Speculation (card game)

Speculation is an English gambling card game described as a form of mild domestic gambling that appeared in the late eighteenth century and remained popular through the nineteenth before falling out of use. Its rules were first set down in the 1800 English edition of Hoyle's Games Improved. The game can be played by any number of people using a standard 52-card deck. Each player antes a chip, receives three face-down cards, and a further card is turned face-up to set the trump suit. Play proceeds clockwise as players reveal cards in turn, and whoever holds the current highest trump may either keep it toward winning the pool or offer to sell it to the highest bidder at the table. Speculation appears as a pastime in the fiction of the period, including Jane Austen's Mansfield Park and The Watsons and Charles Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, evidence of how familiar the game was to contemporary readers.