During my recent week of Covid (Omicron) isolation, I took the opportunity to relearn a Czech card game called Mariáš. The game must go back to the Middle Ages even though it remained an staple of Czech and Slovak tavern life through the centuries and even to this day. The cards themselves are spectacular:
The game had been originally taught to me and my cousins by our uncle Zdeněk of very happy memory. He died at 90 just before the COVID curtain had come down on the world. Presently, my last trip to the Czech Republic was, in fact, in January 2020 for his funeral.
We all grow and we all lose things of our past. But losing memory of how to play this game -- I still have a deck of cards for it – and even more, not really having anyone certainly nearby to play it with, produced a fair amount of sadness in my heart.
So as I looked for things to keep myself busy during my COVID isolation, I thought to relearn this game and see if someone had come up with a way that one could play the game virtually, and perhaps even over Skype or Zoom.
It turns out that there are a number of Apps for both Apple and Android phones that allow one to play Mariáš against two AI opponents. And talon.cz offers one the opportunity to play it against other living opponents at virtual tables.
Alas the apps are only available in Czech. I even wrote to the writer of one of the Android apps if he had any plans in making the game available in English. He wrote back saying that given the number of interested parties who’d want the game in English would probably number “in the dozens” he didn’t think it worth his time.
However, it occurred to me that a simple explanation and glossary would probably make it sufficient to allow English speakers to play the game on the aps available.
An Explanation of the Rules of the Game
An truly excellent and much more thorough English explanation of the game is offered here.
The Card Deck
The Mariáš Card Deck is composed of 32 Cards (Seven to Ace) in Four Suits:
Červený or Srdce (Red or Hearts)
Zelený or Listy (Green or Spades)
Kule (Bells or Orbs)
Žaludy (Acorns)
The Cards then portray:
Eso (Ace), Král (King), Svršek (Over-Knave), Spodek (Under-Knave), 10, 9, 8, 7
Play
Mariáš is normally a three-player bidding game where two players play together against the one who calls the game.
Cards are passed out in the following manner:
Seven cards, face down, are passed to the player who will have initiative to call the game. After
looking at the cards, he will have to set
aside a card, still face down to the others, to declare a trump suit.
The remaining cards are passed out, in groups of five cards, first to each of the other two players, then to the player who will have initiative to call , and back to the other two players.
The players can then can look at their cards.
Note that the player with initiative will have two extra cards, so he will have to discard of two of the cards, face down to the other two players, before bidding begins.
At this point he calls the game.
The simplest game is called Barva (suit), in which he calls the trump suit (červená, zelená, kule, žaludy).
He can also call one of several other games:
(1) Betl -- If he has a lot of low cards, he can call a game called betl, in which he promises to lose every trick when play begins.
(2) Durch -- If he has a lot of high cards, he can call a game called durch, in which he promises to win every trick when play begins.
(3) Sto -- If he has a lot high cards especially in his trump suit, a „marriage or two“ (more on that below when we get to scoring), he could call „sto“ (one hundred) in which he promises to make 100 points with his hand after play begins. (Scoring is explained below).
(4) Sedma -- If he really has a lot in his trump suit, including the seven (the lowest) card in the trump suit he could call „sedma“ in which he promises to end and win the last trick in the hand with the seven in the trump suit.
After calling the game, bidding goes to the other two players.
They each can respond:
(1) “Dobrá“ which means „okay.“ However, if both respond this way without challenging him with a flek (see below), the game is forfeited to the player with initiative.
(2) “Špatná” which means “bad” or “no” in which the player declaring it so, declares that he’s going to play a higher stakes game.
The stakes go as follows – Barva (color), Červená (Red color), Betl, Durch. So if one of the two opponents goes this route, he must pick a higher stakes game than the one declared by the player with initiative.
After declaring “špatná,“ that is to say declaring that he is confident that he can play and win a higher stakes game than called, that person takes the two cards that were discard by the person who had previously had initiative. He looks at his hand and discards, again face down, two cards (they could be the same ones, or could be different) in their place, and declares the new game. Bidding starts anew with this new person having the initiative.
(3) “Flek” which means that the person is confident that he (along with his partner) will be able to beat the person with initiative at the game that the person with initiative had declared.
(4) Counter “100” / “sedma” if the person is confident the that person with initiative has really called the wrong game.
Note that this can happen with some frequency as the person with initiative must declare suit looking at only 7 cards (without seeing the other five cards to be dealt to him).
So one or another of the persons playing against the person with initiative could bet that not only that the person calling the game will (1) lose, (2) but loose big (that his opponents will score at least 100 points together against him) or that (3) the person has so few trumps that the person calling this challenge will actually win the last trick with the trump suit's 7 card.
(5) After someone calls “Flek” against the person with initiative, the person with initiative, if confident in winning the hand that he’s declared can “double dare” by calling “Re.” The third player can double the stakes again by calling out “Tutti” and person with initiative can double the stakes again by calling out “Frutti.” One of the others can double again by calling out “Boty” (shoes), another “Kalhoty” (pants) and finally “Až pod stůl” (“all the way under the table).
