Bismarck
Introduction
Bismarck is a Swedish three-player trick-taking game in which players score according to the number of tricks they win compared to their quota. According to Sten Helmfrid (Kartofilen, July 2024, Volume 33, issue 2/24, pages 9–21) the first known description of the rules appeared in 1944 and it is likely that the game was named after the famous German battleship that was sunk in 1941. It is quite similar to the Polish game Mizerka.
The game has since spread to Britain and other countries and there are many slightly different versions, some of which are described in the Variations section below. First we describe the modern Swedish game.
Players and Cards
Bismarck is a game for three players using a standard international 52-card deck without Jokers. As in most Whist-like games the cards in each suit rank from high to low A-K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2. The deal and play are clockwise.
Deal and Contracts
The first dealer is chosen by any convenient random method, and thereafter the turn to deal passes to the left after each hand. The player to the dealer's left is forehand. This player chooses the contract to be played and leads to the first trick.
The dealer shuffles and the player to dealer's right cuts. The dealer then deals the top four cards of the deck face up on the table, and on the basis of these cards forehand must choose which contract to play. The possible contracts are:
- Spel (game), also known as Sang (from French sans: without): there are no trumps and the aim is to win as many tricks as possible,
- Pass: there are no trumps and the aim is to win as few tricks as possible,
- Spader (spades): spades are trumps and the aim is to win tricks.
- Valfri (free choice), also known as Trumf (trumps): the player may choose any suit as trumps (clubs, spades, hearts or diamonds) and the aim is to win tricks.
After forehand has announced the contract, and in the case of Valfri also announced the trump suit, the dealer deals out the remainder of the pack face down to the three players, one card at a time, so that everyone has a hand of 16 cards, which they pick up and look at. In addition forehand picks up the four face up table cards for a total of 20 cards, and discards any four of these cards face down, keeping 16 for the play. (If forehand forgets to discard but starts playing with 20 cards, the cards must be thrown in and dealt again by the same dealer, but forehand is forced to choose the same contract again no matter what the 4 face up cards are.)
A complete game consists of 12 deals during which each player will be forehand four times and must choose each of the four contracts once, so that during the last round of three deals, each forehand has no option but must play the one type of contract they have not yet chosen.
Note however that it is possible for a player to choose spades as trumps twice, once by playing Spader and once as an option in Valfri. Obviously on the first occasion that you want to play with spades as trumps it makes sense to choose Spader, leaving open the possibility of choosing a different trump suit for the Valfri you have to play later.
Play
Forehand leads to the first trick. Any card may be led. Players must follow suit if possible. If they hold no card of the suit that was led they may play any card.
In games with trumps the trick is won by the highest trump in it. When there are no trumps in a trick, it is won by the highest card of the suit that was led.
There is no obligation to beat the other cards in the trick, and there is no obligation play a trump except when trumps are led.
The winner of each trick leads any card to the next trick.
Scoring
The score is kept on paper, in a grid with a row for each player, a column for each contract, and an area to the right in which each player's cumulative score is recorded.
| Spader | Trumf | Sang | Pass | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player A | |||||
| Player B | |||||
| Player C |
In "spader", "trumf" / "valfri" and "sang" / "spel", the player who chose the game has a quota of 8 tricks to win and the other two players have a quota of 4 tricks each. A player who makes their quota of tricks exactly scores 0, a player who exceeds their quota scores +1 for each extra trick and a player who does not meet their quota scores -1 for each missing trick.
In "pass", where the object is to avoid tricks, forehand has a quota of 4 tricks and the other two players 6 tricks each. Players who make their quota exactly score zero, players who take too many tricks score -1 for each trick over quota and players who succeed in remaining under quota score +1 for each trick below quota.
The box in the player's row and the contract column is marked with an 'X' to show that this contract has been used and cannot be played again by that player. Each player's updated cumulative score is written in the area to the right. The scores of the three players should always add up to zero.
Here is an example of how it might look after two deals. In the first deal player C dealt and player A played 'Sang' winning 6 tricks while B won 6 and C won 4. Then player A dealt and player B played 'Pass' winning 2 tricks (scoring +2) while player C won 5 (scoring +1) and player A won 9 (scoring -3).
| Spader | Trumf | Sang | Pass | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player A | X |
-2 -5 | |||
| Player B | X |
+2 +4 | |||
| Player C | 0 +1 |
When all 12 deals have been played the final cumulative scores show how much each player has won or lost.
Variations
Deal
There are various conventions on when the four face up cards should be dealt. Some deal the first four cards, some the last four and some allow the dealer to deal any four non-consecutive cards face up except for the first and last cards.
Choice of Contract
Some groups allow the first player to see all their cards - the 4 face up and the 16 cards of their hand - before choosing the contract.
