Reversis

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Direction of play
4. The pool
5. Setup
6. Playing the tricks
7. Payments during play
8. The Quinola and the pool
9. The party
10. The reversis
11. Winning the game
12. Tips for beginners
13. Variants

Overview

Reversis is one of the ancestors of Hearts and was one of the great games of continental Europe from the 17th to the 19th century. Four players each play for themselves and try not to take tricks containing Aces and face cards: whoever takes the fewest card points wins the deal. Along the way, chips change hands whenever an Ace or the Jack of Hearts – the Quinola – is played, and whoever manages to slip the Quinola onto a trick of another suit wins the pool. A player with a very strong hand can turn everything round and try to win every trick: the reversis.

Rules varied from place to place and century to century. The rules here follow David Parlett's account, which draws on several old sources and on an article by John McLeod.

• Players: exactly 4, each for themselves. Players sitting opposite each other pay each other double.
• You need: a standard deck with the 10s removed (48 cards) and chips – about 100 per player, plus room for a pool in the middle.

The cards

Cards rank from high to low A K Q J 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 in each suit. There are no trumps.

A trick is one round in which each player plays one card; the highest card of the suit led wins it. Cards taken in tricks count against you:

That makes 40 points in all. The J♥ is the Quinola, the key card of the game.

Direction of play

Everything goes to the right (anticlockwise): dealing and play. The player on the dealer's right leads first.

The pool

At the start of the session, everyone puts 5 chips into the pool. At every deal the dealer adds 5 more – so the first deal is played for 25.

Setup

1. The dealer shuffles, the player on the left cuts, and the dealer deals 11 cards each, in packets of 4, 3 and 4.
2. The dealer then deals a 12th card to themselves only, and one card face down on the table in front of each other player.
3. The dealer puts one card from the hand face down in the middle.
4. Each other player then chooses: either discard one card face down into the middle and take the table card into the hand without looking at it first – or keep the hand, look at the table card, and put it face down into the middle.

Everyone now has 11 cards. The 4 cards in the middle are the kitty; they stay face down until the end of the deal.

Playing the tricks

The player on the dealer's right leads to the first trick; the winner of each trick leads to the next.

• You must follow suit (play a card of the suit led) if you can.
• If you can't, you may play any card. This is your chance to get rid of an Ace or the Quinola – called dumping it.
• The highest card of the suit led wins the trick.

Payments during play

Payments are made at once, as the cards fall:

• When the Quinola is forced by a heart lead, the other two players also pay the leader 5 each.
• If you lead an Ace or the Quinola yourself, you pay the same amount as for forced (1, 2 or 10) to the player who wins the party at the end of the deal – who must claim it before the next deal.
• Double all payments between players sitting opposite each other, and double all payments made in the last two tricks.

Example: In the last trick Ben leads a heart, and Dan, sitting opposite, has to play the Quinola. Dan pays Ben 10 × 2 (opposite) × 2 (last trick) = 40 chips; Anna and Carla pay him 5 × 2 = 10 each. Dan also pays a supplement equal to the pool (see below).

The Quinola and the pool

• Dumping the Quinola on a trick of another suit wins you the pool, as well as the 5 chips from the trick winner.
• If the Quinola is forced or led, its holder pays a supplement equal to the pool, which doubles it.
• If another supplement is due while that pool is still unclaimed, it starts a second pool of the same size beside it, and so on. The dealer's 5 chips always go into the newest pool, and the newest pool is the one won by the next dumped Quinola.
• When no pool is left, start a new one: 5 from each player and 5 extra from the dealer.

The party

After the eleventh trick, everyone counts the card points in their tricks. The player with the fewest points wins the party; the one with the most loses it. On a tie, the player with fewer tricks is better off; if still tied, the dealer is favoured, then the player on the dealer's left, and so on.

The loser pays the winner 4 chips plus the card points in the kitty – double if they sit opposite.

Example: Anna took 3 points, Carla 14, the most. The kitty holds a King and a Queen, so the party is worth 4 + 3 + 2 = 9. Anna and Carla sit opposite, so Carla pays Anna 18 chips.

The reversis

You may try to win all eleven tricks. You don't announce it – but if you win the first nine tricks, you are committed to it.

• All payments made so far in the deal – to or from any player or the pool – are returned, and there are no more payments for Aces or the Quinola. There is no party.
• Made: you get 16 chips from each neighbour and 32 from the player opposite. If you played the Quinola in the first nine tricks, you also win the pool.
• Broken: you pay 64 chips to the player who first takes a trick from you, and if you played the Quinola in the first nine tricks, you pay a supplement to the pool.

Winning the game

Play an agreed number of deals – a multiple of four, so that everyone deals equally. Whoever has the most chips at the end wins.

Tips for beginners

• Get rid of Aces early. As soon as you are out of a suit, dump an Ace on it – that earns chips instead of costing them.
• Protect the Quinola. Keep low hearts with it, and dump it as soon as you can't follow suit to something else.
• Hunt the Quinola. Leading hearts late in the deal can force it out – worth double in the last two tricks.
• Watch the player opposite. Every payment between you counts double.

Variants

Optional – agree before you start.

• Espagnolette: a player dealt all four Aces, or the Quinola and three Aces, may refuse to follow suit during the first nine tricks. Doing so commits them to lose every trick; they must follow suit in the tenth if they can. If they succeed, they win the party and keep all their payments for dumped cards and the pool. If they take a trick, they return double everything they received and lose the party instead of the player with most points.
• Heavier kitty: at some tables the A♦ counts 5 and the Quinola 3 in the kitty.
• Ancient Reversis (before 1634): a much simpler form described in 1634 as the game of "our fathers". Use all 52 cards and deal 13 each. Count Ace 5, King 4, Queen 3, Jack 2. There is no Quinola, pool, kitty or side payment: the player with the fewest points is paid by each opponent the number of points that opponent took, and a player who wins all the tricks wins outright – the old text gives no amount, so agree one before you start.