La
Mouche
La
Mouche is a card game related to la Bête, itself descended from Triomphe,
which introduces a slight element of bluff. It has a variant called Pamphile. Jules Méry, in
1847, in the Arbitre des jeux, links the expression « prendre
la mouche » (to take offense) to the game of la Mouche, whose rules he gives, but
he confuses it with another expression from the same game, « faire la mouche »
(to "make the fly"), which corresponds to a penalizing situation in the game, whereas
the opposite is true of that one. Furthermore, in the same work,
Méry inserted a poem about games in which he mentions an anecdotal game of the fly,
which has nothing to do with our subject and which is said to have been
played in Colbert's time with a real fly. The rules presented here
are consistent with those described in the Académie universelle
des jeux of 1718, those of Méry being somewhat different.
1.
Number of players and deck of cards
The
game of la Mouche is played by three, four, five or six people. Depending on
the number of players, one uses:
– for 3: a 32-card deck
without the 7s (28 cards)
– for 4: a 32-card deck plus the 6s
(36 cards)
– for 5: a 52-card deck without the 2s (48 cards)
– for 6: a full 52-card deck
2.
Order of the cards
For
a 32-card deck, the cards follow the descending order:
King,
queen, jack, ace, 10, 9, 8, 7
and for a 52-card deck:
King,
queen, jack, ace, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 2
3.
Buy-in in chips, plaques and contracts
Before
starting the game, each player takes 20 chips (round), 16 plaques (long
rectangular tokens) and 9 contracts (short rectangular tokens). Since a plaque
is worth 5 chips and a contract 20 plaques – that is, 100 chips –,
each player starts with the equivalent of 1000 chips. This amount can be adapted
as desired.
4.
Choice of seats, deal, turned card, first to play
To
determine who will be the first to deal the cards (will make the first
deal), a number of cards equal to the number of players is removed from the deck.
The cards must follow one another in hierarchical order starting from the king – for
example, for four players, one would draw out a king, a queen, a
jack and an ace. These cards being shuffled and placed
face down on the table, each player takes one; the one who draws
the king chooses their seat, to their right comes whoever has the queen, then whoever
has the jack, and so on. Once the players are seated, the one who drew
the king is the first dealer. Thereafter, the deal passes to the next
player on the right after each hand.
After putting 5 chips into
a pool, the dealer gathers all the cards, shuffles them,
offers them to be cut by the player on their left, then deals, going to the right,
five cards to each player, three and two, or two and three. The dealer finally turns
over the top card of the stock and places it on the table, face up.
The suit of this card will be the trump suit. This turned card may not be used
by any of the players. The stock is placed to the right of the dealer.
The player seated to the right of the dealer is called the first
to play. They will lay the first card of the hand, which is the phase of
play in which all the players play their five cards. The
first to play in one hand will be the dealer of the following hand, and so on.
At the start of each hand, the dealer must put 5 chips into the pool.
5.
Declarations, discards, folding
Once
the cards have been dealt, each player looks at their hand and the first
to play then has three options: fold, discard
or stand.
– if they fold, they lay
their hand face down on the table at once. They no longer take part
in the play for that hand.
– if they discard, they
announce the number of cards they want to exchange with the stock; they discard
from their hand the announced number of cards, and the dealer gives them in exchange
the same number of cards drawn from the stock. Discards must not
be shown.
– if they stand, they simply say
« I stand » or « that's fine »,
and keep their hand without discarding.
Going around to the right,
each player in turn makes their declaration in the same way. It is final,
so it cannot be changed, and only those who have not folded will take part
in the play on that hand.
6.
The stake: the mouche
The
mouche is the content of the pool. It is the stake of the hand. On each
hand, it is entirely won by one or more players.
The chip amount of the mouche is always a multiple of 5. At the start
of each hand, the dealer puts 5 chips into the pool, and if one or more
players made the mouche on the previous hand, they must
add that amount to the pool.
Making the mouche is
a penalty imposed on a player, making them liable
for the amount of the stake, that is, of the mouche in play. This amount is
added to the dealer's 5 chips at the start of the following hand. The mouche
is thus simple (5 chips) if no player made the mouche on the previous hand;
it can be double if a single player had made a simple mouche, or
triple if two players had made a simple mouche, and so on. On a multiple mouche
in play, whoever makes the mouche makes it by that same multiple.
Example:
– 1st hand : the mouche is simple (5 chips)
and two players make the mouche ;
– 2nd hand :
the mouche is triple (15 chips, the dealer's 5 plus the two mouches made
on the 1st hand) and one player makes the mouche ;
– 3rd hand :
the mouche is quadruple (20 chips, the dealer's 5 chips plus the mouche made
on the 2nd hand) and no player makes the mouche ;
– 4th hand :
the mouche is simple (the dealer's 5 chips).
7.
Tricks: sharing the mouche, the first way of
making it
The
mouche is a trick-taking game.