So occasional bidding wars can become quite amusing! With each challenge, and counter challenge the stakes in the hand double. So by the time one goes to “až pod stůl” one will have “bet the farm,” though the image here would be of betting all one’s clothes (only figuratively), so as to have to hide under the table if one loses!
Scoring (and winning / losing) a Hand
In normal play (barva, sto, sedma):
In normal play, only the Aces and 10s count for points – 10 pts each – An Ace beats a 10, 10 beats everything but the Ace. Additionally, the winner of the final trick in a hand wins 10 points. So the basic number of points in a hand is 90.
However, there are also Marriages (from hence the game's name Mariáš probably originates).
If a player is dealt a Král-Svršek (King-Over Knave) pair in the same suit then he has been dealt a "Marriage," which he can declare, usually by playing the lower Svršek (Over Knave) card during the course of play. Marriages in non-trump suits are worth 20 points, Marriages in the trump suit are 40 points.
Note that while one can both have one's Aces and 10s captured by one's opponent(s) (or one can strategically play them over to one's partner) in the course of play (see below), the points for Marriages stay with the player (or side) who plays them.
So the total number of points that is possible in a hand can run as high as 190 (ninety points due to Aces / 10s and winning the last trick, and up to 100 points potentially available due to Marriages). This is why, if one has a lot of high cards and Král-Svršek pairs, one can declare and seek to win a "sto" (or hundred point) hand.
At the end of the hand, the number of points (between Aces, 10s and declared Marriages) held by the person who called the game are compared to the sum of the points (between Aces, 10s and declared Marriages) held by the other two players. The one (or the opposing team) with the higher number of points wins.
If a Sto (hundred) game had been declared by either side, that is measured as well. If one met or exceeded the goal then one has won, if not then one has lost.
If one (or the opposing team) had declared a Sedma (ending with winning the last trick with the seven of the trump suit) game, and one succeeded in doing so, then one won that aspect the game, if not, then one lost.
If there is betting on the game (see below), if the person who calls the game wins, then he wins the total of the winnings. If instead, the team of other two playing against him wins then the winnings are split by the by team.
Betl (Low) and Durch (High) Games.
Betl (Low) and Durch (High) Games, points are no longer counted, the 10 returns to its normal place in the order of the deck, beating a nine and losing to a spodek (lower knave). All that matters in these games is that the person declaring the game either loses (Betl) or wins (Durch) all the tricks in the hand. If he does so, he wins the hand, if he does not he loses it.
Playing out the Hand
Understanding now how the scoring goes in the course of a hand, let's now explain how the hand is played out:
The first trick is initiated
by the person who called the game followed by the others in clockwise fashion. The winner of each trick initiates the next trick
In each trick, each player must try to both honor and beat the previous person's card in suit.
If one can't beat the previous card in the suit initiated but still has cards in that suit, one must still honor the suit by playing a lower (yet losing card in that suit).
If one has run out of cards in the suit initiated in the trick, one must try to play a trump card.
If as the third player in the trick, one has run out of cards in the suit that initiated the trick, and the second player in that trick also has run out of cards in that suit (and has thus played a trump card in its place), then one must try to beat the previous player's trump card with a higher valued trump card.
If as the third player in the trick, one still has cards in that suit, but the second player not having any more cards in that suit has played a trump card, then one still must honor the original suit (even if that means one has to play a 10 or an Ace, hence losing those points).
If a player no longer neither has cards in the suit that initiated the trick, nor any more trump cards, then one can dump whatever card that one wishes. (Note that there's some strategy here. One can try to dump point cards to one's partner if one thinks that one's partner is going to win the trick. Alternatively one may wish to conserve one's point cards in hopes that one's opponent or opposing side will no longer have the cards or trump cards to take them away at a later stage in the hand).
When all the cards are played, the points held (between aces, 10s and declared marriages) by each of the players is determined and the point totals of the two people playing against the person who called the game are added together, and the winner (see above) determined.
The cards are then brought together (but not shuffled, though the person receiving the first card in the next hand can cut the deck) and the cards are distributed in the next hand.
Playing for money / keeping a Tab
The base value of winning a Barva hand is 1 Kč. (1 Crown)
A flek doubles the stakes of the hand. Any further doubling "Re", "Tutti", etc further increases the stakes of the hand.
The base value of 100 hand is 2 Kč.
The calling a "sedma" (closing the hand by winning the last trick with 7-trump suit) adds 1 Kč to the stakes (this can be presumably "fleked" as well)
The base value of Betl hand is 5 Kč.
The base value of a Durch hand is 10 Kč.
Note again that if the player who calls the hand wins, the winnings go entirely to him. If on the other hand he loses, the winnings are split between the two players who beat him.
A tab is kept throughout the course of the play to determine who is up or down.
Note that this really isn't a game that is generally played for a lot of money. Instead, this is a social game, played in a pub among friends over the course of a fairly long evening.
