Kontraspiel, also called Contra, is a German 5-card

plain-trick game A trick-taking game is a card or tile-based game in which play of a '' hand'' centers on a series of finite rounds or units of play, called ''tricks'', which are each evaluated to determine a winner or ''taker'' of that trick. The object of such ...

for four individual players using 24 cards.

Eldest hand Card players are those participating in a card game. Various names are given to card players based on their role or position. Position Games of Anglo-American origin In games of Anglo-American origin played in English-speaking countries, ...

has the first right to accept or make trumps. The Unters of Acorns and

Leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

(the equivalent of the two black Jacks) are permanent highest trumps, the ''Wenzels''. Kontraspiel is similar to the Scandinavian game

Polskpas Polskpas, Polsk Pas, or Polskt Pass is a Scandinavian 5-card plain-trick game for four individual players using 24 cards. Eldest hand has the first right to accept or make trumps. As is typical for Schafkopf card games, which are normally poin ...

and is recorded as early as 1811.

History

The earliest mention of Contra appears in a list of games in a 1755 poem. In 1773 it is described as one of the games played with "German cards" i.e. a 32-card

German-suited pack German-suited playing cards are a very common style of traditional playing card used in many parts of Central Europe characterised by 32- or 36-card packs with the suits of Acorns (''Eichel'' or ''Kreuz''), Leaves (''Grün'', ''Blatt'', ''Laub ...

, and, in 1786 it was reported that, along with Trischaken, it was a very popular game among the peasants in German-speaking lands.Cella, Johann Jakob
''Freymüthige Aufsätze''
Vol. 3. Anspach: Benedikt Friedrich Haueisens, p. 161 The earliest rules appeared in the same 1773 source under a separate entry, but the first comprehensive account is given in Hammer's 1811 edition of ''Die deutschen Kartenspiele''. and then re-surfaces from 1853 to 1879 in various German games compendia. It may be an elaboration of

. Having the two black jacks is reminiscent of

Euchre Euchre or eucre () is a trick-taking card game commonly played in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Great Britain, and the United States. It is played with a deck of 24, 28, or 32 standard playing cards. Normally there are four players, two on e ...

Card ranking

Tens are low. The two ''Wenzels'' are the highest members of the trump suit, with the U ranking higher than the U. A ''Wenzel'' is not part of its natural suit unless this happens to be the trump suit. If the trump suit is either Hearts or Bells there are 8 trumps. Otherwise there are only seven trumps.

Basic concept

There are four players. Each one receives 5 cards in batches of 2–3 or 3–2. The remaining 4 cards are not used in the game, except for the first of them, which is turned face-up to determine the preferred trump suit. The actual trump suit is decided in a negotiation phase described in the next section. The standard rules of trick-play as in

Whist Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game which was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the rules are simple, there is scope for strategic play. History Whist is a descendant of the 16th-century game of ''trump'' ...

apply. Eldest hand leads to the first trick. Suit must be followed. The player who played the highest trump, or the highest card of the suit led, wins the trick and leads to the next. To win the game one must win 3 tricks. To make sure that there is always a winner, it is also enough to be the first player to win 2 tricks, so long as the other tricks do not all fall to the same player. A player who does not win a single trick is said to be ''revolted''. A player who wins all 5 tricks is said to make the ''match''.

Soloist, contra and recontra

Starting with eldest hand, each player gets the chance to become soloist with the preferred suit as trumps. If everybody passes, there is a second round in which each player gets the chance to become soloist with a different suit. In the second round, eldest hand is the only player who is allowed to do this with the preferred suit. If the second round fails as well, the game is not played and the next dealer deals. In the event that the turn-up card is a ''Wenzel'', the dealer automatically becomes soloist with the card's natural suit as trumps. In this case the dealer takes up the card and discards another card face-down to get his or her hand down to 5 cards. If the turn-up card is an Ace and the dealer has not yet looked at his or her hand, then he or she can choose whether to follow the procedure just described for Wenzels. However, if the player has once chosen to take up the game in this situation, automatically does so. This tacit agreement is ended in case it causes the dealer to be revolted. Under certain conditions another player may ''announce match'', replace the original soloist, and determine a new trump suit: * There is already a soloist. * The soloist did not become soloist by taking up a ''Wenzel'' or Ace turn-up card before looking at his or her cards. * No card has been played yet. A player who announces match must choose a trump suit other than the preferred suit. At any time before the second trick has been started, any player other than the soloist may announce ''contra''. If all of the following conditions are satisfied, the contrarian is allowed to replace one of his or her hand cards by the turn-up card: * The first trick has not been started yet. * The turn-up card has not been taken up yet. * The soloist has taken the game during the first round. In particular, if the dealer initially passed and then chose to take the game in the second round in the preferred suit, then the turn-up card even is in the trump suit but the contrarian may not take it. This is an incentive for the dealer to pass in the first round. If contra has been announced, then at any time before the third trick has been started, a third player may announce ''recontra''. This can occur in practice when such a third player has been surprised by winning the first two tricks and is sure that no other player will win two tricks.

Scoring

The game is played for money and uses a pot for the stakes. The dealer pays one unit into the pot before the game starts. The base value of any game is as much as the pot contained before the game, but at least one unit and at most four units. Every soloist, contra player or recontra player receives or pays the base value from or to the pot, depending on whether the player won or lost. In the event that a player wins unexpectedly, without being the soloist, contra player or recontra player, the player receives nothing but the soloist and any contra or recontra player must still pay. Additional side-payments are made in case a soloist matches or a soloist, contra player or recontra player is revolted. * A soloist who makes the match receives one unit from every opponent. * A soloist, contra or recontra player who is revolted pays one unit to every opponent. In either case the amount is doubled if the preferred trump suit was played. In the first case the amount is also doubled if the match was announced. Moreover, a player who announced match but did not make it pays two units to every opponent. Such a player may still have won or lost the game in the normal way. The player is only treated differently from a normal soloist for the purposes of the side-payments.

Variations

* The ''Wenzels'' are treated in the same way as aces when turned up, i.e. the dealer can (consistently) choose whether to take up such games or not.

References

Literature

*_ (1880). ''Buch der Spiele und Rätsel'', pp. 56ff. * * * * * _ (1773). ''Nutzbares, galantes und curiöses Frauenzimmer-Lexicon''. Leipzig: Gleditsch. {{Historical card games German card games Four-player card games Rams group French deck card games German deck card games