Tarot card games

Tarot games are card games played with tarot packs designed for card play and which have a permanent trump suit alongside the usual four card suits. The games and packs which English-speakers call by the French name tarot are called tarocchi in the original Italian, Tarock in German and similar words in other languages.

Tarot games are increasingly popular in Europe, especially in France where French tarot is the second most popular card game after Belote. In Austria, Tarock games, especially Königrufen, have become widespread and there are several major national and international tournaments each year. Italy, the home of tarot, remains a stronghold. Games of the tarot family are also played in Hungary, Slovenia, Liechtenstein, Czechia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Denmark, south Germany and south Poland.

The introduction of trumps is one of only two major innovations to trick-taking games since they were invented, the other being the idea of bidding. Trump cards, initially called trionfi, first appeared with the advent of tarot cards, in which there is a separate, permanent trump suit comprising a number of picture cards. In contrast, a different concept arose in the game of the contemporary game of Karnöffel. In this south German game played with an ordinary pack, some cards of the chosen or selected suits had full trump powers, others were partial trumps and the 7s had a special role. These features are retained in games of the Karnöffel family to the present, but are never seen in tarot games.

The earliest known example of a fifth suit of trumps was ordered by Filippo Maria Visconti around 1420 and included 16 trumps with images of Greek and Roman gods. A basic description first appeared in the manuscript of Martiano da Tortona, written before 1425.

From Italy, Tarot first spread to France and Switzerland in the 16th century and Belgium in the late 17th century. Then to most parts of Europe in the 18th century with the notable exceptions being the British Isles, the Iberian peninsula, and the Balkans. While there are many brief or vague descriptions of how Tarot was played in its first two centuries, the earliest detailed description of rules for a tarot game in any language were published by the Abbé de Marolles in Nevers in 1637. The abbot learnt this variant from Princess Louise-Marie of Gonzague-Nevers, who introduced some rule variations from the normal game. It was played by three players with a 66-card pack, obtained by removing the 3 lowest cards of each suit from a standard 78-card, Italian-suited tarot pack. Two players received 21 cards each. The dealer received 25, from which four were discarded. There were payments for declaring certain card combinations at the start, for playing the Ace of Coins and for taking the last trick with a King or the Pagat. The usual tarot rules or play and card point values applied. The winner was the one with the most points in tricks and was paid an amount by the losers based on the difference in scores.

Tarot decks did not precede decks having four suits of the same length, and they were invented not for occult purposes but purely for gaming. In 1781, Court de Gébelin published an essay associating the cards with ancient wisdom, the earliest record of this idea, subsequently debunked by Dummett. As a result of the unsupported theories of de Gébelin and other occultists, tarot cards have since been used for cartomancy and divination as well as gaming, although now fortune-tellers tend to use specially developed tarot decks rather than those used for games.

Tarot can be played by two to eight players, but the vast majority of rules are for three or four players. Players can compete individually or be part of a fixed partnership or have variable alliances that change with each hand.

A complete Tarot deck such as one for French Tarot contains the full 78-card complement. It can be used to play any game in the family, with the exception of Minchiate, an extinct game that used 97 cards. Austrian-Hungarian Tarock and Italian Tarocco decks are a smaller subset, of 63, 54, 40, or even 36 cards, suitable only for games of a particular region. These games remove various ranks of pip cards to increase the chances of a void or short suit.