Trekort, Tre-Kort or, in Swedish, also Trikort, is an old card game of Danish origin for four or five players that was usually played for money. It was also known in Sweden, where it developed into the variant of

Knack Knack or The Knack may refer to: Music and entertainment * The Knack, an American pop-rock band famous for their hit "My Sharona" * The Knack (1960s US band), an American garage rock band active in the 1960s * The Knack (UK band), a British freakb ...

. The name Trekort is also loosely used to describe related three-card games such as Swedish Köpknack. The name means "three cards" and may therefore be related to German

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 ...

History

The rules of Trekort are first recorded in a short Danish games compendium in 1774. They were reprinted with minor changes by Jørgensen in the early decades of the 19th century and followed by other accounts of the same basic rules during the mid-19th century. The game appears to have been popular with farmers and was described as "infamous" as well as rowdy and the reason why card playing was condemned by many as "anything but an innocent pleasure." Sometimes significant amounts of money were wagered and cheating and brawling were not unknown. The game had reached Sweden by 1839 when an identical set of rules to those of Jørgensen (1829) was published that same year in Swedish. It was still current around 1870 as 'Trikort' and appears to have developed since then into the more elaborate variants of

, Köpknack and Svängknack. In Germany, the game went under the name of

or Dreekart, although those names were also given to various other, unrelated, games.

Rules

The following description is based on Kebslein (1774):

Preliminaries

The game is best played by five players. A pack of 36

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 ...

is used, presumably ranking in their natural order,

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

s high. After shuffling well, the dealer offers the cards to the right for cutting and then

deals Deals (previously stylized as ''DEAL$'') was an American chain of discount variety stores owned by Dollar Tree. The chain operated more than 221 stores located in shopping centers, malls (until 2015), and urban areas in 19 states throughout the U ...

to the left, first 2 cards apiece, and then a third card each, before turning the next for

trumps A trump is a playing card which is elevated above its usual rank in trick-taking games. Typically, an entire suit is nominated as a ''trump suit''; these cards then outrank all cards of plain (non-trump) suits. In other contexts, the terms ''tru ...

. Players then examine their cards and, 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 ...

, announce whether they will play or pass. Players that pass return their cards to the

stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...

which is not used.

Play

Although not explicit, it is assumed that players have to

follow suit 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 ...

if able; otherwise may trump or discard as they choose. The rules state that, if there are three or more

active player 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, ...

s, a trump must be led to the first trick, if the player

on lead The following is a glossary of terms used in card games. Besides the terms listed here, there are thousands of common and uncommon slang terms. Terms in this glossary should not be game-specific (e.g. specific to Bridge (card game), Bridge, Hearts ...

has one. Likewise a trump must be led to the second, but if the player leading to the trick has no trumps, he may play any card face down and subsequent players must now play a trump to beat it. Any card may be led to the third and final trick. The highest trump wins; if none are played, the highest card of the

led suit The following is a glossary of terms used in card games. Besides the terms listed here, there are thousands of common and uncommon slang terms. Terms in this glossary should not be game-specific (e.g. specific to Bridge, Hearts, Poker or Rummy) ...

takes the trick. If there are only two

s, the rules are relaxed, the only stipulation being that, once the first trick has been played, a trump ranking from Jack to Ace must be led to the second. If the player on lead has the trump Ace, he must play it; failing that, the trump King.

Settling the score

The dealer pays each trick winner, the amount agreed per trick. The first time an active player fails to take a trick, he must pay a bête equivalent to the stake i.e. value of three tricks. The rules are unclear as to how this works. It is likely that the bête was recorded e.g. on a slate or the table and played for in the next deal. Each subsequent bête is worth the basic stake paid by the dealer plus the amount of the smallest existing bête on the table. The smallest bête is played for first, followed by the others in increasing order.

Variations

Later rules describe the following variations: * 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 ...

of 32 cards was used, but that the Sixes could be added. * More than five players could participate. * The trump Ace must be played to the first trick. * Bêtes were chalked on the table as crossbars on lines radiating towards the player from a circle. * Bêtes increased by the basic stake each time, but were not played for immediately. At an agreed point in the game, the players then played for them in ascending order.

References

Literature

* _ (1847)
''Ny och fullständig svensk spelbok''
Gothenburg: Bonniers. * Kebslein (1774). ''Politiske Spille Regler for de tilladelige og meest brugelige Spii i Vertshusene''. Copenhagen, 28 pp. * Jørgensen, S. A. (1829)
''Nyeste Dansk Spillebog''
Copenhagen. * Schwartz, Martin (1847)
''Nye og fuldstoendig Dansk Spillebog''
Copenhagen. * Christensen, Anders (1908). ''Fynske Bønders Liv I Forrige Aarhundredes Midte'' he Life of Funen Farmers in the Middle of the Last Century Odense: Milo’ske Boghandels. {{trick-taking games Danish card games Multi-player card games 18th-century card games Gambling games Rams group French deck card games