Trischaken is an historical Austrian, German and Polish gambling

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 three to five players. It appears related to French

Brelan Brelan () is a famous French vying game with rapidly escalating bets from the seventeenth to nineteenth century, and hence also a name for a card player, gambler or the name of the place where the game was played. The game is quite similar to the ...

Schmidt (1800), p. 263. and German

Scherwenzel Scherwenzel or Scharwenzel is a 16th century, German, gambling game played with playing card, cards and named after the Unter (playing card), Unters or Jack (playing card), Jacks that had special privileges. It appears to have been an elaboration ...

History

The game dates back to the 16th century when it was played at court in the

Kingdom of Poland The Kingdom of Poland (; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a monarchy in Central Europe during the Middle Ages, medieval period from 1025 until 1385. Background The West Slavs, West Slavic tribe of Polans (western), Polans who lived in what i ...

. It is also mentioned as a card game in a 1706 German poem and listed as a banned gambling game in a 1734 law book of

Anhalt-Bernburg Anhalt-Bernburg was a Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, principality of the Holy Roman Empire and a duchy of the German Confederation ruled by the House of Ascania with its residence at Bernburg in present-day Saxony-Anhalt. It emerged as a subd ...

. An indication of its distribution is given by its inclusion in a 1771 Bremen-Lower Saxon dictionary and its description as "popular" in

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

from at least the late 18th to mid-19th century.Weber (1855), p. 332. The word was also spelt ''dreschaken'', meaning "to beat, thrash, cudgel", and may have been derived from ''dreschen'', to thresh, recalling the game of

Karnöffel Karnöffel is a trick-taking card game which probably came from the upper-German language area in Europe in the first quarter of the 15th century. It first appeared listed in a municipal ordinance of Nördlingen, Bavaria, in 1426 among the games ...

whose name also means "to thrash". In 1871 it was described as a game of chance, popular with peasants "in the provinces" and played with the "large old German cards", which presumably meant 36- or even 48-card, German-suited packs. ''Treschaken'' was equated with French

and the game of Krimp, Krimpen or Krimpenspiel.

Description

German Drischaken or Trischaken

The

Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob Grimm, Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm, Wilhelm (1786–1859), were Germans, German academics who together collected and published folklore. The brothers are among the best-known storytellers of Oral tradit ...

give a brief description of Drischaken as a game for three to five players in which each receives 3 cards and the winner is the one who has the most cards of various possible combinations. They give various alternative spellings as ''drischäken, drischeken, dreschakn, trischaken'' and ''trischakeln''. and adds that, "likewise ''karnöfeln'' means playing as well as thrashing", referring to another widespread card game of the time. A detailed description in German of the rules of Brelan (aka Trischaken) is given in Pierer's Universal Lexikon, Volume 3 in 1868.

Austrian Trischack

According to Popowitsch (1705–1774), the Austrian game of Trischack (''Trischackspiel'') was played with 3 cards and the Jack (''Bub'') or Nine – known as ''Pamfili'' – of each suit are wild. In Saxony and Silesia, they were called ''Wenzels'' or ''Scharwenzels''. Thus it may have been related to the Bavarian game of

. However, Hommel equates Trischak to

Grobhäusern Grobhäusern, also Grobhaus, is an historical Germany, German vying game in which players bet and then compare their 4-card combinations. It is played by two to eight players using a 32-card List of traditional card and tile packs#German-suited Sk ...

which was essentially Scherwenzel without any wild cards. In Austria, the ''Schärwenzel'' (i.e. the 7, 8 and 9 or the 7, 8 and Jack) was the highest card. In

Franconia Franconia ( ; ; ) is a geographical region of Germany, characterised by its culture and East Franconian dialect (). Franconia is made up of the three (governmental districts) of Lower Franconia, Lower, Middle Franconia, Middle and Upper Franco ...

and Saxony, Trischaken was played with 4 cards per player using

German-suited cards German-suited playing cards are a very common style of traditional playing card used in many parts of Central Europe characterised by 32- or 36-card packs with the suits of Acorns (''Eichel'' or ''Kreuz''), Leaves (''Grün'', ''Blatt'', ''Lau ...

.Popowitsch (18 C), p. 43

Polish Tryszak

Tryszak (German: ''Treschak''Linde (1807), p. 665.), also called Straszak and Fluss because a

flush Flush may refer to: Places * Flush, Kansas, a community in the United States Architecture, construction and manufacturing * Flush cut, a type of cut made with a French flush-cut saw or diagonal pliers * Flush deck, in naval architecture * F ...

was an important feature, was an old gambling game that was popular at the beginning of the reign of

Stanisław August Poniatowski Stanisław II August (born Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski; 17 January 1732 – 12 February 1798), known also by his regnal Latin name Stanislaus II Augustus, and as Stanisław August Poniatowski (), was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuani ...

(reigned 1764–1795), but had been attested much earlier since there is a story that when King Sigismund I (reigned 1506–1548) was playing the game with two ministers, he was dealt two Kings but did not have a third one in his hand. So he claimed that he counted as the third king and thus ensured he won.Gloger (1903), p. 385. A detailed description of the game is given by Chomentowski and reproduced by

Łukasz Gołębiowski Łukasz Gołębiowski (; 1773–1849) was a Polish ethnographer, historian, translator and librarian. In 1794, he fought as a Polish army officer in the Kościuszko Uprising against Russia and participated in the Battle of Szczekociny The Ba ...

