Piquet

Piquet is widely regarded as the best card game for two players. It originated in France around 1500, and in English the name can be pronounced either French fashion (peekay) or English fashion (picket). After the deal, a hand falls into three phases:

1. players discard some cards and draw replacements; this is the main skill in the game
2. players declare and score for various combinations of cards in their hands
3. players play their cards in tricks and score for those

The original form of the game, piquet au cent, is now obsolete, having been displaced in the late nineteenth century by the present game, technically known as rubicon piquet. In this, a partie (game) normally consists of six deals or hands. If the loser at the end of this has under a hundred points they are penalized for failing to cross the rubicon.

There is an "official" code of rules drawn up by the Portland Club in 1895, which is described here. However, in practice there are numerous variations, with almost every book about card games giving different rules.

The pack

Piquet is played with a 32-card pack, consisting of Ace, King, Queen, Jack (or Knave), ten, nine, eight and seven in each of four suits: spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs. The rank of cards in each suit is as listed here, Ace highest. There is no rank among suits.

The deal

At the start of the partie each player cuts the pack. The player cutting the higher card has choice of whether to deal first. It is recommended that they should choose to deal first. If the players cut equal cards the process is repeated. The players deal hands alternately. The dealer is known as younger hand, the other player as elder hand. The dealer deals the cards either two or three at a time, face down, to the players alternately, starting with elder hand, until each player has twelve cards. Each player has the option of dealing by either twos or threes, but must then maintain that choice throughout the partie. The choice is not binding on the other player. The remaining eight cards, known as the talon, are left face down. Once the deal has been completed the players pick up and examine their cards, without showing them to the opponent.

If either player notices they have a hand with no court cards (King, Queen or Jack), they must announce carte blanche for a score of 10 points. A special procedure is followed in this rare case, for which see below.

Discards

Elder hand now selects cards to discard. They must discard at least one, and may discard as many as five. The discards are placed face down, where elder, but not younger, may consult them at any subsequent time during the deal. It is recommended that elder should nearly always discard five. Having discarded, elder then draws an equal number of cards from the top of the talon, not showing them to the opponent, but adding them to their hand. If elder discards fewer than five, they may examine the remaining cards they might have drawn.

It is then younger's turn to discard, up to the number remaining in the talon, usually three. The Portland Club rules say younger must discard at least one card (Law 22), but many books say this is optional. It is recommended that younger should usually discard the maximum, but exceptions will be commoner than for elder. As before, younger's discards may be examined at any time by younger, but not at all by elder. The rule for any remaining cards in the talon is different, however. Either both players or neither may see them, at younger hand's choice. This choice must be made after elder has led to the first trick, or announced the suit to be led.

Declarations

After the players have discarded and taken replacement cards, they then declare various scoring combinations in their hands. Declaration is not compulsory, except for carte blanche as noted above, and players may declare less than they hold. According to the Portland Club rules, either player has the right to see any cards the opponent has scored for or equalized (see below) immediately and/or at any subsequent time in the deal. This rule is omitted from many books. It implies that a player declaring less than they actually hold must nevertheless declare cards they actually hold, not others of lesser scoring value.

There are three categories of declarations: point, sequence and set. These are properly dealt with in that order, though the Portland Club rules allow the last two to be reversed.

Point

The point is simply the length of the longest suit. Elder announces, for example, "point of four". Younger may then

1. say "good", allowing elder to score for the point
2. say "not good", holding a longer suit; younger does not yet give details
3. ask "how many?" or "making?" or some equivalent question; this means younger has a suit of the same length; in this case elder counts the total for the suit at 11 for Ace, 10 for court cards, and the other cards at their numerical value; younger will then say "good", "not good" or "equal" as appropriate

The winner of the point simply scores one point for each card in the suit. If the two players have equal suits in both length and numerical value then neither player scores for point.