Bassette

1. Number of players and card deck

Bassette is played with a deck of 52 cards between a banker and a number of players, called "punters", limited only by the banker's decision.

The banker, also called the "dealer", remains so for the entire game. He holds the complete deck of 52 cards, and plays alone against the punters, each of whom holds in hand a set of thirteen cards from the ace to the king. These thirteen cards are called the "book".

The books are made up from decks of 52 cards with backs different from the banker's. Thus with one deck of 52 cards, it is possible to make up four books. The suit of the cards in the book is irrelevant, since only the rank of the card is taken into account in Bassette.

2. The banker, the deal, the stake, and the bets

The punters begin by placing a card from their book in front of them, face up, and betting on it whatever sum suits them. This sum may be limited by the banker.

Once the bets have been placed, the banker shuffles his deck of 52 cards and cuts it himself. He then turns the pack over, holding it in his hands in such a way that he can see the top card.

These preliminaries done, the banker begins to "deal", which means that he lays down in front of him, face up, a pair of cards called a "turn". The cards of the turn are not, however, revealed to the punters simultaneously, but one after the other.

The first card of the turn is for the banker. The punter who bet on the same rank of card loses.

The second card of the turn is for the punters. The punter who bet on the same rank of card wins.

The banker must announce the cards of the turn. So, assuming the turn consists of a jack followed by a king, the banker announces "the jack loses, the king wins" – this is understood to mean for the punters.

Each time the banker reveals a card, he checks the bets and collects those of the losers or pays out the winners.

When a turn is finished, the banker performs another one in the same way, until the 52 cards are exhausted.

Once the 52 cards have been exhausted, the banker picks them up, shuffles them and cuts them. Then he begins turning as before. He also has the option of setting aside the last deck and taking a new one to deal with.

3. Payouts

A punter who wins receives from the banker the amount of his bet and takes it back. However, an exception is made for the last of the 52 cards, which lets no one win, which constitutes an advantage for the banker.

The banker who wins takes the bets of the losers. However, for the first of the 52 cards, called the "opener", the banker only takes two thirds of the loser's bet, who keeps the third third.

A punter may bet during the game on a new card from his book. In that case the first card of the next turn following his bet is also considered for that punter as an opener.

When a punter loses to an opener, he is said to be "opened".

In the case where the turn consists of two cards of the same rank, such as two queens, only the banker wins by priority – which is the reason why the two cards of a turn are revealed one after the other and not simultaneously.

4. When to bet and on how many cards

We have just seen that bets are placed at the very start of the game but also during its course. In this latter case, it is possible to bet between two turns, but also in the middle of a turn.

Bets placed in the middle of a turn are taken into account by the banker only for the following turn.

It is permitted to bet on several cards of one's book. To be able to bet on a card, it must not already be covered by a bet. Any card freed of its bet, whether by winning or by losing, returns to the punter's book and may be used again to bet.

The banker has the option of limiting bets to a minimum amount and a maximum amount – it is assumed he must set these limits at the start of the game. Since he cannot be liable for more than he holds in the bank, it seems obvious that he may refuse a bet when the total amount of bets would exceed that of the bank.

5. The different ways of betting

To account for openers, which earn the banker only two thirds of the punter's bet, it seems sensible that the bet should always be a multiple of 3 chips.

When a punter bets on a card, he places the chips on it. This bet is also called a "layout" or "masse" – the circumflex accent is used only in this sense.

Certain ways of betting have particular names, such as the more cautious ones:

The little peace: this is when a punter who has just won plays his winnings on the same card while withdrawing his stake. In this way, he is at peace, unable to lose more than he has just won but able to win double. It is, in effect, a "double or nothing", in the sense of being even if he loses the little peace.

The great peace: this is when a punter who has just won the little peace leaves his winnings on his card. If he wins, he takes away four times his initial stake, and if he loses it will have cost him nothing, having withdrawn his initial stake. One might call it a "double or quadruple".

Other ways, on the contrary, are risky :

The alpiou (from the Italian al più): this is, after having won, leaving one's initial stake in place and folding a corner of one's card to signal that one is replaying one's winnings. Whoever wins the alpiou takes away three times his initial stake.

Seven and the go : this is, after having won an alpiou, leaving one's initial stake in place and folding another corner of one's card to signal that one is replaying all of one's winnings. Whoever wins seven and the go takes away seven times his initial stake.

Fifteen and the go : this is, after having won seven and the go, leaving one's initial stake in place and folding a third corner of one's card to signal that one is replaying all of one's winnings. Whoever wins fifteen and the go takes away fifteen times his stake.

