Scharwenzel

For	Points
Majority, clubs bid	4
Majority, other suit	2
Majority, clubs after all passed	2
Majority before the opponents' first trick	+2
Matadors Q♣, Nillje, Q♠	+3
Each further one in order: J♣ J♠ J♥ J♦	+1

Full rules

Overview
The cards
Setup
Bidding for trumps
Playing the tricks
Scoring
Threads and hooks
Tips for beginners
Variants

Overview

Scharwenzel is the traditional card game of Fehmarn, an island in the Baltic off the north German coast, where it has been played since the 18th century and still has its own yearly championship. Two sides, called "Us" and "You", play for the majority of the tricks. The trumps are unusual: the Queen of Clubs is the highest card, followed by the Seven of trumps, the Queen of Spades and the four Jacks – the "Scharwenzels". Each deal gives a few points; every 24 points earn a thread (Faden), a line on the score sheet, and the side with the most threads wins.

The scoring differs from village to village. The rules here follow John McLeod's article in The Playing-Card (2006) and Annakatrin Detlef's book of 2002, as summarised by German and English Wikipedia.

Players: 4, 6 or 8, in two sides.
You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, and paper and pencil.

The cards

4 or 8 players: take out all cards from 2 to 6 – you play with 32 cards (7 to Ace).
6 players: take out the 2s to 5s – you play with 36 cards (6 to Ace).

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

Six cards are always trumps, whatever suit is chosen: the two black Queens and the four Jacks. With the Seven of the trump suit they are the top trumps:

Rank	Card	Name on Fehmarn
1	Q♣	Olsch ("the old woman") or Spedilje
2	7 of trumps	Nillje
3	Q♠	Basta
4–7	J♣ J♠ J♥ J♦	the Jacks
then	A K (Q) 10 9 8 (6) of the trump suit	–

The Queen of the trump suit exists only when hearts or diamonds are trumps (the black Queens are already at the top). The 6 only exists in the six-player game.

The other suits rank A K Q 10 9 8 7 (6) – without the Jack, which is a trump. Clubs and spades have no Queen either, so they rank A K 10 9 8 7 (6).

Setup

Sides: take half as many red cards as there are players and the same number of black cards, shuffle them and let everyone draw one. The reds play against the blacks. Your partners are your Macker ("mates").
Seats: with 4 players, partners sit opposite each other; with 6 or 8, the two sides sit alternately, so that there is always an opponent between two partners.
Dealing: the dealer shuffles and the player on the right cuts. The dealer deals all the cards clockwise, starting with the player on the left, called forehand: - 4 players: 8 cards each, in packets of 3, 2 and 3. - 6 players: 6 cards each, in packets of 2. - 8 players: 4 cards each, in packets of 2.

The deal passes to the left after each hand.

Bidding for trumps

Starting with forehand and going clockwise, each player may make one bid: the number of cards in their longest suit – the suit they would like as trumps. A player with no more than two cards in any suit says "pass" (weiter).

Each bid must be higher than the one before, with one exception: clubs may beat the same number. A player with four clubs can top a bid of 4 by saying "4 better" (4 besser, or 4 echt).

The highest bidder names their suit as trumps. If everybody passes (only really possible with eight players), clubs are trumps, but the deal is worth less (see Scoring).

Example: Four play. Anna (forehand) bids "3" for her hearts. Ben has four spades and bids "4". Carla has four clubs and says "4 better". Dan passes. Clubs are trumps.

Playing the tricks

Forehand leads (plays the first card) to the first trick. Then everyone in turn, clockwise, adds a card:

You must follow suit – play a card of the suit that was led – if you can. Remember that the black Queens and the Jacks belong to the trump suit, not to their printed suit.
If you can't, you may play any card.

The highest trump wins the trick; if nobody played a trump, the highest card of the suit led wins. The winner leads to the next trick.

You may not tell your partners what you hold. A vague hint is allowed, though – on Fehmarn you might hear "Een Hart hett jeder" ("Everyone has a heart").

Example: Hearts are trumps. Ben leads the A♠. Carla has no spades and plays the J♦ – a trump. Dan, also without spades, plays the 7♥, the Nillje, second-best trump of all. Anna has no spades either (her Q♠ is a trump, not a spade) and plays the Q♣, the Olsch: she wins the trick for Anna and Carla.

