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Austrian/ Czech Tarock

The games in this category are distinguished from the French and Italian Tarot/Tarocchi games by the use of 54 (or fewer in the case of Hungarian games) cards and the promotion of the Excuse (termed the Skeench, Skuess, Gstiess and similar names) to the highest trump outranking the XXI. It often makes for a challenging game as there are fewer low-valued cards to use as fodder for the trumps. Whether played with 3 or 4 players, 6 cards are dealt to the Talon and one bids to take only part (typically 3 cards) from this Talon. The rules for bidding can be quite intricate, especially in the 4 player game known as Koenigsrufen. Rules are subject to variation from one location to another and depending on which variation one plays there are bids to take no tricks or exactly one or two tricks, Besides Pagat and Koenig Ultimo, there may be bonuses involving the penultimate trick won by the II, or the 3rd to last by the III etc. The deck most often used to play these games is often called the "Industrie und Glueck" Tarock as the II features an eagle with a shield inscribed by this slogan. The Austrian firm Piatnik is the main manufacturer of "Industrie und Glueck" Tarocks. Besides Austria, there are 54 card Tarock games played in the area formerly known as Czechoslovakia and in Hungary. There is also a sizable Czech community in the state of Texas who are enthusiasts of the Czech Tarock game. In Hungary, the Tarock deck is stripped down to 42 or even 40 cards for their Tarock games.
Mention should also be made of the Cego card game, played in Southern Germany. While it shares many features of Austrian/Czech/Hungarian Tarock, it is most often played with a different deck design featuring Arabic, rather than Roman numerals, on the trumps. The trumps, depending on the deck, may feature animals or genre scenes. One particular Cego deck, the C. L. Wuest Genre Tarock, is the direct ancestor of the French "Tarot Nouveau" deck as manufactured by Grimaud and subsequent publishers.

For further particulars on how these games are played see the links below.

Rules

Software