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Historical games
Games that were famous once and are hardly played today – the ancestors of Poker, Bridge, Hearts and Cribbage. Their rules still work.
- Loo (Lanterloo) Stand, pass or take the miss – Jane Austen's gambling game, where one trick saves you and none gets you looed.
- Mouche Five cards, a basket of chips and a poker face – hold five of a suit and you take the lot before a card is played.
- Polignac Keep your hands off the Jacks – above all the Jack of Spades, named after a hated French minister of 1830.
- Monte Bank Two cards from the bottom, two from the top – then the gate shows its suit. The Mexican banking game of the California gold fields.
- Lansquenet Two cards on the table, then turn until one of them is matched – the mercenaries' banking game that Rabelais and Dumas knew.
- Farmer Bid for the farm, then hope nobody draws exactly 16 – the old French banking game of drawing to a number, a century before Twenty-One.
- Speculation Nobody looks at their cards – you buy and sell them instead. The noisy round game from Jane Austen's Mansfield Park.
- Commerce Trade with the banker or barter with your neighbour until someone knocks – the old game of tricons and points, probably the ancestor of Schwimmen.
- Primero (Primiera) Shakespeare's gambling game – four cards, sevens worth 21, and one card of each suit to win the pot.
- Bouillotte (Brelan) The salon game of revolutionary Paris – three cards, one turned card, and your opponents' cards can win the pot for you.
- Ambigu Four cards, two draws and a price on every combination – Louis XIV's "mixed" game, the old French cousin of draw poker.
- Put The English tavern game of ill repute – three cards, Threes beat Aces, and one word, "Put!", can win the whole game.
- Maw King James's favourite game – five cards, five tricks, and the five of trumps, the "five fingers", beats everything.
- Gleek Tudor England's game for three – buy the stock, vie for the ruff, show your gleeks, then fight for Tib and Tiddy in the tricks.
- Imperial (Impériale) Piquet with a trump suit – declare your point and your imperials, then fight for the honours, and wipe out your rival's score.
- Quadrille The 18th century's most fashionable game – call a King to find a secret partner, or play alone with Spadille, Manille and Basto.
- Reversis The grandfather of Hearts – dodge the Aces and face cards, slip the Jack of Hearts onto another suit, or win every trick for the reversis.
- Losing Lodam The 17th-century ancestor of Hearts – dodge the Aces and Tens, and hope your neighbours forget which suit is trumps.
- Catch the Ten (Scotch Whist) Edinburgh's old favourite – the Jack of trumps is top dog, and the whole table hunts the Ten of trumps.
- Drogue The French soldiers' game of the 1830s – lose, and you wear a wooden peg on your nose until you win it off again.
- Penneech A 17th-century game for two where the trump suit changes with every trick – and the 7 of diamonds beats every other diamond.
- Vint Turn the screw of the auction, play without a dummy, score for every trick and honour – Russia's bridge before bridge.
- Noddy (Knave Noddy) Cribbage before the crib – three cards each, fifteens, pairs and runs, and a Jack called Noddy. The race is only to 31.
- Laugh and Lie Down Pair your cards with those on the table until you can't – then lie down while the others laugh. A Tudor game for five.
- Comet Run the cards up to the King in one long tail, call "without" when you're stuck – and keep the wild Comet for the moment it counts.
- Hoc (Hoc Mazarin) Bid and bluff for point, sequence and three of a kind, then race to shed your cards – Cardinal Mazarin's game, with six hocs that stop everything.