The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (92 page)

discarded, face down, to a common wastepile. The player adding

the fifth card to the wastepile scores for the zetema before

discarding it. A zetema of Kings or Queens scores 50, Jacks 20, Aces

or Fives 15, other ranks 5 each.

Combinations Upon drawing a card, a player may show and score

for one of the fol owing combinations:

1. Sequence (scores 20). Six cards in sequence, not al the same

suit. For this purpose, cards run A23456789TJQK.

2. Flush (scores 30). Six cards of the same suit, not al in

sequence.

3. Flush sequence (scores 50). Six cards in suit and sequence.

4. Assembly. Five cards of the same rank. An assembly of Kings

or Queens scores 130, Jacks 120, Aces or Fives 110, other

ranks 100.

Having declared one of the above, the player ends his turn by

discarding one of the declared cards to its appropriate

wastepile.

5. Marriage. A marriage is a King and Queen of the same suit.

They may both come from the hand, or one of them may

come from the hand and be matched to a partner lying in the

appropriate discard pile on the table. Kings and Queens may

be col ected quietly and scored simultaneously – the more at

one time, the bet er. One marriage scores 10, two declared

simultaneously score 30, three 60, four 100, al five 150. If

fewer than five are declared, each marriage in the doubled

suit counts an additional ten. Having declared one or more

marriages, the player discards them face up to the common

wastepile (they do not contribute to zetemas), and restores his

hand to six by drawing from the stock. He does not make any

other discard.

If you draw the marriage-partner of a King or Queen forming part

of a six-card combination already in hand, you may not declare that

combination and the marriage in one turn.

End-game If some players run out of cards before others, they

simply stop playing. The whole game ceases the moment anyone

simply stop playing. The whole game ceases the moment anyone

reaches the target score of 200 or 300, even in mid-play. Otherwise,

it ends, very neatly, when the last zetema has been taken and

turned face down to the wastepile, leaving an otherwise empty

table.

Zetema. South discards the fifth Three, scoring 5 for the zetema. The

draw of a King would give a sequence to score on South’s next turn.

Comment Assemblies original y scored 100, 90, 80, 60; but they are

so dif icult to acquire that even with the revisions quoted above

they are rarely worth aiming for. The exceptional y high scores for

King and Queen zetemas are somewhat academic, as neither of

them can ever be completed if so much as a single marriage is

them can ever be completed if so much as a single marriage is

declared.

10 Queen-Jack games

A further variation on the marriage theme occurs in the European

game of Beziqueand its American counterpart, Pinochle. These tend

to simplify the card-point counters almost out of existence,

replacing them with scores for combinations such as sequences and

quartets, whether as original y dealt, or col ected by drawing from a

stock, or counted by the winner of a trick to which the appropriate

cards were played. Their most significant and amusing feature,

however, is their characteristic parodying of the marriage theme by

the introduction of an extra-marital but high-scoring relationship

between a specified Queen and a Jack of the wrong suit – from the

other side of the tracks, so to speak. French researchers trace this

feature back to an old Limousin game cal ed Besi or Besit, though

the stil popular Provencal game of Marjolethas primitive features

that might make it vie for ancestry.

Bezique

2 players, 2 × 32 cards

He… with a shamed and crimson cheek

Moaned ‘This is harderthan Bezique’

Lewis Carrol , The Three Voices (1869)

Bezique is basical y the name of the two-card combination

consisting of Q and J. There are many theories as to its

meaning. Some derive it from bazzica, the Italian for companion,

others from a supposedly Spanish word for a lit le kiss. Its ancestor

others from a supposedly Spanish word for a lit le kiss. Its ancestor

besi or besit means eye-glasses or spectacles. This is also the

meaning of binocle, from which derives pinochle. In the regional

pat ern of cards first used for this game these two figures were the

only ones depicted in profile, thus exhibiting only one eye apiece,

and so two eyes in combination. There could be a hint of voyeurism

in the whole idea.

In another dialect besi means an immature figure, reminding us that

J appears as trickster or a wild card in other old games like

Reversis, Boston and Guimbarde. This role may be of German

origin, as the German equivalent of diamonds is bel s, and bel s are

traditional y

associated with

fools. (‘Pul the other one…’) His partner, Q, has less of a history,

though exhibiting some significance in cartomancy and her role as

Black Maria. Both together formed a winning combination in Hoc,

the court game of Louis XIV, ‘the Sun King’, at Versail es.

Two-pack Bezique, an improvement on its 32-card ancestor,

became a craze in the Paris clubs of the 1840s. It subsequently

spread through the cultural centres of Europe, was first described in

English in 1861, and soon sprouted larger and more elaborate

forms. Like many elaborate games, it has fal en victim to the ever-

increasing need for speed and simplicity, in this case having been

ousted by the vaguely comparable Gin Rummy. Playing-card

manufacturers stil occasional y produce boxed sets containing the

appropriate number of 32-card packs and special y designed

Bezique markers for keeping score, and those with the time and

inclination to pursue the game wil find themselves wel rewarded

by its depth and variety.