Twenty-five is the Irish national card game, which also underlies the Canadian game of Forty-fives. Charles Cotton describes its ancestor in 1674 as "Five Cards", and gives the nickname five fingers to the Five of Trumps extracted from the fact that the Irish word cúig means both 'five' and 'trick'.[1] It is supposed to be of great antiquity, and widely believed to have originated in Ireland, although "its venerable ancestor", Maw,[2] of which James I of England was very fond, is a Scottish game.[3]
Twenty-five is descended from the old Scottish game of Maw, which dates to at least 1548 and is mentioned frequently up to about 1650.[7] Maw was fashionable during the reign of James I and became the chief game of the English court. However, it died out during the time of the English Commonwealth (1649–1660) only to appear in Charles Cotton's The Compleat Gamester of 1674 as Five Cards, in which the trump 5, known as five fingers is the highest card, followed by the ace of hearts, trump ace and trump knave, an earlier order different from later members of the family.[8]
Thereafter the game disappears again from the literature until the early 19th century where it resurfaces under the names of various descendants including Five and Ten, Spoil Five and Forty-five.
Twenty-five itself, also called five-and-twenty, emerged alongside these other variants and is mentioned as early as 1833 in the Dublin Penny Journal in an article against gambling: "...rustic gambling is conducted on the plan of a lottery. The woman of the house has generally one or more of such articles [a turkey, goose, herrings or mutton] as those above mentioned, which are purchased by the party to play at a price far above their intrinsic value; each purchase is paid for in equal shares, and the winner of one or more games, at five and twenty, or first fifteen... carries off the prize..."[9] It is probably much older for, in 1858, an Irish periodical describes Twenty-Five and Forty-Five as "our own old games" in which the five of trumps, called five fingers, was the best card, followed by the Ace of Hearts.[10][11]
However, the first detailed rules do not appear until 1876, when H.E. Heather describes it as a variant of Forty-Five. Any number could play and the cards ranked as described below with the five fingers (trump 5) as the commanding card and, unlike modern rules, the only one that could renege in the sense of being withheld when trumps were led, even if its holder had no other trump. Players cut for first deal (highest or lowest winning it as agreed); the cards were shuffled and cut before being dealt in threes and twos so that each player had five. The next was turned for trump. A player with the trump ace could rob the trump upcard. Whist rules of play were followed i.e. players had to follow suit if able (with the exception of the privilege associated with the five fingers); only if void in the led suit could they trump – this is unlike modern rules in which, as in all fours, players may trump even if they can follow. Each trick was worth five and twenty-five was game. Unlike Heather's rules for Forty-five, there was no jinking (winning the game on taking all five tricks) and no score of 5 for best trump.[12]
Twenty-five eventually emerged to become the national card game of Ireland.[2]
Overview
Twenty-five may be played by 2–8 persons, five being the best number. A standard pack is used and each player receives five cards, or six or nine, and another is turned up to fix the trump suit. The object of the play is to win one trick, or at least three of five. The object is to win at least 3 of the 5 tricks. When three play at this game, it is still necessary that one of them should win the three tricks in order to make a Five, as the stakes must remain for the next game if two of the players get two tricks each, and the other one. If the party consists of four, they play in two partnerships, which are determined by cutting the cards, the two lowest playing against the two highest, or by agreement among the parties. When six people play, it is usual to play in three partnerships, and when eight people play, in four.
Preliminaries
A full pack of 52 cards is used and each player receives five cards, dealt in pairs and triplets, being the next card on the top of the pack turned up for trump. Each player starts with a prearranged amount, which may be of 20 chips or counters, and puts up one chip upon the table to form a pool. The pool is usually limited to a certain maximum, which once reached there is no further subscription, though each dealer is required to "tit-up" the pool.[13]
The turn to deal and play always passes to the left, and after the first hand, each player deals in rotation. Where the game is strictly played, the person who misdeals, or who departs from the order with which the game began, of dealing either the three or the two cards first, forfeits his stake. Stack the rest face down, turning the topmost card for trump.
