PUT Trick Talking Card Game - 1600s Britain
Put is a two-player game of pure bluff. It is something like backgammon with
everything but the doubling cube
removed, or like a very primitive form of poker.
The cards rank, from highest to lowest, 3, 2, A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4. It is important not to
forget that 3 is the highest. Suits do not count. Three tricks are played, with the winner
of each leading to the next. If the trick is tied, the same player leads again. Whoever wins two
out of the three tricks wins the hand. The first player to win five hands wins the game.
Instead of playing a card, either player may elect to "Put". In this case, the other player
can either resign, allowing the putter to score a point, or play on. If they play on, then
whoever wins the current hand also wins the entire game.
Put is a very fast game, so this page lets you play as many games as you like, in order
to see whether you can defeat the computer in the long run.
You can begin a new game by clicking the Deal next hand button. Once the hand is dealt,
click on a card to play it, or on the I put button to put. If the computer decides to put,
your only options are to click the Play on or Resign buttons.
After the first hand, the computer will lead to the first trick in the next hand.
The lead alternates in every hand after this.
Refreshing this page will reset all the scores to zero.
History
Put is an English tavern trick-taking card game first recorded in the 16th century[1] and later castigated by 17th century moralists as one of ill repute.[2] It belongs to a very ancient family of card games and clearly relates to a group known as Trut, Truque, also Tru, and the South American game Truco. Its more elaborate version is the Spanish game of Truc, which is still much played in many parts of Southern France and Spain.
Analogy
The name Put, pronounced "u", like the name of the English village of Putney,[3] derives from "putting up your cards in cafe", if you do not like them, or from "putting each other to the shift"
"The Buck"
The game of Put appears in a "riddle", or acrostic, probably written by a Royalist in the thrilling interval between the resignation of Richard Cromwell on May 25, 1659 and the restoration of Charles II, crowned at Westminster Abbey on 23 April 1661. It expresses in enigmatical terms the designs and hopes of the King's adherents, under colour of describing a game of "Put". The initial letters of the seven verses are an anagram, and indicate the number of cards shared between the two players in the game. S, X, I, C, R, A, T, make SIX CART, or six cartes (six cards). Six cards, also, are expressly mentioned in the riddle itself, namely: "the Knave" (line 2), "a King" (3), "Heart" (5), "Trey", "Quarter" or quatre, and "the Buck" (7). "The Buck", probably one of the picture-cards, or the ace, inferior to "Trey", which is the best card in the game of put; therefore "Trey" comes "to pull down the Buck".[5]
"The Buck" is an old English synonym for the Coarse Appellation, intended, no doubt, for a Puritan, or for the Puritan party.
"Pulling down the Buck", is also an allusion to hunting.
Variants
The game becomes more interesting if you shorten the pack to 32 cards by stripping out all the lower ranks from Four to Nine.
Put le Truc
There is, indeed, an equivalent French game called le Truc- 'the Knack', which is played with a 32-card pack ranking 6-7-A-K-Q-J-T. The winning of two tricks, or one and two ties, scores 1 point. However, each player may offer, or threaten, to double the value of the game when about to play to a trick, allowing the other to throw his hand in to prevent the double from taking effect. The first to reach 12 points wins the game, and the first to win tow games wins the rubber.
Speculation
This is a lively and amusing round game, and is played with a pack of fifty-two cards, which rank in the same order as at Whist. Each player deposits a certain number of counters in the pool, from one to three, and the dealer double the number of the others. Three cards are dealt, one at a time, to each player, and one turned up for trumps, which the dealer may sell to any one who will purchase it, either before or after it is turned up. The highest trump card dealt out is entitled to take the pool, but the cards are not to be looked at except in this manner: The elder hand turns the uppermost of his three cards; if not trumps, or if lower than the dealer's turn-up, it is of course of no value: but if higher, he may sell it to any one who chooses to speculate, and the price offered should bear some proportion to the chance of the card being the best trump in the deal, and likewise to the number of counters in the pool. This is done by asking who will buy; and if two or more offer a price, the seller of course accepts the highest bidder's offer, if he considers it adequate to the value of the card. If a sale is not effected, the next in hand turns the uppermost of his cards, and if it is a saleable png[clarification needed], proceeds to sell it as above described. When a, card is sold, it .is h? buyer, who places it before him, and .does HQt[clarification needed] turn any of his remaining cards till a higher trump appears, his left-hand neighbor becoming elder hand, and turning the next card. In this way the playing goes on, till all the cards are turned, when, as before stated, the holder of the best trump, whether by purchase or otherwise, wins the pool.
When a good trump is turned by any of the party, he should be allowed time to sell it before another card is discovered. On turning knaves and fives of any suit, a counter is to be paid into the pool for each, by the possessor of the hand in which they happen to be.
It is customary to purchase cards before they are turned, when they happen to be among the last, and no high trump already discovered. Speculations are frequently profitable; but if you turn a good card, it is generally advisable to sell it if you can obtain a fair price, particularly if there are many cards to turn. A cautious player sometimes sells his hand before it is dealt, or before turning any of his cards, if he can get more for H than his stake in the pool.
This game is sometimes a little varied by dealing a spare hand, which is not to be looked at till all the hands are discovered, and if it should contain the best trump dealt, the pool remains for the next deal, in addition to the usual contributions of each player, thus doubling the amount.
|