Vint Copy

Vint is a Russian card game similar to both bridge and whist and sometimes called Russian whist. ''Vint'' means "screw" in Russian, and the name is given to the game because the four players propose, bid, and overbid each other until one, having bid higher than the others care to, makes the trump, and his vis-a-vis plays as his partner.

The game spread to Finland, where it evolved into Skruuvi, which features also a kitty and misère contracts.

Description of vint

Vint has many similarities to rubber bridge: The cards have the same rank. The score of tricks is entered under the line, and points for slam, honors, and penalties for undertricks above the line. The bidding is similar to bridge: one bids the number of tricks and the trump suit or no trump.

During the bidding and declaring, players indicate by their calls their strength in the various suits and the high cards they hold, so that, when the playing begins, the position of the best cards and the strength of the different hands can often be fairly accurately estimated.

Unlike bridge, in vint there is no dummy, all taken tricks count toward a game (that is, the tricks taken by the defenders as well as the tricks taken by the declarer side including overtricks, regardless of whether the contract was made or not), and the bidding ends after eight consecutive passes (everyone passes twice, including the player who made the last bid). A trick's value depends on the level of the contract. In higher contracts the value is higher.

The card play follows the standard whist formula. One must follow suit, but if unable to do so, one can play any card. The trick is won by the highest trump, if there are trumps in the trick, otherwise by the highest card of the suit led. The winner of the trick starts the next one.

Points are awarded also for honors. In a no trump declaration aces count only as honors; in a suit declaration both the aces and the five next highest cards.

Development

The game emerged during the latter half of the 19th century. In primitive forms, known as Siberian vint, a trick's value depended on the level of the contract and the trump suit. Later, this was simplified so that the level of the contract was the only thing the value depended on.

Toward the end of the 19th century, the kitty was added to the game. The highest bidder took a kitty of 4 cards to his hand and gave one card for every other player before play started. Also toward the end of the 19th century, the card exchange mechanism used in Skruuvi was born. The highest bidder took the kitty in his hand, gave 4 cards for his partner, who in turn gave one card for every other player. This enabled the declarer side to arrange very shaped hands, which led to higher contracts.

The first rulebook for bridge, dated 1886, was '' Biritch, or Russian Whist'', by John Collinson, an English financier working in Ottoman Constantinople (now Istanbul). It and his subsequent letter to ''The Saturday Review'' dated May 28, 1906, document the origin of ''Biritch'' as the Russian community in Constantinople. The word ''biritch'' is thought to be a transliteration of the Russian word Бирюч (бирчий, бирич), an occupation of a herald or announcer.

There are references to vint in classical Russian literature, notably the short stories of Anton Chekhov and ''Cancer Ward'' by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The composer Tchaikovsky was an enthusiastic player.

Skruuvi

Skruuvi is a Finnish variant of vint that became common in Finland while it was a part of Russia. Skruuvi's rules diverged slowly from vint, and were codified in the 1940s in the books ''Skruuviopas'' by the pseudonym O.L. and ''Uusi täydellinen skruuvipelin ohjekirja'' by the pseudonym E.N. Maalari. Skruuvi is still played in Finland as a niche hobby whereas vint is not played in Russia. Helsingin Suomalainen Klubi still organizes annual ''Toro Skruuvi'' tournament in honor of Arvo Ylppö, an enthusiastic Skruuvi player.

Skruuvi uses a bidding system similar to bridge, but the emphasis of the bidding system is more in signifying individual high cards, similar to slam-investigating cue bids in bridge.

Differences from vint

In Skruuvi, as described by E.N. Maalari, there is a kitty of four cards that the declarer side gets after bidding, and the game involves some exchange of cards so that everyone ends up with 13 cards. After the exchange of cards, the bidding continues, but only the members of the declarer side are allowed to participate in bidding. The trick-taking play occurs after this second bidding round.

In addition to the vint-style scoring, the declarer side gets a bonus for a made contract that depends on the level of the contract. In Skruuvi, the non-declarer side may also double by knocking on the table before the card play starts.

It is also possible to bid '' misääri'', a contract where the aim is to avoid tricks. In a round-pass situation a forced ''misääri'' is played.

Since the exchange of cards favors the declarer side, final contracts in Skruuvi are rather high, at a level of four or higher. In some circles undoubled contracts of four odd tricks, and sometimes also undoubled contracts of five odd tricks, are judged made without playing out the hand.

After a rubber has been played in Skruuvi, four end games (called ''Kotka'') are played without a kitty. In the endgames the bidding starts at a level of six (small slam level), and the exchange of cards favors highly the declarer side.

A typical skruuvi night consists of three matches, where a match consists of a rubber of ordinary skruuvi and four ''kotkas''. Between the matches, the seats are changed so that everyone plays as a partner of everyone else. The partnerships may be temporarily broken if the players make certain special bids, ''bolshevik'' or ''mussolini''. In these contracts the declarer plays alone against everyone else, in ''bolshevik'' a grand slam ''misääri'', and in ''mussolini'' a grand slam no trump.

Later developments

The scoring system of classical Skruuvi, as played in the first half of the 20th century, was notoriously complicated, with scoring for games, made contracts, taken tricks (or avoided tricks in ''misääri''), various honors, penalties for failed contracts, penalties for aces taken in tricks during a ''misääri'' contract and, of course, special scoring for ''bolshevik'' and ''mussolini''.

Since the 1950s, at Helsingin Suomalainen Klubi, the scoring system has been streamlined. Bonuses for honors and the concept of playing a rubber have been dropped altogether. A match consists of four hands of ordinary skruuvi, four hands of ''kotkas'', and four hands of ''bolsheviks''. According to earlier rules, it was possible to bid a ''bolshevik'', but club rules made it mandatory for everyone to bid ''bolshevik'' once during a 12-hand match. Only slam contracts and doubled contracts are actually played out; other contracts are judged made without actual card play.

Another modern variant consists of eight hands, four hands of ordinary skruuvi and four of kotkas. Points are awarded only for made contracts, avoided tricks in forced misääri, and penalties for undertricks and penalties for taken aces in ''misääri''. In this variant, all hands are played out, but the minimum allowed final contract is five odd tricks.

Famous players

* Minna Canth
* Arvo Ylppö

References

Sources

*

Further reading

* {{pagat, Card games in Finland, national/finland.html

The rules of vint at www.korttipelit.net (Finnish)

The rules of Skruuvi at www.korttipelit.net (Finnish)
* Maalari, E.N., ''Uusi täydellinen skruuvipelin ohjekirja'', Hämeenlinna 1944
* Kurki-Suonio, Ilmo, ''MMM Korttipelikirja'', Otava 1962, contains the rules of Skruuvi in Finnish.
* Scarne, John, ''Scarne's Encyclopedia of Card Games'', contains the rules of vint in English.
* Taskinen, Hannu et al., "Skruuvin tarkoitus", from ''Muusan kuiskaus'' (ed. Inkeri Näätsaari), Enostone, 2004
* Taskinen, Hannu (ed.), ''Skruuvi'', Enostone, 2004

19th-century card games
Auction Whist group
Russian card games
French deck card games