Le Quatre Sept
Introduction
This game, also known as La Politaine or La Poule is played in the French-speaking provinces of Canada. It is descended from the Italian game Tressette, which was fashionable throughout Europe in the 18th century and is still well-known in Italy. It is a four-player partnership point trick game without trumps.
Tressette is played with the 40-card Italian pack, and not only the ace, but also the two and three are promoted to be top cards of each suit, so the ranking is 3-2-A-K-Q-J-7-6-5-4. The 32-card pack that is commonly used in France has no 3 or 2, so when the French adapted Tressette to use this pack, they substituted the 10 and 9 for those cards, giving the ranking 10-9-A-K-Q-J-8-7 which was retained when the game was exported to Canada.
Tressette means "three sevens". In France this was translated to Trois Sept. In the Canadian descendant Quatre Sept (four sevens) the combination of four sevens in one hand wins the game, which no doubt accounts for the name. In the modern Italian game there is no trace of a special reward for three sevens. However, Ulf Martin has pointed out that several 18th century French and German descriptions of Tressette do feature a bonus for a holder of three and in some cases also four sevens. Also the Italian book Il Giuoco Pratico (1774, 1820) includes the three sevens bonus in the variant Tresette alla Moscovita though not in the main game. The sevens bonuses seem to have been abandoned in Europe during the 19th century, but they evidently survived long enough to influence the four sevens feature of the Canadian game and give it its name Quatre Sept.
The combination of the top three cards of a suit does give a bonus both in the Italian and in the Canadian game. In Italian this is called a Napolitane (meaning Neapolitan - from the city of Naples). In Canada this has been changed to "La Politaine", and the whole game is commonly known by this name. The alternative name "La Poule" perhaps arose as a further shortening of this.
On this page we also include a description of a German variant of La Politaine known as Pollack.
The rules of Le Quatre Sept on this page is based mainly on a contribution from Lorraine Dube Barnes.
Players and Cards
There are four players in fixed partnerships. Partners sit opposite each other. Deal and play are clockwise.
A 32-card French suited pack is used. The suits are hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades and the cards of each suit rank from high to low:
10, 9, A, K, Q, J, 8, 7
- Aces are worth 1 point each.
- Tens, nines, kings, queens, and jacks are worth one third of a point each.
- Eights and sevens have no value.
- The last trick is worth 1 point.
The total number of points in the game is theoretically 11⅔ (4 + 20/3 + 1) but any fractional points in each team's total are ignored, so the actual total of points scored is 11.
The Deal
The first dealer is chosen by drawing cards from the shuffled pack: whoever draws the highest card deals first. The turn to deal passes to the left after each hand.
The dealer (le brasseur) shuffles the cards and deals them in batches: three cards to each player, then two cards each, then three cards each. So each player has a hand of eight cards.
If any player has all four sevens, that player's team immediately wins the whole game.
The Play
The player to dealer's left leads to the first trick, and the winner of each trick leads to the next.
Any card may be led. The other players must follow suit, playing a card of the same suit as the card that was led if they can. A player who has no card of the suit led may play any card.
Each trick is won by the highest card of the suit led. Cards of other suits have no power to win the trick - there are no trumps in this game.
If any player has the top three cards of a suit (10, 9 and ace), and manages to use them to win three consecutive tricks, the player's team scores a bonus of 11 points. This combination is known as a poule or politaine and should be announced when the player plays the first of the three cards, in order to score the bonus.
Note that it is quite possible that a player who holds a politaine may not score the bonus, because the cards do not win tricks. This will happen for example if the holder does not obtain the lead, and other suits are led to the first six tricks. On the sixth trick one of the politaine cards will have to be discarded and the bonus will be lost.
Scoring
At the end of the play each team counts the value of the tricks they have won: 1 point for each ace; 1 point for every three other cards apart from 8's and 7's; 1 extra point for the team that won the last trick. The 8's and 7's and the two odd cards that are left over after the 10's, 9's and pictures have been grouped into threes have no value.
The scores of the two teams should always add up to 11. Each team adds its score to its running total. When either team's score reaches 31 or more, the team with the higher score wins. In case of a tie (33 points each), another deal is played to decide the winners.
