Trump : a 1580s English card game There seem to be two sorts of card games ; stupidly difficult ones, and stupidly simple ones. This is one of the simple ones. I'll start with the source, Bellot's Familiar Dialogues from 1586. The book is written for Frenchmen who want to learn how to speak English, and is arranged in three columns - colloquial English in the first column, French in the middle, and English written as she is spoke in the third column. Yup, if you want to put in the work, you can learn how to speak correctly pronounced 1580s English. The book may be in a university library near you (it's a Scoler reprint). OK, so the book is a bunch of simple everyday conversations ... one of these is about a quiet game of cards (as a sidenote, Florio's book on how to learn Italian has conversations on how to pick up, and someone-or-others book on how to learn Spanish has conversations to use when you are going to Church. Hmmmmm). OK, here is the full conversation about cards, as it appears in the book. This will let other people figure out different ways of how to play Trump based on this evidence. It also shows 'real' 1580s English speech ... I've cleaned up the spelling, but thats it. Stephen : How shall we play ? Peter : The King shall be worth 6 pennies, the Queen four, the knave two and each card one : and who has the ace shall rob. Thomas : You say well. Who shall deal ? Peter : The same shall deal, that shall cut the fairest card. James : Let us see then, who shall deal. Stephen : I must deal, for I did cut a king. James : Deale twelve a piece. Thomas : Nine for every man is enough. Peter : Well deal then. Stephen : I deal right. The trump is Peter : I rob. But you deal all to thee. Stephen : I cannot mend it. The cards did rise so. Peter : You did not shuffle them well. Stephen : But I have. Thomas : You do owe me every man two pennies, for the knave that I have. Stephen : Lets see Thomas : Here it is James : And you do owe me every man ten, for the King and the Queen Peter : Show them James : Here be them Peter : Notwithstanding all your fair cards, I have the game, and you do owe me every man, for six cards. And then the card game ends ... First a sidenote about 'and who has the ace shall rob'. Justin du Coeur in his redaction of Ruff and Honours (http://jducoeur.org/game-hist/game-recon-ruff-and-trump.html , citing Francis Willughby's Volume of Plaies, c1665) says that 'Next, the player who holds the Ace of Trump gets to "rub the head". They take in the 4 cards of the head, then discard four cards from the resulting 16-card hand. (Willughby is explicit about the order here -- rub, then discard.) If the card turned up for trump was an Ace, the dealer gets to rub the head.' This seems to match with the description in Bellot - see how James suggests 12 cards apiece, leaving four left over (presumably, you can rob the trump-defining turnup card). OK, at it's simplest, you could play Trump as a simple deal-em and sort out the money game. Bellot's Trump Use a standard 52 card, 4 suited deck. Cut for dealer. Dealer deals a number of cards to each player, and turns up a trump. If you hold the Ace of trumps - or were the dealer if it came up, you can draw four (including the turnup for trumps) and then discard four. Whoever has the most trumps wins, and everyone else pays them 6 for the King, 4 for the Queen, two for the Jack and 1 for every other trump. Alternatively, you could make it a trick-taking game ... lets call it Lochac Trump. Lochac Trump Use a standard 52-card, 4 suited deck. Cut for deal. Dealer deals a number of cards to each player, and turns up a trump. If you hold the Ace of trumps (or turned it up as the dealer), you can draw four and then discard four. Play then goes from the dealer clockwise, following suit where possible, trumping in if you want when you are void in a suit (ie as per Hearts, Whist, Bridge, 500 etc etc). Aces are high. Score only trumps in tricks you won, scoring 6 for the King, 4 for the Queen, two for the Jack and 1 for every other trump. Then cut for deal again, and keep going. Bibliography Bellot "Familiar Dialogues" (1586, reprinted by Scoler Press. No ISBN, reprinting date, or copyright notice)