Schnalzen is an
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n
card game for 4 players and a member of the
Rams group of games in which the key feature is that players may choose to drop out of the game if they believe their hand is not strong enough to take a minimum number of tricks. It is, broadly speaking,
Ramsen with the ''
Weli'' as the second-highest
trump. Players are dealt 5 cards and may not exchange. The
Weli is the second-highest trump and game is 20 points.
Distribution
Schnalzen is played in the Austrian states of
Salzburg
Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872.
The town is on the site of the ...
,
Carinthia
Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...
,
Burgenland and the
Styria
Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...
. It has also gained a following in
Barwedel
Barwedel is a municipality in the district of Gifhorn, in Lower Saxony, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, a ...
near
Brunswick in Germany, having been brought there from Austria.
Rules
The following rules are based on the game as played in
Großgmain
Großgmain is a municipality in the district of Salzburg-Umgebung in the state of Salzburg in Austria.
Geography
Großgmain lies in the Salzburg ''Flachgau'' region in the northern foothills of the Untersberg massif, directly on the border with B ...
in Salzburg state.
Aim
The aim of Schnalzen is to win tricks in order to be the first to get one's score from 20 down to zero.
Cards
Schnalzen is played with a
Double German (William Tell) pack comprising 4 suits -
Acorns,
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 ...
,
Hearts and
Bells - and 33 cards, ranking as follows:
Sow (Deuce or Ace) >
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 ...
>
Ober
Ober may refer to:
* '' Ober'', a 2006 Dutch black comedy film
* Ober (playing card), a playing card value in the German and Swiss decks of cards
* Ober, Indiana, an unincorporated community
* Oberek, a Polish dance
Surname
* Bailey Ober (born ...
>
Unter
Unter (German, 'under', 'below' or 'among') may refer to:
* Unter (playing card), the Jack card in German and Swiss-suited playing cards
* Unter Null, stage name of Erica Dunham, an American musician
See also
*
* Über (disambiguation), the a ...
> Ten > Nine > Eight > Seven, plus the 6, the ''
Weli'', which is always the second-highest
trump card after the Trump Sow.
Playing
Schnalzen is usually played by 4 players who each start with a score of 20 (penalty) points (''
traf-unkte'').
Dealing
The dealer deals a packet of 3 cards to each player in turn, turns the next face up for trumps and then deals another packet of 2 cards to each player.
If the trump is a Ten, everyone has to play (''mitgehen'').
Staying at home
Beginning with
forehand
The forehand in tennis and other racket sports such as table tennis, squash and badminton is a shot made by swinging the racket across one's body with the hand moving palm-first. In tennis, except in the context of the phrase ''forehand volley ...
, each player, in clockwise order, now elects to either to 'play' or to 'stay at home' (''daheimbleiben'') i.e. to drop out of the current deal; in which case they receive an additional penalty point.
The dealer may not step out; other players may do so if they have more than 5 points left, in which case only 1 plus point is added to their score.
Trick-taking and scoring
Each trick taken counts as one point off the score. Winning all the tricks is rewarded with a deduction of 10 points and the others must add 10 penalty points to their score. If a player plays, but fails to take any tricks, he is 'whipped' (''geschnalzt'', hence the name of the game) and incurs an additional 10 penalty points.
The winner is the first player to reach zero points first. The remaining players then pay out an amount corresponding to their respective points difference.
Zwanzgerln
According to Geiser, Zwanzgerln, a game played in
Eugendorf in Salzburg, may be synonymous with Schnalzen.
Zwanzig ab
Zwanzig ab is a similar game, possibly a recent, internet-based derivative, played without the
Weli using
French-suited cards
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 ...
and with additional rules such as exchanging.
Zwanzig ab!
at www.allekartenspiele.de. Retrieved 28 Nov 2018
References
Literature
*
{{Trick-taking card games
Rams group
Austrian card games
Bavarian card games
German deck card games
Four-player card games