Misère ( French for "destitution"), misere, nullo, bettel, betl, or (

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for "

beggar Begging (also known in North America as panhandling) is the practice of imploring others to grant a favor, often a gift of money, with little or no expectation of reciprocation. A person doing such is called a beggar or panhandler. Beggars m ...

"; equivalent terms in other languages include , and ) is a bid in various

card game A card game is any game that uses playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, whether the cards are of a traditional design or specifically created for the game (proprietary). Countless card games exist, including famil ...

s, and the player who bids misère undertakes to win no tricks or as few as possible, usually at no

trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

, in the round to be played. This does not allow sufficient variety to constitute a game in its own right, but it is the basis of such trick-avoidance games as Hearts, and provides an optional contract for most games involving an

auction An auction is usually a process of Trade, buying and selling Good (economics), goods or Service (economics), services by offering them up for Bidding, bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from th ...

. The term or category may also be used for some card game of its own with the same aim, like Black Peter. A misère bid usually indicates an extremely poor hand, hence the name. An open or lay down misère, or misère ouvert is a

500 500 may refer to: * 500 (number) * 500 BC * AD 500 Buildings and places * 500 Boylston Street in Boston * 500 Brickell in Miami * 500 Capitol Mall in Sacramento * 500 Fifth Avenue * 500 Renaissance Center, one of seven buildings in the GM ...

bid where the player is so sure of losing every trick that they undertake to do so with their cards placed face-up on the table. Consequently, 'lay down misère' is Australian gambling slang for a predicted easy victory. In Skat, the bidding can result in a null game, where the bidder wins only if they lose every trick. (Conversely, the opponents win by forcing the bidder to take a trick.) In Swedish Whist, by contrast, a null game is one in which both teams try to take the fewest tricks. This variation is known as ramsch in Skat. In Spades, bidding for no tricks is known as bidding nil, which if successful gives the bidder a bonus. The word is first recorded in this sense in the rules for the game "

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" in the late 18th century. It cannot be played in 6 hand 500.

Misère game

A ''misère game'' or ''bettel game'' is a game that is played according to its conventional rules, except that it is "played to lose"; that is, the winner is the one who loses according to the normal game rules. Or, if the game is for more than two players, the one who wins according to the normal game rules loses. Such games generally have rulesets that normally encourage players to win; for example, most variations of

checkers Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), is a group of Abstract strategy game, strategy board games for two players which involve forward movements of uniform game ...

(draughts) require players to make a capture move if it is available; thus, in the misère variation, players can force their opponents to take numerous checkers through intentionally "poor" play. In

combinatorial game theory Combinatorial game theory is a branch of mathematics and theoretical computer science that typically studies sequential games with perfect information. Research in this field has primarily focused on two-player games in which a ''position'' ev ...

, a misère game is one played according to the "misère play condition"; that is, a player unable to move wins.
Revised and reprinted as: (This is in contrast to the "normal play condition" in which a player unable to move loses.) Examples of games that use the misère play condition include Sylver coinage.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Misere Board game terminology Card game terminology Combinatorial game theory *Misere

Misère game

See also

References