Préférence, frequently spelt Preference, is a Central and Eastern European 10-card plain-trick game with bidding, played by three players with a 32-card Piquet deck, and probably originating in early 19th century Austria, becoming the second most popular game in Vienna by 1980. It also took off in Russia where it was played by the higher echelons of society, the regional variant known as Preferans being still very popular in that country, while other variants are played from Lithuania to Greece.

In spite of the game's French name and a number of French terms, it has always been mostly unknown in France. A game of this name was already mentioned as popular in Vienna in 1803, but Depaulis has found references as early as 1801 in Bohemia and notes that it may even have been known in Russia before 1800. Nevertheless, the earliest known description is in an 1829 Austrian game anthology, Préférence quickly became popular in Imperial Russia as well. Via Yeralash, the suit order of Russian Preferans became the suit order of Bridge whist, before it was changed for a new order, with Spades high like in Contract Bridge. As of 1846, a German encyclopedia listed the games played by the Christian population of the Ottoman Empire (Greeks, Macedonians, Vlachs and Serbs, Slavs) as dice games, chess, backgammon, tarot games, Préférence and gambling card games.

Préférence appears to be derived from Ombre and Boston, although as a three-player game with 10-card hands and a 2-card talon it also has superficial similarities with other Central European games such as Skat and Mariáš. It has the basic structure of Ombre but many similarities with the simpler French four-player game Boston de Fontainebleau, which appears to be the source of the French terminology. McLeod and Geiser group Préférence with the Rams family of card games whose distinctive feature is that players may choose to opt out of a particular deal if they believe their cards are not sufficiently good to win a trick or the minimum specified number of tricks.

Préférence is named after the ranking of preferred suits for bidding purposes, an innovative feature at the time of its introduction. Once a mode of play has been declared, any player may drop out and only the remaining players play, if two parties are still represented. This feature is reminiscent of gambling games such as Tippen or Loo. In Austria, the game is also known as Pudeln, Polackeln or Polacheln, the last two names suggesting a connexion with Poland, Polacken being Austro-Bavarian for "Poles" and similar to the Italian word, polacco. Geiser further states that, in Bavaria, the game is known as Wallachen or Walachen which points to a link with Wallachia in modern-day Romania, however a closer relative appears to be the Bavarian game of Bolachen, whose name is phonetically close to the Austro-Bavarian, Polacheln. Preferl is a light-hearted Viennese nickname for the game.

The following is a summary of the earliest known (1829) rules for Préference:

Préference is a three-player game. If four play, the dealer, known as King, sits out the hand. In both cases, the role of dealer rotates to the left with each hand. A 32-card Piquet or German-suited pack is used. Cards rank in natural order, aces high: AKQJ10987 or AKOU10987.

The dealer shuffles the pack, has the player to the right cut and then deals clockwise, beginning with forehand to the left. The cards are dealt in three packets: first 3, then 4, then 3 more. After the first packet of 3 cards has been dealt, the dealer deals 2 cards to the table, face down, as the talon.

There is then an auction in which players may bid to become the declarer who has the privilege of exchanging with the talon, announcing the trump suit and leading to the first trick, committing to take at least 6 tricks. Suits rank in ascending order as follows: Clubs < Spades < Diamonds < Hearts. If German-suited cards are used the order is: Acorns < Leaves < Bells < Hearts.