Bouillotte is an 18th-century French

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...

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 ...

of the

Revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

based on

Brelan Brelan ( fro, brelenc) is a famous French vying game with rapidly escalating bets from the seventeenth to nineteenth century, and hence also a name for a card player, gambler or the name of the place where the game was played. The game is quite s ...

, very popular during the 19th century in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and again for some years from 1830. It was also popular in

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The game is regarded as one of the games that influenced the open-card stud variation in

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

.Shamshad Ahmed,
Dictionary Of Games
'' p. 33, Isha Books (2006) The rules continue to be printed in French gaming compendia.

Game

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 ...

pack is used, reduced to twenty cards by removing the sevens, tens and Jacks. When five people play, the Jacks are not removed, and when three play, the queens are taken out as well. The ace is the highest card in play and in cutting. Two packs are usually used, so that while one deck is being used, the other can be shuffled. Counters or chips, as in

, are used. To determine where a person sits, a sequence of cards is taken out of the deck, equal to the number of players (e.g., with 4 players, an ace, king, queen, and nine are taken, etc.) They are shuffled, and each player draws one. The player with the ace chooses where to sit first, etc. First dealer is the player with the king. Before the deal each player "antes" one counter to the pot, after which each, the "age" passing, may "raise" the pot; those not "seeing the raise" being obliged to drop out. Three cards are dealt to each player, and a thirteenth, called the ''retourné'', when four play, turned up. Each player must then bet, call, raise or drop out. When a call is made the hands are shown and the best hand wins. The hands rank as follows: *''Brélan Carré'', four of a kind, one being the ''retourné''. *''Simple Brélan'', three of a kind, ace being high. *''Brélan Favori'', three of a kind, one being the ''retourné''.

Payments

If more than one player has a brélan, the best is one that matches the rank of the turn up (a ''brelan carré'', or "squared-up brelan"). If none matches, that of highest rank wins. Any player with a brelan receives a side-payment of one chip, two if it is a carré, from each opponent. If no player holds a brélan, the hand holding the greatest number of pips wins. All hands are turned face up, including those of players who dropped. The face values of all these cards are totalled for each suit, ace counting 11, court cards 10 and numerals their face value. The "best suit" is the one with the highest visible total, and the player holding the highest card of it wins the pot, provided that he has not previously dropped. If he has, the winner is the player counting the greatest face value of cards in any other suit.

Bouillotte lamp

The game gave rise to the Bouillotte lamp, consisting of one or several

candlestick A candlestick is a device used to hold a candle in place. Candlesticks have a cup or a spike ("pricket") or both to keep the candle in place. Candlesticks are less frequently called "candleholders". Before the proliferation of electricity, candl ...

s with a central standard equipped with a non-flammable adjustable shade. often made of tôle, a painted or lacquered metal, reflective white on the inside, dark on the outside, that could be lowered as the candles burned down.

Footnotes

References

Literature

* Gerver, Frans (2007)

966 Year 966 (Roman numerals, CMLXVI) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * 23 June - Arab-Byzantine Wars, Byzantine-Arab War: Arab-Byzantine ...