Nebraska Taroky

• Introduction
• Players and Equipment
• Deal
• Bidding
• Calling a King and Use of the Blind
• Bonuses, Announcements and Declarations
• Play
• Scoring
• Variations
  • Heun Version
  • Petrtyl Tarock
  • Ben Franklin Store Rules
• Notes on Related Cards and Games
• Sources and References

Introduction

This four-player 54-card game, locally known as Taroky or Tarok, is played in Nebraska, USA, mainly by people of Czech descent. In the basic contract the bidder chooses a partner by calling a King, not the trump XIX as in modern Czech Taroky.

This page is based mainly on research by Emily Wynn, who has played Taroky at the Czech and Slovak Educational Center and Cultural Museum in La Vista, Nebraska, and in a tournament in Clarkson, and she would like to thank the players for their help and support in learning the game.

A slightly different version of Taroky is described by Robert Brichaček and Ken Čada in their 1997 document on the rules used at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Heun. This version, and a related game promoted by August Petrtyl in the 1920's are described in the Variations section of the page.

Players and Equipment

There are four active players. It is possible for five people to take part in a game: in this case the dealer deals to the other four players and takes no part in the play or scoring of that deal.

Unlike European Tarok games, in Nebraska the game is played clockwise.

A 54-card Tarok pack is used: 22 trumps and 8 cards in each of the four suits. In Nebraska it is played with cards made by the Western Playing-Card Company (Racine WI) whose design is based on the European "bourgeois pattern" (as found on French Tarot cards and some Cego cards) but reduced to Bridge size (9 x 6 cm instead of the usual Tarok card size of 11 x 6 cm). The game can of course be played with European Tarok cards if the American design is not available.

 … 

There are 22 trumps called taroky. The highest is the Skies (in Czech Škýz, but in English pronounced skeez), which looks a bit like a Joker and is effectively trump 22. The other trumps follow in numerical order from 21 down to 1. The lowest trump 1 is also called špaček (starling) in Czech.

The remainder of the deck consist of four 8-card suits:  clubs,  spades,  hearts and  diamonds. Each suit has four picture cards, in descending order King, Queen, Horsemen and Jack followed by four pip cards - in the black suits ( ) 10, 9, 8, 7 but in the red suits ( ) 4, 3, 2, 1. Note that the pip cards in all four suits rank in descending order. In the red suits the 1 (ace) is lowest, unlike in central European Tarok where the ranking of the red suit pip cards is reversed.

The top two trumps, the lowest trump and the picture cards in the suits have special point values, while the other trumps (2 to 20) and the pip cards in the suits are worth just 1 point each

Card	Value
Skies, Tarok 21, Tarok 1	5
King	5
Queen	4
Horseman	3
Jack	2
Other cards	1

The cards taken by each team are counted in packets of three - their values are added together and 2 points care substracted from the total. For example a packet of King-8-7 is worth 5 points (5+1+1-2), a packet of 21-Horseman-Jack is worth 8 points (5+3+2-2=8) and a packet of three one-point cards is worth 1 point (1+1+1-2).

For an incomplete packet of one or two cards left over just one point is subtracted. However the cards are grouped the total value of the cards belonging to the two teams at the end of the play is always 70. See counting points in Tarot games for further explanation and discussion of this point counting method.

Usually the score is kept using poker chips: red or blue chips worth 5 game points each and white chips worth 1 game point each. Each player begins the session with 4 colored and 5 white chips (total value 20 game points). The session may be played until a player runs out of chips or for a fixed number of deals agreed in advance.

Deal

The dealer shuffles the cards and offers them to the player to the right who may cut the pack, or decine to cut by lightly tapping the face down deck.

The dealer places the top 6 cards of the deck face down in the center of the table to form the blind. Then if the cards were cut, the dealer deals the remaining cards clockwise in packets of 6, so that after two rounds of dealing everyone has 12 cards. If the player to the right tapped the cards instead of cutting, then after placing the blind the dealer deals the remaining cards in packets of 12, placing the packets face down in a row. The player to dealer's left then chooses a 12-card packet as their hand. If this player chooses the first packet then the other three players must take the 2nd, 3rd and 4th packets in clockwise order. If the first player chooses to take a packet other than the first, the other three players in clockwise order each take a 12-card packet of their choice from those that have not yet been claimed.

