Bezique

Bezique was originally a French card game dating back to the 17th century; it is similar to Piquet, from which it is derived. It is, in its basic form, a two-player game, although there are variations for more players. It is very similar to Pinochle, which developed from the standard two-hand Bezique.

Bezique's peak of popularity was during the 19th century, when it was well known enough to be mentioned in novels. For example, when Emile Zola conducted research for what would be his novel Nana, he investigated the lives of courtesans and found that typically these women could be expected to squeeze in a game of Bezique after lunch during their busy day.

Bezique was popular enough for several variations to come into existence. There is the two-handed variation, known as Rubicon Bezique, which uses four decks for play and has certain variations in the scoring. Three-Handed Bezique uses three decks and allows triple scoring; Four-Handed Bezique uses six decks for its four players. Six-Deck Bezique is also known as Chinese Bezique and was said to be a favorite pastime of Winston Churchill. It is similar to Rubicon Bezique, although it uses more cards and has its own scoring. Finally, Eight-Deck Bezique, similar to the six-deck variety, but has eight decks and some scoring differences.

Bezique is not played with a standard 52-card deck. The Bezique deck (sometimes referred to as a Piquet deck, in reference to its earlier form) is a 64-card deck. There are two of each value card, from seven through the ace in each suite. The two through six cards are not used in any of the variations. Ranking of the cards, from highest to lowest is ace, 10, king, queen, jack, nine, eight, and seven.

In the basic two-person version, the dealer deals three cards to the other player and then three cards to himself. Two cards are dealt to the nondealing player and two to the dealer, followed by three cards dealt to each player. The remaining cards are placed face down. Sometimes this stack is referred to as the talon. The top card is turned face up. That card's suit becomes the trump suit.

The nondealing player now plays any card, face up, and then the dealer plays a card. If the dealer's card is the same suit as the nondealer's card, but a higher value, he wins the trick. The dealer also wins if the played card is of trump suit. With each trick, the winner takes the cards and places them in his or her own separate stack. During each trick a player may declare a meld, a pairing of cards such as a king and queen of clubs, and is awarded points for each meld. At the end of the trick, the players take cards from the talon so that they have eight cards in their hand until the talon is exhausted.

The winner of the last trick takes the last card from the talon, and the other player takes the upturned card that determined the trump suit. They then play the last eight tricks, and at this time they must follow the suit placed on the table. If the second player cannot follow suit, he or she can play a card of the trump suit. If he or she cannot play the same or the trump suit, he or she can play any other card. This continues until the last trick is played.

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