Kop is a minimalist Polish

card game A card game is any game that uses playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, whether the cards are of a traditional design or specifically created for the game (proprietary). Countless card games exist, including famil ...

of the

Schafkopf Schafkopf (, lit. 'sheep's head'), also called Bavarian Schafkopf, is a popular German Trick-taking game, trick-taking card game of the ace–ten family for four players that evolved, towards the end of the 19th century, from German Schafkopf. ...

family for four players played using traditional

French-suited playing cards French-suited playing cards or French-suited cards are playing cards, cards that use the French Playing card suit, suits of (clovers or clubs ), (tiles or diamonds ), (hearts ), and (pikes or spades ). Each suit contains th ...

. It uses a shortened pack of just 16 cards and is similar to

Baśka Baśka is a fast-moving, Polish card game for four players played using traditional playing card#French deck, French-suited playing cards. It uses a shortened pack of just 16 cards and is similar to Kop (card game), kop which is also played in Po ...

, another fast moving Polish game. Both are derived from

German Schafkopf German Schafkopf () is an old German, ace–ten card game that is still played regionally in variant form today. It is the forerunner of the popular modern games of Skat, Doppelkopf and Bavarian Schafkopf. It originated in Leipzig in the Elect ...

.''Kop''
at

pagat.com Pagat.com is a website containing rules to hundreds of card games from all over the world. Maintained by John McLeod, it contains information for traditional, commercial, and newly invented card games from all over the world. It has been describ ...

. Retrieved 25 July 2023.

Origin and distribution

Kop is played in the province of

Greater Poland Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; ), is a Polish Polish historical regions, historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed by Kalisz, the oldest city in Poland. The bound ...

, once part of

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

as the

Grand Duchy of Posen The Grand Duchy of Posen (; ) was part of the Kingdom of Prussia, created from Prussian Partition, territories annexed by Prussia after the Partitions of Poland, and formally established following the Congress of Vienna in 1815. On 9 February 1 ...

, hence the German influence on the game. Its name is derived from the German word ''Kopf'', itself an abbreviation of ''Schafkopf'', the ancestor of this family of games. The game is very fast moving and usually played for money. It is played by ''inter alia'' by rail commuters and cab drivers. Regional and village Kop tournaments are held. It is especially popular in

Wolsztyn County __NOTOC__ Wolsztyn County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Greater Poland Voivodeship, west-central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed ...

where it has experienced a revival since 2006 when the first open tournament was held.''Historia''
at wolsztynski-kop.pl. Retrieved 25 July 2023.

Rules

The following description is based primarily on the Wolsztyn rules supplemented by other sources where indicated:''Zasady gry''
at wolsztynski-kop.pl. Retrieved 25 July 2023.

Cards

A 16-card

French-suited pack French-suited playing cards or French-suited cards are cards that use the French suits of (clovers or clubs ), (tiles or diamonds ), (hearts ), and (pikes or spades ). Each suit contains three or four face/court cards. In ...

pack is used with only the

ace An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or a club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the ...

queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

, jacks and tens of each

suit A suit, also called a lounge suit, business suit, dress suit, or formal suit, is a set of clothes comprising a suit jacket and trousers of identical textiles generally worn with a collared dress shirt, necktie, and dress shoes. A skirt su ...

Trumps A trump is a playing card which is elevated above its usual rank in trick-taking games. Typically an entire suit is nominated as a ''trump suit''; these cards then outrank all cards of plain (non-trump) suits. In other contexts, the terms ''trump c ...

rank A rank is a position in a hierarchy. It can be formally recognized—for example, cardinal, chief executive officer, general, professor—or unofficial. People Formal ranks * Academic rank * Corporate title * Diplomatic rank * Hierarchy ...

in the following order: A 10 10 10 Q Q Q Q J J J J A 10. This leaves only two

side suit The following is a glossary of terms used in card games. Besides the terms listed here, there are thousands of common and uncommon slang terms. Terms in this glossary should not be game-specific (e.g. specific to bridge, hearts, poker or rummy), ...

cards: A and A. Cards have point values following the standard ace–ten system.

Deal

The first

dealer Dealer may refer to: Film and TV * ''Dealers'' (film), a 1989 British film * ''Dealers'' (TV series), a reality television series where five art and antique dealers bid on items * ''The Dealer'' (film), filmed in 2008 and released in 2010 * ...

is chosen by

lot Lot, LOT, The Lot or similar may refer to: Common meanings Areas *Land lot, an area of land *Parking lot, for automobiles *Backlot, in movie production Sets of items *A great many of something, as in, "There are a lot of beetles," or "There are ...

; thereafter the

deal In cryptography, DEAL (Data Encryption Algorithm with Larger blocks) is a symmetric block cipher derived from the Data Encryption Standard (DES). Its design was presented by Lars Knudsen at the SAC conference in 1997, and submitted as a proposa ...

rotates to the left. Dealer

shuffles Shuffling is a technique used to randomization, randomize a deck of playing cards, introducing an element of chance into card games. Various shuffling methods exist, each with its own characteristics and potential for manipulation. One of the ...

and offers the

pack Pack or packs may refer to: Music * Packs (band), a Canadian indie rock band * ''Packs'' (album), by Your Old Droog * ''Packs'', a Berner album Places * Pack, Styria, defunct Austrian municipality * Pack, Missouri, United States (US) * ...

to the right for

cutting Cutting is the separation or opening of a physical object, into two or more portions, through the application of an acutely directed force. Implements commonly used for wikt:cut, cutting are the knife and saw, or in medicine and science the sca ...

before dealing four rounds of 1 card each beginning with

forehand The forehand is a shot used in most racket sports, such as tennis, table tennis and pickleball, where the palm of the hand precedes the back of the hand when swinging the racket. In tennis, except in the context of the phrase ''forehand volley ...

to the left of the dealer.

