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HISTORIC CARD GAMES

described by David Parlett

  These pages present (a) histories of classic games such as Poker and Euchre and (b) details of historic games, such as Gleek and Quadrille, that are now only museum pieces. This project was started at the suggestion of John McLeod, who tells me that visitors to his award-winning Pagat website for the rules of card games often inquire after the play of some old game that they have come across in period novels or films or readings in cultural history.

Some of the descriptions first appeared in my Oxford Guide to Card Games (1990, republished as A History of Card Games in 1991), but I've since been revising them in the light of further research and discoveries. If you have any comments, queries, or suggestions for additional entries, do let me know.
 
Costly Colours
The colourful cousin of Crib, for 2 or 4 players
Euchre
A classic American game of European origin, for 2 or 4 players
Gin Rummy
The great game of Hollywood and Broadway, for 2 players
Gleek
An old English of tricks and bluff, for 3 players
Laugh & lie down
An ancient but hilarious pairing-off game for 5 players (or 4)
Loo
A once notorious trick-taking gambling game, best for at least 5 players
Losing Lodam
The Gargantuan ancestor of Hearts, for 3 or more players
Maw
The five-fingered game of the Gaels, for 2 to 10 players (5 best)
Noddy
The knavish ancestor of Cribbage, for 2 or 4 players
Patience
Origins and history of card solitaires
Penneech
The game that changes trump from trick to trick, for 2 players
Poker
Origins and history of the great American pastime
Pope Joan
Introducing "the Curse of Scotland" for 3 to 7 players
Quadrille
The courtly ladies' game of 18th century France, for 4 players
Reversis
The 16th-century ancestor of Hearts, for 4 players
Speculation
As played by Jane Austen and the denizens of Mansfield Park, for 3 to 7 players

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