Emprunt is an historical French card game of the

Hoc family The jeux de hocs are a family of French card games in which the aim is to be first to shed all one's hand cards to sequences laid out in rows on the table. They all feature cards known as ' stops' or ''hocs'': cards that end a sequence and give the ...

for three to six players that dates to at least the early 18th century.

History

The earliest account of the rules of Emprunt date to 1718_ (1718), pp. 180–181. and the game continues to be regularly included in French games compendia until the late 19th century but now appears obsolete. The name Emprunt means "loan" and stems from the "borrowing" feature of the game.

Rules

The 1718 ''Académie Universelle des Jeux'' does not give a full account of the rules, describing the game as having "a lot of similarity to ''Hoc''" but named Emprunt because it contains the distinguishing feature that players are allowed to "borrow" a card they do not have. The following rules are based on Lacombe (1800).Lacombe (1800), p. 74. Emprunt may be played by three to six players using a standard

French-suited pack French-suited playing cards or French-suited cards are cards that use the French suits of (clovers or clubs ), (tiles or diamonds ), (hearts ), and (pikes or spades ). Each suit contains three or four face/court cards. I ...

of 52 cards. If six play, each is

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eight cards with four going to the

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; if five play, each receives ten and there are two in the talon. If four play, the aces and twos are removed, reducing the pack to 44 cards; each player receives ten and four are left to the talon. If three play, the threes are also removed, leaving 40 cards in the pack; each player is dealt 21 and there is a talon of four. The cards having been dealt, each player antes one or two

jeton Jetons or jettons are tokens or coin-like medals produced across Europe from the 13th through the 18th centuries. They were produced as counters for use in calculation on a counting board, a lined board similar to an abacus. They also found use ...

s of an agreed value to the pool (''poule''). Players draw lots for first dealer, the one with the lowest having this privilege. The dealer

shuffles Shuffling is a procedure used to randomize a deck of playing cards to provide an element of chance in card games. Shuffling is often followed by a cut, to help ensure that the shuffler has not manipulated the outcome. __TOC__ Techniques Overha ...

, has the cards cutting by the player to the left and then deals the requisite number of cards in anticlockwise order beginning with first hand, the player to the right. First hand leads with any card from his or her

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. Second hand must follow this with the next card in

suit sequence A run, straight or sequence is a combination of playing cards where cards have consecutive rank values.Parlett, David. ''The Penguin Book of Card Games''. London: Penguin (2008) p. 645. . They need not normally be of the same suit. However, if the ...

; if he does not hold it, he must "borrow" it from the player who has it and pay a jeton for it to that player. If no player has it, the player draws the card from the talon (wherein it must lie) and pays a jeton to the pool. Once the first

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is exhausted, the player who played the last card of that suit begins a new suit with any card held. The first player to shed all his or her hand cards wins the game, sweeps the pool and receives from each opponent as many jetons as the opponent has cards left in hand.

Footnotes

References

Bibliography

* _ (1718). ''Académie Universelle des Jeux.'' Théodore Le Gras, Paris. * Lacombe, Jacques (1800). ''Encyclopédie Méthodique: Dictionaire des Jeux.'' Padoue. * Moulidars, Th. de (1888). ''Grande Encyclopédie Méthodique.'' Paris. {{Historical card games 18th-century card games French card games French deck card games