Kaiserspiel

Kaiserspiel, later often called Kaiserjass, is a Swiss trick-taking card game for four or six players who sit in fixed partnerships, with the partners facing each other as in Bridge. It is a direct descendant of Karnoffel, one of the oldest card games known, which was already being talked about in 1426. Although the Jass name has stuck to it in Switzerland, it has nothing to do with the Jass family of games proper. The version described by the Pagat card games site is played around Stans and in the Engelberg valley in Canton Nidwalden, using a 40-card pack in which each suit holds the king, ober, under, and the seven down to the two, plus a banner card. Each player gets five cards and the teams bet on how strongly they hold, then try to win three of the five tricks. Trumps behave in an unusual medieval way: the highest trumps can beat kings, the king and ober of the trump suit form a small suit of their own, and the four banners, called Kaisers, can be promoted into the trump suit by announcement. Play usually runs to an agreed total such as 101 points, and the score is kept on a slate.