When the first hand of the session has been dealt the players pick up their hands and check who holds tarok 2. This player will be forehand, the player who starts the bidding. If the 2 is in the blind, then forehand is the holder of the 3, or if that is also in the blind the holder of the 4 is forehand and so on.

For the second and subsequent deals the dealer is the player who was forehand in the previous deal, and the player to dealer's left is the new forehand who starts the bidding. Therefore from the second deal onwards the turn to deal passes clockwise around the table.

If any player has no Kings and no Taroky in their 12 cards, they can require that the deal be abandoned for no score. In this case the cards are thrown in and the next dealer shuffles and deals.

Bidding

The purpose of the bidding is to choose a player, the bidder, who will have up to three privileges:

• to determine the partnerships. The final bidder must name a suit, and the holder of the King of that suit becomes the bidder's partner for the deal,
• in the case of a 'Four' bid to improve their hand by drawing cards from the blind,
• to lead to the first trick.

There are three possible bids, in ascending order 'Four', 'Five' and 'Five Over'. In all cases the bidder's team needs to take the majority of card points (at least 36) in their tricks plus their share (if any) of the blind in order to win. The differences between the bids are in how the blind is used and in the payments in chips for winning or losing, the higher bids being more expensive.

Players bid in clockwise order starting with forehand (the player to dealer's left or the tarok-2 holder in the first deal of a session).

• If no one has bid, the possibilities are to pass, bid 'Four' or bid 'Five'.
• If only 'Four' has been bid, the possibilities are to pass or bid 'Five'.
• If 'Five' has been bid, a subsequent player who has not yet had a turn to bid can pass or bid 'Five Over'.
• A player who has passed takes no further part in the bidding.
• If the first three players pass the fourth player must bid Four or Five.
• If two players have bid then the first bidder can supersede the second player's bid by making an equal bid. For example if forehand bids Four and another player bids Five, then forehand can reply with "I'll take the Five" or "I'll hold that Five" or words to that effect, and will become the bidder in a Five game unless the second bidder persists by bidding "Five Over". Alternatively, forehand can reply to the 'Five' bid with a bid of 'Five Over', ending the bidding.

When all players have passed, the last player who bid is the bidder and must call a King (see below).

Notes

Forehand will almost always start the auction with a bid of Four or Five. It is rarely correct to begin with a pass, because every hand has to be played, and the player who bids Four has the advantage (if all the others pass) of drawing cards from the blind and acquiring a partner who holds a King. Probably the only exception occurs when forehand holds four Kings and passes because they are certain to be called as a partner by another player.

Occasionally there may be three bidders, bidding Four, Five and Five Over. Theoretically the first bidder could then keep the bid by bidding 'Five Over' themselves, or if the first bidder then passed the second bidder could keep the bid by bidding 'Five Over'. Or if there were only two bidders, forehand bidding 'Five' and another player bidding 'Five Over', forehand could in principle keep the bid by also bidding 'Five Over'. However it is difficult to imagine a case where two players had such strong hands that keeping Five Over would be sensible.

Calling a King and Use of the Blind

The final bidder must call a King. Normally this is done by naming a suit - hearts, diamonds, clubs or spades - and whoever holds the King of that suit will be the bidder's partner, but must not identify themselves. The partnerships will become clear during the play, at the latest when the holder of the called King plays it to a trick.

If the bidder holds exactly three kings, then instead of naming a suit the bidder can call "the fourth King". In this case the holder of the fourth King is the bidder's partner and the suit of the called King as well as the identity of the partner will initially be unknown to the other team.

If the called King is in the bidder's hand or in the blind then the bidder plays alone against a team of three opponents, though the players may not realise that this is the case until the King is played or when it is found in the blind at the end of the play.

A player who wishes to play alone (so that they will be paid by three opponents if they win) can do so if they hold a King by deliberately calling a King that is in their hand.

The use of the blind depends on the final bid.

