Écarté

Écarté is a French trick-taking card game for two players that developed as a casino card game in the nineteenth century and remains occasionally played today, though it has largely fallen out of everyday popularity. The game is played with a small thirty-two card Piquet deck, formed by stripping all cards below the seven out of a standard fifty-two card deck, and its name comes directly from the French word for discarded, referring to the game's signature exchange phase. After the initial deal, the non-dealing player may propose exchanging some or all of their cards for fresh ones from the remaining stock in hope of improving a weak hand, and the dealer may accept the exchange for their own hand as well or decline the whole proposal and play the hand as originally dealt. Once any exchanges are settled, the two players compete to win individual tricks in the usual trick-taking manner, with the trump suit and card ranking following Piquet-style conventions. A player who wins the majority of tricks in a deal scores points toward the game total, and the first player to reach five points wins the match outright.