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.
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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.
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Triomphe
Triomphe is a card game from the early sixteenth century that introduced a hierarchy among the four suits – spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs – by allowing one of them to be randomly designated, at the start of each hand, as superior to the other three. The dominant suit was thus given the name triomphe, and the very first game to make use of this notion inherited that name as well. Until the end of the nineteenth century, in every card game that made use of this hierarchical system of suits, the dominant suit was thus called triomphe. However, very soon after the invention of the game, players also began using the expression à-tout, probably because the triomphe suit goes with all the others, generally when a player holds none of the cards of those suits. One could then say that one « played à-tout of a triomphe » to signify the superiority of that suit, just as one might say, of an ordinary suit, « play spades, diamonds, and so on ». Later, à-tout was contracted into atout, and gradually replaced the word triomphe, which today is completely forgotten in France; one now speaks only of atout to designate the dominant suit. Yet in many other countries the word triomphe is still used in this sense. For example, the English speak of trump, the Spanish of triunfo, the Germans of trumpf, and so on. As for the game of Triomphe itself, it is not possible to give it a single set of rules. Several ways of using the trump suit were already in use from the game's earliest beginnings. The first version of the game may have been one of pure chance, in which the winner was whoever held the greatest number of triomphe cards. Be that as it may, rules clear enough to be presented here have existed since the seventeenth century. They all concern trick-taking games. But it was truly at the beginning of the eighteenth century that the standardization of the rules took place. General
principles
1.
Principles of the game of Triomphe The descending order of the cards seems at first to have followed that of Piquet, with the ace being the highest card. From 1725 onward, the game uses 32 cards and it is the king who takes the place of the highest card, the ace being relegated between the jack and the ten. However, one version of the game of the Triomphe kept the order used in Piquet. The dealer, chosen at random, deals to each player, counter-clockwise, an agreed number of cards. Then he turns over the next card, which he places partly visible beneath the stock. The suit of this card, called the tourne or retourne [turn-up], determines the triomphe, today called the trump. The cards of the stock and the turn-up card are not used in play. The direction of dealing and of play is always counter-clockwise. The first to play is the player seated to the right of the dealer. With the cards in hand, each player plays one card in turn, and whoever has played the strongest card, according to the rules of play, gathers up all the cards played. He is said to take the trick. This is the basic principle of trick-taking games. After each trick, the player who has just taken it – said to have the lead – plays the first card for the following trick. Whoever has taken the most tricks wins the hand, which consists of playing all the cards in hand. There are therefore as many tricks to be taken in a hand as a player has cards in hand at the start. The
dealer of the next hand will be whoever was first to play in the hand that has just ended.
Like the initial dealer, he must shuffle the cards and offer them to be cut by
his neighbour on the left before dealing them. To cut, here, means
that the player cutting divides the pack into two packets, neither of which
should generally have fewer than four cards; then the dealer
reassembles the original pack by placing the lower part on the
upper part. Throughout this whole procedure the cards remain face
down. 2. General remarks on the rules of play
2.1 Superiority of the triomphe suit 2.2 Following the suit led In general, in the game of Triomphe, players are required to follow the suit led. This means that if the first player to play a card for a trick leads a spade, a diamond, a club, or a heart, then the following players must play a card of the same suit. The triomphe, or trump, is no exception to the rule : if the first player leads a triomphe, the other players must also play one.
When a player has no card of the suit led, he must play a triomphe. This is called trumping. If a player has trumped the suit led, he is said to be master, that is to say that if no following player is able to play a stronger triomphe, he will take the trick. Even if a player has trumped, those who come after him must still play the suit led if they hold any. A player who has none of the suit led, when another has already trumped before him, must generally also play a triomphe. This triomphe is either stronger than the previous one, or lower. In the first case the player is said to have overtrumped, and in the second to have undertrumped. The player who overtrumps is master. When a player can play neither the suit led nor a triomphe, he may play any card he chooses. When a player has none, or no longer has any, of a suit, he is said to have a void. For example, if he has no more diamonds, he is said to have a void in diamonds. Having a void can allow him to become master by trumping the corresponding suit when it is led.
Once all the players have played their card, whoever played the strongest triomphe takes the trick. If no triomphe has been played, it is whoever played the strongest card of the suit led who takes the trick. The player who takes the trick gathers up the cards played and stacks them face down in a neat pile in front of him. Although this may seem like a modern habit, the trick then takes the name pli – pli is a masculine noun in French. A player's plis must be arranged crosswise so that all players can know their number at any time. This arrangement also makes it possible to clearly set apart the last trick, which is often the only one that may be consulted by the players when it is their turn to play.