Four

The bidder draws three cards from the blind and looks at them, keeping them separate from their hand and without showing them to the other players. There are then four possibilities:

1. The bidder decides to keep these cards and adds them to their hand, leaving the bottom three cards of the blind face down on the table where they will remain unknown until the end of the play.
2. The bidder decides to look at the rest of the blind. In this case the bidder must place the first three blind cards face up on the table for all to see and pick up the other three cards of the blind. The bidder may elect to keep these second three cards and add them to their hand without showing them to the other players.
3. Having placed the first three cards of the blind face up on the table, the bidder looks at the other three blind cards but decides to reject them. The bidder then places this second part of the blind face up on the table and returns to the first three cards, picking them up and adding them to their hand.
4. Having seen both parts of the blind the bidder can surrender the game without play and pay 4 chips to each of the other three players. This will be the best option when the bidder finds the called King in the blind and sees no prospect of winning the game alone. In this case the cards are thrown in and there is a new deal by the next dealer.

The option chosen affects the chip score for the game as explained in the section on scoring below.

In cases 1-3 the bidder, having 15 cards, must now discard three cards face down to reduce their hand to 12. 5-point cards (the Kings and taroky 1, 21 and Skies) can never be discarded. Other taroky (2-20) can be discarded only if the bidder's remaining 12 cards are all taroky and Kings, and in this case the bidder must tell the other players how many taroky have been discarded.

The card points in the three cards that the bidder discarded count for the bidder's team, and the card points in the part of the blind that was rejected or not looked at count for the bidder's opponents.

Note. If the first three cards of the blind are favourable, the bidder may well choose to expose them and look at the other three cards, with the intention of exposing those too and returning to the first set for a higher score.

Five and Five Over

These bids differ from each other only in the score for them. The more expensive 'Five Over' can only be bid if another player has bid 'Five'.

The blind remains face down and unknown until the end of the play. At the end of the play all six blind cards are added to and counted with the tricks of the bidder's opponents unless the called King was in the blind. In this case, where the bidder played alone, the blind it is divided unseen into two sets of three cards: the set of three that contains the called King is given to the bidder and the other three cards to the three-player team of opponents.

Bonuses, Announcements and Declarations

There are extra payments for following special events and card combinations.

King Last. If the called King is played in the last trick, then the team that wins the trick is paid an extra chip for 'King Last'.

Tarok 1 Last (špaček last). If the tarok 1 wins the last trick the team of the player of the 1 is paid an extra chip for 'Tarok 1 Last'. If tarok 1 is played to the last trick but is beaten by a higher trump in that trick, the team that played the 1 has to pay a chip for a failed attempt at 'Tarok 1 Last', even if the last trick is won by the partner of the player of the 1.

Ten Taroky. If a player holds 10 or more taroky and declares this before the bidder leads to the first trick, that player immediately receives one chip from each of the other three players, irrespective of partnerships.

Four Kings. If one player has all 4 Kings in their hand, that player may declare 'Four Kings' after playing the fourth King and is immediately paid one chip by each of the other three players.

Three High. If one player holds all three counting trumps: the Skies, the 21 and the 1, that player may declare 'Three High' after playing the third of these cards and is immediately paid one chip by each of the other three players.

Each of the above bonuses is worth two chips instead of one when the bid is 'Five', and four chips when the bid is 'Five Over'.

All Tricks. If one team wins all 12 tricks (known in Czech as "valát") the payments for the game and any last trick bonuses are doubled. This doubling does not affect the payments for card combinations Ten Taroky, Four Kings or Three High.

Announcements

Either of the last trick bonuses (King Last or Tarok 1 Last) can be announced before the bidder leads to the first trick. This commits the announcing player's team to win that bonus. If they succeed they are paid double but if they fail they pay double.

Note that an announced last trick bonus can fail in two different ways. As usual the bonus is lost if the called King is captured by the enemy in the last trick or if the tarok 1 is played to the last trick and fails to win it. But they also fail if the holder of the called King or the tarok 1 plays it before last trick.

Note also that in Nebraska, unlike the European game, it is permissible for a team that has announced a last trick bonus to abandon it by voluntarily playing the key card earlier than the last trick even if not forced to by the rules of play. In this case the team will have to pay for the lost bonus, but this may be worthwhile if by sacrificing the bonus they can save the card itself for their team and thereby win the game.

