Jass ()David Parlett The Oxford guide to card games, pg. 292-293, David Parlett (1990) is a family of trick taking, ace–ten card games and, in its key forms, a distinctive branch of the marriage family. It is popular in its native Switzerland as well as the rest of the Alemannic German-speaking area of Europe, Italian South Tyrol and in a few places in Wisconsin, Ohio, California, Oregon and Washington USA.
The most common variant of Jass is Schieber (in Vorarlberg also known as Krüzjass), which is played by two teams of two players each. It is often considered Switzerland's national card game, and is so popular there that the Swiss have come to apply the name Jass to trick-taking card games in general.The game of Tarot: from Ferrara to Salt Lake City, p. 568, Michael A. E. Dummett, Sylvia Mann - 1980
It is estimated that there are over 70 variants of Jass.Goop (2010), p. 13. The game is so widespread in Switzerland that it is regularly featured on radio and television, for example, radio programmes by SRF 1 and the weekly television programmes of Donnschtig Jass ("Thursday Jass") and Samschtig Jass ("Saturday Jass") on Schweizer Fernsehen.Müller (2016), jacket and p. 10. An estimated 3 million Swiss play Jass regularly and it has been described as a Swiss national game."Jassen" in Schweizer in Island at schweizerinisland. Retrieved 14 August 2020.Spielerisch Jassen lernen at agm.ch. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
Distribution Jass is popular throughout the Alemannic German-speaking area of Europe which includes German-speaking Switzerland, Liechtenstein, the Alsace region in France, Vorarlberg, the westernmost province of Austria, southwestern Germany (in the south of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg), as well as in Romansh-speaking Swiss Graubünden and the French-speaking area of Switzerland and German-speaking South Tyrol in Italy. It is also played in a few places in the state of Wisconsin and in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, USA.
Name Jass, first mentioned in Switzerland in 1796, was originally the name of the highest trump, the jack, in a family of related games originally spread from the Netherlands during the Late Middle Ages.
Today, Jass is the name of the game. The traditional 36-card, Swiss-German-suited pack with which it is played is called Jasskarten. By extension, Jass is often used of any game played in Switzerland with such cards. The jack of the trump suit is not known as Jass in the contemporary game. It is called Bauer, Trumpf Puur or simply Puur.
The name Schieber, the most popular variant, is from the verb schieben "to push", from the act of "pushing" the responsibility of choosing trumps on one's partner.
Deck
Jass is played with a deck of 36 cards (A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6) Swiss-French or Swiss-German cards (A, K, O, U, B (= 10), 9, 8, 7, 6). The Swiss-German packs have an Ober, Under and Banner instead of the Queen, Jack and Ten of the French pack. The Swiss-French cards are in the ordinary French suits but have a distinctive design. The Swiss-German cards use Swiss suits, a variant of German suits, and also have a distinctive design. In Austrian Vorarlberg, cards of the Salzburg pattern are used (see illustration).
Swiss-German (German) Schellen Rosen Schilten Eichel
Austrian (Bavarian) Schellen Herz Laub Eichel
French Diamond Hearts Spades Clubs
The game is traditionally played with Swiss suited playing cards east of the Brünig-Napf-Reuss line and with the French in western Switzerland. The Swiss suits are Rosen (roses) Eicheln (acorns), Schilten (shields) and Schellen (bells).Ralph Scotoni, Swiss Suited Playing Cards.
Schieber rules Jass is essentially a game of points which are scored for three features known as Stöck, Wiis, Stich, respectively, "marriages, melds, tricks".
To win, the player (or team) must be the first to reach a score of 2500 points (or whatever target score is agreed on beforehand). Play ceases the moment one side reaches the target score, for which purpose it is important to remember that scores accrue in order "marriage, melds, tricks".
The standard Schieber involves four players, sitting in two partnerships, opposite each other. 9 cards are dealt in batches of 3s.
Match type Eldest (holder of 7 of Bells or Diamonds) may nominate the trump suit in the first match. The privilege of declaring trumps is passed around the table in counter-clockwise direction for each subsequent match (variant: each deal from the second onwards is made by a member of the side which won the previous deal, so that the losing team has the advantage of making trumps and leading first.)
The player who may nominate the trump suit may pass (schieben) the privilege to his partner, who must then exercise it. If elder leads without making any announcement, whatever is led becomes trump.