A game of Triomphe is played to a number of points agreed upon beforehand between the players. It generally runs from 5 to 7 points. When a player has taken the greatest number of tricks in a hand, he wins 1 point. When several players have taken the same greatest number of tricks, it is generally whoever is seated closest to the dealer in the direction of play who wins the point – he wins it by precedence of position. The dealer is then in the worst position.
In old trick-taking games, the expression to make the vole, from the Spanish bola, is used in France to mean that a player has taken every trick in a hand. In the game of Piquet, this is called a capot, a term that would later be taken up by Belote at the beginning of the twentieth century. In the game of Triomphe, whoever succeeds in making the vole scores 2 points instead of just one. But be careful: attempting the vole is a kind of contract : a player commits to making the vole the moment that, having already taken enough tricks to win the hand, while the others have taken none at all, he plays a card for the next trick. In this case, we say that the vole is committed. A player who commits himself in this way to the vole and fails to make it loses 2 points. A player who does not wish to commit to the vole, instead of playing for the next trick, lays down his cards and scores 1 point. Example : a hand is played over five tricks, and a player takes the first three. If he stops play there, he scores 1 point ; if he continues playing and takes all five tricks, he scores 2 points for the vole ; if he continues play and another player takes a trick, he immediately loses 2 points for a failed committed vole.
In the game of Triomphe played one against one, or one team against another, after having looked at their cards, a player or a team may decide to concede the point to the opposing side. To do this, when the requesting side plays its first card, it announces its wish and the opposing side accepts or refuses it. If it accepts, it scores 1 point and the hand is over; play moves on to the next hand ; if it refuses, the hand is played out but the requesting side must then absolutely succeed in making the vole, or else it loses 2 points. When we speak of losing 2 points, this does not mean that the other team scores them, but rather that the side which failed to make the vole reduces its score by 2 points. A team's score can therefore be negative, in modern terms.
If we rely on a direct reading of the rules from the seventeenth and eighteenth century, as well as on the definitions in Furetière's dictionary, it is possible to distinguish three ways of managing the triomphe. We thus distinguish : Triomphe au forçat, Triomphe au plaisant, and Triomphe forcée. It is this last way that would ultimately be adopted from the beginning of the eighteenth century onward, in the rules contained in the Académie universelle des jeux.
Triomphe au forçat, according to Furetière, is played in such a way that on his turn to play a player must, whenever possible, always try to become master. For this, the change to the general rule concerns following the suit led, which in certain cases must not be observed : – if
no one has played a triomphe before him, the player must play higher in
the suit led, – if
someone has trumped before him, he must overtrump with a triomphe even
if he holds the suit led, – if
the first player led a triomphe, he must play higher in the triomphe, This rule applies regardless of the number of players and the configuration. In team play all players must respect it without any distinction between teammate and opponent. Quotation : « In some games, such as la Bête [a game descended from Triomphe], one speaks of playing au forçat when a player submits to certain rules that are not strictly part of the game itself, such as when one is obliged to play a card higher than one's partner's in order to win the trick, or a triomphe, when one has no higher card. – Furetière, Dictionnaire universel, 1690.
Triomphe au plaisant differs from Triomphe au forçat in that only the last player to play must do so au forçat. The other players are simply required to follow the suit led. They trump and overtrump only if they wish to. This
rule can only be applied with more than two players and
in an individual game.
3.1.3 Triomphe forcée – if
no one has played a triomphe before him, the player must play higher in
the suit led, – if
someone has trumped before him, and he holds the suit led,
he must play the suit led (he is not master), – if
the first player led a triomphe, he must play higher in the triomphe, This rule applies regardless of the number of players and the configuration. In team play, all players must respect it without any distinction between teammate and opponent. Triomphe forcée is the principle adopted in the rules that follow.
