Ramscheln, also called Ramsch, is a German

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 ga ...

for three to five players, which is usually played for small stakes. It is a variant of

Mönch The Mönch (, German: "monk") at is a mountain in the Bernese Alps, in Switzerland. Together with the Eiger and the Jungfrau, it forms a highly recognisable group of mountains, visible from far away. The Mönch lies on the border between the c ...

and a member of the

Rams group Rams is a European trick-taking card game related to Nap and Loo, and may be played by any number of persons not exceeding nine, although five or seven make a good game. In Belgium and France, the game of Rams is also spelt Rammes or Rems, in Ger ...

of card games characterised by allowing players to drop out of the current game if they think they will be unable to win any tricks or a minimum number of tricks.''Card Games: Rams Group''
at www.pagat.com. Retrieved 16 Oct 2018 It should not be confused with ''

Ramsch Ramsch, formerly also called Mike in East Germany, is a card game based on the contract of the same name in the popular German card games, Skat and Schafkopf. However, thanks to its interesting mode of play it has since developed into an independ ...

'', an unofficial contract in Skat, played when everyone passes, in which the aim is not to score the most card points.

History

Ramscheln is clearly related to the Franco-German game of

Rams In engineering, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety)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 o ...

. As early as 1868, Hoyles states that the American game of Rounce "is derived from the German game of Ramsch," and in 1877, a Bavarian dictionary describes ''Ramsch'' as a card game popular with the riffraff. In 1929, Hoyles states that Rams, Bierspiel and Rounce are "all American versions of the old German game Ramsch", the first two using 32 cards, the last-named, 52. It is recorded as early as 1904 in Germany. It was certainly popular in the early 20th century among the

Danube Swabians The Danube Swabians (german: Donauschwaben ) is a collective term for the ethnic German-speaking population who lived in various countries of central-eastern Europe, especially in the Danube River valley, first in the 12th century, and in grea ...

, for example in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

and

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

, where it was played alongside Ziech mariasch by the menfolk during the winter evenings, and the game was brought back to Germany with refugees after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

.Martini, Adam (2003). "Neu Jahr"
in ''Trentoner Donauschwaben'', Vol. 3, Issue 1, Jan-Mar 2003. Retrieved 13 Jan 2013

Cards

Ramscheln is played with 32 cards, traditionally of a

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 ...

, but may also be played with a

Piquet pack Piquet (; ) is an early 16th-century plain-trick card game for two players that became France's national game. David Parlett calls it a "classic game of relatively great antiquity... still one of the most skill-rewarding card games for two" but ...

. The suits are given in the table below. Card ranking is:

Ace An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the c ...

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

/ Ober >

Jack Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas, USA People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, ...

/ Unter > Ten > Nine > Eight > Seven. In many places, the 7 / 7 is the permanent, 2nd-highest trump and outranks all cards except for the trump Ace.

Rules

The following rules for Ramscheln are based on Kastner and Folkvord. The dealer antes five chips to the pot, deals five cards (3+2) to each player and to a

widow A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has died. Terminology The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed ''widowhood''. An archaic term for a widow is "relict," literally "someone left over". This word can so ...

in the middle of the table. The next card is turned as trumps and the rest are placed to one side and are out of play. Players now bid in order, saying whether they will "play" or "pass" or declare a "''ramsch''". Any player, in turn, may pick up the widow in exchange for his hand cards, but must then play. If the pot only contains the basic stake, everyone has to play; no-one may pass i.e. drop out of the current deal. If all pass, the dealer gets five chips from the player on his right. If only one player wants to play, the dealer must also play. The player may, however, exchange the trump upcard for a poorer card from his hand. ''Ramsch'' is an undertaking to win all five tricks and is the equivalent of Rams or Rounce in

Rams In engineering, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety)Tippen Tippen, also known as Dreiblatt, Dreikart, Drei Karten, Dreekort, Kleinpréférence or Labet, is an historical Germany, German 3-card, plain-trick game which was popular as a gambling game for three or more players. The Danish version of the game w ...

Dreiblatt Tippen, also known as Dreiblatt, Dreikart, Drei Karten, Dreekort, Kleinpréférence or Labet, is an historical German 3-card, plain-trick game which was popular as a gambling game for three or more players. The Danish version of the game was known ...

Zwicken Zwicken is an old Austrian and Germany, German card game for 4 to 6 players, which is usually played for small stakes and makes a good party game. It is one of the Rams group of card games characterised by allowing players to drop out of the curre ...

* Mistigri

References

Literature

* Kastner, Hugo and Gerald Kador Folkvord (2005). ''Die große Humboldt-Enzyklopädie der Kartenspiele'', Humboldt, Baden-Baden.

External links

{{Trick-taking card games German card games Gambling games Rams group French deck card games German deck card games Multi-player card games