Scoring

The side that wins the majority of the tricks (with 4 players 5 of the 8 tricks, with 6 players 4 of 6, with 8 players 3 of 4) scores points; the other side scores nothing:

For	Points
Majority, clubs trumps after a bid	4
Majority, any other trump suit	2
Majority, clubs trumps because all passed	2
"For the first": you win the majority before the opponents take a trick	+2
Matadors: your side held the Q♣, the Nillje and the Q♠	+3
each further trump in unbroken order (J♣, J♠, J♥, J♦)	+1

Matadors can be at most 7.

Bock: if both sides win the same number of tricks, nobody scores, and the points this deal was worth are added to the next deal's points (whoever wins that deal scores them too).

Example: Clubs are trumps after a bid. Anna and Carla win the first five tricks: 4 for the game and 2 "for the first". Anna held the Q♣, the 7♣ and the Q♠, Carla the J♣: 4 matadors, 3 + 1 = 4 points. Total 10.

Threads and hooks

Write the points on a sheet under "Us" and "You". The first side to reach 24 points gets a thread – a line (|) – and both sides start again from 0. If the losers still had 0 points, the winners get two threads; this is called a Petersdorfer, after the village of Petersdorf, whose players were said to be so good that anyone who lost 24–0 had to go there for lessons.

Tout: a side that wins every trick scores its normal points for the game (without the bonuses for the first tricks and matadors) and also a hook – drawn ┐ – which counts as a thread. A side can also announce "tout" before the first card is played: if it makes it, it gets the same game points and two hooks; if it fails, the opponents get four.

Play for an agreed time or number of threads. The side with the most threads (counting hooks and Petersdorfers) wins.

Tips for beginners

Count the top trumps. Olsch, Nillje, Basta and the four Jacks are seven trumps that change suit with every deal; learn them before anything else.
Bid your length, not your strength. The bid is the number of cards in your suit – a long suit with the Jacks behind it makes a good trump suit.
Clubs are worth double. A clubs game gives 4 points instead of 2, so bid "better" whenever you can.
Mind the seating. Your partners are never next to you – the player on your left and right are opponents.

Variants

Rules vary from village to village. Agree on these before you start.

Failed tout: the scoring table in Wikipedia also lists an "unannounced tout lost", worth two hooks to the opponents, without saying when it applies. Agree on it at your table.
Fehmarn deck: the island's tourist office sells a 36-card Scharwenzel deck with sea motifs, a score pad and its own rules.

Background & history

Family: Trick-taking game (partnership game with fixed top trumps)
Origin: Fehmarn (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany), 18th century
Also known as: Schipper-Schrill; Skærvindsel (Denmark), Sjevinsel (Faroe Islands)
Related games: Schafkopf, German Solo, Ombre, Scherwenzel (a different game)

According to Wikipedia, Scharwenzel has been played on Fehmarn since the 18th century and may have come from Denmark. The Danish Skærvindsel and the Faroese Sjevinsel are very similar – the Faroese game is played by five, each for themselves – and even share terms such as the "matadors". Games called Scharrewenselen (Holland, about 1710) and Scharwentzeln (Germany, 1715) are recorded, but according to Wikipedia these may refer to Scherwenzel, an unrelated gambling game of southern Germany, Poland, Silesia and Bohemia in which the Jacks were wild. In the 1840s a Christmas game called Scherwenzel was played in Angeln, north-west of Fehmarn; Richard Wossidlo recorded it as a Mecklenburg game in 1910.

The word Scharwenzel once meant a fawning servant, and was a nickname for the Jack; in this game, the Jacks rank below two Queens. According to a local history yearbook of 1957, the game was once called Schipper-Schrill because sailors loved it, and the top trumps had seafaring names: the Q♣ was the Captain's Wife, the trump Seven the Helmsman, the Q♠ the Captain's Daughter, and the Jacks the Carpenter, Mason, Ship's Boy and Water Carrier. Their later names – Spedilje, Nillje, Basta – come, according to John McLeod, from German Solo, which took them from the Spanish game of Ombre (Spadille, Manille, Basto). McLeod also sees a relationship with Schafkopf.

Scharwenzel is still played in pubs, clubs and at home on Fehmarn; since 2012 a championship has been held every November with 26 to 30 teams. A win of all the tricks, a Tout, traditionally earns everyone at the table a schnapps. The tourist office has published a special 36-card deck, with Jacks as kitesurfers and Queens as rapeseed-blossom queens, to keep the game alive.

Quick rules

Cheat sheet

Points per deal

Score pad