Bauernschnapsen

The card game of Bauernschnapsen (also called Viererschnapsen) is an expanded form of the popular Austrian card game of Schnapsen, played by four players. This variant of Schnapsen is played throughout the whole of Austria.

Bauernschnapsen is played with a 20-card packet of Schnapsen cards by two teams of two, the partners sitting opposite one another across the card table. Team membership may be renounced, but none of the players may use their experience of which cards their partner has in their hand, and they also do not known which cards he has. The aim is to win 24 points and the game ends as soon as one team has achieved that. In regional variants, scores start at 24 and count down to null (zero) points and the team that reaches null first is the winner. the losing team receives a Bummerl. If the losing team scores no points, it receives a Schneider, which counts as two Bummerls. If a team leads 23:0 and loses it receives a Retourschneider (or Schuster, Rücker), which counts as four Bummerls. Another rule is that the first trick of each team must remain visible to all the players for the whole game, irrespective of the type of game being played.

The same cards are used as for other variants of Schnapsen: either French suited or German suited cards (William Tell pattern). There are 4 suits: in French playing cards and doppeldeutsche (William Tell pattern) cards they are Hearts (Herz), Diamonds (Karo), Spades (Pik) and Clubs (Kreuz or, regionally, Treff). In the doppeldeutsche variants the suits are regionally also known as Hearts (Herz), Bells (Schelle), Leaves (Blatt, Grün or Laub) and Acorns (Eichel). There are five different cards per suit:

In each suit there are five cards: the Ace (Ass) (regionally the Deuce or Daus), the 10, the King, the Ober (or the Dame, regionally Manderl) and the Unter (or the Bube, regional Bauer).

The dealer shuffles the card pack and the player to his right cuts the pack at least once or 'knocks' with his fist on the pack to indicate he is happy not to cut. Next three cards are dealt to each player in clockwise order, beginning with the player on the dealer's left, the caller (Rufer). The caller must choose a trump suit (Trumpffarbe or, regionally, Atoutfarbe) from his first three cards, before receiving the remaining two cards. Then each player is dealt a packet of two more cards in the same order. If the caller cannot or will not decide which suit will be trumps, he can draw one of the two remaining cards and turn it over for everyone to see; the suit of this card is then the trump suit. If the player right of the dealer has knocked on the card pack, each player is given all five cards at once in the same clockwise order. The caller is initially dealt three, in order to decide the trump suit, and then a further two.

The trump suit beats all other cards in most cases. If the first three cards that the caller is dealt consists of three Unters (regionally Buben or Bauern), he may insist that the cards are reshuffled and redealt.

After the caller has called trumps, the player who has bid the highest contract, may play it. In one regional variant, the caller must first decide whether to bid a contract or to pass; in the latter case the next player to the left (clockwise) has the right to bid a contract or pass.

In several contracts that may be declared, the declared trump suit becomes irrelevant and all suits are deemed equal in rank. Within a suit, the higher card beats the lower, and only cards of the trump suit may beat cards of a different suit. If a player e.g. plays an Unter of Leaves, a King or a Deuce (Ace) of another colour cannot beat it, but only be discarded (zugegeben) – with the exception of the trump suit if trumps are valid.