2.2 The cards

The game has 78 cards. There are:

• the $1, which is a special card;
• 77 other cards, that can be decomposed into a $1 and a $1

There are five different suits:

• the $1, whose numbers range from one (the $1) to twenty-one (the $1), in ascending strength;
• the four traditional, $1 suits, $1, $1, $1, $1, with the following $1:
  • the $1 (one), abbreviated ‘A’;
  • the numbers from two to ten inclusive;
  • the $1 (eleven), abbreviated ‘J’;
  • the $1 ¹ (twelve), abbreviated ‘C’ ²;
  • the $1 (thirteen), abbreviated ‘Q’;
  • the $1 (fourteen), abbreviated ‘K’. The jacks, knights, queens and kings are called the $1

As we will see later in Tricks, the $1 trumps are (i.e. close to the 21), the more likely to take tricks, whereas the kings add most value to the tricks (see Score).

Together with the excuse, the petit and twenty-one are called the $1 Having as many of them as possible is the most effective way to win a game, as we will see in section Score.

If a player does not have cards of the lead suit, then she can trump. The earlier she trumps, the best chances she has to forcibly take face cards from her opponents. This incurs a strategy for the taker: discard (see Dog and discard) remaining cards from an under-populated suit to be able to trump from the first trick, which is called a $1

In the other hand, if the taker chooses to play every time the same suit, she minimizes the chances that the defendant “save” face cards, since they would only be able to save the face of this long suit, and then trump when no other face would be to take. This is called $1

As a defendant, if you have the petit, do not hesitate to dispose as soon as possible of your high trumps, so that you can save the petit if a fellow defendant plays a better trump.

If you are a defendant and play just before the taker, try new suits to let your partners get a chance to save their faces if the taker does not trump. This is called “opening a suit”.

As discussed in section Score, it is vital to have the petit, the twenty-one or the excuse. However, it is very difficult to take the excuse, and impossible to take the twenty-one, since it is the strongest card (see Tricks). But if one player plays master trumps one after the other, the opponents will be eventually forced to play the petit and lose it. This is called the petit hunt.