Trappola

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

History:

Italy - earliest reference 1524.

Setup:

Trappola is a trick taking game for two players. The game is played with a 36 card deck containing the A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, and 2 of each suit.

Deal:

Each player is dealt nine cards in batches of 4 and 5. The remaining 18 cards are set aside as a stock. If the non-dealer does not like their hand, they may discard their hand face up, and take the next nine cards from the stock. If they still dislike their hand, they may again discard and take the final 9 cards. If there are cards left in the stock, the dealer also has the option of discarding and drawing a new hand one or two times (depending on how many cards are left).

Play:

The goal is to score points in four ways - by card combinations before play, winning point-cards in tricks, winning the last trick, and winning a trick with a 2. The point-cards are: A - 6 pts, K - 5 pts, Q - 4 pts, J - 3 pts.

A player holding three or four Aces, Kings, Queens, Jacks or Twos may declare them any time before playing one of them. At the end of the hand they receive the following points for declaring three cards: Aces - 12 pts, Kings, Queens or Jacks - 6 pts, Twos - 10 pts. If they declared four cards, they get double the points.

The non-dealer leads the first trick, with the winner of the trick leading the next one. You must follow suit if possible, otherwise you can play any card. The winner of the trick is the highest card (Ace is high) of the suit lead.

If you win a trick with a Two, you score an additional 10 points. If you win the last trick you get 6 points. However if you win the last one, two, three or four successive tricks with a Two, you instead score 26, 52, 78 or 104 points respectively. The only way for a Two to win a trick is if it is lead and your opponent has no cards of that suit.

After all the cards have been played, total your score including points for cards won in tricks and cards declared. The winner is the player with the highest score.