Robbing
If the turn-up is an ace, the dealer may "rob the trump" by putting out, face downwards, any card from his hand and take in the ace, but the trump suit remains unaltered. Similarly, a player who holds the ace of trumps may himself rob the trump at any time before playing to the first trick, putting out any card and taking in the turn-up, but need not disclose the fact until it is his turn to play. If the holder of the trump ace does not wish to rob, and does not announce the fact that he holds it before playing to the first trick, then, whenever he does play it, it counts as the lowest trump. A player who fails to rob cannot go out that hand. The card put out may not be seen. Robbing must take place before the first player on the dealer's left leads. Some players make "robbing" optional.[14]
Ranking of cards
Trump diamonds
5♦
J♦
A♥
A♦
K♦
Q♦
10♦
9♦
8♦
7♦
6♦
4♦
3♦
2♦
Trump hearts
5♥
J♥
A♥
K♥
Q♥
10♥
9♥
8♥
7♥
6♥
4♥
3♥
2♥
Off-suit diamonds
K♦
Q♦
J♦
10♦
9♦
8♦
7♦
6♦
5♦
4♦
3♦
2♦
A♦
Off-suit hearts
K♥
Q♥
J♥
10♥
9♥
8♥
7♥
6♥
5♥
4♥
3♥
2♥
Trump clubs
5♣
J♣
A♥
A♣
K♣
Q♣
2♣
3♣
4♣
6♣
7♣
8♣
9♣
10♣
Trump spades
5♠
J♠
A♥
A♠
K♠
Q♠
2♠
3♠
4♠
6♠
7♠
8♠
9♠
10♠
Off-suit clubs
K♣
Q♣
J♣
A♣
2♣
3♣
4♣
5♣
6♣
7♣
8♣
9♣
10♣
Off-suit spades
K♠
Q♠
J♠
A♠
2♠
3♠
4♠
5♠
6♠
7♠
8♠
9♠
10♠
So it will be seen that when diamonds are not trump, the A♦ is the worst card in the pack; when diamonds are trump it is the fourth best card in the game. When hearts are trumps, there is no second ace in the trump ranking, and whether trumps or not, the 2♣ or 2♠ is better than all plain cards in their respective suit.
The play
The player on the dealer's left leads first. Players must follow suit whenever possible, and the highest card of the suit led or, if a trump is played, the highest trump wins the trick. You must lead with a trump if there are 5 or more players. Each player must follow suit when trump is led, under the penalty of forfeiting his stake, except in the case of the three best trump cards, the 5 and J of trumps and the A♥, each of which is privileged to renege. If a player takes three tricks he wins the game. If no one succeeds there is a spoil, and a fresh stake, smaller than the original one as a rule, is put into the pool for the next round.
Reneging
When trumps are led, the 5 and J of trumps, and the A♥, need not be played. This is called reneging (colloquially, "rejigging"). The 5 may always renege: if it is led, no card can renege. The J may renege if the 5 is played, not led. Only the 5 can renege to the J led. The A♥ can renege to any inferior card. If hearts are not trumps and the A♥ is led, a trump must be played if possible; if not, it is not necessary to play a heart.
Jinking
At Spoil Five a player winning the first three tricks straight off may claim the pool without further play. If however, he leads to the fourth trick (described as "jinking"), he thereby is obliged to win all five. If he elects to jink and fails, he cannot score during that hand. A player who jinks, if jinking is agreed upon, receives an extra stake all around.
Pay-off
If no one wins the three tricks, or if a player jinked and failed to win all five, the game is said to have been "spoiled". Everyone then adds another chip to the pool, which is carried forward to the next deal. Otherwise, whoever took three tricks wins the pool, with an additional chip from each opponent if he took all five.
Strategy
If the elder hand has a certain five, that is to say, if he holds three cards which will each take a trick, he ought to play them, as there is a great probability, if his two remaining cards are tolerable, that he may get the whole five, and thus win a double stake. But if he holds only indifferent cards, the best method is to throw the lead into his opponent's hand by playing an inferior card, in the hope of regaining it at the third trick, which is the critical stage of the game; and as three tricks constitute a five equally as four, it is reckoned better play to reserve the best cards till the third trick, than to risk the game by eagerness to secure the first two.
Variants
Twenty-five and Forty-five are varieties of Spoil-five and they are played for either of these numbers. The main feature between these two varieties and the game of Spoil Five is that there is no Spoil. Each trick counts five to the maker and the trick made by the highest trump out scores ten. If a player gets out before that trump is played, he wins the game all the same. The winning of all five tricks is called a jink and the player who jinks wins the game whether played for twenty-five or forty-five points.
Brownsmith, Telemachus [pseud.] (1869). "Spoil Five" in The Westminster Chess Club Papers. Vols. 1–3. London: W. Kent; Edinburgh: J. Menzies; Dublin: McGlashan. pp. 108–110.
Brownsmith, Telemachus [pseud.] (1869). "Five and Ten" in The Westminster Chess Club Papers. Vols. 1–3. London: W. Kent; Edinburgh: J. Menzies; Dublin: McGlashan. p. 109.
"Trumps" [William Brisbane Dick] (1864). The American Hoyle. NY: Dick & Fitzgerald.
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