Femkort ("Five Cards") is a classic Swedish
card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific.
Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ...
for 3 to 8 players "with an unusual object", known since the 17th century, being mentioned in 1658 in
Georg Stiernhielm
Georg Stiernhielm (August 7, 1598 – April 22, 1672) was a Swedish civil servant, mathematician, linguist and poet.
Life
Stiernhielm was born on the family estate Gammelgården in the village Svartskär in Vika parish in Dalarna where his father ...
's epic poem, ''Hercules'' (''Herkules'') as Fämkort.
[Stiernhielm (1658), line 154.] It is traditionally played with some kind of bet.
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Cards
The game is played with a standard 52-card French-suited
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 ...
pack usually of the Modern Swedish pattern.
Early rules
The following rules are given in an 1847 Swedish games compendium:
Femkort may be played by any number of people. The aim is solely to win the last trick. Everyone places a set stake into the pot or pool before the deal. Each player then receives 5 cards, but no trump is turned. Forehand leads to the first trick and the person who has taken home the trick leads to the next. The first four tricks are worth nothing; however, the one who takes the last trick has won the pot.
Modern rules
There are two to ten players who receive five cards each from a standard 52-card pack
The standard 52-card deck of French-suited playing cards is the most common pack of playing cards used today. In English-speaking countries it is the only traditional pack used for playing cards; in many countries of the world, however, it is used ...
and play for tricks. There are no trumps. Players must follow suit if they can and head the trick if able. The trick is taken by the highest card of the led suit and the winner of a trick leads to the next. Those who win any of the first four tricks play to the last. The winner of the fifth and final trick sweeps the pot.
Variations
* Before the last trick is played, any of the players can request "better cards", and if all agree to this, the cards are redealt.
* If forehand wants better cards, she may ask for a redeal and, if all agree, the cards are redealt.[''Femkort'']
at spelregler.org. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
* The first player to win three deals wins the '' partie''.[
* The first player to win an agreed number of deals, e.g. three, wins the pot.][''Femkort'']
at spelakort.se. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
Footnotes
References
Literature
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* Stiernhielm, Georg (1658). ''Herkules''. Uppsala.
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Swedish card games
Last trick group
17th-century card games
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