Glossary of card game terms

A

1. A player who receives cards in the current [|deal].
2. A player who has not withdrawn from the current deal but elected to [|play] on.

1. Often used in both senses of [|declaration]. However, Dummett prefers to restrict 'announcement' for the intention to achieve certain feats in play, while preferring [|'declaration'] for a statement that one has a special [|combination] of cards in one's [|hand].

B

1. Any wager on the outcome of a deal or game; any [|chips] put in a [|pot]; to put chips in a pot.
2. The first bet in a [|betting] interval.

1. A term used in certain games for a [|penalty] payment e.g. for failing to take the minimum number of [|tricks], or for a [|stake] or money which a player has lost.
2. In Mistigri, the player who has failed to win a single [|trick] is called the "bête". Likewise in Mauscheln, if the [|declarer], or Mauschler, fails to win a trick, he is the Mauschlerbete.
3. Failure to make a [|contract].
4. Double bête: a double penalty, usually for failing to make a contract after choosing to play out the cards.

1. Spoken declaration to win a minimum or specified number of tricks or points or the privilege of naming the [|trump suit] or the game; to make such a declaration.
2. To make a bid.

1. Any player who makes a bid.
2. The player who makes the highest bid and plays out his announced contract.

1. In card-point games, a card that is worth no points.
2. A hand with no [|court cards], i.e. only [|pip cards].
3. A card that is unprotected or by other, usually lower cards in the same suit: "I held the blank king of spades."
4. To discard in such a way as to leave a card unprotected: "She blanked the King of Spades."

1. To receive a card from the [|dealer], face down, in return for a stake e.g. in Twenty-One
2. To receive or draw the spare hand, in return for one's own hand and, possibly, a stake e.g. in Newmarket.
3. To receive or pick up a card or cards in return for a hand card or cards e.g. in Préférence when the 2 [|talon] cards are picked up and 2 discarded.
4. To draw cards from the [|stock] or talon.

   C

1. [|Establish] a card or suit by forcing out adverse higher cards or [|stoppers].
2. Having taken no [|penalty cards] e.g. in Hearts.

1. The best card of a suit in play. Also best card, [|king card] or [|master card].
2. The [|top trump] or highest [|matador].

1. Object used to score. Token used in place of money; a chip.
2. Card with a point value. Also counting card.

1. A card that has an intrinsic scoring value when taken in a trick. Also counter.

1. During play, to claim to have enough points for game, thus ending the play; to go out during the play.

D

1. Verb: To distribute cards to players in accordance with the rules of the [|card game] being played. In many games, this involves picking up all the cards, [|shuffling] them, having them cut and redistributing them, but in other games it simply involves turning over the wastepile to act as a new stock.
2. Noun: The play from the time the cards are dealt until they are redealt. Also referred to as a hand

1. [|Announcement] of [|melds] or scoring [|combinations], as in Piquet. Dummett prefers to restrict 'declaration' to this sense, while preferring 'announcement' for the intention to achieve certain feats in play i.e. the 2nd meaning below.
2. The game at which a deal is played. A call or bid.

1. To bid or to announce the trump.
2. To announce; predict [|schneider] or schwarz.
3. To [|meld] or show.
4. To count out.

1. To get rid of [|plain suit] cards when unable to [|follow suit] and unwilling or unable to trump.
2. To [|lay away] cards, e.g. of high value or to void a suit, after picking up from the talon or [|skat].
3. A card that is removed from the hand in either of those ways.

E

F

1. To spread a hand or pack of cards in an arc so that they can be identified from their corner [|indices].
2. An arc of cards so fanned.

1. The leader to a trick.
2. The first player to call.
3. Eldest hand.

1. To compel a player to trump a trick in order to win it.
2. A compulsory [|round] or deal in which all players must play and none may drop out. Also known in German games as a 'muss'. See Schafkopf.

1. A card with special privileges when [|led] to a trick e.g. the Sevens in Bruus or the Eights and Nines in Knüffeln
2. A card that cannot be beaten because all the [|trumps] and/or higher cards have been played.

   G

1. A pastime in general, usually involving some form of competing.
2. A variant of a basic game e.g. Gin Rummy or Wendish Schafkopf.
3. A bid, declaration or contract.
4. A period in a [|session] of play which results in a winner.
5. The target number of points as in "game is 100 points".
6. Fulfilment of the declared contract as in "their team made game".
7. A style or system of play.

1. To bid higher; [|overcall].
2. To play a higher card. Not to be confused with [|overtake]. Also cover, [|head the trick] or [|play over]..

