Sticheln is an easy-to-learn,

trick-taking 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 g ...

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 4 players that originated from

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 ...

. It is an old game, being recorded as early as 1756 and its rules being first described in 1830.Tendler (1830), p. 211. The name means "playing ortricks".

Description

Sticheln has been described as "a very simple card game, which does not need exceptional mental agility to learn quickly - perhaps the reason why it counts so many friends." It is similar to

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'' ...

, but played individually rather than in teams, using a shortened pack and a different scoring system. It is a 4-hander and is played either with a

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 ...

Piquet 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 ...

deck or

German playing cards 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 suit (cards), suits of Acorns (suit), Acorns (''Eichel'' or ''Kreuz''), Leaves (s ...

. Cards rank in their natural order: Ace/Sow, King, Queen/Ober, Jack/Unter, Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven. After cutting the pack to decide on the seating order and dealer will be, the dealer pays eight chips or coins to the pot. He then shuffles the pack and the player to his left cuts it. The bottom card of the top packet is turned as trumps – it belongs to the dealer – then each player is dealt eight cards in two packets of four in anti-clockwise order.

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 ...

leads to the first trick. Thereafter the trick winner leads to the next one. Players must follow suit, trump if unable, or play any card if they cannot follow or trump. Players must head the trick if possible. For each trick won, players receive one chip or coin from the pot. Forehand becomes the new dealer and pays his eight chips to the pot. The game continues either for a pre-agreed number of rounds (each round being 4 deals) or when one player reaches an agreed number of chips.

Other games called Sticheln

The name, Sticheln was also given to an unrelated game which was an historical variant of the gambling game,

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 ...

. In 1993, a new game marketed as Sticheln was launched in Germany. It used proprietary cards and bore no resemblance to the original game of the same name.''Tricked-Out!''
at islaythedragon.com. Retrieved 31 Oct 2018

References

Literature

* _ (1756)
''Die Kunst die Welt erlaubt mitzunehmen in den verschiedenen Arten der Spiele''
Volume 2, Georg Bauer, Nuremberg. * _ (1839)
''Freut euch des Lebens! Oder: Wollen wir lachen und fröhlich seyn?''
Vol. 5, Mausberger, Vienna, p. 22. * Bauer, Georg (1769)
''Die Kunst die Welt erlaubt mitzunehmen in den verschiedenen Arten der Spiele''
Volume 2, Joh. Eberhard Zeh, Nuremberg. * Tendler, Franz (1830)
''Verstand und Glück im Bunde. Ein theoretisch-practisches Spielbuch.''
Sollinger, Vienna. * Tendler, Franz (1846
''Allgemeines Karten-Spielbuch''
2nd edn., Tendler, Vienna, p. 276. * von Lützenau, Alois Edler (1846)
''Handbuch der Gesetze und Verordnungen''
Vol. 2. Vienna: Carl Ueberreuter. {{Historical card games Austrian card games German deck card games Four-player card games Plain-trick games 18th-century card games