Hoc (Hoc Mazarin)

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card order
3. Setup
4. Stage 1: the three prizes
5. Stage 2: the play
6. End of a deal
7. Winning the game
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

Hoc – or Hoc Mazarin, after Cardinal Mazarin, who ruled France for the young Louis XIV and was said to love it – was a fashionable gambling game of 17th-century France. It has two stages. First the players bid for three prizes, as in Poker: the longest suit (point), the best run in one suit (sequence) and the best three or four of a kind (tricon). Then comes the play: you lay cards in rising order on a common pile, suits ignored, and try to be the first to get rid of all your cards. A card that stops a run is a hoc and earns chips; six special cards, the principal hocs, can stop a run whenever their holder likes.

These rules follow the reconstruction by Philippe Lalanne (Le Salon des jeux – Académie des jeux oubliés) from La Maison académique (1654) and the Académie universelle des jeux (1730).

• Players: 2–3, each playing for themselves.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, and chips – 100 per player to start with. Play for chips only.

Card order

In each suit, from high to low: K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 A. The Ace is the lowest card.

For the point, cards count: King, Queen, Jack 10 each, 2 to 10 their number, Ace 1.

Setup

1. Everyone draws a card from the spread deck; the lowest deals. After each deal the deal passes to the right, like everything else.
2. The dealer shuffles, the player on the left cuts, and the dealer deals one card at a time to the right (anticlockwise, as in the French games of the time): 15 cards each with two players, 12 each with three.
3. The rest of the deck stays face down. Nobody may look at it.
4. The player on the dealer's right is first in hand. They speak and play first; everything goes anticlockwise.
5. Stakes: each player puts 3 chips on the table: 1 each into three separate pools – for the point, the sequence and the tricon.

Stage 1: the three prizes

What you bid for

• Point: your longest suit. You declare the number of cards ("six cards"), not the suit. More cards win; with equal length, the higher total value wins (J♠ 8♠ 7♠ A♠ is a point of four worth 26); if still equal, the player nearer to first in hand wins.
• Sequence: three or more cards in a row in one suit: three = tierce, four = quart, five = quint; a longer run counts only as a quint. You declare only your best. A longer sequence wins; with equal length, the one with the higher top card; then the player nearer to first in hand. A sequence headed by the King is major.
• Tricon: three or four cards of one rank: three of a kind or four of a kind. Four beats three; with equal size, the higher rank wins (Kings highest, Aces lowest) – there can be no tie. Kings are major.

Bidding

The three prizes are settled one after the other: first the point, then the sequence, then the tricon. Each time, first in hand starts and has three choices:

• Declare: say what you hold ("six cards"). This ends any bidding: the others in turn must declare too, or say "good" if they can't beat what has been declared.
• Raise: put one or more extra chips on the table (at most 20 more than the last bet).
• Pass: the next player has the same three choices.

Once someone has raised, each following player may call (put in as many chips as the highest bet so far), raise again (call and add more), or pass. A player who passed before the first raise may come back in when their turn comes; a player who passes after a raise is out of this prize and loses the chips they have bet on it. You may not raise your own raise: if nobody raises after you, the bidding ends.

• One player left: they win this prize without showing their cards.
• Several left: starting with first in hand, they declare what they hold; the best wins and must show it.
• All pass: nobody wins this prize; its pool stays for the next deal.
• Nothing to show: if everybody bluffed and nobody holds a valid combination, the player nearest to first in hand wins the prize.

Payments

• The winner of each prize takes its pool and all chips bet on it.
• Sequence and tricon also earn a bonus from every other player, even those who passed – but only if the winner shows them. The winner may also show and be paid for smaller combinations of the same kind:

• Double game: if a prize was not won in the last deal, its pool now holds twice the stake, and all its bonuses are doubled.
• Carte blanche: after the three prizes, a player with no King, Queen or Jack may say so and show their hand. Every other player pays them 10 chips. If two players have carte blanche, neither is paid.

Example: three players. Anna is first in hand, then Ben, then Carla. For the point, Anna passes. Ben raises 2 chips. Carla calls 2, and Anna, who passed before the raise, calls 2 as well. Nobody raises again, so they declare. Anna: "Six cards." Ben: "Seven cards." Carla: "Good." Ben shows his seven spades and takes the point pool (3 chips) and the 6 chips bet.

Stage 2: the play

1. First in hand lays any card face up in the middle and says its rank. If they have the next higher card (any suit), they must play it on top, and so on, as far as they can. Then they say, for example, "7 without 8".
2. The next player (anticlockwise) continues the run if they can, as far as they can, or says "without 8" and passes.
3. If nobody can continue, the run is stuck. The player who laid the last card calls "hoc!" and starts a new run with any card they like.
4. You must play if you can. If you say you lack a card you hold and the others notice, you pay 5 chips to each of them. The principal hocs are the exception (see below).

Hocs

• Accidental hoc: the last card of a run that nobody can continue. Whoever laid it calls "hoc!" as they start a new run.
• Principal hocs: the four Kings, the Q♠ and the J♦. You never have to play them in their place: holding a King, you may still say "Queen without King". On your turn you may lay a principal hoc whenever you like – in its own place or in place of any card you are missing – call "hoc!" and start a new run with any card.

Each time a player calls "hoc!", every other player pays them 1 chip.

Example: Anna lays 6 and 7: "7 without 8." Ben has no 8: "Without 8." Carla lays 8, 9, 10: "10 without Jack." Nobody has a Jack, so Carla calls "hoc!", collects 1 chip from each and starts again with a 2. Later Ben is stuck at "without 5"; he lays the Q♠ instead, calls "hoc!", collects 1 chip from each and starts a new run.

End of a deal

The deal ends as soon as one player has laid their last card. Every other player pays them according to the cards left in hand:

Example: Carla goes out. Anna has 2 cards left and pays 4 chips; Ben has 10 cards left and pays 20.

Winning the game

Play a number of deals agreed beforehand, so that everyone deals equally often. Whoever has gained the most chips wins.

Tips for beginners

• The bidding tells you a lot about the other hands: someone who raised on the point holds a long suit, and that suit will shape the play.
• Keep your principal hocs for when you are stuck – but don't keep too many cards to the end.
• Note the odd pay-off table: 3 cards left cost less than 1 or 2, and 10 cards cost far more than 9. Lalanne suggests keeping the backs of your hand visible so that everyone can count the others' cards.
• Bluffing works: raise on a weak hand, and the others may pass and leave the pool to you without seeing your cards.

Variants

Optional – agree before you start.

• Triple game: Lalanne suggests that a prize nobody wins twice in a row should pay triple the next time. The old rules don't mention it.