The Running Ace
Coucou, Her or Hère

                    The Running Ace
                    The Coucou 
                    The Her
                    The Hère
                    Etymology

1. Number of players and deck of cards

The Running Ace is played by five to twelve players, and even more, with a complete 52-card deck. Only the rank of the cards matters, the king being the highest card and the ace the lowest. The descending hierarchical order is thus as follows: king, queen, jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, ace.

2. Stake

At the start of the game, each player receives a number of tokens determined by how long the game is meant to last, and called the stake. The larger the stake, the longer the game will last. One might, for example, take 2 tokens per player.

The game is played until only one player still holds any tokens.

3. The deal

Each player draws a card from the deck spread, face down, on the table, and whoever draws the highest — in the event of a tie, the players concerned draw again, and so on until there is only one highest card drawn — is the dealer. This player gathers the cards, shuffles them, gives them to the player on his left to cut, then deals one card to each player, starting with his right-hand neighbor and finishing with himself — the deal, like the play, proceeds counter-clockwise.

The dealer keeps the undealt cards in a pile, face down, in front of him, called the stock.

4. How play proceeds, the pool

The players look at their card without showing it to the others. The object of the game is to avoid having, in hand at the end of the hand, the weakest card of all those held by the players.

The first to play, the player seated to the right of the dealer, if he finds his card too low, exchanges it with his right-hand neighbor, who cannot refuse unless he holds a king, which he then immediately lays face up on the table in front of him. If the exchange takes place, it must be done secretly between the two players concerned.

If the exchange took place, the second player proceeds in the same way with his right-hand neighbor; if not, it is the third player who has the opportunity to do so, and so on down to the last player, who is the dealer. The dealer may, if he wishes, exchange the card he holds with the top card of the stock. However, if that card is a king, he is obliged to keep his card.

Once the round of exchanges is over, all the players lay their card face up on the table, and whoever holds the lowest card in the hierarchy must put one of their tokens in the middle of the table — this token or these tokens make up the pool, which will grow over the course of the game.

The ace, being the lowest card, always loses. The player who holds one always offers it for exchange, and if no king stops it, it passes from hand to hand until it reaches the dealer. This is the origin of the expression "the running ace", used to name this pool game. When a player receives from his left-hand neighbor a card higher than his own, he has no interest in asking his own right-hand neighbor for an exchange of his new card, since he is certain not to lose a token on that hand.

When a hand ends with only one player still holding one or more tokens, the game is over and that player wins the pool.

It is theoretically possible, though rare, for no player at all to have any tokens left at the end of a hand — this can only happen when, at the start of that hand, only two, three, or even four players remain. Although this case is not covered in the old rules, it seems possible to resolve it in two different ways:

— These players are considered winners and share the pool, but the number of tokens may not be divisible evenly, and an arrangement must be found, such as giving the leftover tokens to the least fortunate.

— For the last hand only, the rule of the Her is applied, which declares only a single player the loser, the one seated closest to the dealer on his right. That player is then the only one to put a token into the pool, and one more hand is played.

5. The Coucou

Coucou is another name for the game of the Running Ace. It differs from it on two points of rule:

— when a player has a king and his right-hand neighbor asks him to exchange their cards, instead of showing his king, he keeps it in his hand and simply announces "coucou !" to refuse the exchange — hence the name of the game.

— the dealer is never obliged to exchange his card with his left-hand neighbor who asks him to. He has the option of giving him the top card of the stock instead of his own. In his turn, the dealer has the choice between keeping his card or exchanging it with the top card of the stock. In the Coucou, the dealer is thus given the advantage of being able to refuse the exchange of his card as he pleases.

6. The Her

Her is another name for the game of Coucou. In the rules set out in the Suite du dictionnaire des jeux, printed together with the Dictionnaire des jeux mathématiques of L'Encyclopédie méthodique, in 1799, it differs from it on three points of rule:

— When, at the end of a hand, several players hold the same lowest card, only the one seated closest to the dealer on his right puts a token in the pool. When one receives from one's left-hand neighbor a card equal to the one just given to him, one must therefore keep it, being protected by the rule of precedence. This rule has the drawback of making the game drag on.

— The possible exchange between the dealer and his left-hand neighbor is made as in the Running Ace, and not as in the Coucou.

— The dealer may exchange his card with any card of the stock picked at random, unlike the other variants where it is the top card of the stock that must be taken. As always, if the card from the stock is a king, the exchange does not take place.

Mr. Lebrun, in his Manuel des jeux de calcul et de hasard, in 1828, shows no difference between the Her and the Coucou, except that he replaces the exclamation "coucou!" with that of "her!".

7. The Hère

The Hère appears to have been the oldest name for the game of the Running Ace, of Coucou, and of Her.

8. Etymology

— "The running ace" expresses the fact that an ace in a player's hand is systematically offered for exchange, so that if it is not stopped by a king, it will go around the table to end up in the stock.

— "Coucou" is the name of the bird known for laying its eggs in the nests of other birds. In the game, the holder of a king is entitled to refuse to take in hand a card that is necessarily lower than his own, as though he were refusing to let a cuckoo settle in his home.

— "Hère" is a derogatory term describing a person without merit, without standing. This word was supposedly spoken by the holder of a king in place of "coucou". It is rather contemptuous.

— "Her" took, for the sake of propriety, the place of the word "hère". It seems to have been understood by players in the sense of "sir" in German (Herr).

— Other names for the game have existed, such as "Malheureux" (unfortunate) and "Maucontent" (displeased). At least, several authors assume that these refer to the same game.

 

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References

Académie universelle des jeux, Théodore Legras, Paris, 1725 [coucou]

Pierre M. Huvier des Fontenelles, Les Soirées amusantes ou entretien sur les jeux à gages ou d'autres, Veuve Duchesne et fils, Paris, 1790, 2nd ed. [the Running Ace]

Encyclopédie méthodique, Dictionnaire des jeux mathématiques et suite du Dictionnaire des jeux, Agasse, Paris, year 7 (1799) [her]

M. Lebrun, Manuel des jeux de calcul et de hasard, Roret, Paris, 1828 [coucou and her]

Information about this page

Published on 29 September 2010
Rewordings on 16 October 2021

Author: Philippe LALANNE

Le Salon des jeux - Académie des jeux oubliés

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