There are a number of conventional expansions of the type of play that can be chosen beyond the four trump suits, and modifications to the value of the tricks. Most commonly:
It is usual to double all scores made in contracts with Schilten (Shields) or Schellen (Bells), which are the suits starting with Sch- (these are replaced by the "black" (schwarz) suits – Spades and Clubs – when playing with a French suit) as trump, treble contracts in "tops-down" and quadruple contracts in "bottoms-up". The game target may then be raised to 2500, or 3000. Schieber is usually played with two additional bids, Oben-abe and Unden-ufe, which may reasonably be translated respectively as "tops-down" and "bottoms-up". Both are played at no trump, so that there is no Puur (Under of trump) or Nell (9 of trumps), nor cards worth 20 and 14. Instead, all Eights count 8 points each when captured in tricks, thus maintaining the total of 157 points for tricks, including 5 for the last. In "tops-down", cards rank from Ace high to Six low and in "bottoms-up" their trick taking power is in reverse order, being Six the highest in its suit, and Seven the second highest, down to Ace. For Unden-ufe the point value of 11 may be transferred from Ace to the Six. Reversed ranking also applies to melds of equal length, that is, a sequence of 7 8 9 beats another of 8 9 10, although four Jack still count 200 and so beat all else. If the game is also using the rules for multiplying points outlined above, the points in Oben-abe are multiplied by three, and the points in Unden-ufe by four. A team taking all nine tricks score 100 extra for the "match" if they were the team that chose trump, thus a total of 257. If the team that didn't choose trump takes every trick, the number of points they win from Stich is doubled, on top of any other multipliers that may have already been considered. This is called a "counter-match". Another call that may be added is Misere, meaning "Misery". Play proceeds based on the rules for Oben-abe ("tops-down") meaning there is no trump, and points gained are not multiplied by anything. At the end of the hand, all points won from Stich are given to the opposite teams than that won them.
Tricks The trump Jack, also called Puur, counts 20 and is the highest card in the game. The trump Nine or Nell is the second best card. Plain suit numerals below 10 count nothing. The total value of all counters in the pack is 152, that is, 62 in trumps plus 30 in each plain suit. Winning the last trick scores an additional 5 points. Hence the total possible for the third scoring feature, "tricks", is normally 157 points.
The rank of the cards, from highest to lowest, and their values in card points are shown in the following table:
+ Card values Plain suit rank A K O/Q U/J 10 9 8 7 6 Value 20 14 11 4 3 2 10 0 0 0 0 Trump suit rank U/J 9 A K O/Q 10 8 7 6
The no-trumps game called Obenabe and Undenufe, in which the ranks are reversed, are shown in the following table:
+ Obenabe – Bock Rank A K O/Q U/J 10 9 8 7 6 Value 11 4 3 2 10 0 8 0 0+ Undenufe – Geiss Rank 6 7 8 9 10 U/J O/Q K A Value 11/0 0 8 0 10 2 3 4 0/11
Marriage Marriage (Stöck): A marriage is the holding in one hand of the König and Ober (King and Queen) of trumps. Its holder claims it upon the second of them to a trick. Its score of 20 is recorded as if made before those for melds and tricks, even though it is not revealed until after melds have been declared.
Melds Meld (Wys or Weis): A meld is a suit-sequence of three or more cards, or a quartet of Aces, Kings, Queens, or Jacks scoring as follows: Four Jacks: scores 200 Four 9's: scores 150 Five or more in suit sequence: scores 100 Four A, K, Q, 10: scores 100 Four in suit sequence: scores 50 Three in suit sequence: scores 20
A card may not be used in two melds at once, though the trump King or Queen may belong to a meld in addition to being married, that is, a player holding four Kings and a sequence of four to the Ace or King would count only 100 for Kings, not also 50 for the sequence.
Only the holder of the best meld may score for it, but he may also score for any other melds he holds involving entirely different cards, and in a partnership game, his partner also scores for those held by his partner. The holder of the best meld is found in the following way as each player contributes a card to the first trick. The leader declares the value of his best meld. The next, upon playing his card says "good" (gut) if he can't beat; otherwise he declares a higher value or the same value and the number of cards it contains. A longer meld beats a shorter, so the previous player then says "not good" if he can beat it, "good" if he can't, or "equal" (gleich). If equal, the next states its rank if a quartet, or its top card if a sequence. A higher rank beats a lower, and the previous player again says "not good". "good", or "equal". Equality must mean a sequence is in question, which the second player can then only win by truthfully announcing "in trumps". Otherwise, all else being equal, the previous player wins by prior position. The next player in turn then competes, if he can, with the winner of the first contest. As before, the pecking order is: value, length, height, trump, position.
Play Eldest leads to the first trick and the winner of each trick leads to the next. The trick is taken by the highest card of the suit led, or by the highest trump if any are played. If trumps are led, suit must be followed if possible, except that a player whose only trump is the trump Jack (also called Puur, Buur or Bauer), need not play it but may discard any card instead. If a plain suit is led, players must follow suit or trump, as preferred, but any trump played must be higher than any other already played to the trick. Only if unable to follow suit may any of the players then renounce.
Tactics The tactical elements of the Schieber derive mostly from the situation of two players each needing to cooperate without seeing, or being allowed to communicate about, the hand the other is holding. The choosing of the trump suit at the beginning of each match is a crucial decision. If the choosing player holds a mediocre hand, he must decide whether to make the call and hope that his partner holds at least some of the cards his hand is missing, or whether to "push" (schieben) the responsibility away in the hope that his partner has an unambiguously strong hand.
Once the match is in progress, players need to keep track of which cards have been played, especially which card of each suit is currently the highest left in play and which trumps have been played. If the player in the lead plays a card that is certain to take the trick (called a Bock), the partner needs to recognize this and contribute as many points to the trick as he can (known as Schmieren, see schmear) without sacrificing valuable cards that he may still need to use for taking a later trick.
Two-hand variants Schaggi Haas