The game of Ambigu

Ambigu is a card game that was fashionable under Louis XIV. A game of raising (bets), it distinguishes itself from other games of that type, such as Prime, Hoc Mazarin or again Poque, Brelan and later Bouillotte, in the fact that the bidding is no longer done on a single type of combination at a time but on a range of ranked combinations. It is this combining of combinations under the same bids that gave the game the name Ambigu (it also bore the name Mêlé). Although played with 40 cards instead of 52 for Poker (which appeared in the 19th century), and with a hand of 4 cards instead of 5 (as a result the combinations of the two games cannot be the same), this ranking of combinations, including simple and other compound ones, makes Ambigu the game closest to Poker. Moreover, the possibility of exchanging cards between two phases of the game cannot fail to bring to mind draw Poker. If some see in Poque the raising game closest to Poker, it is worth noting that it involves only one type of combination (pair, three of a kind, four of a kind); only the number of cards in hand, which is the same (5 cards), and the verb poquer, meaning, among other things, to bet (one poques so many chips), can bring it closer to Poker (which is not much, even though the term may have been borrowed from Poque). Another game, Bouillotte (successor to Brelan), deserves credit regarding the possible inspirations for Poker. Bouillotte indeed introduced, before Poker, the notion of blind (small and big) under the names carre and surcarre. So if one scales Ambigu up to 52 cards with the combinations of Poker, and uses the carre and surcarre of Bouillotte, one arrives more or less at Poker, except that Ambigu encourages the players more to seek the highest possible combination, which pays out more than the lower ones (as in video Poker machines).

In his preface to the rule of Ambigu contained in La Maison académique des jeux (1702), the author, who calls himself « the very humble and very affectionate P.P.B. of Madame the Countess of V. », explains that he received from a Slavonian lord the rule of a card game called, in the Slavonic language, Prispistrihoc, which he preferred to call in French Ambigu or Meslé.

This stated origin seems to be entirely imaginary, however it is interesting to try to find out what the meaning of Prispistrihoc might have been in a Slavic language.

Knowing nothing about Slavic languages, for lack of anything better I used Google Translate to try to find the sound Prispistrihoc. For example, in Slovak, prispiet trikrát, which translates as « contribute three times », answers this search rather well, which would not be illogical since Ambigu is played in three phases at the end of which the most daring players are led to raise again.

Faced on the one hand with the fact that the game is a combination of several others, such as Prime or Brelan, and on the other hand with the observation that the win is never really secured until one has reached the end of the game, the author preferred to give it two related names : Mêlé, and Ambigu. It is the latter that prevailed.

Ambigu is played by 2 to 6 players with a 40-card deck obtained by removing the 12 face cards from a 52-card deck. Thus, only the cards numbered from 1 to 10 are used.

Before starting a hand, each of the players must place in the middle of the table 1 or 2 counters (by agreement) in order to be able to take part. This is the ante. Other counters will be added to it to make up the pool. If after a hand the pool has not been won, the ante is still owed for the following hand.

At the start of the game each player starts with an agreed sum of counters which makes up what is called the bank, and which is the same for all the players. When a player has no more counters in his bank, he is said to be broke. A broke player may take more counters under certain conditions; he is said to buy back in.

The deal and the right to speak pass in turn counterclockwise.

The first dealer of the game is determined at random according to the convention « highest card deals », each player drawing a card from the deck spread out, faces down, and the one who gets the highest is the first dealer. The ace is the lowest and the ten the highest. In the event of a tie between several players, they draw another card, and so on until only one has the highest card.

The dealer gathers up the 40 cards, shuffles them, gives them to the player on his left to cut, and deals 2 to each player, one at a time, starting with the player seated to his right. All the players then have 2 cards in hand.

5. Phase 1 : Preliminary rounds, discards, batterie (2 cards in hand and discards)

Each player looks at his hand and estimates his chances of winning. The first round of speaking begins with the player seated to the right of the dealer. Two options are open to the players: pass the turn to the player on his right, or ask the dealer to shuffle the stock immediately in order to deal 2 more cards to the players, again one at a time, so that they have 4 in hand.

A player who considers his first two cards insufficient to be able to win will pass by saying « pass ». If all the players pass, they discard from their hand one or both cards. The dealer then takes back the stock in hand and, without shuffling, gives each player in the order of the turn one or 2 cards to replace the same number that the player in question discarded from his hand. The discards are not added to the stock. Once all the players have been served, another round of speaking begins.

When a player, on his turn to speak, considers his hand promising, he says « deal », thereby ending the first phase. As a result, if a player says « deal » during the first round of speaking, he forbids any exchange of cards. The second phase can only begin if a player has asked to shuffle the cards.

The batterie

The player who asks to shuffle must immediately place an agreed stake - one or two counters - in a tray or small basket reserved for the batterie. The counters placed in this tray are called the batterie, to signify that these stakes are associated with the request to shuffle the cards.

6. Phase 2: First vade and first selection of players, (4 cards in hand and discards)

After shuffling the cards, without shuffling them beforehand [sic], the dealer deals 2 more cards, one at a time, to each of the players. All the players now have 4 cards in hand. Each player looks at his hand and again estimates his chances of winning. The second phase can have at most two rounds of speaking.

The player seated to the right of the dealer may pass or open. As long as all the previous players have passed, the player whose turn it is has the same two options, and so on for the other players until the dealer, who closes the round.

If during the first round of speaking all the players before the dealer have passed, the dealer has the option to force everyone to keep the cards they have in hand in order to move on to the last phase of the game. To do this the dealer must put 2 counters into play without saying « vade of 2 counters ».

