Mouche

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. Pass, exchange or stand
5. Having the mouche
6. Playing the tricks
7. Paying out
8. Winning the game
9. Tips for beginners
10. Variants

Overview

Mouche ("fly") is the old French member of the Loo family, described in the Académie universelle des jeux of 1718. Everyone gets 5 cards, and each of the five tricks is worth one fifth of the pot. Whoever plays and wins no trick makes the mouche: they pay as much as the pot into the next one. You may drop out, keep your cards or exchange some. And if you were dealt five cards of one suit – the mouche – you take the whole pot without a card being played. That is where the bluffing starts.

This page follows the rules of 1718, as reconstructed by Philippe Lalanne for the Académie des jeux oubliés. The Variants give Pamphile (Mistigri), with the Jack of Clubs as top trump, and the Russian Mushka. Mouche's living cousin is the Italian Bestia.

• Players: 3–6 (Mushka: 3–7). Everyone plays for themselves.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers and chips (or counters) – about 50 per player. Play for chips only.

The cards

How many cards you use depends on the number of players:

In every suit the cards rank from high to low – note that the Ace ranks below the Jack:

K – Q – J – A – 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. Direction: dealing and play go to the right (anticlockwise). The player on the dealer's right is the first hand; they become the next dealer.
2. The pot: before each deal, the dealer puts 5 chips into the pot (traditionally a basket). The chips in it are called the mouche.
3. Deal: the dealer shuffles, the player on the left cuts, and the dealer gives each player 5 cards, in packets of 3 and 2 (or 2 and 3), starting on the right.
4. Trumps: the dealer turns up the next card and leaves it face up on the table. Its suit is trumps. Nobody may take this card. The rest of the cards form the stock.

Pass, exchange or stand

Starting with the first hand, each player in turn chooses once – you can't change your mind:

• Pass: lay your cards face down. You are out of this deal and pay nothing.
• Exchange: say how many cards you want, lay that many face down and get the same number from the stock. You then play.
• Stand: say "I stand" and keep your cards. You then play.

If only one player is left in – if everybody passes except the dealer, this is the dealer – that player takes the pot; nobody pays anything.

If the stock runs out, the dealer shuffles the cards laid aside and deals from them.

Having the mouche

If your five dealt cards are all of one suit and you stood without exchanging, you have the mouche. Show it once everyone has declared. You take the whole pot without play, and everyone else who is in makes the mouche – they each pay the amount of the pot into the next one.

If several players have a mouche, the one in trumps wins. Between two mouches of the same kind (both trumps or both plain), the hand with more points wins (Ace and face cards 10, the others their number). If still tied, the player nearest the dealer's right wins.

The bluff: you don't have to say that you have the mouche until everyone has declared. The others may ask a player who stood, "Do you have the mouche?" You may dodge the question or say nothing – but if you do answer clearly, you must tell the truth. Watch faces: an eager "I stand" may mean a mouche, or just a good hand.

Playing the tricks

If nobody has a mouche, the first player on the dealer's right who is in the deal leads. Going to the right, every player still in plays one card:

• 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 beat any trump already in the trick if you can.
• If a player has already trumped higher than any trump you hold, you don't have to trump; you may 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. Old rule books add: whoever fails to follow suit or to beat the trick when they could makes the mouche.

Paying out

• Every trick is worth one fifth of the pot.
• Anyone who played and won no trick makes the mouche: they pay as much as the pot held into the next pot, on top of the next dealer's 5 chips.

A pot of 5 chips is a simple mouche; if one player made the mouche last time, the next one is double (10 chips), with two players triple, and so on. Every trick then pays 2, 3 … chips.

Example: Four players, 36 cards. Anna deals and puts 5 chips into the empty pot. Going to the right, Ben exchanges two cards, Carla passes, Dan stands and Anna stands. Nobody has a mouche. Ben wins three tricks (3 chips), Dan two (2 chips), and Anna none – she makes the mouche and pays 5 chips. Ben deals next and adds 5 chips: the pot holds 10, and every trick is worth 2.

Winning the game

There is no fixed end. Play until everyone has dealt the same number of times; whoever has gained the most chips wins.

Tips for beginners

• Stand to scare. If you stand, the players after you have to guess whether you hold a mouche. A confident "I stand" can make them pass – and fewer opponents make your tricks easier.
• Don't exchange a flush. Only five cards of a suit as dealt count as a mouche; exchange a single card and it is gone.
• Mind the King: the King is the top card of each suit, and the Ace is only fourth.
• Agree on a limit before you start – a pot with several mouches in it grows very fast.

Variants

• One mouche at a time: the 1718 rules allow players to agree that several mouches made in the same deal go into the pot one after another in the following deals, not all at once. Keep a list on paper. According to the 1730 edition, whoever has the mouche also takes all the mouches still waiting.
• Cap: in 1847, Joseph Méry suggested an agreed maximum for making the mouche.
• Pamphile or Mistigri: the Académie universelle des jeux of 1758 adds the Pamphile, the Jack of Clubs, later called Mistigri. It is the highest trump, above the King of trumps, and counts as a card of the trump suit in play. Its holder gets 1 chip from every other player. If it is turned up, the dealer chooses the trump suit. For a mouche it counts as a club – or, if you agree, as any suit, so four of a suit plus the Pamphile make a mouche.
• Dealer takes the trump card: in Balzac's novel Béatrix, the turned-up trump belongs to the dealer, who may swap it for a card in hand.
• Mushka (Russia): 3–7 players with 32 cards (7–A, Ace high) for 3, 36 cards (6–A) for 4 and all 52 for more. Play goes clockwise. Players exchange, stand or pass – but you may not pass if you hold the A♠. Follow suit; if you can't, you must trump. The A♠ can beat the Ace of trumps when the Ace is led, and only then. Instead of chips, everyone writes down 25 points and counts down: −1 per trick, +5 for no trick, and −5 for holding the A♠ (−10 if spades are trumps) – but +10 if you held it and won no trick. The first to reach exactly 0 wins and must stop the game at once; take one trick too many and you start again from 25.