Twenty-five (card game)
Forty-five |
Twenty-five is the Irish national
Family
The game is a 19th century member of the
History
Twenty-five is descended from the old Scottish game of Maw, which dates to at least 1548 and is mentioned frequently up to about 1650.
Thereafter the game disappears again from the literature until the early 19th century where it resurfaces under the names of various descendants including
Twenty-five itself, also called five-and-twenty, emerged alongside these other variants and is mentioned as early as 1833 in the Dublin Penny Journal in an article against gambling: "...rustic gambling is conducted on the plan of a lottery. The woman of the house has generally one or more of such articles [a turkey, goose, herrings or mutton] as those above mentioned, which are purchased by the party to play at a price far above their intrinsic value; each purchase is paid for in equal shares, and the winner of one or more games, at five and twenty, or first fifteen... carries off the prize..."[9] It is probably much older for, in 1858, an Irish periodical describes Twenty-Five and Forty-Five as "our own old games" in which the five of trumps, called five fingers, was the best card, followed by the Ace of Hearts.[10][11]
However, the first detailed rules do not appear until 1876, when H.E. Heather describes it as a variant of Forty-Five. Any number could play and the cards ranked as described below with the five fingers (trump 5) as the
Twenty-five eventually emerged to become the national card game of Ireland.[2]
Overview
Twenty-five may be played by 2–8 persons, five being the best number. A standard pack is used and each player receives five cards, or six or nine, and another is turned up to fix the trump suit. The object of the play is to win one trick, or at least three of five. The object is to win at least 3 of the 5 tricks. When three play at this game, it is still necessary that one of them should win the three tricks in order to make a Five, as the stakes must remain for the next game if two of the players get two tricks each, and the other one. If the party consists of four, they play in two partnerships, which are determined by cutting the cards, the two lowest playing against the two highest, or by agreement among the parties. When six people play, it is usual to play in three partnerships, and when eight people play, in four.
Preliminaries
A full pack of 52 cards is used and each player receives five cards, dealt in pairs and triplets, being the next card on the top of the pack turned up for trump. Each player starts with a prearranged amount, which may be of 20 chips or counters, and puts up one chip upon the table to form a pool. The pool is usually limited to a certain maximum, which once reached there is no further subscription, though each dealer is required to "tit-up" the pool.[13]
The turn to deal and play always passes to the left, and after the first hand, each player deals in rotation. Where the game is strictly played, the person who misdeals, or who departs from the order with which the game began, of dealing either the three or the two cards first, forfeits his stake. Stack the rest face down, turning the topmost card for trump.
Robbing
If the turn-up is an ace, the dealer may "rob the trump" by putting out, face downwards, any card from his hand and take in the ace, but the trump suit remains unaltered. Similarly, a player who holds the ace of trumps may himself rob the trump at any time before playing to the first trick, putting out any card and taking in the turn-up, but need not disclose the fact until it is his turn to play. If the holder of the trump ace does not wish to rob, and does not announce the fact that he holds it before playing to the first trick, then, whenever he does play it, it counts as the lowest trump. A player who fails to rob cannot go out that hand. The card put out may not be seen. Robbing must take place before the first player on the dealer's left leads. Some players make "robbing" optional.[14]
Ranking of cards
Trump diamonds 5♦ J♦ A♥ A♦ K♦ Q♦ 10♦ 9♦ 8♦ 7♦ 6♦ 4♦ 3♦ 2♦ Trump hearts 5♥ J♥ A♥ K♥ Q♥ 10♥ 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 4♥ 3♥ 2♥ Off-suit diamonds K♦ Q♦ J♦ 10♦ 9♦ 8♦ 7♦ 6♦ 5♦ 4♦ 3♦ 2♦ A♦ Off-suit hearts K♥ Q♥ J♥ 10♥ 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ 5♥ 4♥ 3♥ 2♥ Trump clubs 5♣ J♣ A♥ A♣ K♣ Q♣ 2♣ 3♣ 4♣ 6♣ 7♣ 8♣ 9♣ 10♣ Trump spades 5♠ J♠ A♥ A♠ K♠ Q♠ 2♠ 3♠ 4♠ 6♠ 7♠ 8♠ 9♠ 10♠ Off-suit clubs K♣ Q♣ J♣ A♣ 2♣ 3♣ 4♣ 5♣ 6♣ 7♣ 8♣ 9♣ 10♣ Off-suit spades K♠ Q♠ J♠ A♠ 2♠ 3♠ 4♠ 5♠ 6♠ 7♠ 8♠ 9♠ 10♠
So it will be seen that when diamonds are not trump, the A♦ is the worst card in the pack; when diamonds are trump it is the fourth best card in the game. When hearts are trumps, there is no second ace in the trump ranking, and whether trumps or not, the 2♣ or 2♠ is better than all plain cards in their respective suit.
