads tarocks first in order to draw

two for one from the partners, while the partners lead long plain

suits to force out the soloist’s tarocks. A key point occurs when one

of them is out of tarocks and can throw high counters to his

partner’s tricks. As in any three-hander, it is always desirable to

keep the soloist in the middle, i.e. playing second to the trick.

Winning the last trick with the Pagat should not be at empted

without at least ten tarocks in hand, and they of above-average

strength. In at acking this feat, aim to get rid of al plain-suit cards

before the last trick, as a diminished hand consisting entirely of

tarocks is then bound to capture the Pagat.

Paskievics (Hungarian Tarokk)

4 (or 5) players, 42 cards

An important part of the apparatus of this game is the mayor’s hat

– one version is a felt hat with feathers and other decorations, but

anything ridiculous looking wil do… The player who is

unfortunate (or careless) enough to lose the XXI is cal ed the mayor

(polgärmester), and is obliged as a penalty to wear the hat until

someone else suf ers the same misfortune.

Macfadyen, Healey, McLeod: Paskievics www.pagat.com (1996)

The classical Tarot game of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire

first appeared around 1870. Its name commemorates Ivan

Fyodorovich Paskevich, the prince of Warsaw whose Russian troops

put down the Hungarian revolution and war of independence in

1848-9. It is played with a 54-card pack but stripped down to the

42 quoted below. These cards, sometimes unusual y large (up to

127 x 74 mm), are widely available in eastern Europe: I bought

mine in Sibiu, Romania. Paskievics is distinguished by a bidding

system designed to convey a considerable amount of advance

information about the lie of cards, thus rendering it a game of

extreme skil . The fol owing is condensed from the Pagat website,

with revisions by Gyula Zsigri.

Terminology Skiz is from French excuse, tuletrod from tous les

trois, pagat is related to bagatel e in the sense of something trifling.

Preliminaries Four players are active, but five often play, with each

in turn acting as a non-playing dealer. Al play on their own

account in the long run, but the declarer in each deal may cal for

account in the long run, but the declarer in each deal may cal for

the aid of a temporary al y, who wil share in the profits or losses

for that deal. Play rotates anticlockwise, so eldest is the player at

dealer’s right. Set lements are usual y made in hard score (coins or

counters), but may be kept in writing.

Special equipment Besides cards and counters, a sil y hat is essential

(see above).

Cards The 42-card pack consists of 22 tarokks (trumps) and 20

French-suited plain cards. Tarokks rank downwards as fol ows:

Skiz: a figure resembling a jester. It is unnumbered, but

equivalent to XXI . Then:

XXI, XX, XIX, XVI I, XVI , XVI, XV, XIV, XI I, XI , XI, X, IX, VI I,

VI , VI, V, IV, I I, I , I (Pagat).

The two highest tarokks and the lowest one – Skiz, XXI, Pagat –

are ‘honours’. In plain suits, cards rank:

In black ( ) King, Queen, Knight, Jack, Ten (low)

In red ( ) King, Queen, Knight, Jack, Ace (low)

Cards count as fol ows when taken in tricks:

Honours 5 each= 15 in all

Kings

5 each= 20

Queens 4 each= 16

Knights 3 each= 12

Jacks

2each= 8

all others 1 each= 23 (Aces, Tens, and 19 tarokks)

Object Of the 94-point total, the soloist’s aim is to take in tricks

cards amounting to more than half (i.e. at least 48), either alone or

with a partner.

Deal After a cut from the left, deal the first six cards face down as a

talon, fol owed by nine to each player in batches of five then four.

If five play, the talon is placed in front of the dealer; if four, to his

right.

Bidding Before bidding, you need to know that the eventual

declarer wil cal for a partner by naming a particular card.

Whoever holds that card wil become his partner, but may not

reveal himself except by playing the cal ed card in the normal

course of events (though it may become apparent from the

bidding). Furthermore, the declarer may elect to play alone against

the other three by naming a card that he holds himself, in which

case the fact that he is his own partner wil become apparent only

when he plays the cal ed card in the normal course of events.

The bids, and their basic scores, from lowest to highest are:

Three 1 point

Two 2 points

One 3 points

Solo 4 points

A bid indicates how many cards the prospective declarer wil

draw from the talon with a view to improving his hand. Solo is

equivalent to drawing none, and playing with the hand as dealt.

Each in turn, starting with eldest, may pass or bid, and having

passed may not come in again. No one may bid unless he holds at

least one honour. Each bid must be higher than the last, except that

an elder player (one who comes earlier in the bidding sequence)

may ‘hold’ (take over) the previous bid if it was made by younger.

A bid once held may not be held again.

Should al four pass at once (a rare occurrence), the deal is

annul ed and the same dealer deals again. This automatical y

doubles al scores made in the next round of deals – four if four

play, five if five. If another pass-out occurs, so does the doubling,

making it possible for some successive deals to be quadrupled,

octupled, and so on. In some schools, however, a deal fol owing

octupled, and so on. In some schools, however, a deal fol owing

any number of pass-outs is merely doubled.

If the first three pass, the fourth may bid the minimum Three

though holding no honour in his hand. But if he then finds none in

the talon either, the hand is annul ed and he pays the others 1 chip

each.

If one of the first three players bids Three and the others al pass,

that bidder may raise his contract to any higher level. Otherwise

jump-bids are al owed only in accordance with a code of cue bids

cal ed ‘invitations’.

Example of bidding: A ‘Three’, B ‘Two’, C ‘Pass’, D ‘One’, A ‘Hold’, B ‘Pass’, (C is out), D ‘Solo’, A ‘Hold’. The declarer is A, asthere is nothing higherthan a solo, and a held bid cannot be held again (nor, in any case, can anyone ‘hold’ a bid by A, who is in prime position).

Invitations (cue bids) An invitation indicates that you wish someone

else to become the declarer and pick you as their partner by cal ing

a card that you hold. You may make it only if you hold two

particular cards, namely:

(a) Skiz or XX (or both; and many players al ow cue bids with