Konter a Matt

Konter a Matt

Point-trick
Family	Couillon Group[1]
Players	4 (2 teams of 2)
Cards	24
Deck	French
Rank (high→low)	A ♠Q ♥Q ♦Q K (Q) 10 9
Play	Anticlockwise
Related games
Couillon, Kujong, Troeven

Konter a Matt, Kontra a Matt or Konter a Midd is a

Rules

The following rules are based on those published online by Wellkomm.[4]

Aim

Players form two teams of two with partners sitting opposite one another. In order to win a match, a team has to score over 21 card points. If each team gets 20 points, it is a draw.

Cards

A 24-card

which are permanent trumps and rank immediately behind the trump Ace: ♠Q, ♥Q and ♦Q. These cards give the game its name because the ♥Q and ♦Q are the two Konters or Kontras and the ♠Q is the Matt, Midd or Meedchen ("Girl").

As a consequence, in a match, there are 8 or 9 trumps depending on the suit. The four possibilities are (cards ranking from highest to lowest):

• Spades: ♠A, ♠Q, ♥Q, ♦Q, ♠K, ♠J, ♠10, ♠9
• Hearts: ♥A, ♠Q, ♥Q, ♦Q, ♥K, ♥J, ♥10, ♥9
• Diamonds: ♦A, ♠Q, ♥Q, ♦Q, ♦K, ♦J, ♦10, ♦9
• Clubs: ♣A, ♠Q, ♥Q, ♦Q, ♣K, ♣Q, ♣J, ♣10, ♣9

Deal and declarations

Teams are decided and players take their seats accordingly. The dealer

of three.

A player who has either the ♠Q or the ♥Q ♦Q pair or both and believes he or she can win, may announce this before playing a card by saying "Matt", "Konter" or "Konter a Matt" respectively. These announcements raise the game value, but must be made before the announcer plays a card to the first trick. A player making an announcement after this point is too late and the game value is not increased.

Play

Players must either follow suit or trump. So a player who can follow suit may not play a card of another

places them face down to his or her side, taking care not to mix them with the other cards. Sometimes, it will be necessary to check whether somebody played a trump or not.

Winning

A match consists of at least three games. When beginning a match, the scorer draws the scoring diagram (1st illustration). A team wins a game if all of its lines have been crossed out. By convention the scorer's team is always shown in the lower row. Various factors affect the game score:

• A team may declare trumps and lose.
• The game values vary according whether Konter, Matt or Konter-Matt has been announced (a player must have the relevant cards to announce them.) A Konter or Matt is worth double, Konter a Matt triple.
• A team may lose without taking any tricks; this is a Kapo.
• A team may win or lose in the game following a drawn game.

If the declarers lose, they add as many lines as the winners erase (see 2nd illustration). If the other team got no draw at all, there will be one more stripe removed and eventually one more added. In the examples below, the scoring team loses each time:

• A. Simple game lost. Winners cross out 1 line.
• B. Simple game lost, but the losers (scoring team) chose trumps. Winners cross out 1 line; losers add 1 line.
• C. Game lost and either Konter or Matt were announced. Winners cross out 2 lines.
• D. Game lost and either Konter or Matt were announced; losers chose trumps. Winners cross out 2 lines; losers add two lines.

• Game lost and Konter a Matt was announced. Winners cross out 3 lines.
• Game lost and Konter a Matt was announced; losers chose trumps. Winners cross out 3 lines; losers add 3 lines.

A tie (20–20) is known as a Stänner or Rampo. In this case, no lines are erased, but the team that named trumps adds 1 to 3 lines, depending on any announcements made (an alternative rule is that the points are carried forward to the next game).

For the next game, forehand (the person who named trumps) becomes the dealer.

After a match, the losing team may ask for a "revenge", a new match with the same team setup. Otherwise, the team composition is changed.

Strategy

Konter a Matt strategy is complex. Some high-level considerations are: If the trumps are equally distributed among the players, playing twice a trump may leave none or one trump. If the trumps are out, the Aces are the highest cards.

A good player always knows:

• how many trumps are still in the game.
• what cards are still in the game.
• how many points both teams have.

If a team has more than 20 points, they may put the rest of the cards on the table and declare that e.g. "we have 23".

Footnotes

References

External links

• Konter a Matt rules.

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