Triomphe– team game –
Triomphe has gone through several sets of rules while remaining, overall, the same game. From 1725 onward the rules can be considered fixed. The game, then simply called Triomphe, was reputedly played more often in Paris, and yet it corresponds to what was called Triomphe of Toulouse in the seventeenth century. It is a team game that follows the rules of Triomphe forcée, as indeed do all the variants dating from 1725. 1. Deck and number of players Triomphe is played with a 32-card deck, two against two, or three against three. Teammates sit on the same side of the table, facing the other team. They may show each other their hands and decide together which card to play. However, each one plays in his own turn. The
descending order of the cards is as follows in each of the four suits :
The team that will deal first is determined at random. To do this, a player from each team draws a card from the pack and whoever draws the highest asks the opposing team to deal: he gathers up all the cards and hands them to the player of that team seated closest to his left. This player is the first dealer. On the next hand it will be the last player of the other team in the order of play who will deal the cards, and so on, so that each team deals in turn, but it is always the same player from each team – whenever a team deals, it is the other team that plays first. After shuffling the cards and having them cut by the opposing player seated across from him, the dealer deals five to each player, two then three, or three then two, counter-clockwise. Once the cards have been dealt, the dealer turns over the next card and places it partly beneath the stock, which will not be used. The suit of the turn-up card determines that of the triomphe (the trump). Example with 3 players against 3:
Team
1: players A, B, C If team 2 draws the higher card, player C shuffles the cards and offers them to player D to cut. Since C dealt, it is player D who is first to play. After each trick it is the player who took it who has the lead. When the hand is over, F deals after having offered the cards to A to cut, who will be the new first to play. On the following hand it will be C who deals again, and so on, so that C and F are always the only two who deal.
Once the players have looked at their cards and learned the suit of the triomphe, the first to play, who is the player seated to the right of the dealer, plays one of his cards. He may do so after consulting his partner or partners. Then all the players do likewise in their turn. Whoever has played the strongest card, according to the rules of Triomphe forcée, takes the trick, then plays, always in the same way, first for the following trick – he has the lead.
Triomphe follows the rule of the committed vole and that of a team conceding the point (see here).
Winning a hand follows the general rules (see here).
Triomphe– individual game –Triomphe can likewise be played individually. In 1725 it was reputedly played more this way in the provinces than in Paris. Its rules differ from the team game only as needed by this change of configuration. Those set out here specify these changes, and one should refer to Triomphe as a team game in order to play. 1. Deck and number of players Triomphe as an individual game is played with a 32-card deck among two or more players. Six players seems to be the maximum to be allowed. Played by two, it forms the basis of the game of Écarté played from the beginning of the nineteenth century until the middle of the twentieth.
The first dealer is determined at random. Each player draws a card from the pack and whoever draws the lowest is the dealer for the first hand of the game. On the next hand it will be the player seated to his right, and so on.
Once the players have looked at their cards and learned the suit of the triomphe, the first to play, who is the player seated to the right of the dealer, plays one of his cards. Then all the players do likewise in their turn. Whoever has played the strongest card, according to the rules of triomphe forcée, takes the trick, then plays, always in the same way, first for the following trick – he has the lead.
Triomphe follows the rule of the committed vole and of conceding the point by a team (see here).
A game of Triomphe is played to a number of points agreed upon beforehand between the players, but commonly fixed at 5. Winning a hand follows the general rules (see here).
The Ace that PillagesThe Ace that Pillages was simply called the game of Triomphe in the seventeenth century, which suggests that it may have then been the most widely played version. It takes its name from the privilege attached to the ace of triomphe. The rule of this version of Triomphe uses this privilege by default, but allows, by agreement among the players, for it not to be taken into account, in which case it was said that « the Ace did not pillage ». This latter way of playing then followed the rules of individual Triomphe, and one may deduce from this that in the hierarchy of the cards, the ace was always at the top, unlike in the 1725 version previously described. 1. Deck and number of players The Ace that Pillages is played individually among at least three players, with a 32-card deck. The
descending order of the cards is as follows in each of the four suits :
Once he has done this with the ace, he turns up the next card of the stock, and if it is of the same suit – the one that makes the triomphe –, he may likewise take it into his hand and discard another. This action is called pillaging. The dealer may pillage for as long as he turns up triomphes (trumps). Once he no longer turns up a triomphe, play of the cards begins. If the dealer does not turn up an ace after the deal, the player who has the ace of triomphe in his hand shows it and proceeds in the same way, pillaging the stock. A player is never obliged to pillage, and if he has begun to pillage he may stop whenever he wishes. Otherwise all the rules are those of individual Triomphe.
References
– La Maison des
jeux académiques, Loyson, Paris, 1665 and 1668
Information about this page Published
online on 2 June 2004
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