Femkort ("Five Cards") is a classic Swedish
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 ...
for 3 to 8 players "with an unusual object", known since the 17th century, being mentioned in 1658 in
Georg Stiernhielm
Georg Stiernhielm (August 7, 1598 – April 22, 1672) was a Swedish civil servant, mathematician, linguist and poet. He has been called "the father of the Swedish skald art".
Stiernhielm's most famous poetic work is the first poem in the Musæ ...
's epic poem, ''Hercules'' (''Herkules'') as Fämkort.
[Stiernhielm (1658), line 154.] It is traditionally played with some kind of bet.
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Cards
The game is played with a standard 52-card French-suited
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. I ...
pack usually of the Modern Swedish pattern.
Early rules
The following rules are given in an 1847 Swedish games compendium:
Femkort may be played by any number of people from 3 to 8. The aim is solely to win the last trick
Trick(s) may refer to:
People
* Trick McSorley (1852–1936), American professional baseball player
* Armon Trick (born 1978), retired German international rugby union player
* David Trick (born 1955), former Ontario civil servant and univers ...
. Everyone places a set stake
A stake is a large wooden or metal implement designed to be driven into the ground and may refer to:
Tools
* Archer's stake, a defensive stake carried by medieval longbowmen
* Survey stakes, markers used by surveyors
* Sudis (stake) (Latin for ...
into the pot
Pot may refer to:
Containers
* Flowerpot, a container in which plants are cultivated
* Pottery, ceramic containers made from clay
* Cooking pot, a type of cookware
* Pot, a beer glass
Places
* Ken Jones Aerodrome, IATA airport code POT
* ...
or pool
Pool may refer to:
Bodies of water
* Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming
* Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings
* Tide pool, a roc ...
before 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 ...
. Each player then receives 5 cards, but no trump is turned. 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 ...
leads to the first trick and the person who has taken home the trick leads to the next. The first four tricks are worth nothing; however, the one who takes the last trick has won the pot.
Modern rules
There are two to ten players who receive five cards each from a standard 52-card pack
The standard 52-card deck of French-suited playing cards is the most common pack of playing cards used today. The main feature of most playing card decks that empower their use in diverse games and other activities is their double-sided design, wh ...
and play for tricks. There are no trumps. Players must follow suit
A trick-taking game is a card- or tile-based game in which play of a ''hand'' centers on a series of finite rounds or units of play, called ''tricks'', which are each evaluated to determine a winner or ''taker'' of that trick. The object of suc ...
if they can and head the trick
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 (card game), bridge, Hearts ...
if able. The trick is taken by the highest card of the led 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 (card game), bridge, Hearts ...
and the winner of a trick leads to the next. Those who win any of the first four tricks play to the last. The winner of the fifth and final trick sweeps the pot.
Variations
* Before the last trick is played, any of the players can request "better cards", and if all agree to this, the cards are redealt.
* If forehand wants better cards, she may ask for a redeal and, if all agree, the cards are redealt.[''Femkort'']
at spelregler.org. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
* The first player to win three deals wins the '' partie''.[
* The first player to win an agreed number of deals, e.g. three, wins the pot.][''Femkort'']
at spelakort.se. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
Footnotes
References
Literature
*
*
*
*
*
* Stiernhielm, Georg (1658). ''Herkules''. Uppsala.
*
{{trick-taking games
Swedish card games
Last trick group
17th-century card games