If the bid was 'Five' or 'Five Over' and an opponent of the bidder thinks that the game will not succeed - i.e. that the bidder's team will take 35 or fewer card points - they can double the payment for the game by saying "double" or "kontra" before the bidder leads to the first trick. If confident of winning, the bidder or the bidder's partner can reply with "redouble" or "rekontra" which doubles the payment for game again to four times the basic amount. These doubles only affect the basic game score, not the scores for any bonuses.

In Nebraska Taroky there is no possibility for a team to announce in advance that they will win all the tricks.

Play

The final bidder leads to the first trick. Ideally the bidder should pause before leading to the first trick to give the other players a chance to make announcements if they wish to.

Any card may be led, and the other players must each play a card in turn to complete the 4-card trick.

• If a trump (tarok) is led the other players must play a trump if they have any. Players with no trumps may discard any card when a trump is led.
• If a suit card is led, other players must play a card of the suit that was led is they can. Players with no card of the suit led must play a tarok if they have any. Players with no taroky and no cards of the suit led may play any card.

A trick that contains trumps is won by the highest trump in it (but see the exception below). A trick that contains no trumps is won by the highest card of the suit that was led. The winner of the trick gathers the four cards, stores them face down in front of them and leads any card to the next trick.

Exception. If the 21, the Skies and the trump 1 are all played to the same trick in that order, then the trump 1 wins the trick. The 21, Skies and 1 do not have to be played consecutively - the fourth card can be anywhere in the trick - but the 1 only wins the trick if it is played after the Skies, which is played after the 21.

Scoring

Payments for game

Each team counts the value of the cards they have taken in tricks plus their part of the blind. The total value should be 70 card points as explained above, and the bidder's team wins the game if they have more card points than the other team i.e. 36 or more. In case of a 35-35 tie or if the opponents have more card points than the bidder's team, the bidder's team loses the game.

The payment for the game depends on the bid, how the blind was used, whether kontra (double) was announced and whether one team won all the tricks. The basic payments are as follows:

Bid	Use of the blind	Payment (chips)
'Four'	Bidder takes first three cards	4
	Bidder shows first three cards and takes second three	5
	Bidder shows both sets of cards and takes first three	6
'Five'	Blind to bidder's opponents unseen.	8
'Five Over'		16

In the usual 2 against 2 game each member of the winning team receives chips to the value shown in the table and each member of the losing team pays that value in chips. When the bidder plays alone (having called their own King or a King in the blind) the bidder pays or receives the amount in the table to or from each opponent, so that the bidder's gain or loss is three times as great as that of the team members. For example when the bidder wins a 'Four' bid playing alone, having exposed the whole blind and returned to the first set of three cards, each opponent will pay the bidder 6 chips for the game and thus the bidder will gain 18 chips.

If either team wins all the tricks the payments for game in the above table are doubled.

In a 'Five' or 'Five Over' game if kontra (double) was said the payments in the table are doubled and if the bidder's team replied with rekontra (redouble) they are doubled again.

Payments for last trick bonuses

These payments are independent of the game - a team may win the game and lose a last trick bonus or vice versa. As with the game payments, in a 2 against 2 game each member of the losing team pays a member of the winning team, and a bidder playing alone against a team of three pays to or receives from all three opponents.

The basic payment for 'King Last' or 'Tarok 1 Last' is 1 chip. This is subject to doubling as follows:

• doubled if the bonus was announced ('called') before the bidder led to the first trick.
• doubled if the bid was 'Five' or quadrupled if the bid was 'Five Over'
• doubled if a team won all the tricks

So for example a successful 'Called King Last' in a game of 'Five Over' earns a payment of 8 chips, or 16 chips if the team took all 12 tricks.

The payments for last trick bonuses are not affected by kontra or rekontra - these announcements only affect the game.

Payments for card combinations

These payments are independent of the game and the partnerships. They are paid to the holder of the combination by all three of the other players irrespective of which team they belong to. Note that to obtain the payment the holder of Ten Taroky must claim it before the bidder leads the first card, and to obtain the payments for 'Four Kings' or 'Three High' they must be claimed after all the relevant cards have been played and before the payments for game are finalised. It is possible for the same player to claim more than one of these payments - for example a player holding the Skies, 21, 1 and seven other taroky can claim 'Ten Taroky' before the first card is led and then 'Three High' after the last of the 5-point trumps has been played.

