Glossary of card game terms

A

1. The card with one pip in a pack of cards. Usually the highest card of a [|suit], [|ranking] immediately above the [|king]. May also occupy the lowest rank.
2. Commonly refers to the [|Deuce or Two] in German-suited packs which don't have real Aces. Often the highest card of a suit.

1. A card that is in [|play] i.e. not [|sleeping].
2. See active player.

1. A player who receives cards in the current [|deal].
2. A player who has not withdrawn from the current deal but elected to play on.

1. Often used in both senses of [|declaration]. However, Dummett prefers to restrict 'announcement' for the intention to achieve certain feats in play, while preferring [|'declaration'] for a statement that one has a special [|combination] of cards in one's [|hand].

1. A mandatory [|stake] made before the game begins - usually by all players, sometimes by the dealer only.
2. Chips required to be put into the [|pot] before the deal.
3. To put in such [|chips].

B

1. Any wager on the outcome of a deal or game; any chips put in a pot; to put chips in a pot.
2. The first bet in a betting interval.

1. A [|penalty] payment in certain games for e.g. for failing to take the minimum number of [|tricks], or for a stake or money which a player has lost.
2. A player who fails to takes a single [|trick] in Mistigri. Likewise in Mauscheln, if the [|declarer], or Mauschler, fails to win a trick, he is the Mauschlerbete.
3. Failure to make a [|contract].
4. Conceding defeat without playing.
5. Double bête: a double penalty, usually for failing to make a contract after choosing to play out the cards.

1. An offer to win a minimum or specified number of tricks or points or the privilege of naming the [|trump suit] or the game.
2. To make a bid.

1. Any player who makes a bid.
2. The player who makes the highest bid and plays out his announced contract.

1. In card-point games, a card that is worth no points. A non-counter.
2. A hand with no [|court cards], i.e. only [|pip cards].
3. A card that is [|unguarded] by other, usually lower cards in the same suit: "I held the blank king of spades."
4. To discard in such a way as to leave a card unprotected: "She blanked the king of spades."
5. To [|void] a suit.

1. A dummy hand, for example, in Cego.
2. Cards dealt to the table as a [|skat] or [|widow].

1. To attempt to deceive one's opponent about the [|value] of cards in one's hand.
2. To use various tactics to mislead one's opponent about the distribution of cards or one's strategy.

1. To receive a card from the dealer, face down, in return for a stake e.g. in Twenty-One.
2. To receive or draw the spare hand, in return for one's own hand and, possibly, a stake e.g. in Newmarket.
3. To receive or pick up a card or cards in return for a hand card or cards e.g. in Préférence when the 2 [|talon] cards are picked up and 2 discarded.
4. To draw cards from the [|stock] or talon.

   C

1. An action or statement by which a player indicates he believes he will take all the remaining tricks.
2. To make such an action e.g. by laying one's hand down or saying "the rest are mine" in expectation that the opponents will concede.

1. [|Establish] a card or suit by forcing out adverse higher cards or [|stoppers].
2. Having taken no [|penalty cards] e.g. in Hearts.

1. The best card of a suit in play. Also best card, [|king card] or master card.
2. The [|top trump] or highest [|matador] such as the knave of clubs in knave noddy or the right bower in euchre.

1. Object used to score. Token used in place of money; a chip. Also [|jeton].
2. Card with a point value. Also counting card.

1. A card that has an intrinsic scoring value when taken in a trick. Also counter.

1. During play, to claim to have enough points for game, thus ending the play; to go out during the play.

1. To play a higher card of the same suit than any previously played to the trick. See also [|overtake].
2. To play a higher card than the highest so far played to the trick. See also go over, head the trick and [|play over].

D

1. Verb: To distribute cards to players in accordance with the rules of the [|card game] being played. In many games, this involves picking up all the cards, [|shuffling] them, having them cut and redistributing them, but in other games it simply involves turning over the wastepile to act as a new stock.
2. Noun: The play from the time the cards are dealt until they are redealt. Also referred to as a hand

1. [|Announcement] of [|melds] or scoring [|combinations], as in Piquet. Dummett prefers to restrict 'declaration' to this sense, while preferring 'announcement' for the intention to achieve certain feats in play i.e. the 2nd meaning below.
2. The game at which a deal is played. A call or bid.

1. To bid or to announce the [|trump].
2. To announce; predict [|schneider] or [|schwarz].
3. To [|meld] or show.
4. To count out.

1. To get rid of plain suit cards when unable to [|follow suit] and unwilling or unable to trump.
2. To [|lay away] cards, e.g. of high value or to void a suit, after picking up from the talon or skat.
3. A card that is removed from the hand in either of those ways.

1. To set up the layout required before play e.g. to set up the 4 cards in Newmarket and place stakes on them
2. To ante counters or stakes to a pot or [|pool] at the start of a hand.

1. To withdraw from the current deal, for example in Mauscheln, Préférence, Three-card Loo and Toepen. Also [|fold].
2. To discard one's hand rather than stake enough chips to stay in the game, for example in vying games like Brag and Blackjack. Also fold.

E

1. Sitting at the left when the [|rotation] is clockwise.
2. Non-dealer in two-hand play.

1. Of several players, the one nearest the [|dealer's] left when the rotation is clockwise. May not necessarily be eldest hand.
2. Short for eldest hand.

F

1. The side of a card depicting its suit and face value
2. To turn a card so that its suit and face value are visible and its back underneath

1. To spread cards fanwise. To spread a hand or pack of cards, face up, in an arc so that they can be identified from their corner [|indices]. Alternatively to spread them, face down, in order to enable players to 'draw lots' in order, for example, to choose teams or the first dealer.
2. An arc of cards so fanned. A spread of face-up cards.
3. In Patience, a small number of cards laid in an overlapping row, so that only one is exposed.

1. The leader to a trick.
2. The first player to call.
3. Eldest hand.

1. To compel a player to trump a trick in order to win it. A player may 'force out' trumps by leading a long plain suit in which the opponent is void.
2. A compulsory [|round] or deal in which all players must play and none may drop out. Also known in German games as a 'muss'. See Schafkopf.

1. Another term for eldest hand usually in card games originating from Europe. The player who is usually first to receive cards, bid and play. Sits to the left of the dealer in clockwise games and right of the dealer in anticlockwise games.
2. The player who has the right to lead to a trick or who is earlier in the order of play and therefore has positional priority. Also said to be in forehand.

1. A card with special privileges when led to a trick e.g. the Sevens in Bruus or the Eights and Nines in Knüffeln.
2. A card that cannot be beaten because all the trumps have been exhausted.
3. A card that cannot be beaten because all the trumps and higher cards have been played.