Sixty-six (card game)

Sixty-six, also called 66 or by its German name Sechsundsechzig, is a fast point-trick card game of the marriage type played with a twenty-four card pack for two to four players, though it is most often played and best known as a two-handed game. Aces rank highest and tens rank second in each suit, and the game is won by the first player or side to reach sixty-six points within a deal worth a total of one hundred twenty points. It belongs to a wider family of related king-queen marriage-type card games that includes Austria's Schnapsen, the Czech and Slovak Mariáš, Hungary's Ulti, Finland's Marjapussi, France's Bezique and the American game Pinochle, all of which share the marriage-declaration mechanic at the heart of Sixty-six's play. A commemorative plaque in the German city of Paderborn credits the game's invention there in 1652, though its documented ancestor Mariage was not recorded until 1715, with Sixty-six itself appearing as a distinct named variant only around 1860.