Piquet pack

A Piquet pack or, less commonly, a Piquet deck, is a pack of 32 French suited cards that is used for a wide range of card games. The name derives from the game of Piquet which was commonly played in Britain and Europe until the 20th century and is still occasionally played by connoisseurs. In the Netherlands it is referred to as a Jass pack, a term derived from games of the Jass type.

A Piquet pack

Also referred to as Piquet cards, Piquet packs are still produced as standard packs of cards today, especially in Europe, for example to play the German national game of Skat. A Piquet pack also may be formed from a standard 52-card French pack by simply removing the Deuces, Treys, Fours, Fives and Sixes.^[1]

History

The French Piquet pack originally comprised 36 cards, but was reduced to 32 cards around 1700. The 36-card packs continued to be produced in France until at least 1775, but thereafter became extinct.^[2] It is known that, in England, the game of Maw was played with a 36-card pack up to the end of the 17th century.^[3][4]

Games played with the Piquet pack

Well-known games played with a Piquet pack include the following:

• Belote, France's national card game, very similar to the Dutch Klaberjass.^[5]
• Bête, a gambling game and descendent of Ombre
• Bezique, "one of the most illustrious games of European high society" for which 2 packs are needed.^[6]
• Écarté, a formerly popular, European two-hander.
• Euchre, popular in Canada and the Midwestern United States.
• Hope Deferred, a patience or solitaire game.
• Klaverjas, the Dutch invented "international, classic two-hander".^[7]
• Little Lots, another popular patience or solitaire game.
• Piquet, one of the oldest card games still being played.
• Préférence, a popular Austrian, Russian and Eastern European game.^[a]
• Rams and other gambling games of the Rams group.
• Skat, Germany's national card game.^[8][b]

See also

• List of traditional card and tile packs

Footnotes

1. Préférence is also played with a German-suited Tell pack.
2. Skat is also played with a German-suited Skat pack.