The play
The player on the dealer's left leads first. Players must follow suit whenever possible, and the highest card of the suit led or, if a trump is played, the highest trump wins the trick. You must lead with a trump if there are 5 or more players. Each player must follow suit when trump is led, under the penalty of forfeiting his stake, except in the case of the three best trump cards, the 5 and J of trumps and the A♥, each of which is privileged to renege. If a player takes three tricks he wins the game. If no one succeeds there is a spoil, and a fresh stake, smaller than the original one as a rule, is put into the pool for the next round.
Reneging
When trumps are led, the 5 and J of trumps, and the A♥, need not be played. This is called reneging (colloquially, "rejigging"). The 5 may always renege: if it is led, no card can renege. The J may renege if the 5 is played, not led. Only the 5 can renege to the J led. The A♥ can renege to any inferior card. If hearts are not trumps and the A♥ is led, a trump must be played if possible; if not, it is not necessary to play a heart.
Jinking
At Spoil Five a player winning the first three tricks straight off may claim the pool without further play. If however, he leads to the fourth trick (described as "jinking"), he thereby is obliged to win all five. If he elects to jink and fails, he cannot score during that hand. A player who jinks, if jinking is agreed upon, receives an extra stake all around.
Pay-off
If no one wins the three tricks, or if a player jinked and failed to win all five, the game is said to have been "spoiled". Everyone then adds another chip to the pool, which is carried forward to the next deal. Otherwise, whoever took three tricks wins the pool, with an additional chip from each opponent if he took all five.
Strategy
If the
Variants
Twenty-five and
See also
- Ombre, related Spanish card game
- The Revells of Christendome
References
- ISBN 0-19-869173-4
- ^ a b Maw and Spoil Five rules
- Parlett, David(1991). A History of Card Games, Oxford: OUP. pp. 54, 55 and 188
- ^ Hoffmann (1891), pp. 244 ff.
- ^ "Twenty-five (card game)". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
- ^ William Brisbane Dick, The modern pocket Hoyle: containing all the games of skill and chance, p. 191-193, Dick and Fitzgerald, NY (1868)
- ^ Maw at parlettgames.uk. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
- ^ Cotton (1674), pp. 123–124.
- ^ "W" (1833), p. 109.
- ^ The Irish Quarterly Review (1858), p. 439.
- ^ Duffy's Hibernian Magazine (1862), p. 487.
- ^ Heather (1876), pp. 47–49.
- ISBN 1-85326-316-8
- ^ Professor Hoffmann, The Cyclopaedia of Card and Table Games, p. 247, London, (1891)
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Spoil-five". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Literature
- Brownsmith, Telemachus [pseud.] (1869). "Spoil Five" in The Westminster Chess Club Papers. Vols. 1–3. London: W. Kent; Edinburgh: J. Menzies; Dublin: McGlashan. pp. 108–110.
- Brownsmith, Telemachus [pseud.] (1869). "Five and Ten" in The Westminster Chess Club Papers. Vols. 1–3. London: W. Kent; Edinburgh: J. Menzies; Dublin: McGlashan. p. 109.
- "Trumps" [William Brisbane Dick] (1864). The American Hoyle. NY: Dick & Fitzgerald.
- Heather, H.E. (1876). Cards and Card Tricks. London: The Bazaar Office.
- Lover, Samuel (1837). Rory O'More. London: Bentley.
- Maxwell, William hamilton (1837). The Bivouac, Or, Stories of the Peninsular War. London, New York: George Routledge.
- Trebor, Eidrah (pseud. Robert Hardie) (1860). "Five and Ten" in Hoyle’s Games made Familiar. London: Ward & Lock. pp. 66–67.
- "W." (1833). "Andrew Murray, or the Effects of Gambling" in The Dublin Penny Journal, 5 October 1833. Dublin: P.D. Hardy.
External links
- The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Card Games at Google Books
- Two Card Games from Tudor England and How to Play Them - History and rules of Maw.