The basic payment for 'Ten Taroky' or 'Four Kings' or 'Three High' is 1 chip. This payment is doubled to 2 chips if the bid is 'Five' or quadrupled to 4 chips if the bid is 'Five Over'.

The payments for card combinations are not affected by kontra or rekontra or by a team taking 12 tricks.

Penalties

Misdeal. The dealer pays 1 chip to each of the other three players, the cards are thrown in and forehand shuffles and deals the next hand.

Forgotten discard. If the bidder forgets to discard (or discards too few cards) and this is not noticed until after the bidder has led to the first trick, the bidder must pay 1 chip to each of the other three players and then complete the discard, after which the game resumes and is paid for as usual.

Variations

Kontra/rekontra is not a universally recognised rule: some tables do not allow these announcements. The tournament in Clarkson was played without kontra and rekontra.

Some play that a bidder who holds all four Kings is allowed to choose a partner by calling a Queen. Some play that a bidder holding four Kings may call the trump 19.

Heun Version

This version is described in a document by Robert Brichaček and Ken Čada published in 1997. There are a few differences between these Heun rules and the La Vista version described above, as follows.

The bidder of a 'Four' game is not allowed to discard taroky, Kings or cards picked up from the blind unless there is no alternative. Kings, 5-point taroky and taroky picked up from the blind can never be discarded. Other taroky (2-20) can only discarded if the bidder is left with a hand consisting entirely of taroky and Kings and as usual must tell the other players how many taroky have been discarded. This restriction seems to be unenforceable if the bidder takes the first or second set of three cards from the blind without showing them. In this case the other players have no way to know which cards were obtained from the blind and which were in the bidder's original hand.

If the bid is 'Five' or 'Five Over' and the called King turns out to be in the blind, the bidder is given the top three cards of the blind and the bottom three belong to the bidder's opponents, irrespective of which half contains the called King.

If a player other than forehand plays a game of 'Four', forehand having passed, it is forehand, not the bidder, who leads to the first trick.

Apparently in Heun, if the last trick contains the tarok 1, the 'Tarok 1 Last' bonus is won by the team that wins the last trick even if the winner of the trick is the partner of the person who player the 1. This is not very clearly explained - the rules just say that 'Tarok 1 Last' is played "with the same conditions" as 'King Last'. This may be an oversight and the more usual rule that the tarok 1 itself has to win the trick for the bonus to succeed may have been intended.

Petrtyl Tarock

(Fig. 1)

In 1922, August Petrtyl published an unconventional tarot pack in Chicago. The suits have unusual colors (hearts pink, diamonds yellow, clubs black and spades green) and the picture cards in the suits are Indian Chief, Squaw, Cowboy and Scout instead of King, Queen, Horseman and Jack. All four suits have the same pip cards IV, III, II and I labelled with Roman numbers. The trumps show American landscapes in a circle. The Skies is "Uncle Sam" and the 1 is the "Papoose". The cards are accompanied by a set of rules with games for 2 to 5 players.

If you disregard the idiosyncratic terminology and design of the cards, the four-player game looks like an early form of Nebraska Taroky in which the bidder shooses a partner by calling a King. Ulf Martin has suppied the following summary of the differences from the modern Nebraska game.

The bids in ascending order are: "Three", "Four", "Five", "Grand Nullo" and "Grand Sweep" (there is no "Five Over").

Three. Forehand always starts the bidding and must bid at least "Three". If nobody overcalls with "Four" the cards are thrown in and forehand receives 3 chips from each player.

Solo play. In the "Four" and "Five" games, the bidder can explicitly choose to play alone: "Without a King!" (or "Without a Chief!").

Sweep means winning all the tricks and can be announced before the first lead. If the bid is 'Four' the payment is 12, 14 or 16 chips (if the bidder took the first half of blind, took the second half or returned to first half) respectively. These payments are doubled to 24, 28, 32 chips if the Sweep was announced. Ig the bid is 'Five' the payment for Sweep is 24 chips, or 48 chips if the Sweep was announced. 'Grand Sweep' means that the player plays alone without taking the blind and must take all the tricks, and this is worth 60 chips. In case of a Sweep, last trick bonuses are not counted.