In these two expressions, the "go" is the initial stake that the punter recovers in addition to the winnings. The alpiou could just as well be called "three and the go".

The alpiou is more commonly called a "paroli". One thus says "to make a paroli" when one bends one's card. Seven and the go is a second paroli, and fifteen and the go is a third. The name is probably due to the fact that one does not bet with chips or money but on one's word.

For these three ways, the punter places on his card only his initial stake, the number of bends in his card allowing one to see the number of times he has replayed his winnings. This offers the advantage of not piling up too great a quantity of chips on a card. The effect can be psychologically harmful for the punter, who does not physically see the amount of his stake, which makes it easier for him to risk a lot. One can easily understand the problem caused by these successive bends, requiring constant vigilance from the banker. One way of cheating consisted of bending one's card without the banker's knowledge, which was called making a "country paroli".

6. Moving bets

It is possible, with the banker's consent, to move a bet placed on one card onto another, which is called "transposing". Transposing notably allows one to attempt additional parolis up to Fifteen and the go.

Thirty and the go : whoever wins thirty and the go is paid thirty times his stake, which he recovers. Theoretically, he should be paid thirty-one times his stake.

Sixty and the go : whoever wins sixty and the go is paid sixty times his stake, which he recovers. Theoretically, he should be paid sixty-three times his stake.

When the stock is exhausted, punters still having bets on cards must leave them for the continuation of the turn with the same deck or a new one. This can happen when a bet is placed on a card of the same rank as the last card of the stock – this card is void –, and when the punter had not noticed that the four similar cards had already gone by.

7. The banker's means of defense : the croupier, the ferrailleurs

Bassette is a game where cheating is relatively easy when there are many punters. There is a coming and going of punters that can sow doubt in the banker's mind, some leaving the game and others joining it during play. Country parolis must be watched for, as well as insidious changes to bets.

Also, in order to control the game, the banker:

– only accepts a bet or a paroli if it is clearly announced by the punter, for example saying "three on the jack" or "alpiou on the king", and the banker who accepts replies "go for the jack" or "go for the king", but if he refuses he replies "no go for the jack" or "no go for the king" ;

– hires a person to watch over the game and handle collections and payments. This person is aptly called a "croupier" by analogy with the person who rides behind a horseman on the horse's croup (rump);

– may be led to secure the services of hired men known as "ferrailleurs" (swordsmen) for their unbridled fondness for drawing the sword. The banker paid the ferrailleurs by giving them a sum of money called an "estafe". The word estafe comes from "estaffier", originally from Italy, and defining in France a tall lackey (Furetiere's dictionary).

A game of Bassette poorly managed by the banker was liable to trigger violent conflicts. In any case, the punters' losses could be considerable following large stakes and reckless parolis going as far as sixty and the go.

A fast and highly addictive game, it was banned several times, as were other games of chance. Very similar variants, perhaps created to temporarily get around the specific ban on Bassette, also had their vogue, such as the one called Pharaoh. Bassette is said to have been played under other names such as Pour & Contre, or Barbacole, also spelled Barbacolle. The edict of 15 January 1691 banning games of chance mentions the "renaming" of certain games: "His Majesty forbids [...] playing at the games of Hoca or Pharaoh, Barbacole, and Bassette, or Pour-et-Contre, under whatever name or form they may be disguised [...]". Hoca is not a card game but a kind of lottery.

The banker's advantages lie essentially in the fact that the first card is for him, and that the last one, which should go to the punter, goes to no one. On the other hand, the fewer cards the banker has in hand, the more chances he has of winning through priority, mainly on ranks of cards with several copies remaining in the stock.

Openers relatively reduce the banker's advantage, since he only takes two thirds of the punter's bet.

8. Bassette: a game of memory

Punters, in order to put as many odds as possible on their side, must call on their memory to avoid betting on cards that have not yet appeared, or that have appeared only rarely, once the stock runs low.

Moreover, although the banker shuffles the cards each time the stock is exhausted, Leibniz, in a study of the game, pointed out that since this shuffle is not perfect, a punter with a good memory could remember a few sequences of cards and thus give himself a chance to predict the appearance of cards. But the banker always has the option of switching decks each time the stock is exhausted.

On the subject of shuffling cards, a method called "the Provencal shuffle" is sometimes cited in the literature – Dufresny, for example, for Lansquenet in Le Chevalier joueur, or Jean de Prechac for Bassette in La Noble Vénitienne. This method consists of spreading all the cards, face down, on the table and mixing them there before gathering them back up.