Mistigri (card game)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Mistigri
Point-trick
FamilyRams group
Players3 or 4
Age range12+
Cards32
DeckFrench or German
Rank (high→low)A K O U 10 9 8 7
A K Q J 10 9 8 7
PlayClockwise
Related games
Loo • Lupfen • Mauscheln • Ramscheln • Tippen • Zwicken
Features: pot, 5 cards, mistigri as top trump, 5-card flush as winning hand

Mistigri, historically Pamphile, is an old, French,

Rams family of games and, although it is a gambling game, often played for small stakes, it is also suitable as a party game or as a family game with children from the age of 12 upwards.[1]

Name

Mistigri is a variant of Mouche or Lenterlu and a cousin of the English Lanterloo. It is known in Germany as Mönch[2] ("monk"), possibly a corruption of the French Mouche as Monche was the old German for monk. Meyer certainly equates it to Mouche, Lenturla and Pamphile,[3] while Grupp also states that it is known as trente et un ("thirty-one") in French, but Méry's research shows that Mistigri was derived from Mouche (which was also called Lenturlu) and was first named Pamphile.[4] It is related to the historical card game of Tippen.[3]

The game is named after the "mistigri" (French for "pussy cat" or "kitten");

wild card.[1][2]

History

Mistigri is a card game that has been known and documented over several centuries. According to Kastner & Folkvord, it was predominantly played in bars and among families, but gained a "rather dubious reputation" as a

gambling game. Mistigri was developed from an older French game known as Mouche ("Fly") or Lenturlu during the 18th century. Mistigri was originally called Pamphile, but the term 'mistigri' came into use during the 19th century as a nickname for the Jack of Clubs and gave its name in turn to the game. According to Méry, Pamphile and Mistigri are therefore the same game and a variant of Mouche or Lenturlu.[4] Of course, in the English game of Loo or Lanterloo
the Jack of Clubs was christened "Pam" after Pamphile.

The game of

Hasenpfeffer.[2]

Cards

Mistigri is a

French pack may be used. The cards rank as follows: A > K > O > U > 10 > 9 > 8 > 7. Card values, which only count in determining a winning flush, are as follows:[1]

  • Ace (deuce) – 11 points
  • King, Ober, Unter and ten – 10 points
  • Nine, eight, and seven – 9, 8, and 7 points respectively

Playing

The following rules are based on Grupp (1975).[1]

Preliminaries

Each player pays the agreed stake (a chip or coin) into a pot. Then, beginning with

forehand to his left, the dealer deals a packet of three cards to each player, followed by a second packet of two cards; each player receiving a hand of five cards. The next card is turned as trumps
.

In clockwise order, beginning with forehand, players decide whether to "pass" (ich passe or je passe), e.g. if they have a poor hand, and

drop out of the particular game in progress or to announce "I'll join in" (ich gehe mit or je m'y tiens) or "play" (c'est bon). The active players may now, in rotation again, lay face down as many of their hand cards as they wish and exchange them for the same number of cards from the talon
. They need not exchange any, of course.

The aim of exchanging is either to acquire a flush of five cards of the same suit or, failing that, to acquire as many high value cards or trump cards as possible.

Fliege

A player who succeeds in getting a five-card flush, a so-called mouche or Fliege ("fly"),

sequence
. The other players have to pay another stake to the pot. If two players have a flush, the one with the trump flush wins. If neither has a trump flush, the winner is decided on card points, where Ace = 11, Courts = 10 and pip cards count their natural value.

Play

If no-one has a flush, the game proceeds to the trick-taking phase. Forehand leads to the first trick and the winner of the trick leads to the next. Players must follow suit (

Stichzwang
).

Winnings

For each trick taken, the player earns a fifth of the pot. If a player takes no tricks, they must pay the basic stake as a penalty.

Mistigri

The feature of this member of the

rams family is the Mistigri, the jack of clubs or Unter of acorns, which is always the highest trump regardless of the trump suit. The player holding this card may play it and, at the same time, announce any suit of his choice as trumps. The Mistigri also counts as a wild card
in that, if a player has 4 cards of the same suit, the Mistigri may be counted as the 5th in order to make a flush.

Mönch

Mönch, as described by Kastner and Folkvord, has a few slight variations or refinements. A 36-card or 52-card pack, depending on the number of players, is used and each player has 25 chips, the basic stake being five. Exchanging is limited to 4 cards maximum and there is provision for the discards to be shuffled and used for further exchanging if the talon is exhausted. In the event of two players having a flush, the player with the lower flush does not have to pay a penalty nor does the player with the Mönch. The pot has a limit of 40 chips, any excess going into a side pot which tops up the main pot when it drops below 40. If all players pass, the dealer gets 5 chips from rearhand. Game may be a fixed number of points, e.g. 50, or a set number of deals. If forehand plays the trump ace to the first trick, he or she can insist that the Mönch 'keeps still' (still hält - see "Pam be civil" in Loo) and is not played to that trick. Finally, if clubs are the trump suit, players may not drop out (see 'club law' in Loo).[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Grupp (1975), pp. 24–25.
  2. ^ a b c d e Kastner & Folkvord (2005), pp. 63–65.
  3. ^ a b c "Meyers (1908), p. 907.
  4. ^ a b Méry, L'Arbitre des jeux, Paris, Gabriel de Gonet, 1847

Literature

  • Alvensleben, L. von (1853) "Mistigri" in Encyklopädie der Spiele, enthaltend alte bekannten Karten-, Bret-, Kegel-, Billard-, Ball-, Würfel-Spiele und Schach, Otto Wiegand, Leipzig, pp. 323–325.
  • Grupp, Claus D. (1975). "Mistigri" in Kartenspiele. Falken-Verlag Erich Sicker, Wiesbaden.
    ISBN 3-8068-2001-5
    .
  • Kastner, Hugo and Gerald Kador Folkvord (2005). "Mönch" in Die große Humboldt-Enzyklopädie der Kartenspiele (= Humboldt-Taschenbuch. Freizeit & Hobby. Vol. 4058). Schlütersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden.
    ISBN 3-89994-058-X
    .
  • Méry, Joseph (1847). L'Arbitre des jeux, Paris, Gabriel de Gonet.
  • Meyer, Hermann Julius (1905). "Mistigri" in Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, Vol. 13. Leipzig, 1908.

External links

  • Le Pamphile (= Le Mistigri) at Académie des jeux oubliés website. (French)
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