Each trick taken by a player entitles them, at the end of the hand, to
receive a fifth of the amount of the mouche in play. If the mouche is
simple, they will receive 1 chip per trick; if it is double, 2; triple, 3; and so on.
Since each player has five cards at the start of a hand, the total number of
tricks will also be five, and so the mouche in play will be completely
won by the end of the hand, the 5 tricks allowing the 5 fifths
of the mouche to be collected.
If a player takes
no trick at all, they make the mouche for the amount of the one in play; if the mouche
is simple, they will make it simple, and if it is multiple, they will make it multiple. As
stated in the previous chapter, the player who
has made a mouche will put its amount into the pool on the following hand.
8.
Play of the cards
For
the first trick of a hand, the first to play plays first,
then the other players follow to the right. For subsequent tricks,
it is whoever won the previous trick who plays the first
card – they are said to have the lead. Play of the cards follows the
rules below:
– one must follow the suit led by
the first player, whether it is trump or not;
– if one does not have
the suit led, one must trump;
– one
is required to overtrump or over-card the highest card played, if able, while respecting
the two previous rules;
– one is not
required to play trump if one does not have the suit led and a
player has already trumped with a higher trump than any one holds
(this point conforms to the game of la Bête, which is referenced
in the rules for the game of la Mouche as set out in the Académie
universelle des jeux).
The player who has thus played the highest
trump or, in the absence of trump, the highest card of the suit
led, wins the trick – they gather up the cards
played – which they stack face down in front of them.
9.
Having the mouche: the second way of winning the mouche and
making it
If
a player has received from the dealer five cards of the same suit (spades,
hearts, diamonds or clubs), they are said to have the mouche. In this case,
the cards are not played out for tricks; the player who has the mouche
takes it, collecting the chips contained in the pool, and the players who
took part in the hand make the mouche for the same amount.
Should it
happen that several players have the mouche, only one may
claim it, determined
by the following descending criteria:
1) Trump beats
the other suits.
2) In case of a tie on
the first criterion, whoever has the greater number of points in their
hand wins. Face cards and the ace count as 10, and the other cards their
printed value.
3) In case of a tie on the second
criterion, whoever is seated closest to the dealer's
right wins.
To claim the mouche, it is
essential that the five cards of the same suit were
received straight away in the deal, and therefore that the player did not discard.
Thus, only a player who stood at the declarations can
have the mouche.
10.
Declaring the mouche: the bluff
Whoever
has the mouche is not obliged to announce it right after the deal
or during the declarations. It is even preferable
not to reveal it until the other players have made their declarations.
Since announcing possession of the mouche does not put an end to the declarations,
players who have not yet declared and do not have the mouche
would fold to avoid making it. It is therefore better to wait until all
the players have made their declaration before announcing that one has the mouche.
That said, when a player declares that they stand, it is
useful for the players who follow to know whether it is because they
have the mouche, or simply because they have a good hand for card play.
In the first case, whoever does not have the mouche should fold so as not to
make it; in the second case they could stand or discard
in the hope of winning one or more tricks.
So, in an attempt
to get information about the hand of the player who stands, the other players have
the right to question them without insisting, asking them, for example,
quite simply whether they have the mouche, or whether they (really) stand,
while watching
their reactions.
The player questioned must always answer
evasively or refrain from answering. Indeed,
were they to say clearly whether or not they have the mouche, they could
under no circumstances lie. It is in this manner of answering and in
the facial expressions that the bluff in the game of la Mouche lies.
If nobody has the mouche, those who have not folded proceed to
play the cards.
11.
Vocabulary
Mouche
: this is the content of the pool. The mouche can be simple or multiple.
Mouche piquante ("stinging fly"): this is a multiple mouche.
Having the
mouche: this is having one's five cards of the same suit in hand and
standing on them.
Taking the mouche: this is winning the entire
stake contained in the pool. There are two ways of taking the mouche
: either being the best placed of those who have the mouche according to
the three tie-break criteria, or winning every trick.
Making the mouche: this is incurring a debt for the amount contained in the
pool.
12.
A note on folding
In
the unlikely case where every player except the dealer
ends up folding, the dealer takes the mouche, but the others, not having
played, do not thereby make it.
13.
Option concerning putting mouches into play
In
the rules, it is specified that mouches made on a
given hand are all put into play on the following hand. This principle poses a
serious problem regarding the amount that the mouche in play may thus
reach, owing to a cumulative effect from hand to hand. To get around
this drawback, the rules published in 1718 give
players the option of agreeing that mouches will not be put in
all at once, but one after another. To do this it is necessary to
note down, on a sheet of paper, the mouches that are made, in order to determine
the order in which they will be put into play. This order is not specified
in the rules, but putting the largest ones into play first,
one at a time, appears to be the best method for avoiding
too great a multiplication of mouches of the same rank.
In the
case where the progressive introduction of mouches is adopted, the 1730 rule
specifies that the player who has the mouche takes, not only the one in play,
but also all those that are pending.
