King is a compendium card game, a close relative of Barbu, Kierki and Trex, played in several slightly different versions in widely separated parts of the world: Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Turkey, Colombia and Brazil. In all of these places it is known by the English name King as well as by a variety of local names, among them the Flemish Kingen and the Turkish Rifki. Because of the name, people tend to assume the game comes from England, yet it never appears in English language card game books and there is no known evidence that it has been played in any English speaking country. How a game with an English name became popular across so many unconnected countries is, by the account of the card game reference that documents it, quite mysterious, and no single origin is established.
Facts
Sport
Game Type (category) Classification
Player CountSmall Group (3-6 Players) 1 Connections
Sources
1. King (card game) (Wikipedia)
Lead paragraph
goes back to the 1920s
Lead sentence, player count
for 3 or 4 players
View the Source2. King card game rules (Pagat page)
Page title and introductionQuote, Page title and introduction
This compendium game
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