Playing for tricks
Tarot, the card game rather than the divination art, is popular throughout Europe, as it has been for centuries. You can now play it in Cyprus too.
Discreetly located, nestled by a shop crammed with bicycles, and a sleepy cobbled alleyway, is a French restaurant named Brasserie Au Bon Plaisir. It’s rich burgundy walls lined with Toulouse Lautrec posters, cascading candles, and a slightly bizarre assortment of antique tins, provides an intimate setting in which to enjoy authentic French fodder and a first-rate bottle of wine. It is also the place where every Wednesday a high-spirited group of mostly French expats gather to eat, drink and play Tarot. Not the divination art, but rather the 15th century card game. Popular throughout much of Europe for centuries, Tarot is one of France’s favourite pastimes.
Having had plenty of experience in the usual card games and just one game of poker behind me, where I had tripped upon a Royal Flush, I believed I possessed some of the necessary Omar Sherif-esque weapons, as well as a healthy dose of fluke, in order to see me through. That is, until I met Lakis. Poised and self- assured, I entered the brasserie to be cheerfully greeted by Gatienne Thibaut, the restaurant’s proprietor, the unofficial master of ceremonies.
I asked her how this card night came to be. “It started in 2004, before I even had this restaurant, we would receive people in our house, then when we opened a shop in the old town, we would play there at night. Once I had a baby, it was difficult for me to go out, so we would receive people at home again. Now having opened the restaurant, the players said they wanted more conviviality and cosiness, they wanted to eat together before playing, so we have a set menu and then play at the restaurant.
“There are no professionals in Tarot, people started playing for money only three or four years ago when the French Federation of Tarot was set up to organise tournaments in France. Tarot is really a game to relax, to socialise.”
The players arrived promptly at eight. They included half a dozen French players, and Lakis, who, I was informed, had grasped the game with relative ease. “He’s only been playing for two months, I was very impressed he learnt the rules so fast,” said Gatienne. “When he first played, he made two mistakes and that was it,” she said, adding,” it’s because he’s a bridge player!
Bridge!? What? No body had mentioned anything about Bridge. Wasn’t that supposed to be one of those impossible-to-master games? My confidence started to wane. “It’s similar to Bridge but not so serious. You can play, joke, laugh. If you take a deep breath in Bridge, they’ll kill you!! And you never fully learn Bridge, you can explain the rules a hundred different ways, in Tarot you need to remember just a handful of things.”
I was not convinced.
After a traditional, wholesome French meal consisting of hams made by a charcuterie chef, organic fondu cheese from Vache, Cyprus potatoes (the only non-French addition to the menu) and probably the best beer I’ve ever tasted, (Cuvee de Noel Blonde, an oraganic beer by CITTI), play was afoot.
Eight players were divided on two tables, with four players per game. Gatienne explained that although you can play with three or five players, four is the ideal number.
The deck consists of seventy-eight cards, four suits each of which possesses one extra card, the Cavalier, which ranks between the Jack and the Queen, a series of trump cards numbered one to 21 and another card called the fool. Once the cards were dealt equally allowing six cards for the kitty, I was informed I had the necessary hand to go on the attack with the other three players defending together against me. Why? Because I possessed lots of cards belonging to one suit, I also had in my possession many trump cards, which beats normal cards in a trick and because I also held two of the three cards of particular importance, called bouts. These I was informed, I had to keep hold of during my scurrilous attack! My objective was, to accumulate enough points to win the hand by taking tricks. A trick is a round where each player plays one card, and the winner takes all the cards for their kitty to be counted later for points.
Somehow secure in the belief that I possessed a strong hand, haphazardly I started throwing down trumps! “No!” exclaimed Gatienne, “You play with your long suit first, and always start off play with the your highest cards in that suit.” This was very much a game of counting cards and probability.
Armed with the basics, and a strong hand, I started winning tricks! This game was a doddle it seemed. That was until I’d played my number one trump, lost the trick and one of my prize possessions. Abruptly, my game had spun out of control. “You have forgotten you have to keep hold of your bouts!” Gatienne exclaimed.
Unawares, I’d lost five points, and needed more points to win the game having lost my bout card.
We suddenly became aware of our neighbouring table’s theatrics and looked over to find animated debates around the table as to what card to play next, who was counting trumps, and a show of faux bravado followed by bursts of laughter. The round was over and one player stood up in triumph and left the table in a bid to find more wine.
So consumed in the game we had forgotten to open more wine. Cheerfully, Gatienne addressed the matter, and while topping up our glasses she remarked, “People will be shocked, a group of French people playing cards who are forgetting to drink their wine!”
And what became of my game? Our neighbouring winning player, who, after congratulating himself with a drink, decided to lend me a hand, and my game was salvaged.
