Karnöffel
◊ the oldest recorded card game ◊
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Originally Karnöffel was played with a German-suited pack of 48 cards, that consisted of II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, Lower-Jack (Untermann), Upper-Jack (Obermann), King (Köning). The II (duece) ranks lowest, and the King highest. Although it is possible that early German decks did have a card bearing the numeral I, in effect an ace, there are no records of it. However, after the aces became the highest ranking cards in French decks the same thing eventually happened to the II (dueces) in German decks; these dueces were later mistaken for aces and are played as aces in many younger games that use stripped German decks. Also note that there are no Queens, but there are two Jacks -- a Lower Jack (bearing the suite indice at the bottom) and an Upper-Jack (bearing the suite indice at the top). It is also interesting that the Upper-Jack has been often mistaken for a Queen, although the card bears a picture of a man; and is still payed as a Queen in many games today. Since German-suited cards ranking from II to King are not easily obtainable today, a stripped conventional French-suited decks can be used instead. For this purpose remove the Aces from a standard 52-card pack; the Jacks represent the Lower-Jacks, and the Queens represent the Upper-Jacks. For the purpose of our description we will use a French-suited stripped deck of 48 cards, consisting of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K.
Karnöffel is a partnership game. Four players are split into two pairs of partners. Each player is seated between two opponents and across from his/her partner. • The Deal: The first dealer deals five cards to each player, one at a time, first card face-up to, the other four face-down. The lowest-ranking face-up card ...or in case of ties, the first such card dealt... determines the trumps for that round. All players then pick up their cards. • The Play: 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 is often the case 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. The player who led to the first trick then deals for the next round. Partners are allowed to advise each other on play. • 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. Most of those cards only have special powers in some situations. Cards with special powers are:
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