Joseph Méry, in 1847,
in L'Arbitre des jeux, proposes as another alternative keeping the
original system but capping the amount of the mouche made by
players at a value agreed at the start of the game. This method,
which avoids keeping a written record that could prove
cumbersome, is the most effective when one does not wish to see the amount
of mouches incurred rise prohibitively. It should be noted
that the amount of the mouche in play could then be greater than
the one actually owed – for example, with five players, if a
cap of 20 chips is chosen, the mouche in play can reach a maximum of
85 chips (the dealer's 5 chips, plus 4 mouches of 20 chips in the case where
a player had the mouche on the previous hand), but on such a hand
the mouche owed will nevertheless be only 20 chips.
Le
Pamphile
The
game of Pamphile is a variant of the game of la Mouche.
The rule for Pamphile contained in the Académie universelle des
jeux (Amsterdam, 1758), introduces, in addition to the word Pamphile,
that of Lenturlu. Méry, in L'Arbitre des jeux (Paris, Gabriel
de Gonet, 1847), writes that the game of Lenturlu is nothing other
than that of la Mouche, and that the game of Pamphile is also called
the game of Mistigri. By giving the definitions of the different
words, we will see the reasons for these dual names. The rules
presented here correspond to those of 1758, those of
Méry being somewhat different.
1.
The Pamphile: definition and associated payment
The
jack of clubs is called the Pamphile. It ranks
above all the other cards. It is the top trump.
Whoever
has the Pamphile in their hand receives one chip from each of the other players.
The moment at which the Pamphile is to be paid is not specified in
the rules – it may be assumed that the Pamphile is paid to
whichever player has not folded, whether they have the mouche or the cards
are played out for tricks, and in the latter case, the Pamphile will be
paid at the moment it is played. Whoever has the Pamphile does not
have to claim their chip; the dealer must be the first to give it to them,
followed by the other players. It may be agreed that if the dealer turns up the Pamphile,
the other players will pay it to them only if the dealer does not fold.
2.
The Pamphile as the turned card
As
in la Mouche, after dealing five cards to
each player, the dealer turns over the next card and places it face up
on the table. The suit of this turned card is the trump suit.
If the turned card is the Pamphile, the dealer chooses whichever trump suit
suits them best.
3.
The Pamphile and play of the cards
If
nobody has had the mouche, play of the cards begins.
The rule
is the same as in the game of la Mouche, except that the power of
the Pamphile as the top trump must be taken into account – it outranks
the king of trump. The Pamphile must always be considered
the trump suit. For example, if the trump suit is diamonds, the Pamphile must
be regarded as a diamond, and if it is led by the
first player, this will mean that trump has been led, the other players
then having to follow with diamonds if they hold any.
4.
The Pamphile and having the mouche
The
Pamphile keeps its club suit for the purpose of forming the five cards of the same
suit needed to have the mouche.
It is specified in
the rule of L'Académie universelle des jeux, Amsterdam,
1758, that, optionally, the Pamphile may take on any suit for
the purpose of declaring the mouche. The use of this
option must be agreed upon at the start of the game.
5.
The Pamphile: choice of name
Pamphile,
which is also a first name, means loved by everyone.
Although the origin of the game's name is not known, the jack of
clubs, having been chosen as the top trump, well deserves its
name of Pamphile.
6.
The lenturlu
Lenturlu
is, in the game of Pamphile, the equivalent of the term mouche. One says
"having the lenturlu" just as one says "having the mouche."
The reason for the use
of this term may well stem from a consequence of the rule
set out in chapter 10 of the game of la Mouche. It is stated there that one may question
a player who has declared they stand, but that this player must remain
as evasive as possible in their answers so as to leave people thinking
whatever seems good to them – having or not having the mouche.
Indeed, the word lenturlu was used in the 18th
century – spelled lanturlu in the Dictionnaire
de l'Académie française, but lenturlu in the Académie
universelle des jeux of 1758 – as an evasive
and even ironic answer to awkward questions.
7.
The Mistigri
Mistigri
was, in the 19th century, another name given to the jack
of clubs.
The Mistigri is therefore the equivalent of the Pamphile.
8.
Conclusion
It
follows from these definitions that, as Méry writes in the Arbitre
des jeux :
– the game of la Mouche and that of Lenturlu
are one and the same game ;
– the game of Pamphile and that
of Mistigri are likewise one and the same game, a variant of the game of la
Mouche.
References
Académie
universelle des jeux, Paris, Legras, 1718
Académie universelle
des jeux, Amsterdam, 1758
Méry, L'Arbitre des jeux, Paris,
Gabriel de Gonet, 1847
Lebrun, Manuel des jeux de calcul et de hasard
ou Nouvelle Académie des jeux, Paris, Roret, 1828
Information about this page
Published
online on March 18, 2005
Proofread and reformatted on November 19, 2021
Author : Philippe LALANNE
Le Salon des jeux - Académie des jeux oubliés
This page is a translated archive of the original Académie des jeux oubliés, created on July 1, 2026, from the French original at salondesjeux.fr.