Later Gatienne offered, that no matter how many tips she had given me, there isn’t one single winning formula.
“You cannot write a rule,” she said. “There’s a lot intuition involved after a while, There’s also the probability part, and strategy, memory and luck. It’s a complete game, the more cards you have in a game, the more combinations you have and richer the game becomes, imagine with 78 cards, how many combinations you can get.
As for tips? It’s like a recipe. Everybody has their own and not everyone agrees. Tarot is rather like a Quiche Lorraine. There are 1,000 different recipes and a thousand ways to play the game.”
The history of Tarot and popular misconceptions
The game originated in northern Italy around 1420 to 1440. The earliest known cards were lavish, hand-painted decks from the courts of nobility. Some believe that the name tarot was taken from the Hebrew scripture The Torah and although the etymology is unknown, we know that originally the cards were called catre da trionfi, (cards of the triumphs).
Several writers popularised the idea that the Rom (gypsies) brought the tarot to Europe and spread its use. In fact, most of their fortune telling was through palmistry and later through the use of ordinary playing cards. It wasn’t until the 20th century that the Rom adopted tarot, some 500 years after the game was introduced. Many believe that tarot was invented to amuse Charles VI of France in 1392 as evidenced by a deck by in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France in Paris although the deck actually originates in Northern Italy from the late 15th century. While the Catholic and Protestant churches outlawed card games and all who used it in an effort to stamp out heretical teachings, tarot was never banned, probably because of its association with the upper classes. The game was popular throughout much of Europe for centuries.
There are records of divinatory meanings assigned to tarot cards in Bologna early in the 1700s. This is the first unambiguous evidence of tarot divination as it is commonly understood.
The early Italian Renaissance, wh
ich gave birth to the tarot, was a time of great intellectual diversity and activity. Hermeticism, astrology, Neoplatonism, Pythagorean philosophy with roots in Alexandrian Egypt, and heterodox Christian thought all thrived. Any or all of these may have left their mark on the design of the tarot.
How to play
Although many different counties play their versions of tarot, nowhere is it more popular than in France. Here is a simplified version of the rules, according to the Tarot de Marseille arrangement, recognised by France’s official body, The F?d?ration Fran?aise de Tarot.
The Deck
Tarot is played using a 78 cards divided into a numbered 21-card series of trump cards, one fool and 4 suits (spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs). Each suit possesses an extra card, the cavalier or knight which ranks above the jack and below the queen.
The three cards of particular importance are known as bouts, they are the fool, the 1 of trump (the magician), and the 21 of trump (the world). The bouts reduce the total number of points you need to win.
Setup
Deal out the entire deck; deal equal hands to each of the players, plus six cards to the “dog” or the “kitty”, face-down pile in the middle of the table.
Players inspect their hands, and the player who thinks he has the best hand ‘calls the dog,’ and takes the dog into his hand after showing it to all the other players. He then swaps the best cards from the dog and with the lowest six cards in his hand and moves them to his score pile. This player becomes the ‘taker’ who is on the attack and the rest of the players defend together against him. The taker’s objective is to accumulate enough points to win the hand by taking tricks.
For every card in every trick taken, there are points.
Bidding
The players look at the cards they have been dealt, and a round of bidding begins, you can only bid higher than the previous bidders.
The bids are, form lowest to highest are:
Take – you use the chien cards to improve your hand and then try to take enough card points in tricks to win
Guard – the chief wins or loses double the usual stake.
Guard – without the dog: the dog goes directly into the chief’s score pile, and no-one gets to see it until the end of the hand.
Guard against the dog – the dog goes directly into the communal score pile, without being shown until the end of the hand.
Play
The taker leads the first trick with every player adding a card from his hand to the trick. Every subsequent trick is led by the player who took the last trick. The leader of a trick must play a pip or face card, unless he doesn’t have any, at which point he must play a trump.
Once the leader of a trick has played a card, everyone else must follow suit. If a player can not follow suit, he must play a trump card, which beats everything except higher-valued trump (The Magician is valued lowest, and the World is valued highest). If he has no pip or face card matching suit and no trump, he must ‘trash’ a card into the trick. If the trick is led with a trump, all other players must play a trump card, or trash a card if they can not.
The only card with a special effect is the Fool, called the ‘excuse’. The Fool may be played on any trick: it “excuses” the player from following suit. However it never wins the trick. When the last trick has been played, the game ends.
Tarot Card Game Lessons
Not lessons in the divination art but rather the strategy and memory game. Every Wednesday evening. Brasserie Au Bon Plaisir, 103 Gregory Afxentiou, Ayios Dometios, Nicosia. 8pm. Tel 99-765510
