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Card games in Lithuania
This page is part of the National and Regional Card Games Index of the Card Games Web Site.
This page is based on information contributed by Albinas Borisevičius.
Technical note - this page uses ISO 8859-2 (Latin 2) encoding to display accented letters. It would be better to use ISO 8859-10 (Latin 6), which allows a fuller range of Baltic letters, but unfortunately Latin 6 is not supported by common web browsers. Unicode would be another possibility, and some time I will upgrade this page to UTF-8. Until then, on this page the character é is used to represent an e with a single dot above it.
Introduction
The standard pack of 52 French suited cards is in general use. For many games the lower ranks are removed to give shortened packs as follows:
- 36 cards consisting of A-K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6 in each suit;
- 32 cards consisting of A-K-Q-J-10-9-8-7 in each suit;
- 24 cards consisting of A-K-Q-J-10-9 in each suit.
Some games require a 52 card pack with 2, 3 or 4 jokers.
Below is a list of card games played in Lithuania organised by type of game and cards used. Where possible I have included references to similar games from other countries, and links to the rules on this web site if available.
- Avinas (Ram)
- Ožka (Goat) - a game related to Avinas and 66
- Preferansas - a version of Russian Preferans with some special Lithuanian nuances - is especially popular
- Kingas - probably similar to the Russian version of King. There is a Lithuanian Kingas club in the city of Rokiskis.
- Kirtis (Trick) - a plain-trick game for two players; each player has six face-up cards, six face-down cards under them, which are exposed when the corresponding face-up cards have been played, and a reserve of four cards, which can be looked at and used only after the player has won a trick.
- Karavas - a Latvian game also played in the north of Lithuania - similar to Schafkopf
- Bura - a Russian game, that can be played with 32 or 36 cards.
- Knarkimas (known in Russian as Hrap), a game of the Rams group, similar to Mauscheln.
- Karuselé (Caroussel) is played with 52 cards plus 2, 3, or 4 jokers. When 4 jokers are used, one is the "Šluota-joker" (Broom-joker), which captures all the cards from the table. The game is a distant relative of Zwickern.
- Durnius (Fool) is a game related to Russian Svoi Kozyri, played with 24 cards.
- Einikiavas is a distant relative of Finnish Mustamaija, played with 24, 32 or 36 cards.
- Kopšas is related to Russian Podkidnoy Durak, and is played with 32 or 36 cards.
- Vežimas (Cart) is related to Russian Prostoy Durak, and can be played with 24, 32 or 36 cards.
- Eiluté (the sequence) a round game for 2 to 8 players, played with 32 cards.
International Games
As in most countries Rummy, Canasta, Bridge and Poker are played. Also the Lithuanian version of Crazy Eights, which is known as Japanese Fool or Czech Fool.
Gambling games
- Akis (Eye) (a form of 21 or Blackjack) with 32, 36 or 52 cards, optionally including jokers
- Devynaké (Nine) - similar to Baccarat, played with 36 or 52 cards
- Trina and Seka are Russian gambling games played with 36 cards
Children's games
- Asilas (Donkey), played with 24, 32, 36 or 52 cards
- Karalius (King), played with 24 cards. This is a different game from Kingas!
- Karas (War), played with 24, 32, 36 or 52 cards
- Kiaulé (Pig), played with 24, 32, 36 or 52 cards, optionally with jokers
- Melagis (Fibber) (which may possibly be similar to Cheat, I Doubt It or Verish' ne Verish'), played with 24, 32, 36 or 52 cards
- Ragana (Hag or Witch) is similar to Old Maid, it is played with a 24, 32 or 36 card pack from which one Queen is removed, leaving 23, 31 or 35 cards
- Čigonas (Gipsy) - similar to Schwarzer Peter, played eith 24, 32 or 36 cards.
The World Casino Directory includes a listing of Casinos in Lithuania.
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This page is maintained by John McLeod (john@pagat.com).
© John McLeod, 2000
Last updated 8th March 2007
