PlayingCards/Piquet

General

Two-player card game supposedly favoured by the upper echelons of society in times gone by. Contains much frenchified terminology which (alledgedly) gives is a "posh" feel. Fun.

Starting

Piquet is played with a deck of 32 cards; that is, a normal pack from which cards numbered 2-6 have been removed.

Cut for highest card or do something else random to decide who deals; the dealer is known as Younger Hand, the other player will be Elder Hand.

Play

Younger Hand deals 12 cards to each player; the remaining eight form the talon.

The players inspect their hands and discard up to five cards, drawing the balance from the talon. Elder Hand discards first. He must a single card, and if he exchanges less than 5, may look at the cards he could have drawn. Younger Hand may exchange as many cards as remain in the talon, and may turn the remainder face up.

The hands are then scored, based on the following scoring considerations:

Carte Blanche:
A hand with no court cards in it scores 10 for carte blanche. A declaration of carte blanche is accompanied by the player dealing their cards rapidly face up onto the table, prior to discarding. (In the case of Elder Hand, they will announce how many cards to discard before doing so; in case of Younger Hand, they will do so after Elder Hand has discarded).
Point and Sequence
A player scores for point if they have the greatest number of cards in a single suit, and for sequence if they have the greatest number of consecutive cards in a single suit.

eg. S KQJ1097 is a Point of 6 and a Quint (sequence of 5).
A point scores as the number of cards it contains, a sequence scores as follows:
Tierce 3
Quart 4
Quint 15
Sixieme 16
Septieme 17
Huitieme 18

(I have great faith that people do not need the english translations)

Sets
A trio is a set of three cards of the same value, and scores 3
A quatorze is a set of four cards of the same value, and scores 14
Quatorzes and Trios must be of card value 10 or higher.

If both players have the same length of Point or Sequence, or the same size of set, then the Point, Sequence or Set with the highest combined value scores. The player with the dominant Sequence and Set also scores in respect of any other sequences/sets they hold. Court cards count as 10, aces as 11

Elder hand will declare his Points, Sequences and Sets (in that order); Younger hand will declare them as good, not good or equal (depending on what they are, obviously).

At this point, if either player has scored 30 without their opponent scoring, they have a repique and score 60 bonus points.
Elder Hand then leads to the first trick. Further score is made for:
Leading to a trick 1 (so Elder hand will always score at least 1)
Taking a trick to which your opponent lead 1
Taking the last trick 1
Taking the majority of tricks ("the cards") 10
Taking all the tricks ("capot") 40

If Elder Hand has scored 30 (excepting for capot) without their opponent scoring at this point, they declare a pique and score 30 bonus points.

Younger Hand and Elder Hand now exchange places and the cards are dealt again. In all six deals are played.

Winning

The winner is the person with most points after six deals have been completed.

The "score" for winning is the difference between scores, unless the losing player fialed to score more than 100, in which case it is the sum of the scores. A player losing in such manner is said to have been "Rubiconed" (scoring 100 points is "crossing the Rubicon").