Karnöffel
Encyclopedia
Card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...
which probably came from the upper-German language area in Europe in the first quarter of the 15th century. It first appeared "listed in a municipal ordinance of Nördlingen
Nördlingen
Nördlingen is a town in the Donau-Ries district, in Bavaria, Germany, with a population of 20,000. It is located in the middle of a complex meteorite crater, called the Nördlinger Ries. The town was also the place of two battles during the Thirty Years' War...
, Bavaria, in 1426 among the games that could be lawfully played at the annual city fête
Fête
Fête is a French word meaning festival, celebration or party, which has passed into English as a label that may be given to certain events.-Description:It is widely used in England and Australia in the context of a village fête,...
. This makes the game the oldest identifiable European card game in the history of playing cards.
Karnöffel
The name Karnöffel, is probably derived from another card game, Kanjafah or Kanjifah (called in contemporary manuscripts, Karniffel, Karnueffel and Karnoeffelins ), of Persian origin, which bears also a similarity with the name GanjifaGanjifa
Ganjifa, or Gânjaphâ, is a card game that originated in Persia and became popular in India under the Mughal emperors in the 16th century.-Description:The name Ganjifa comes from the Persian word ganjifeh , meaning playing card...
, Ganjifeh, of Indian origin.
Karnöffel is unique in that it had a trump
Trump
A trump is a type of card in some card games.Trump may also refer to:* Trump * Trump * Trumps * The Trump * HMS Trump , a British submarine* The Trump Organization, a business conglomerate...
suit of cards with a higher priority than any other suit in the deck, which indicates that it might be a possible precursor to the trump
Trump
A trump is a type of card in some card games.Trump may also refer to:* Trump * Trump * Trumps * The Trump * HMS Trump , a British submarine* The Trump Organization, a business conglomerate...
cards of Tarot, as well as the Joker
Joker (playing card)
Joker is a special type of playing card found in most modern decks, or else a type of tile in some Mahjong game sets.-Name:It is believed that the term "Joker" comes from a mispronunciation of Jucker, the German/Alsatian name for the game Euchre. The card was originally introduced in about 1860 for...
card found in modern card decks. In contrast to modern card games such as poker
Poker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
and gin rummy
Gin rummy
Gin rummy, or simply gin, is a two-player card game created in 1909 by Elwood T. Baker and his son C. Graham Baker. According to John Scarne, Gin evolved from 18th-century Whiskey Poker and was created with the intention of being faster than standard rummy, but less spontaneous than knock...
, Karnöffel utilizes a deck of 48 cards.
The earliest substantial reference to Karnöffel is a poem by Meissner
Meissner
Meißner may refer to:* Hoher Meißner, mountain massif in Hesse, Germany* Meißner, a community in the district Werra-Meißner-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany...
, discovered by Dr. von Leyden, written in or before 1450.
A derivative of the game is still played around Stans and in the Engelberg
Engelberg
Engelberg is a village in the canton of Obwalden in Switzerland. Engelberg has a population of . , 21.0% of the population was made up of foreign nationals.It is the leading mountain resort in central Switzerland...
valley, in Canton Nidwalden
Nidwalden
Nidwalden is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the centre of Switzerland. The population is 40,287 of which 4,046 are foreigners. The capital is Stans.-History:...
, in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
under the name Kaiserjass, though not a true variety of Jass
Jass
Jass is a trick taking card game and a distinctive branch of the Marriage family, popularly supposed to be the progenitor of the American game of Pinochle...
, known as kaiserspiel. It is a five-card partnership game of which each deal is won by the first side to win three tricks.
The play
Karnöffel can be played with a standard 52-card deck, omitting the Aces. The German decks have Obers and Unters as court cards instead of Queens and Jacks. If playing with a French suited deck, use the Queen as the Ober and the Jack as the Unter. In plain suits the cards rank in the usual descending order of King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.In the quasi-trump suit, the K, Q, 10, 9, 8, are not trumps. They act as a normal suit. This gives the following order in the "trump" suit: J, (7), 6, 2, K, 3, Q, 4, 5, 10, 9, 8, (7).
Five cards are dealt to each player, one at a time. The first card dealt face up, the others face down. The lowest-ranking face-up card determines the "trumps" for that round. In case of a tie for low card, the suit of the first of the low cards dealt is trump.
Once trump is determined, the players turn their card over, then 4 more cards are dealt (a total of 5 cards).
The player to the left of the dealer leads any card to the first trick. Each other player in clockwise order plays any card. There is no requirement to follow suit, as in other games. The player of the highest card of the suit led, or of the highest "trump" if any are played, wins the trick and leads to the following trick.
Continue until all cards have been played. The team winning a majority of the five tricks wins the round and the player who led to the first trick then deals for the next round.
Unlimited table-talk is allowed and partners may advise each other on play.
The cards in the trump suit
Unlike almost all other card games, only some of the cards in the suit designated as "trump" have special trick-taking power, and most of those cards only have power some of the time. The special cards are:- Jack, "Karnöffel", Unter, Knave: Beats all other cards.
- 7, "Teufel",Devil: Beats all cards except Karnöffel, if its the first card played in a trick, otherwise it ranks just as a Seven of the suit led, not as a Trump card. (In case of a tie with the natural 7 of a suit, the first 7 played wins.)
- 6, "Papst",Pope: Beats all cards except the Jack of Trump and a leading Seven of Trump.
- 2, "Kaiser": Beats all but the Jack, leading Seven and Six of Trump.
- 3, "Oberstecher": Beats all but the Jack, leading Seven, Six and Two of Trump, or the leading King of any suit.
- 4, "Unterstecher": Beats all but the Jack, leading Seven, Six, Two and Three of Trump, or the leading King or Queen of any suit.
- 5, "Farbenstecher": Beats all but the Jack, leading Seven, Six, Two, Three and Four of Trump, or the leading face card of any suit.
- King, "König": Beats all cards except Jack, leading Seven, Six, Two, leading Three, leading Four and leading Five of Trump.
- Queen, "Ober", Knight: Beats leading Seven, Six Two, Three, leading Four, leading Five and King of Trump.
- 10, "Banner": Beats all cards except Jack, leading Seven, Six, Two, Three, Four, Five, King and Queen of Trump.
- 9: Beats all cards except Jack, leading Seven, Six, Two, Three, Four, Five, King, Queen and Ten of Trump.
- 8: Beats all cards except Jack, leading Seven, Six, Two, Three, Four, Five, King, Queen, Ten and Nine of Trump.
All Kings trump the Oberstecher (3), which trumps the Ober in all suits except the trump suit. The Ober trumps the Unterstecher (4) which trumps the Unter in all suits except the trump suit. The Unter trumps the Farbenstecher (5), which trumps the remaining suit cards of the trump suit (10, 9, and 8) and all the numbered cards from the other suits.