Imperial (Impériale)

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Two orders of the cards
3. Setup
4. Counters and imperials
5. 1. The turn-up
6. 2. Imperials in hand
7. 3. The point
8. 4. Playing the tricks
9. 5. After the tricks
10. Winning the game
11. Tips for beginners
12. Variants

Overview

Imperial (French Impériale) is an old French game for two, a close cousin of Piquet: you declare your longest suit and your best card combinations, then play twelve tricks – but unlike Piquet, there is a trump suit, and there is no exchange of cards. Everything you score is counted in counters; six counters make an imperial, and certain combinations earn imperials at once. Whenever you gain an imperial, your opponent loses all their counters. The first to five imperials wins.

The rules here follow the Académie universelle des jeux (1725 and later editions), as set out by Philippe Lalanne on the French site Le Salon des jeux, who adds the bonus for a hand without face cards that Rémond de Montmort recorded in 1708. Differences in Foster's Complete Hoyle (first published 1897) are listed under Variants.

• Players: 2 (3 with a slightly larger deck – see Variants).
• You need: a standard deck with all cards from 2 to 6 removed (32 cards: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 in each suit), 5 small chips per player as counters, and paper and pencil for the imperials.

Two orders of the cards

Imperial uses two different card orders:

• For declaring (point and combinations), as in Piquet: A K Q J 10 9 8 7.
• In the tricks, the Ace drops below the Jack: K Q J A 10 9 8 7.

A trick is one round in which each player plays one card; the best card wins it. Trumps are the cards of one suit chosen for each deal: any trump beats any card of another suit.

The honours are five trumps: the Ace, King, Queen, Jack and 7 of trumps – the four highest and the lowest.

Setup

1. Each player cuts; the higher card deals first (Ace high). After that, take turns to deal. The non-dealer is elder hand.
2. The dealer shuffles, elder cuts, and the dealer deals 12 cards each, three or four at a time (keep to the same way all game).
3. The dealer turns up the 25th card and lays it face up on the 7 remaining cards. Its suit is trumps. The other 7 cards are not used in this deal.

Counters and imperials

• A counter (in the old books, 4 points) is scored for the turned-up honour, for the point, for each honour won in tricks and for each trick over six. Take a chip for each one.
• When you have 6 counters, hand them back and write down one imperial.
• Whenever you gain an imperial – in any way – your opponent must hand back all their counters. Imperials themselves are never lost.

1. The turn-up

If the turned-up card is an honour (A, K, Q, J or 7), the dealer scores 1 counter at once.

2. Imperials in hand

Now, elder first, each player shows and scores any of these combinations. They must be shown before the point (step 3) is settled, or they don't count.

Both players may score; there is no comparing. If anyone has carte blanche, the deal is not played: score the imperials in hand, and the next player deals.

Example: Anna holds ♠ A K Q J and four 7s – spades are not trumps. She shows both and scores 2 imperials. Ben had 3 counters; they go back.

3. The point

Your point is your longest suit. Elder says how many cards it has ("five"). The dealer answers "good" (elder wins), "not good" (the dealer's is longer) or "equal". If equal, both add up the card values of that suit – Ace 11, King, Queen and Jack 10, other cards their number – and the higher total wins. If still equal, elder wins. The point is worth 1 counter.

4. Playing the tricks

Elder leads to the first trick; after that, the winner of each trick leads. Remember: in play the order is K Q J A 10 9 8 7.

• You must follow suit if you can, and you must beat the card led if you can.
• If you can't follow suit, you must play a trump if you have one.
• Only if you can do neither may you play any card.

The highest trump wins the trick; if there is none, the highest card of the suit led.

Example: Clubs are trumps. Anna leads the J♥. Ben holds K♥, A♥ and 8♥: he must follow suit and beat the Jack, so he has to play the K♥ – the A♥ ranks below the Jack in play.

5. After the tricks

Score in this order:

1. Honours: for each honour of trumps in the tricks you won, 1 counter.
2. Tricks: for each trick you won over six, 1 counter (7 tricks = 1, 8 tricks = 2 …).
3. Capot: if you won all twelve tricks, score 2 imperials instead of the counters for tricks.

Example: Hearts are trumps. Ben has 4 counters, Anna 2. Ben wins 8 tricks containing the K♥ and the 7♥: 2 counters for honours make 6, so he takes an imperial and Anna's 2 counters go back. Then he scores 2 more counters for his two tricks over six.

Winning the game

The first player to reach 5 imperials wins – even in the middle of a deal. The order of scoring decides who gets there first: turn-up, imperials in hand, point, honours, tricks.

Tips for beginners

• Watch the Ace in play. It is the top card for your point and your A K Q J, but in the tricks it ranks below the Jack.
• Wipe out counters. An imperial also erases your opponent's counters – when they have 5, an imperial of yours is worth double.
• Hunt the honours. Each honour in your tricks is a counter; lead trumps to catch the 7 or the Jack.
• Count to seven. Only tricks over six score, so a close deal gives nothing for tricks.

Variants

Optional – agree before you start.

• Three players: add the 6s (36 cards). Deal 12 each; the dealer shows the last card dealt to himself, and its suit is trumps. The 6 replaces the 7 as honour and in four of a kind, and tricks over four score. According to Lalanne, this was the only form in the 17th-century books; from 1718 the Académie recommended the game for two.
• Imperial of the turn-up: if the turned-up card completes the dealer's A K Q J or four of a kind, the dealer scores 1 imperial (never two).
• Imperial won in play: whoever captures the A, K, Q and J of trumps in their tricks scores 1 imperial after the last trick.
• Foster's scoring: the winner of more tricks scores a counter for each trick more than the opponent (7 to 5 = 2), and carte blanche is one imperial ("sometimes marked as a double").