Rules of Play
Many people play with stricter rules of play in the contracts with a trump suit: "spader" and "trumf" / "valfri". In these contracts a player who is unable to follow suit is forced to play a trump. Only a player with no trumps and no cards of the suit led is allowed to discard a non-trump card of a different suit.
Note on Quotas and Scoring
The trick quotas are used to ensure that the scores add up to zero on every deal, which helps the scorer to check there has been no error, but in fact they are irrelevant because every player goes through the same quotas in the course of the game. Exactly the same final result would be obtained by scrapping the quotas and giving each player +1 point per trick in positive games and -1 point per trick in negative games. Then at the end of the match you would subtract a number from each player's score to make the scores balance. For example in the modern Swedish 16-deal game the number to subtract from each player would be 32 (corresponding to 3 rounds of -8-4-4 for the positive games and one round of +4+6+6 for the negative games).
Classic Bismarck
In the classic Swedish version of Bismarck published in Einar Werner and Tore Sandgren's Kortoxen (Forum, Stockholm, 1949) there were just three rounds of three deals, 9 deals in all, and the contracts were played in a fixed order.
- In the first round of three deals, known as trumf, the suit of the first of the four face up cards was trumps and the aim was to win tricks..
- In the second round, known as sang, there were no trumps and the aim was to win tricks.
- In the third round, known as noll, there were no trumps and the aim was to lose tricks.
As in the modern game forehand took the four face up cards and then discarded four. The quotas were the same as now, even though forehand had no choice of contract or trump suit. In the first two rounds forehand had a quota of 8 tricks and the others 4 tricks each, and in the third round forehand had a quota of 4 tricks and the other players 6 tricks each. The scoring was as in the modern game.
Werner and Sandgren mention a variant in which there was an extra round between trumf and sang in which forehand chooses the trump suit based on the 4 face up cards, before picking up the other 16 cards and discarding 4.
The earliest known published rules are by Kortman [pseudonym for Thomas Bennett] in På tumanhand med Bomans flickor (Lars Hökerbergs bokförlag, Stockholm, 1944). This has four rounds in the order Forhand Chooses Trump, Turned Trump, Sans Atout, and Nolle. In the first two rounds, where there is a trump suit, players unable to follow suit must play a trump if possible, but there is no obligation to head a trick. In the last round Nolle where the aim is to avoid winning tricks, Aces rank low (below the 2) and Kings are highest in each suit.
British Bismarck
Some variants of Bismarck are played in Britain. One is described by David Parlett (Penguin Book of Card Games, 1979 and several later books).
Parlett's version, like the Swedish game, has 12 deals, but each of the three players in turn deals four times in succession. The dealer deals out the cards one at a time until everyone has 16 and then takes the last four cards without showing them to the other players. The dealer discards any four cards and then play begins with the player to dealer's left leading to the first trick. Players must follow suit when possible, and those with no card of the suit led may play any card.
Each dealer plays four contracts in a fixed order is follows:
- No trumps; aim is to win tricks.
- Trumps selected at random (by cutting a card before the deal or from a second deck); aim is to win tricks.
- Dealer chooses and announces the trump suit before the first lead, based on his or her cards; aim is to win tricks.
- No trumps; aim is to avoid winning tricks (also known sometimes as misère).
The scoring is as in Sweden. In the first three deals of each set of four the dealer scores the number of tricks taken minus 8 and the others score tricks minus 4. In the last deal of the set the dealer scores 4 minus the number of tricks taken and each opponent scores 6 minus the number of tricks taken. As usual the scores add up to zero. [Note. In some of Parlett's books the explanation of the scoring reads as though only positive points are scored, players who fail to reach their quota scoring nothing, but from comparing various editions of his books it is reasonably clear that it was also intended that players who are short of quota in positive games or above quota in negative games should score negative points as usual.]
There is also a variant of this where on each hand the dealer chooses which contract to play, and each player must play each contract once during the game.
Lawrence Coleman describes an 18-deal variant (3 players, 6 rounds) with six positive contracts played in a fixed order: hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades, no trumps, dealer's choice of trumps. John Polley describes a similar 21-deal version which has the same 6 contracts plus misère. Apparently in John Polley's version the 7 contracts are played in that order but with the deal passing clockwise after each hand, which would result in each player playing each contract once but not in the stated order. For example the first dealer, dealing every third hand, would play them in the order hearts, spades, misère, diamonds, dealer's choice, clubs, no trumps.
