User:Bermicourt/Card games/Contraspiel

Contraspiel, Kontraspiel or Contra is a trick-taking, card game of German origin for 3 to 6 players; a four-hand game being the most common. It is one of the Rams group of card games characterised by allowing players to drop out of the current game if they think they will be unable to win any tricks or a minimum number of tricks.

Cards
Contra is played with a 32-card, German suited pack comprising the suits of Acorns, Leaves, Hearts and Bells. The Sevens and Eights are removed leaving 24 cards in play. Cards rank in their natural order: Sow (or Ace) > King > Ober > Unter > 10 > 9. The Unters of Acorns and Leaves are the Wenzels, the permanent trumps.

Rules
The following rules are based on von Thalberg.

Dealing and play are clockwise. Forehand is therefore on the left of dealer. In each deal, one player becomes the soloist and plays against the other active players who become the defenders.

Dealing
At the start of the game each player is dealt 5 cards, leaving 4 in the talon, the topmost of which is turned to determine the trump suit.

Stakes
The player with the Acorn Wenzel (Unter) pays the basic stake, or stamm, of 4 chips or coins for the first game, but forehand, the player to the left of the dealer, leads to the first trick. If, however, the Acorn Unter is one of the 3 cards concealed in the talon, the player with the Green Unter pays the stamm. If that card is also in the talon, then either the cards are redealt or players draw lots to determine who pays the stamm.

At the end of each deal, the player who was forehand becomes dealer and pays the stamm. In addition to the stake, players may have to pay a penalty, or bête, during the game. The amounts of the bête and stamm are usually decided by prior agreement. For example, the bête may be equivalent to the amount accumulated in the pool.

Trump Wenzel or Ace
If dealer turns a Wenzel for trumps, he exchanges it for another card and becomes the soloist, Acorns being trumps if he takes the Acorn Wenzel or Leaves if he takes the Green Wenzel. If, after taking the Acorn Wenzel, he still believes his cards are not good enough to play, he may lay them down before another player says “contra!” and just pay a bête. If he has picked up the Green Unter, however, he must play, because there is a chance that he may not win any tricks and thus have to make a further payout, something not possible with the Acorn Unter, the highest trump. Dealer may also pick up an Ace if turned as trump and play in that suit, provided he has not looked at his cards.

Bidding
If the turn-up is neither a Wenzel nor an Ace, two rounds of bidding begin. In the first, the players, beginning with forehand, announce whether they will "play" in the trump suit or "pass". If all pass, a second round begins in which they announce if they will play in a different suit; forehand, or the eldest player, having the priority.

During the bidding process, forehand may pass first time around, to see if someone else will play in the trump suit and, if not, then choose to play in trumps anyway the second time around. If all 4 pass second time around, the cards are thrown in and redealt.

Contra and recontra
If a player announces "play", anyone who thinks he can win the game in that suit may call "contra" and, if it is the trump suit, may exchange a card for the trump turn-up. "Contra" must be announced and the card exchanged, however, before the first trick. The contra-player becomes the soloist.

A third player may call "recontra!" after the second trick and before the 9th card is led. they then become the soloist.

Matsch
It may also happen that everyone declares a game i.e. forehand announces "play", then "contra" and "recontra" are announced, and finally the fourth player thinks he has a good enough hand that he can win all the tricks in a different suit. He may announce a matsch. This takes precedence over all other contracts, but may only be announced if the declarer has not yet played to the next trick. In a matsch, each player pays 2 stamms and the declarer usually wins the whole pot.

A matsch cannot be played if the dealer has exchanged a Wenzel or an Ace, because the dealer must become the soloist in this case.

Trick-taking
In the tricks, players must follow suit, unless void, in which case they may either trump or discard.

Normal game
In a normal game, if the soloist takes 3 tricks, he wins the game outright. He can also win with 2 tricks, provided no defender has all 3 remaining and provided he was first to take 2 tricks. If the soloist:


 * Wins: he gets 4 chips
 * Loses: pays the bête
 * Loses as the recontra player: he pays a double bête

If any player fails to win a trick, he is revolte and must pay 2 chips (trump suit) or 1 chip (plain suit) to the winner.

Matsch
In a matsch, the soloist undertakes to win every trick, but even if he fails, he can still win the deal by taking 3 tricks, or 2 if the defenders are split. If the soloist:


 * Wins the matsch: he wins the whole pot and collect 1 or 2 chips from each loser (revolte player)
 * Loses the matsch, but wins the deal: pays 2 chips to each active opponent and collects 4 chips from the pot
 * Loses the matsch and the deal: pays 2 chips to each active player for the lost matsch as well as the bête for the lost deal.

If a defender achieves a matsch by chance, he is paid 1 or 2 chips by each loser.

If a contra player achieves a matsch by chance, he gets nothing for the matsch, but gets 4 chips for the game as usual and either 1 or 2 chips from each loser as above.

Literature

 * Geiser, Remigius (2004). "100 Kartenspiele des Landes Salzburg", in Talon, Issue 13.
 * von Thalberg, Baron F (1860). Der perfecte Kartenspieler oder practische Anleitung zur leichten Erlernung von 86 Kartenspiele, S Mode, Berlin.