Sizette

Sizette is a historical French card game for six players divided into two teams of three, belonging to the trick-taking family and often described as a form of whist for six players. It is first documented in 1725 in the Academie Universelle des Jeux, which called it one of the most agreeable games on the cards even though it remained little known in Paris at the time; evidence suggests it was played across French regions from Normandy to the south, though it had largely disappeared by the late nineteenth century. The game uses a thirty-six card French-suited deck ranking king, queen, jack, ace, ten, nine, eight, seven, six. Dealing proceeds anticlockwise in two packets of three cards each, and the final card dealt sets the trump suit. A team wins a hand by taking at least three tricks, called winning singly, or by taking all six tricks, called winning double or a vole. Players must follow suit when they are able, and otherwise may trump or discard freely. Sizette's most unusual feature is that it explicitly allows communication between partners, with a designated team captain directing play, making the game as much about coordinated teamwork as individual card skill, despite requiring what its early description called great tranquility and attention.