Forty-fives

Forty-fives, also called auction forty-fives, auction 120s, 120 or growl, is a trick-taking card game that originated in Ireland. It is played with a standard 52 card French deck and normally involves two to six players in the traditional scoring form, which plays to 45 points, or the auction variant, which plays to 120 points. The game descends from the Scottish game Maw, which King James the Sixth helped popularize in the seventeenth century, and it developed through the Irish game Twenty-five into its modern forms. Forty-fives spread widely beyond Ireland and became especially popular in Atlantic Canada, in parts of New England, and on the South Island of New Zealand, with numerous regional variations in scoring and bidding still played today. A typical hand takes around twenty minutes to play and the game is usually recommended for players aged seven and older.