Guy Follett mentions a version in which strangely each player's score begins at -3, but unfortunately without details of the contracts and scoring except that the contracts included misère, dealer chooses trumps and cut for trumps. The -3 starting score would perhaps make sense if every player's quota was 5 tricks on every deal, so that there would be a total of 1 point gained on each positive deal and 1 point lost on misère. In that case there would have needed to be 15 deals (4 positive and one negative contract by each player) to make the scores add up to zero.
Peter Lever describes a variant in which the players have hands of only 15 cards, the dealer receives and extra 7 cards and discards 7. There are 12 deals, and 4 contracts played in a fixed order: dealer chooses trumps, last card dealt determines trumps, no trumps, misère. The quotas are 9 tricks for the dealer and 3 for each other player in positive games, but 3 for the dealer and 6 for each other player in misère. As in John Polley's version above the deal passes to the left after each hand and the new player plays the next contract in the sequence. After 12 deals each player will have dealt each contract once and the game ends.
Phil Hewson describes a version played in the Royal Air Force known as 8-5-3, which because of the trick quotas has some affinity with Sergeant Major, but which I have classed as a Bismarck variant because the dealer has a choice between 6 contracts, each of which must be chosen exactly once during the 18 deals of the game. As usual in British Bismarck the players are dealt 16 cards each with 4 extra cards (known as "the box") set aside during the deal. The dealer picks up the box, discards any four cards and announces the contract. The contracts are to play once with each of the four suits as trumps, once with no trumps, and one "miss" (clearly short for misère) in which there are no trumps and the object is to avoid taking tricks. The quotas in positive games are 8 tricks for the dealer, 5 for the player to dealer's left (who leads to the first trick) and 3 for the player to dealer's right, and players score a point for each trick over quota and lose a point for each trick under quota. In "miss" the quotas are 3 for the dealer, 5 for the player on dealer's left and 8 for the player on dealer's right, and players win points for each trick under quota and lose a point for each trick over quota. The scores should always add up to zero. "After 18 hands the winner [with the largest positive score] basks in his glory whilst the lowest [largest negative] score, regardless of rank, gets the kettle on."
Four-player Finnish Bismarck
Cristian Seres describes this interesting variant which is played in Finland and appears in the book Pelataan korttia by Tore Sandgren [Porvoo, Finland 1976. ISBN 951-0-03158-5]. The four players form two fixed partnerships, each player sitting opposite their partner.
The dealer deals 12 cards to each player, one at a time, and during the deal places 4 cards face up on the table. These must not include the first or last card of the pack or any two consecutive cards. There are four rounds of deals, 16 deals in all, and four possible contracts: trump (with the trump suit determined by the first dealt of the four face up cards), no trump, misère and free choice of trump. Having looked at their cards the player to dealer's left announces the contract, and in the case of 'free choice' also specifies the trump suit. As usual each player must choose each contract type once during the four deals.
The player to the left of the dealer now picks up the four face-up cards and passes a packet of four cards from their hand of 16 across the table to their partner. The player to dealer's right, who now has 16 cards, passes one card to each of the other three players (a hint card back to their partner and an unwanted to each opponent). Finally the dealer's partner passes a card face down to the dealer who passes a card back. All cards are passed face down. At the end of the exchanging each player should have a hand of 13 cards. Note: this card exchange procedure is copied from Skruuvi and is used by the players to improve their hands and give information to their partner.
The player to dealer's left leads to the first trick, and as usual players must follow suit if possible, otherwise may play any card.
The quotas in trump, no trump and free choice contracts are 8 for the non-dealer's team and 5 for their opponents. A team which is over quota is paid one point by their opponents for each overtrick.
In misère there are no trumps and the aim is to avoid tricks. The quotas are 5 tricks the non-dealer's team and 8 for the dealer's team. A team which is over quota pays 1 point for each overtrick to the other team.
Bismarck in Portugal
In this game, described by Pedro Andrade, there are 12 deals and 4 possible contracts. The dealer deals 16 cards to each player and the dealer's last card is turned face up to indicate a potential trump suit. The other four cards are set aside face down for later use by the dealer. The dealer must then choose and announce the contract. Each dealer must choose each of the 4 options just once during the game. The options are:
- No Trump. The objective is to win tricks, and when following suit players are obliged to beat the highest card of that suit in the trick if they can.
- Negatives. The objective is to lose tricks. There are no trumps. Players must follow suit but there is no obligation to beat previous cards.
- Table Trump. The suit of the card turned up at the end of the deal is trumps and the object is to win tricks. If a trump is led the other players must play a trump and must to beat the highest trump in the trick if they can. When a non-trump suit is led players must follow suit as usual but there is no requirement to head the trick, nor to trump when having no card of the suit that was led.
- Other Trump. The dealer selects and announces the trump suit. The rules of play are as in 'Table Trump'.
