Ecarté

Ecarté is an evolution of Triomphe. A card game played mainly in the nineteenth century, its interest lies in the power players have to allow or forbid the exchange of cards in their hands. Being fast-paced, the game thus has, compared to Triomphe, a reduced element of chance, and the psychological aspect is far from negligible.

Ecarté is mainly played by two players with a deck of 32 cards.

In each of the suits – spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs – the cards follow this descending order :
King, queen, jack, ace, 10, 9, 8, 7

2. Deal

Each player draws a card at random from the deck spread out on the table, face down, and whoever draws the lowest shuffles the cards, offers them to be cut by his opponent, and deals 5 to each, in two rounds – 3 and 2, or 2 and 3 –, starting with the opponent.

Once the deal is complete, he turns up the next card, and places it, face up, to his right : its suit will be trump.

The dealer finally places the remaining cards, called the stock, in a face-down pile, partially covering the turned-up card.

The dealer's opponent speaks first. He may either play on his own authority, or ask for cards :

1) If he plays on his own authority, he says : « We play! » and lays down his first card. No player is then allowed to exchange cards.

Playing on one's own authority is a contract that requires winning. If the player who commits to it loses, his opponent scores 1 additional point.

2) If he asks for cards, he says : « Cards! » and the dealer then has two options, either to accept or to refuse :

– if the dealer refuses, he says : « We play! » and the first player lays down his first card. The consequence of the refusal is identical to that of playing on one's own authority, that is, here, 1 additional point for the first player if he wins.

– if the dealer accepts, he asks : « How many? » and the first player announces the number of cards he is discarding from his hand and places them to the left of the dealer, face down. The dealer gives the first player the same number of cards, taken from the top of the stock, to bring back up his hand to 5 cards. It is permitted to ask for anywhere from one to five cards. The dealer then makes his own exchange in the same way, placing the cards he discards together with those discarded by the first player, then completes his hand with cards from the top of the stock.

Once the first player and the dealer have thus exchanged, the procedure resumes in the same way, but if the first player plays on his own authority, or if the dealer refuses him, the penalty point is no longer applied. The procedure thus repeats until the first player plays on his own authority, or the dealer refuses the exchange. If, following successive exchanges, the stock runs out, the turned-up card is not awarded to anyone. The last player to make his exchange cannot exchange more cards than the stock still contains.

Since playing on one's own authority consists of forbidding any exchange, the penalty point is, in both cases – authority or refusal – called the « refusal point ».

Ecarté is a trick-taking game. The dealer's opponent is the first to play, and for subsequent tricks it will be the winner of the previous trick.

Players are not allowed to renounce, meaning that they must follow suit if possible.

A player must always head the trick by playing a higher card of the suit led, if he is able to.

If a player does not have a card of the suit led, he must, if possible, trump.

If a player has neither a card of the suit led, nor a trump, he plays the card that best suits his hand.

The player who takes three or four tricks scores 1 point.

The player who takes all five tricks, scores 2 points. He is said to make the vole (a slam).

To this gain of 1 or 2 points is added any refusal point earned.

When a hand is finished, play moves on to the next one with a change of dealer, and so on until a player reaches 5 points, which is the amount needed to win the round.

Before each deal, the cards are shuffled and cut.

If the dealer turns up a king, he immediately scores 1 point.

In addition, if a player holds the king of trumps in his hand, he scores 1 point. For this point to count, however, it is necessary to announce that one holds the king of trumps before playing one's first card. The player who has the king of trumps announces : « I have the king! » and immediately scores 1 point, without having to show his king before playing it.

When the king's point brings a player to the fifth point, the round stops at once, with the winner then showing the king of trumps.

Points scored are tracked using chips, five per player.

At the start of a round, the five chips are placed, stacked near each of the players, to the right of the dealer.

When a player scores one or more points, he moves the corresponding number of his chips to the left of the dealer.

The first player to have moved all five of his chips to the left of the dealer has won the round.

A game is played to 5 points, either linked or straight.

– in 5 points linked, two rounds of 5 points each are played, and if necessary a deciding round of 5 points to settle the tie.

– in 5 straight, there is only one round. Whoever wins it has won the game.

This latter way of playing, the more common one, is probably the origin of the French expression « réglé en cinq sec » ("settled in five straight"), meaning that a matter was settled quickly and without appeal.

In order to play more quickly, it is a good idea to use two decks of 32 cards, one for each player.

The decks must have different colored backs.

Each player deals with his own deck, so there can be no mistake as to who is supposed to deal the cards.

Méry, L'Arbitre des jeux , Gabriel de Gonet, Paris, 1847

Académie des jeux, Delarue, Paris, undated (mid-nineteenth century)

Gaston Leroux, L'Homme qui a vu le diable, 1908
(a game played "en cinq sec" ends there abruptly with the announcement of the king of trumps, formerly called triomphe)