Loo (Lanterloo)

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. Stand, take the miss or pass
5. Playing the tricks
6. Paying out
7. Winning the game
8. Five-card Loo (Pam Loo)
9. Tips for beginners
10. Variants

Overview

Loo was England's great gambling game from the late 17th to the 19th century. It is the game the whole party is playing when Elizabeth Bennet comes downstairs in Pride and Prejudice. A pot of chips lies in the middle (old books call it the pool). You are dealt 3 cards, and each trick you win earns you one third of the pot. If you play and win no trick, you are looed: you pay into the pot for the next deal. You may drop out instead, or swap your hand for a spare one, the miss.

This page gives three-card Loo, the standard game of the late 19th century, and then five-card Loo with its famous top card Pam, the Jack of Clubs. Loo is hardly played any more. Its living relative is the Italian Bestia; its French ancestor is Mouche.

• Players: 3–10; best with 5–7. Everyone plays for themselves.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers and chips (or counters) – about 60 per player. Play for chips only.

The cards

The cards rank as usual, from high to low: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2.

A trick is one round in which every player who is in the deal plays one card; the best card wins it. Trumps are the cards of one suit that beat every card of the other suits in this deal.

Setup

1. First dealer: everyone cuts; the lowest card deals (Ace counts low). After each deal, the deal passes to the left. Dealing and play go clockwise.
2. The pot: before every deal, the dealer puts 3 chips into the pot. If the pot holds only these 3 chips, it is a single pot. If chips are left over from the last deal, it is a double pot.
3. Deal: the dealer shuffles, the player on the right cuts, and the dealer deals 3 cards one at a time to each player, starting on the left – and also to an extra hand in the middle, the miss.
4. Trumps: the dealer turns up the next card. Its suit is trumps for this deal. The rest of the cards are not used.

Stand, take the miss or pass

Single pot (only the dealer's 3 chips): everyone must play. Only the player on the dealer's left may swap their hand for the miss.

Double pot: starting on the dealer's left, each player looks at their cards and announces one of three things:

• Stand: you play with your own three cards.
• Take the miss: you throw in your hand face down and take the miss instead, without seeing it first. Only the first player who asks may take it, and you must then play, however bad it is.
• Pass: you throw in your cards. You can't win anything, but you can't be looed either.

You may not look at your cards until it is your turn to announce, and you can't change your mind. Special cases for the dealer, who announces last:

• Everyone else passed: the dealer takes the whole pot without playing.
• Only one other player stood with their own cards: the dealer may not pass. They stand, take the miss, or defend the pot: they play with the miss but neither win nor pay anything. The other player takes a third of the pot for each trick; the rest stays in the pot.
• Only one other player took the miss: the dealer either plays (the two play it out) or passes – then that player takes the whole pot.

Playing the tricks

The first active player on the dealer's left leads. Going clockwise, every player still in plays one card. The rules are strict – you must try to win every trick:

• Leading: if you have a trump, you must lead one. If you have the Ace of trumps – or the King of trumps when the Ace was turned up – you must lead it.
• Follow suit if you can, and beat the highest card in the trick if you can.
• If you can't follow suit, you must trump – and overtrump if a trump is already in the trick. Only if you can't beat the trick at all may you play any card.

The highest trump wins the trick; if no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led wins. The winner leads to the next trick. Traditionally nobody gathers the tricks: each player leaves their played cards face up in front of them.

Example: Hearts are trumps. Anna leads her only trump, the 6♥. Ben has the 9♥ and the Q♥ – he must beat the 6♥, and plays the 9♥. Carla has no hearts, so she plays any card, the 2♣. Ben wins the trick and must lead a trump next: the Q♥.

Paying out

• Every trick is worth one third of the pot.
• Anyone who played and won no trick is looed: they pay 3 chips into the pot for the next deal. The next dealer adds 3 more, so the next pot is a double.

Example: Emil deals and puts in 3 chips. With 6 chips from the last deal, the pot holds 9. Anna passes, Ben takes the miss, Carla stands, Dan passes and Emil stands. Carla wins two tricks (6 chips) and Emil one (3 chips). Ben is looed and pays 3 chips. The next pot starts with Ben's 3 chips plus the new dealer's 3.

Winning the game

There is no fixed end. Everyone should deal the same number of times; if the last deal of the round leaves chips in the pot because someone was looed, play on until a deal ends with nobody looed. Whoever has gained the most chips wins.

Five-card Loo (Pam Loo)

Five-card Loo was the more popular form in the 18th century. It is best with 4–7 players (with more, the stock is too small for exchanges) and follows the three-card game, with these differences:

• Pam: the Jack of Clubs, called Pam, is always the highest trump, whatever suit is trumps. It beats even the Ace of trumps.
• Deal: the dealer puts 5 chips into the pot and deals 5 cards to each player, in packets of 3 and 2. There is no miss. The next card is turned up for trumps.
• Stand or pass: in turn from the dealer's left, each player stands or passes. If all pass, the dealer takes the pot; if only one player stands, that player takes it.
• Exchange: each player who stood may throw away any number of cards, 0 to 5, and draw the same number from the stock. After exchanging, you can't drop out.
• Flush: five cards of one suit, or four of one suit plus Pam. Whoever holds the best flush – dealt or drawn – looes the board: they take the whole pot without play, and every other player who stood is looed, except those holding Pam or a weaker flush. A flush with Pam beats a trump flush, which beats a flush in another suit. Between two plain-suit flushes, the higher top card wins.
• Pam be civil: when you lead the Ace of trumps, you may say "Pam, be civil!". The holder of Pam may then not play it to this trick, unless it is their only trump. When Pam is led, everyone must play a trump if they can.
• Paying out: each trick is worth one fifth of the pot. Anyone who stood and won no trick is looed and pays 5 chips into the next pot.

Example: Spades are trumps and Ben leads the A♠. He says "Pam, be civil!". Carla holds the J♣ and the 4♠, so she must play the 4♠ and keep Pam for later.

Tips for beginners

• One trick is enough. You don't need to win the pot – just avoid being looed. A single high trump makes a safe stand.
• Take the miss when your hand is hopeless but the pot is rich – you might get lucky, but you can no longer drop out.
• Watch who is in: the fewer players stand, the more tricks go round, and the easier it is to win one.
• Play for the good of the loo: once you have your trick, old players tried to leave as many others as possible without one – every looed player makes the next pot bigger.

Variants

Loo had countless house rules. Agree on them before you start.

• Unlimited Loo: a looed player pays as much as the pot held, not a fixed amount. This made the pot grow very fast, and it ruined many 18th- and 19th-century players.
• Mixed Loo: as unlimited Loo, but with an agreed limit – for example 30 chips.
• Club law: when a club is turned up for trumps, nobody may pass.
• Irish Loo: three-card Loo without a miss and without the difference between single and double pots. Players who stay in may throw away 1, 2 or 3 cards and draw new ones from the stock, as in five-card Loo.
• Three-card flush: a hand of three trumps wins the whole pot without play; everyone else who stood is looed.
• Hidden trump: in the single pot, pagat.com describes a version with no miss and no trump card at first. The dealer turns up the trump only when the first player can't follow suit.
• Undivided Loo: the pot goes only to a player who wins all the tricks; otherwise it stays and keeps growing.
• Running Pam: Pam is the Jack of the trump suit instead of the Jack of Clubs.
• Dealer takes the trump card: in five-card Loo, the dealer may pick up the turned-up card and throw away another.
• Early American rules: according to pagat.com, early 19th-century five-card Loo only required a trump lead to the first trick; you didn't have to beat the trick, and Pam could be played to any trick at all.