(1831).Gołębiowski (1831), pp. 48–50). The game was played thus: a silver plate was placed on the table and each player laid his money in front of him and anted a stake to the plate. A pack of 36 German-suited cards was shuffled and the dealer dealt two cards each. Obers and Nines were better than the others and could be used as

wild cards ''Wild Cards'' is a series of science fiction superhero shared universe anthologies, mosaic novels, and solo novels. They are written by a collection of more than forty authors (referred to as the "Wild Cards Trust") and are edited by George R. ...

to make up a triplet or

quartet In music, a quartet (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers. Classical String quartet In classical music, one of the most common combinations of four instruments in chamber music is the string quartet. String quar ...

. After the deal, if a player had poor cards and couldn't form a pair, they were discarded. A player with a Nine, an Ober or a

pair Pair or PAIR or Pairing may refer to: Government and politics * Pair (parliamentary convention), matching of members unable to attend, so as not to change the voting margin * ''Pair'', a member of the Prussian House of Lords * ''Pair'', the Fren ...

, passed, waiting for someone to say "play", then replied "I'll keep it". Those left in would play; out of 6 to 9 players, often only 2 or 3 would play. A bold player or one with good cards could raise the stake before the next two cards were dealt. A player decided how many cards he wanted to exchange, raising the stake each time. The aim was to scare the opponent into folding and, with a poor card or a good one, force the stakes up. However, if no-one wanted to take a risk, the rate was suddenly reduced and returned to the basic stake. The cards ranked in the typical order for Polish cards. Four-card combinations ranked above 3-card combinations; a straight flush outranked a flush which, in turn, beat a set (triplet or quartet). Obers and 9s were wild; one wild card could be used to make up a 3-card combination and up to two could be used to make up a 4-card combination. Natural combinations outranked wild combinations of the same type; likewise three Kings outranked three Obers etc. Tryszak may be ancestral to

Chlust Chlust (, Polish for 'splash') is a Polish gambling card game know primarily in Upper Silesia, hence its alternative name 'Silesian poker', although the game was in existence well before poker was invented. The name is derived from the splashy ...

which has been known since the early 19th century.

Other uses

Schmidt suggests an actual link with Karnöffel as well as a game called ''Treschack'', played with 3 Kings (It.: ''tre sciacchi''), neither of which resemble Brelan. In modern times, Trischaken is the name of a null contract in the popular European

Tarot card game 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 i ...

Königrufen Königrufen or Königsrufen (German: "Calling the King"Dummett (1980), ''Twelve Tarot Games'', p. 147.) is a four-player, trick-taking card game of the Tarot card games, tarot family, played in Austria and Southern Tyrol, with a pack of 54 cards ...

References

Literature

* _ (1855). ''Sitzungsberichte'' by the Vienna Academy of Sciences (''Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien Philosophisch-Historische Klasse''). Vienna: Imperial and Royal Printers. * Beermann, Siegmund (1706). ''Einige historische Nachrichten und Anmerckungen von der Graffschafft Pyrmont''. Frankfurt and Leipzig: Hauenstein. * Cella, Johann Jakob (1786). ''Johann Jakob Cella's, J. V. D. und Hochfürstl. Anspach. Justizrath und Kastner zu Ferrieden freymüthige Aufsätze''. Vol. 3. Anspach nsbach Benedict Friedrich Haueisen. * Chomentowski (1867). ''Wielkie poselstwo do Turek''. * Frisch, Johann Leonhard (1755). ''Nouveau Dictionnaire des Passagers François-Allemand et Allemand-François.'' Leipzig: Johann Friedrich Gleditsch. * Gloger, Zygmunt (1903). ''Encyklopedia Staropolska'', Vol. 4. * Gołębiowski, Łukasz (1831)
''Gry i Zabawy Róz̊nych Stanów, w Kraju Cakym, lub Niektórych Tylko Prowincyach''
Warsaw: Glücksberga. * Grimm Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (1860)
''Deutsches Wörterbuch''
6th edn., vol. 2. * Hommel, Card Ferd. (1769)
''Rhapsodia Quaestionum''
Volume 1. 3rd edn. * Kaiser, Friedrich (1871). ''Ein Pfaffenleben (Abraham a Sancta Clara): historischer Volksroman''. Vol. 1. Vienna: Waldheim. * Linde, M. Samuel Bogumił (1812)
''Słownik Języka Polskiego''
Vol. 5 (R – T). Warsaw. * Pierer, H.A. (1868). ''Universal-Lexikon der Gegenwart und Vergangenheit oder neuestes encyclopädisches Wörterbuch der Wissenschaften, Künste und Gewerbe,'' 3rd volume, 5th fully improved edn. Altenberg (Bodmerci-Chimpanzee). Altenburg: Pierer. * Schmidt, Karl Christian Ludwig Schmidt (1800). ''Westerwäldisches Idiotikon, oder Sammlung der auf dem Westerwalde''. Hadermar and Herborn: Gelehrte Buchhandlung. * Popowitsch, Johann Siegmund Valentin (18C)

004 004, 0O4, O04, OO4 may refer to: * 004, fictional British 00 Agent * 0O4, Corning Municipal Airport (California) * O04, the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation * Abdul Haq Wasiq, Guantanamo detainee 004 * Junkers Jumo 004 turbojet engine * La ...

br>''Vocabula Austriaca et Stiriaca''
Part 2. P. Lang. * Weber, Karl Julius (1855). ''Deutschland, oder Briefe eines in Deutschland reisenden Deutscher'', Vols. 1–2. p. 332. {{Historical card games Austrian card games German card games Gambling games Historical card games 16th-century card games