Trick play. Forehand always leads to the first trick. Anyone who announces a last trick bonus cannot play the announced card before the last trick unless forced to by the rules of play.

Declarations. The payments for card combinations (Three High, Four Kings, Ten Taroky) depend on the bid: 'Four' 1 chip, 'Five' 2 chips, 'Grand Sweep" 4 chips.

Grand Nullo. The talon is set aside unseen, the bidder plays the cards as dealt and must try to lose every trick. Payment 36 chips. If this is the bid, the possible declarations are "No trumps" (two or fewer taroky), "No three" (no skies, 21, 1) and "No Kings". These are worth 4 chips each.

Penalty pot. In case of a misdeal the dealer pays 4 chips into this pot. Its contents are won by a team that announces "Tarok 1 Last" if they succeed, or doubled by them if they fail.

Ben Franklin Store Rules

For a while, the Tarok cards sold by the Ben Franklin store in Schuyler NE were accompanied by a rule sheet for 2 to 4 players. However, these rules do not describe the Nebraska game. They are a fairly literal translation of part of a German leaflet published the Austrian card maker Piatnik in the 1970's which describes the Tarock games that were best known in Vienna at that time. It seems likely that at some point Ben Franklin Store was importing Piatnik cards from Austria and commissioned a translation of the enclosed leaflet not realising that it described a different game from theirs.

Notes on Related Cards and Games

Ulf Martin has provided the following notes.

The pattern used for Taroky in Nebraska in the last few decades is based on the "Encyclopaedic" or "Bourgeois Tarot" published by the Conrad Ludwig Wüst company in Frankfurt am Main in 1865. The pattern obviously struck a chord with the times and copies and variants were produced by many major card makers. The Viennese company Piatnik had a joint distribution agreement with Wüst for its variant published in New York in 1905. Wüst was taken over by Vereinigte Altenburger und Stralsunder Spielkarten-Fabriken A.G. (ASS) in 1927. The last ASS cards with the Wüst pattern were labelled "Cego-Karte Nr. 49" and were exported to America until the end of the 1930s. The cards exported from Europe always had the usual size for tarot cards of approx. 11 x 6 cm.

(Fig. 2)

With the outbreak of war in 1939, German playing card exports overseas came to an end. As there was still a demand for the cards, the Western Playing Card Company in Racine (Wisconsin) stepped in. Western PCC adopted the ASS pattern, including the ASS logo on the Ace of Diamonds. As there was probably no production line for cards taller than the bridge format (9 x 6 cm, 2 cm shorter than standard tarot cards), 1 cm was cut off the images of each half of the card.

Initially, the cards were delivered in a cardboard box clearly labelled with the manufacturer's name: "Tarock Playing Cards / Made in U.S.A. / Western Playing Card Co. / Racine, Wis. / Poughkeepsie N.Y.". Later, a transparent celluloid box was used with no cover card, so that the manufacturer's details are missing from this later edition.

  
(Fig. 3)

Western PCC was bought by Liberty Inc. at the end of the 1980s. No new cards seem to have been produced since then. The Ben Franklin store in Schuyler NE was the last to sell tarok cards. Ben Franklin was a chain of variety stores that went out of business in the late 1990s. The stock was bought by players and is still sold today at Taroky tournaments in Nebraska and by the plumbing and heating shop Clarkson Plumbing, Heating, and Hardware, Inc., 220 Pine St, Clarkson NE 68629, Tel. +1-402-892-3331 for $5 each, available only on site and a maximum of two per buyer(!) as of March 2025.

After the war, ASS discontinued its Cego No. 49 and never again exported cards to America on a large scale. If you cannot obtain the Western cards, the most similar pattern would be the Cego by F.X. Schmid. It has the large numbers in the center of the bar at each end of the trump cards, with peasant scenes underneath throughout. The Schmid pattern is distributed by several companies (Fahnen & Werbetechnik Staeb, Fürstenberg Brauerei; it is printed by ASS). The modern French tarot (Tarot nouveau, commercially: Jeu de tarot à 78 cartes) has the same pattern on the trumps as the Western cards, but the numbers are in the corners. The "Adler Cego" with animal images on the trumps is a more distant relative.

