Recent from talks
Phat (card game)
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Phat (card game)
Phat is an English trick-taking partnership card game descended from the 17th century game of all fours. It is closely related to the British and Irish game of Don and may have been derived from it during the First World War. Phat is still played in England in Herefordshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. In Scotland it is known around Motherwell and Wishaw.
In Hereford there is a tradition that Phat was imported by US servicemen stationed there during the Second World War. Other accounts, however, suggest that Fat was played in England during the First World War by, for example, "London bus drivers and clippies". This early date is corroborated by Cassells in his 1918 book on the wartime record of the Black Watch, a Scottish regiment, where Phat is described as "a common card game among the Tommies".
Its military connexion is reinforced by a passing mention in the 1938 edition of St. George's Gazette where "the usual game of Phat is getting popular again" among soldiers of the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers.
Phat was also once common in the East Anglian counties of Norfolk and Suffolk and, in 1990, it was played "on a highly organised league basis in and around Norwich". However, by 2018 only two pubs in the Norwich area were regularly hosting Phat drives: the Wherry Inn at Geldeston, which played an unusual variant where the trump 10 was Big Phat and trump 5 was Little Phat, and the Rumburgh Buck, which lies over the county border in Rumburgh, Suffolk.
The aim of the game is to score points by winning tricks containing valuable cards which may give an immediate score to the team that wins the trick to which they have been played; these points may be called the phat. Further points are pegged after the end of the play by the team that has collected more than half of the muck in their tricks. There are 88 points in each deal - 80 phat plus 8 for the muck.
Phat is played by four players sitting crosswise in two partnerships. The cards rank A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 in every suit.
A standard 52-card pack is used and 13 cards are dealt to each player, one at a time. Points are recorded on a Phat board, up to a yard long and resembling a Cribbage board, but with 90 holes (per team) instead of the usual 60, which facilitates scoring to 181.
Each player cuts a card from the pack and whoever cuts the lowest card will pitch first (i.e. lead to the first trick). The dealer will be the player to the right of the pitcher and the turn to deal and play passes to the left. The trump is determined by the first card led by the pitcher and subsequently players must follow suit if possible, but otherwise may play any card. The trick is taken by the highest card of the suit led, or by the highest trump if any are played, and the winner of each trick then leads to the next.
Hub AI
Phat (card game) AI simulator
(@Phat (card game)_simulator)
Phat (card game)
Phat is an English trick-taking partnership card game descended from the 17th century game of all fours. It is closely related to the British and Irish game of Don and may have been derived from it during the First World War. Phat is still played in England in Herefordshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. In Scotland it is known around Motherwell and Wishaw.
In Hereford there is a tradition that Phat was imported by US servicemen stationed there during the Second World War. Other accounts, however, suggest that Fat was played in England during the First World War by, for example, "London bus drivers and clippies". This early date is corroborated by Cassells in his 1918 book on the wartime record of the Black Watch, a Scottish regiment, where Phat is described as "a common card game among the Tommies".
Its military connexion is reinforced by a passing mention in the 1938 edition of St. George's Gazette where "the usual game of Phat is getting popular again" among soldiers of the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers.
Phat was also once common in the East Anglian counties of Norfolk and Suffolk and, in 1990, it was played "on a highly organised league basis in and around Norwich". However, by 2018 only two pubs in the Norwich area were regularly hosting Phat drives: the Wherry Inn at Geldeston, which played an unusual variant where the trump 10 was Big Phat and trump 5 was Little Phat, and the Rumburgh Buck, which lies over the county border in Rumburgh, Suffolk.
The aim of the game is to score points by winning tricks containing valuable cards which may give an immediate score to the team that wins the trick to which they have been played; these points may be called the phat. Further points are pegged after the end of the play by the team that has collected more than half of the muck in their tricks. There are 88 points in each deal - 80 phat plus 8 for the muck.
Phat is played by four players sitting crosswise in two partnerships. The cards rank A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 in every suit.
A standard 52-card pack is used and 13 cards are dealt to each player, one at a time. Points are recorded on a Phat board, up to a yard long and resembling a Cribbage board, but with 90 holes (per team) instead of the usual 60, which facilitates scoring to 181.
Each player cuts a card from the pack and whoever cuts the lowest card will pitch first (i.e. lead to the first trick). The dealer will be the player to the right of the pitcher and the turn to deal and play passes to the left. The trump is determined by the first card led by the pitcher and subsequently players must follow suit if possible, but otherwise may play any card. The trick is taken by the highest card of the suit led, or by the highest trump if any are played, and the winner of each trick then leads to the next.