Russian Preference
Preference is one of the most widespread card games among serious card players in Russia. There are four main varieties: Sochi Preference, Leningrad Preference, Classic Preference and Rostov (or Moscow) Preference, and many smaller variations within these. The rules for all of these types will eventually be given on this page.
Meanwhile, here are some links to other Preference pages. Note that some of these pages are in Russian, mostly using KOI8-R encoding. You may need to adjust your browser to see the Cyrillic text correctly:
- Stefan Mashkevich's PrefPage (archive copy)
- Marriage, the best known Russian Preference computer program, is available from casinogames.ru. Currently the server supports only Russian text in Win1251 encoding. The former site marriage.ru has an older version of the program which is no longer supported.
- The Danzig Pref Engine allows Sochi or Leningrad Preferans to be played against the computer or over the net.
- Net Preference, from NetIntellGames, allows you to play against a computer opponent or with a human opponent over the Internet, LAN, modem or direct connection.
- PrefCount is a free Java application for scoring and calculating the result of a Russian Preference game. It can be run on Windows, Mac and Linux machines.
- Several versions of Russian Preference can be played online at meingames.de.
- Russian Preference can be played online at preferans.de. The author tells me that this version supports webcams and microphones and can be played through a firewall.
Preference is also played, in rather different forms, in other European countries. For examples, see the pages on:
Predrag Stojadinovic has set up a Preferans forum for players to discuss the various versions of Preference / Preferans / Prefa.