Piquet
Many card games have been around since the Renaissance period, and some of them remain to be very popular games to this day. Piquet is one of those games. It has been documented since the sixteenth century, but could have been around earlier than that because its mention in literature indicates it was already popular by 1535. It is assumed that the game came from Spanish origins because of its name, and that it made its way to Germany through France, but even with this spread its popularity was the greatest in France. It remained popular in France, and later on in England, until the birth of contract bridge, which took its place. However, to this day pique is still played and is one of the most popular card games with a long history behind it.
Piquet is not played with your usual fifty-two card deck. Intsead, a thirty-two card deck is used, and in some areas of the world this is available commercially; however, for the benefit of those in areas where only the standard fifty-two card set is available, the deck used in piquet consists of the following cards: all of the aces, all of the face cards, and the cards from the ranks 7 through 10, all suits present of course. Because the deck being used is so small, only two players can play this game. Each player is dealt twelve cards each, and the remaining eight cards are stacked and used as the talon. If one of the players has no face cards in his hand, then he has to declare a carte blanche, which simply indicates he has no face cards in his hand. This gives that player an initial ten points to start with.
The game begins with the Elder hand – that is, the person other than the dealer. As you may have guessed, the dealer is known as the Younger hand. The Elder and Younger hands exchange cards as they see fit, and then after this process they go through a process of declaration, or trying to determine who has the better hand. Deception plays a key role in this portion of the game and so it is important to know how to bluff in order to give your opponent a different impression of what cards you actually have; otherwise, by the end of the declaration the other player will know what cards are in your hand more or less. The play takes place, and each card put down is scored, as is done in bridge. The one with the higher points at the end of the game wins. There are various opportunities to gain bonuses throughout the play, such as if a person is the first to reach a particular number of points, and these are not just small points – about thirty to sixty bonus points are given to a player who achieves a particular milestone in the game. The only time that these bonus points are not given is if there is a tie between the two players.
If you want to enjoy playing the game even more, give it a Renaissance twist: organize a Piquet party with a Renaissance theme, and play as if it were 1535 again. You’ll find the game fascinating, and you get a feel of the sixteenth century as well.