After announcing the contract the dealer may, but is not forced to exchange four cards. If exchanging the dealer must first discard exactly four cards from hand and then pick up the four unknown cards set aside at the end of the deal to replace them.
As usual in positive contracts (1, 3, 4) the dealer's quota is 8 tricks and the other players' 4 tricks each. Each player scores +1 for each trick over quota or -1 for each trick under quota. In the negative contract (option 2) the dealer's quota is 4 and the other players' 6, and players score +1 for each tick under quota or -1 for each trick over.
Bismarck in Estonia
Eik Hermann describes an extended version of Bismarck played in Estonia. It is normally played with a 36-card French suited pack, A (high), K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 (low) in each suit, and the game is best for 3 or 4 players. There are no partnerships in the 4-player game. There are 8 contracts played in a fixed order: the first four are trick taking games with a quota as in normal Bismarck, the next three are stops games similar to Fan Tan (as found in many compendium games such as Barbu, Kierki and Lora) and the eighth contract is a free choice among the first six contract types. There are therefore 8 rounds of deals, 24 deals in all if there are three players and 32 if there are four. A complete game lasts an hour or two.
Any player may deal first. In most contracts, including the first, all the cards are dealt one at a time, so that each player has a hand of 12 cards if there are 3 players or 9 cards if there are 4.
In the very first hand of the session it is the player holding the Ace of clubs who begins the play and this player will deal the second hand. For the rest of the session the turn to deal passes clockwise and the player to dealer's left begins the play. There are 8 rounds each consisting of one deal by each player, and each round has a different contract as follows.
- Round 1: No trumps, try to win tricks.
- Round 2: No trumps, try not to win tricks.
- Round 3: The dealer deals 3 cards to each player and then pauses. The player to the dealer's left looks at their three cards and on the basis of these chooses and announces the trump suit. The dealer then deals the rest of the cards. The aim is to win tricks.
- Round 4. Same dealing procedure as round 3. The player to dealer's left announces the trump suit and the aim is to avoid winning tricks.
In the very first hand of round 1 the holder of the Ace of clubs leads any card to the first trick; in subsequent deals it is the player to dealer's left who leads. Players must follow suit if possible. In rounds 3 and 4 players who have no cards of the suit led must play a trump. Players with no card of the suit led and no trumps play any card. Apart from the requirement to play a trump when unable to follow suit there is no obligation to beat previous cards played to the trick.
In the 3-player game the player to dealer's left has a quota of 6 tricks and the other two players each have a quota of 3. In the 4-player game the player to dealer's left has a quota of 3 and the others have a quota of 2 each. These quotas are the same in both positive and negative games.
In rounds 1 and 3, players who win more tricks than their quota score +1 point for each extra trick. Those who are below quota score -1 point for each trick short. In rounds 2 and 4 this is reversed: players score +1 for each trick under quota and -1 for each trick over quota.
In rounds 5 to 7 the aim is to be the first to get rid of all your cards by playing them to a layout as in Fan Tan. There are four piles, one for each suit. At your turn, if you have a card that fits on one of the piles you must play it: otherwise you must pass. For example in round 5, where the piles run from 6 up to Ace, you can start a new pile by playing any 6, or you can add the next card in sequence to an existing pile of that suit - for example on a pile topped by the 10 of spades the next card played must be the Jack of spades. It is not possible to play more than one card in a turn.
- Round 5: Fan Tan beginning with the 6 of each suit and continuing upwards 6-7-8-9-10-J-Q-K-A.
- Round 6: Fan Tan beginning with the Ace of each suit and continuing downwards A-K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6.
- Round 7: Fan Tan beginning with a rank and direction chosen by the player to dealer's left after looking at their cards. The 6 of each suit is adjacent to the Ace. For example if the choice is 8 downwards the order of each stack must be 8-7-6-A-K-Q-J-10-9. If it is 8 upwards the order must be 8-9-10-J-Q-K-A-6-7.
The play ends as soon as one of the players plays their last card. The other players then score -1 point for each card remaining in their hands, and the player who ran out score +1 for each unplayed card, For example if the players are A, B, C and D, B plays their last card at which time A and D each have one unplayed card and C has three cards the scores for the deal will be A:-1, B:+5, C:-3, D:-1.
- Round 8: Free choice. Before the deal, the player to dealer's left chooses any one of the contracts from rounds 1-6 to play again. (They are not allowed to repeat round 7.) The usual choice is to repeat round 4 because this is generally the most advantageous for the choosing player, or possibly round 2 which is almost as good, but a player who is a long way behind may sometimes choose round 5 or 6 which provides a greater opportunity to catch up if one is lucky.
At the end of round 8 the session is over and the player with the highest cumulative positive score is the winner.