Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland i ...
ic,
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 ...
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 ...
Voormsi is "reputed to be ancient", possibly dating to the Whaling Period before 1721, between the late 15th century disappearance of the Norse settlement and the arrival of Danish missionaries. During this time, the only contacts with Europeans were with pirates and whalers.
Its rules and terminology strongly suggest that it is descended from the centuries-old German game of Brusbart, now known as
Bruus
Bruus, formerly Brausebart or Brusbart, is a very old north German card game for four players in two teams of two. It was once highly popular but has since died out except for a few pockets in the state of Schleswig-Holstein. As Brusbart, it was th ...
, which was once the national game of Hamburg and which spread across most of northern Europe spawning a family of similar games such as Russian Bruzbart, Polish
Drużbart
Drużbart or Druzbart is an extinct Polish card game of the Bruus family.Smith (1997), pp. 45-51. The game is descended from the oldest known card game in Europe, Karnöffel, a fact testified by its unusual card ranking and lack of a uniform trum ...
, Swedish
Bräus
Bräus (or Brus) is an old Swedish card game from the island of Gotland that differs from all others in that not all cards are actually playable.Smith (1993), pp. 36/37 The game is descended from the oldest known card game in Europe, Karnöffel, ...
, Icelandic
Brús
Brús is a traditional Icelandic card game for four-players using French-suited cards. It is descended via German Brusbart from Karnöffel, Europe's oldest known card game.
History
Brús is described as an old Icelandic game, but its rules a ...
and others. Brusbart in turn descends from
Karnöffel
Karnöffel is a trick-taking card game which probably came from the upper-German language area in Europe in the first quarter of the 15th century. It first appeared listed in a municipal ordinance of Nördlingen, Bavaria, in 1426 among the games ...
, the oldest card game in Europe with a continuous tradition of play down to the present day, a fact testified to by "the wildly disturbed ranking order in the chosen suit and particularly by the special role of the chosen Seven".
Cards
A 36-card,
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 ...
pack is used with the cards A K Q J 9 8 7 6 and 5 in the four suits of Clubs, Spades, Hearts and Diamonds. In addition the K is replaced by the 3. The two, equal-ranking, highest cards or matadors are ''Toqutsit'' ("hangman" or "executioner"), the J, and ''Voormsi'', the K. If both are played to a trick the second one wins. The third
matador
A bullfighter (or matador) is a performer in the activity of bullfighting. ''Torero'' () or ''toureiro'' (), both from Latin ''taurarius'', are the Spanish and Portuguese words for bullfighter and describe all the performers in the activit ...
is the 8. Next in order are the Nines, Aces, remaining Jacks, Sixes, Fives, remaining Eights, Queens and remaining Kings. Within each rank they beat each other in the aforementioned suit order.
The 3 is useless when led, but unbeatable if added to a trick. The Sevens have their usual Brusbart privileges: unbeatable when led except by the 3, a higher Seven or the K. If the K has been led or played on a Seven, it may be beaten by the K, a card that is otherwise useless. This feature appears in
Brus
Brus ( sr-cyr, Брус, ) is a town and municipality located in the Rasina District of southern Serbia. According to the 2011 census, the population of the town is 4,572, while the population of the municipality is 16,293. It is located at above ...
, the Danish member of the Brusbart family. If the 3 is led and a Seven played second, the Seven has the same privileges as if it had been led.
Description
The following description is based on Smith (1998), supplemented by McLeod (2000):''Vorms/Voormsi'' at pagat.com. Retrieved 18 September 2020.
The aim is to score points by winning tricks and by capturing certain high cards. There are four players in two teams of two, the partners sitting opposite one another. Deal and play are clockwise and there are 9 tricks. The playing cutting the lowest card deals first, giving 4 cards to each player. The trick is won by the highest ranking card (subject to the rules above) and the trick winner leads to the next. After each trick, the trick winner replenishes the played cards, followed by the others in order until the stock is exhausted.
The game features double, triple and quadruple tricks whereby the player on lead may play a single card as normal or may lead two, three or four cards of the same rank. The others must play the same number of cards and must beat each of the led cards separately to win the trick, albeit not necessarily with cards of equal rank.
If ''Voormsi'' is played and wins the trick (except as the last card or if ''Toqusit'' has already been played), 1 bonus point is scored and the ''Voormsi'' player shows all hand cards to an opponent to prove ''Toqusit'' was not held. If the opposing team have ''Toqusit'' when ''Voormsi'' is played, they must play it, in which case they win the trick and score 2 bonus points. If a player beats a partner's ''Voormsi'' with ''Toqusit'' they lose all points and the game. Beating ''Voormsi'' with the 3 also earns a bonus point, whoever owned it. Beating ''Toqusit'' when it has just beaten ''Voormsi'' earns 2 points and the ''Toqusit'' bonus is forfeited.
The winning team scores 1 point for taking five tricks plus 1 point for each additional trick taken. Winning the first five tricks earns 2 points, but winning all nine nullifies the deal. Play cannot end while one side has an unbroken sequence of tricks. A team scoring too many points goes bust and incurs penalty points to the value of their overshoot points.
Players draw a ladder to score and erase or tick off one rung on their side of the ladder for each point. Game is nine points. This may be attained simultaneously by both teams e.g. if the trick breaking a sequence gives points to one side while the other's sequence is scored.