H

1. The cards held by one player
2. The player holding the cards, as in "Third hand bid 1."
3. Synonymous with the noun usage of deal

I

J

K

L

1. To play the first card of the trick.
2. The card played first to the trick.
3. The privilege of leading e.g. "A has the lead".

1. A player who has lost a game.
2. A [|losing card].

1. A card of low [|rank]
2. A card of low value, especially in Tarot and Tarock games.

M

1. Fulfil a contract.
2. Name the trump suit or contract.

1. A slam in certain Austrian games.
2. Failing to win at least a quarter of the points available. Equivalent to a schneider.

1. Any scoring combination of cards announced, shown or played, e.g. three of a kind or a [|sequence] of three or more cards. A declaration of such a combination.
2. To make a meld.

N

1. to avoid taking tricks or
2. to lose every trick

O

1. To make the first bid, declaration or move.
2. To make the first bet.
3. To make the first lead of a suit. "It was correct to open Diamonds..."

1. A bid of more than the value of the game.
2. [|Overcall].
3. An unduly optimistic bid.

P

1. In [|bidding] games, to make no bid.
2. In [|vying] games to pass the privilege of betting first.

1. A numeral.
2. A suit symbol on a card.

1. To contribute a card to a trick.
2. To move a card to a place on the table, in Patience games.
3. The card played or the move made.
4. The stage of the game during which the players' [|hands] are depleted by plays to tricks or to a common pile, etc.
5. [|Betting] in general.

1. A container into which money or chips are paid initially and during a game and from which the winnings are paid out.
2. The contents of the pot.

Q

R

1. A new deal by the same dealer after an irregularity.
2. :A new deal of some of the cards, e.g. the wastepile in Patience games.
3. The action of [|dealing] again.

1. To legally play a card of a suit other than the led suit.
2. To legally withhold a high trump when a lower trump is led.
3. To [|revoke].

1. To fail to follow suit when able to do so and the rules require it. Normally incurs a penalty.
2. To breach the rules of [|following suit], [|trumping], [|heading] or [|going over].

1. To exchange a hand card for the trump turn-up.
2. To discard several cards in exchange for the remaining trumps in the pack.

S

1. A hand contract i.e. one played without the aid of the skat or [|widow].
2. A contract played alone against the combined efforts of all other players.

1. The money, counters or chips that a player places during a game.
2. The agreed monetary amount to be paid for each point, game or rubber.

1. Refuse to draw additional cards.
2. Accept the turn-up as trump.
3. Remain in the current deal or pot, as opposed to drop.

1. Remain in the current deal or pot, as opposed to drop.
2. Refuse to draw additional cards. Also stick.

1. Lead the master card of a suit.
2. One of an unbroken sequence of cards from the top of the suit downwards.

   T

1. A privileged card whose trick-taking power is greater than any plain suit card.
2. The trump suit.
3. A card in the special suit of trumps found in [|tarot] packs such as the Tarot Nouveau.
4. To play a trump after a plain suit has been led. Also ruff.

U

1. To lead or follow suit with a lower card when holding a higher one; hold up; refuse to cover.
2. See underforce.

1. A card laid on the table face-up.
2. The top card of a pile, turned face up.

   V

W

Y

Game-specific glossaries

• Blackjack. See the glossary of blackjack terms.
• Bridge. See the glossary of contract bridge terms which covers contract bridge, duplicate bridge, and auction bridge; some of the terms are also used in whist, bid whist, and other trick-taking games.
• Patience or Solitaire. See the glossary of patience terms.
• Poker. See the glossary of poker terms.
• Schafkopf. See Schafkopf language.
• Skat. See the glossary of Skat terms.

  Footnotes

Literature

• Arnold, Peter. The Book of Card Games. New York: Barnes and Noble.
• Arnold, Peter. Card Games for One. London: Chambers..
• Crawley, Captain Rawdon, pseud. of George Frederick Pardon. Beeton's Handy Book of Games. Beeton, London.
• Forbes-Lindsay, Charles Harcourt Ainslie and Ernest Bergholt. The Principles and Practice of Whist. H.T. Coates.
• Foster, Robert Frederick. Foster’s Complete Hoyle. 3rd edn. Frederick.A. Stokes, New York and London.
• Golick, Margie. Card Games for Smart Kids. New York: Sterling..
• Kansil, Joli Quentin, ed. Official Rules of Card Games, 90th edn. Cincinnati: Bicycle.
• Moss, William A.. 10-Minute Card Games, New York: Sterling.
• Parlett, David. The Penguin Book of Card Games. London: Penguin..
• Phillips, Hubert, ed. Culbertson's Card Games Complete. Watford: Arco.
• Walker, G. W., ed.. The Philidorian. Sherwood, London.