Auction

Forehand opens a multi-round

auction An auction is usually a process of Trade, buying and selling Good (economics), goods or Service (economics), services by offering them up for Bidding, bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from th ...

in which players "pass", bid or

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

. The possible

contracts A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, services, money, or promise to transfer any of thos ...

in ascending order are: Wedding, Zolo ("Solo") and Zolo Du ("Solo Tout"). Players must

overcall In contract bridge, an overcall is a bid made after an opening bid has been made by an opponent; the term refers only to the first such bid. A ''direct'' overcall is such a bid made by the player seated immediately to the left of the opener, i.e ...

an earlier bid or

pass Pass, PASS, The Pass or Passed may refer to: Places *Pass, County Meath, a townland in Ireland *Pass, Poland, a village in Poland *El Paso, Texas, a city which translates to "The Pass" * Pass, an alternate term for a number of straits: see Li ...

. In addition players may

call Call or Calls may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games * Call (poker), a bet matching an opponent's * Call, in the game of contract bridge, a bid, pass, double, or redouble in the bidding stage Music and dance * Call (band), from L ...

a double against an opposing bid. There are four doubling calls which, in ascending order, are: "Contra", "Re", "Bock" and "Sup" (''Kontra, Rej, Bok'' and ''Słup''). Each one doubles or redoubles the game value. In soloist contracts, the soloist may not double first. If a bid is overcalled, all doubles to that point are annulled. The auction ends if all pass or if after a bid and three passes.

Contracts

The contracts are: * Solo Tout (''Zolo Du''). The

declarer Card players are those participating in a card game. Various names are given to card players based on their role or position. Position Games of Anglo-American origin In games of Anglo-American origin played in English-speaking countries, ...

plays alone and must take all 4 tricks. * Solo (''Zolo). The declarer plays alone and undertakes to take at least 53 of the 104 points in the game. * Wedding (''Wesele''). The declarer has Q and Q and will partner with the player with the highest Jack not held, the Jacks ranking in their trump suit order. The partner is only revealed during

play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...

. * Silent Solo (''Cicha''). This is not bid, but only revealed during the game when it turns out that the player has both Queens. * Normal game (''Gra zwyczajna''). If no-one bids a contract and there is no silent game, the players with the black queens – Q and Q – form a team (the "Old Ones") against the defenders (the "Young Ones"). This pairing is only revealed during play.

Play

Forehand leads with any card. Players must

overtake Overtaking or passing is the act of one vehicle going past another slower moving vehicle, travelling in the same direction, on a road. The lane used for overtaking another vehicle is often a passing lane farther from the road shoulder, which ...

if they can, either by trumping a side suit Ace or, more usually, by playing a higher trump. Only if a player has no trumps may a side suit Ace be discarded. The trick is won by the highest trump and the trick winner leads to the next. Players places their tricks face down in front of them and they may not be looked at until the end of the

hand A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered appendage located at the end of the forearm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs. A few other vertebrates such as the Koala#Characteristics, koala (which has two thumb#O ...

Scoring

A Solo Tout is won if the declarer takes all 4 tricks, otherwise it is lost. All other games are won with 53 points or more. In partnership games, the partners combine their points. A team scoring 25 or fewer points loses double and a team taking no tricks in a normal game loses triple. The basic game values are: * Normal game: 1 game point * Normal game won double: 2 * Normal game won triple: 3 * Silent Solo: 4 * Solo: 5 * Solo Tout: 10 The above values are doubled for every double call that was made against that contract during the auction. However, Bok and Slup may not be called against a Solo or Solo Tout and a Slup may not be called against a Silent Solo.

Variations

In the Greater Poland Kop League there is an honorary game called "Kop" which is awarded without play to a player dealt all four 10s. Scoring in a normal game is as above, but the points awarded for solo games are as follows:''Wielkopolska Liga Kopa Sportowego''
at kasebe-baszka.pl. Retrieved 26 July 2023. * Silent: 12 * Solo: 15 * Solo Tout: 30 * Kop: 30 A maximum of three doubles is allowed in normal games (Contra, Re, Bock). There is no Bock in a Silent or Solo game and no Re in a Solo Tout. There is no doubling in Kop as it is won immediately.

Footnotes

References

Literature

* Zachodni Institute (1967). ''Ziemie zachodnie: Studia i materiały'', Issue 10. Instytut Zachodni.

External links

*

', Rules for Kop and Baśka at

''XIX OTWARTE MISTRZOSTWA ŚMIGLA W KOPA''
- Smigla tournament rules.
''Wielkopolska Liga Kopa Sportowego''
- Greater Poland League rules. {{Trick-taking card games Polish card games Four-player card games Schafkopf group