This game is the invention of Professor Hoffmann. It has achieved immediate
popularity in circles where it has been experimentally introduced, and it
has been thought that it may even be destined to supplant Bridge. Waiving
discussion, however, of the question whether Bridge is on the point of
immediate deposition from its throne, no impartial person would deny that
games could be devised that might run it very close, and bid fair to
imperil its popularity. To invent such a game Professor Hoffmann, with his
long and close experience of social pastimes of every kind, is
exceptionally well qualified; and, whether or no we shall all leave off
being Bridge-players and become Quinto-players, there is no denying that in
the latter game there are several new and interesting elements, that it
carefully avoids the fatal error of excessive complexity--the ruin of
"Vint" and "Skat," for instance--and that it is compounded of skill and
chance in very happy proportions.
It is a game of two partners against two, as at Bridge and Whist. The pack,
however, consists of fifty-three cards instead of fifty-two. The place of
the extra card (five "crowns"--known as "Quint Royal") which is included by
Messrs. Goodall & Son in their "Quinto" packs can be supplied equally well
by the "Joker," which all ordinary packs now contain. Similarly, the
score-sheets (which resemble {264} those of Bridge, except that no
horizontal division is necessary) may be dispensed with, and their place
supplied by ordinary paper and pencil, or by an ordinary cribbage-board.
After settling partners and deal in the usual way, the cards are shuffled
and cut, and the dealer then lays aside the five top cards, face downwards,
to form what is known as the "cachette." The remaining forty-eight cards
are dealt out as at Whist, so that each hand contains twelve cards; but no
trump card is turned up.
The players in rotation, commencing with the eldest hand, have then the
option of once doubling the value of each trick, and of once re-doubling an
opponent's double. The option passes round the table once only, and does
not affect the value of the "quints," as defined below.
The normal value of each trick, reckoned irrespective of its contents, and
counting to the side which wins it, is five points. Each side scores the
number of tricks that it actually wins. If A B win 11 tricks, and Y Z 2, A
B score 55, and Y Z 10. These values may, however, be doubled or quadrupled
before the play begins, as previously explained. The winners of the twelfth
trick take the "cachette," which itself counts as an extra trick. Thus the
winning of the twelfth trick bears a double value.
So far as regards "trick" scoring. The "honours" are known as "Quints," and
are (1) The five of any suit, a fifth "honour" being the "Joker" or "Quint
Royal"; (2) An ace and four, or a deuce and trey, of the same suit, falling
to the same trick. "Quints" count not to the side to which they are
originally dealt, but to the side that wins the trick containing {265}
them. They are marked as they occur in course of play, according to the
following scale: Quint Royal, 25; Quint in Hearts, 20; in Diamonds, 15; in
Clubs, 10; in Spades, 5. The contents of the "cachette" (if of any value)
are similarly scored by the side that takes it.
The play of Quint Royal is peculiar. It has no trick-taking value at all,
and can be scored by the holder only if he can throw it on a trick won by
his partner. This he is always allowed to do, whether he holds one of the
suit led or not.
With the preceding exception, every player, having one of the suit led,
must follow. If he has not, he may trump or over-trump. No selection is
made of any particular suit for trumps, but for trumping purposes the suits
ascend in power, in Bridge order, from spades to hearts. Thus any spade may
be trumped by the deuce of clubs, which may be over-trumped by any other
club or by the deuce of diamonds--and so on up to the one card, the ace of
hearts, which is a winner against all the rest.
Game is 250 up. A distinction between quints and tricks is that the former
are marked up as they occur in course of play, and that, as soon as the
scoring of them brings either side up to or beyond 250, that game is at an
end, and the rest of the hand is abandoned. The value of the "cachette" may
make the winners of it game; if so, the tricks are not counted. If neither
side is 250 up after counting all quints, the value of the tricks won is
added in. Should such addition bring both parties beyond 250, the higher of
the two totals wins. Those who first win two games win the rubber, and
score 100 points extra therefor.
There is another method of scoring--by "single," {266} "double," and
"treble" games--but the former way has been preferred wherever the writer
has seen the game played.
Before Quint Royal has been played, a player who does not hold it should be
always on the alert to give his partner the chance of making it. The
original leader, therefore (not holding Quint Royal himself), is always
expected to start with the ace of spades, if he has it. If not, with the
ace of clubs. The ace of hearts is certainly, and the ace of diamonds
probably, too valuable to be led out in this way.
The establishment of a black suit is obviously a hopeless task, for both
red suits cannot be got out of the way. Hearts, however, may sometimes be
extracted for the benefit of a good long suit of diamonds.