The illustrations by Brichaček/Čada and Čada suggest that Austrian Industrie-und-Glück pattern Tarock cards with large Roman numerals on the trumps, sometimes known in Nebraska as "fancy cards" have also been used for Nebraska Taroky. Although the Western PCC bridge-sized cards are preferred many players, they are becoming harder to obtain, and it appears that the newest generation of Nebraska players have therefore begun to play instead with Piatnik Industrie-und-Glück pattern Tarock decks which they buy online.

(Fig. 4)

Origins and Related Games

The Nebraska rules are based on variants that were played around 1900 in the lands of the Bohemian Crown in the Habsburg Empire. The wave of emigration from there was organised in such a way that closed Czech settlement areas were able to form in the American Midwest, where the Bohemian culture, including Taroky, was preserved.

Compared to today's Königrufen in Austria, the procedure for picking up the blind in stages in the Nebraska "Four" bid seems particularly old fashioned. Also the principle of allowing any player to play a simple Rufer game (equivalent to 'Four') is no longer maintained in Austria. Either forehand is allowed to make this or in some places it is omitted altogether.

In modern Czech four-player Taroky players no longer call a King to select a partner - only the trump 19 can be called. It is likely that in the past both variants (King-calling and 19-calling) were known in the same Czech regions (as they still are in some parts of Austria today). This can be inferred from the fact that descendants of Czech immigrants in Texas still play King-calling, 19-calling and 20-calling Taroky variants. In Texas, however, the players use "fancy cards" of the Industrie-und-Glück pattern, imported from Austria.

Sources and References

Bibliography

• BRICHAČEK Robert / ČADA Ken (1997) The Czech Card Game of Taroky: Rules as Played at Holy Trinity Catholic Church Heun, Nebraska. (Clarkson History)
• ČADA Glenn (2016) Card Parties. (Clarkson History) Czech Culture in Nebraska.
• DUMMETT Michael / MCLEOD John (2009) Supplement to A History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack. Oxford, Maproom. (Tarotgame.org)
  1. Petrytl: games 18.14 (4 players, calling a King) and 18.15 to 18.17 (other numbers of players).
  2. Texas: games 18.13 (calling a King), 19.16 (calling the 19), 19.17 (calling the 20).
• KNÜPFER Ulrich (2024) Ein Bürger tarockiert. (Talon Nr. 33, S. 86) Tarock cards in America.
• LABER Achim (2025) Die Kartenblätter. (Cego.de) Comparison of Tarock card patterns.
• MCLEOD John
  1. Taroky. Czech Taroky, calling the 19
  2. Königrufen. Austrian King-calling Tarock.
• WINTLE Simon (2023) Western PCC, Racine, Wisconsin. (World of Playing Cards)

In addition, discussions with Gerd Matthes, playing card collector and long-time employee of the playing card factory in Altenburg (Thuringia).

Illustrations

• Title picture: Čada
• Western Cards: Scans by Ulf Martin
• Numbered Figures
  1. Petrytl Tarok: Chris Miller (Wikimedia, 2011)
  2. Tarock by Western PCC and Cego-Karten Nr. 49 by ASS with US tax stamp 1937: Achim Laber (Hinterzarten, 2024)
  3. Western PCC boxes (left to right.)
     • Box for "Tarock Playing Cards" (ca. 1940): Emily Wynn (La Vista NE, 2025)
     • Box for "Tarock Playing Cards" (undated): Ebay-offer "Vintage Deck of Tarock Playing Cards w/Box - 54 Cards - USA - Western Playing Co" (Playful Investments, retrieved March 2025)
     • Celluloid box from the Ben Franklin Store, Schuyler NE (1999): Čada
  4. Comparison of Tarock 17 (left to right on squared paper - 5mm squares): Scan by Ulf Martin
     • Industrie & Glück (Piatnik)
     • Adler-Cego (ASS)
     • Tarot nouveau (Piatnik)
     • Cego F.X. Schmid (Fahnen-Staeb, Druck ASS)
     • Tarock Playing Cards (Western PCC)