In the same situation, if the dealer does not want to force the play, he may in turn pass and the hand ends immediately. All the counters previously played remain for the following hand.

However, if during the first round of speaking, a player including the dealer, believing it to be in his interest, decides to open, he must place in front of him from 2 to 4 counters as he wishes, announcing « vade of 2 (3 or 4) counters ». The amount in counters of the opening bet is called the vade. As soon as a player has made the vade in this way, the following players, up to the player to the left of the one who made the vade (opened), have two options : pass or call. If a player passes, he places his cards in front of him, faces down, and no longer takes part in the game (in Poker one would say he folds). If a player calls, he moves in front of him the same amount as the vade. In this phase of the game, after a vade there is never a re-raise (one cannot offer more than the amount of the vade : one calls or withdraws).

If a player has made the vade and none of the others has called, play stops and this player takes the batterie, gets back his vade and is paid two counters by the dealer, unless of course he was the dealer.

If a player makes the vade and at least one other player has called, then the dealer must shuffle the cards of the stock and these players may in turn, starting with the player nearest to the dealer's right, discard from their hand the number of cards they wish (from 0 to 4), the dealer dealing them the same number from the stock. One then moves on to the third phase.

The players remaining in play thus have their 4 final cards in hand.

Each player looks at his hand and again estimates his chances of winning. The third phase is a phase during which the players may re-raise over several rounds until either no one holds the last raise, or one or more players call the last raise, with no one raising above it. In this case the one who made the last raise cannot raise himself again.

In the first round of speaking, as long as the previous players have passed, the player whose turn it is may pass or open by making the vade for the number of counters he wishes.

When a player has opened, the players who follow, including those who passed before him, may pass, call or raise. If a player passes after the vade, he folds and can no longer take part ; if a player calls, he moves in front of him the same amount as the vade and remains in play ; if a player raises he must put forward a sum greater than the vade.

A raise begins a new round of speaking among the players who have not passed after the vade (one may pass before the vade and still take part in the bidding that follows, but if one passes after the vade one can no longer return to the hand).

The rounds of speaking stop when no player raises anymore.

In the case of the first round of speaking, if all the players pass there is no second round, the hand ends and the pool, including where applicable the first vade and the calls made on that vade (this is here the vade of phase 2), remains for the following hand ; the same applies to the batterie, which is kept separate from the pool.

If at the end of the rounds of speaking, only one player remains in play, he wins everything there is in the pot (pool plus vades, calls and raises, and the batterie). In addition he is paid by all the other players (even those who did not take part in the third phase) the value in counters of the combination he holds in his hand.

If at the end of the rounds of speaking several players remain in play, it is the one who has the highest combination who wins. In the event of a tie, the players are separated by the best point, a sequence of two cards (two cards of the same suit that follow one another) beating an equal point of two cards not following one another, otherwise the one nearest to the dealer's right is the winner.

To win at Ambigu, one must either be the only one left in play, or have the best combination among the players still in play when no one raises any longer. Combinations may be simple or compound, and are ranked in hierarchical order.

Ambigu offers an aspect that gives the player an interest not only in winning the bidding (which he can do even with a weak combination through bluffing), but also in holding the highest combination in order to win more through the payment made by the other players.

Thus, the player who has won the bidding sees his combination in hand paid out in counters by all the players who took part in the first phase of the game, even if they did not go on to the second or third.

The following two sections set out the hierarchy of the combinations (the sequence is always higher than the point [prime]) and the value in counters of each of them.

The point... [1 counter]
Two or three cards of the same suit (rank determined by the sum of the points).

The prime... [small prime = 2 counters ; big prime = 3 counters]
Four cards of different suits (sum of the points of the cards > 30 = big prime).

The sequence (tierce)... [3 counters]
Three cards of the same suit that follow one another.

The tricon (three of a kind)... [4 counters]
Three matching cards.

The flux (flush)... [5 counters]
Four cards of the same suit.

The tricon with prime (three of a kind + prime)... [4+2 or 4+3 counters, i.e. 6 or 7 counters depending on whether the prime is small or big]
Three matching cards and a fourth card different in rank and suit.

The flux with sequence... [5+3 = 8 counters]
Four cards of the same suit containing at least three cards that follow one another.

The fredon (four of a kind)... [8 counters]
Four matching cards (it counts as two tricons).

Duration of the game : It is fixed by mutual agreement among the players before starting. When the time is up, only the current hand is finished. During the game, only a broke player may withdraw.

Time to buy back in : When a hand is finished, a player who thinks he does not have enough counters in his bank may take as many as he wants, but he must absolutely do so before the third card is dealt to him (the end of the first phase of the following hand).

Lack of counters to be able to call : If a player who has not bought back in sufficiently no longer has enough counters to call the amount of a raise and does not wish to pass, he must call by announcing « all in » and putting forward all the counters he has left. He will only be able to win up to the amount he put forward, taking from the other players' stakes only the amount of his own stakes. The remainder will be won by whoever has the second best combination.

Lack of counters to pay the winner the value of the combination : In this case, the player concerned remains indebted for that amount to the winner.

Lack of cards in the stock to deal to the players : In this case, the dealer gathers up the discards and uses them as the stock after shuffling them.

Exemption from giving one's discard to make a new stock : If a player notices that the initial stock will be insufficient to serve the players who are about to discard, he is allowed to refuse to mix his discard into the stock.

Académie universelle des jeux, Legras, Paris, 1730

La Maison des jeux académiques, Loyson, Paris, 1665