Variations
The rules of La Politaine on the Wikibooks Boite à Jeux site differ from the above in the following ways:
- Redeal. Any player who is dealt a hand with no 10's, no 9's and no aces can demand a redeal before the first card is led. The cards are thrown in and the dealer shuffles and deals again.
- Signals. When playing a card, a player may tap the table, signalling that he or she holds good cards in that suit, and requesting partner to lead it when possible. Sliding a card onto the table is a signal that one holds good cards in the other suit of the same colour - for example sliding a diamond is a request to partner to lead hearts.
- Target score. The game ends when a team has a score of 32 points or more. If both teams reach this target in the same deal, the game is won by the first team that claims a win. In some places longer games are played, for example until one team reaches 150 points or more.
- Four 8's. A player who is dealt all four 8's declares them before the lead to the first trick, and this player's team wins the whole game. This presumably replaces the rule that four 7's win the game, which is not mentioned in the Boite à Jeux description.
- Capot. A team that wins all 8 tricks in one deal wins the whole game.
The description of La Poule on the Jeux de Cartes Inédites site includes the following rules, which significantly affect the tactics of the game:
- If a trick is worth less than one whole point, the winner must lead his or her lowest card to the next trick: a 7, or an 8 if the player has no 7, or a jack if the player has no 7 or 8, and so on. Presumably a player who has more than one equally low card may choose freely between them.
- In order to score for a politaine, it must be announced at the start of the play, before the first lead. Rule 1 above can make it difficult to lead the cards of a politaine consecutively. For example if you lead the 10, and the other players play J, 8, 7, you are not allowed to continue with your 9 or ace, because that trick is worth only ⅔ of a point. You have to lead your lowest card next and the points for the politaine are lost. For this reason, when leading from a politaine, it is generally best to begin with the ace, which guarantees that the trick will be worth at least a point, allowing the 10 or 9 to be led next.
- A target score of 200 points is suggested; the game ends when a team reaches or exceeds this score.
Pollack
The game Pollack was described in the mid-19th century, probably first in Ludwig von Alvensleben's Encyclopädie der Spiele (Leipzig 1853, Wiegand). Von Alvensleben describes it as "A new game that quickly gained popularity and is played frequently in public places, particularly in Berlin". It has continued to appear in German card game rulebooks ever since then, but we do not know to what extent it is still played.
The 1853 rules closer to those of today's Tressette than those of Quatre Sept. On the one hand, the combination 10-9-A works differently in Quatre Sept, and on the other hand, winning the game with four 7s in Quatre Sept is a remnant of even older Tressette rules, in which three or four 7s in the hand won the game. There is no mention of winning the game with four 7s in the Pollack rules, and this is also no longer the case in modern Tressette.
The game was also played with German cards. In this case, the ace is a Daus, the queen is replaced by the Ober, and the jack by the Unter. The suits are acorns, leaves, hearts and bells. Otherwise, the rank of the cards and the rules of play game are the same as in Quatre Sept.
Declarations
There is no Politaine scoring during the game. Instead, players can declare card combinations that they hold in their hand and that correspond to those in Tressette:
- 3 points for triplets of 10s, 9s or aces.
- 4 points for four of a kind of 10s, 9s or aces.
- 3 points for Pollack: 10-9-A in one suit.
The following two details are not mentioned by Von Alvensleben but we assume that they are the same as in Tressette:
- The same card can be simultaneously used in a Pollack and in a three or four of a kind.
- Anyone who declares a Pollack must name the suit; anyone who declares three of a kind must name the missing suit.
The player who leads to the first trick makes any declarations before playing the first card. Other players may only declare combinations after their side has won a trick. Since the cards must be held in the player's hand for the declaration to be valid, the chance to declare a combination is lost if the holder plays any of its cards before their team wins a trick.
Scoring
As in Tressette, the game is won by the first team to achieve a score of 21 points or more.
A player who believes during the play that their team already has 21 or more points with the cards already taken in trciks can stop the play and claim a win. The values of the cards taken by each team are then counted. If the claim is correct, the team that stopped the play wins, otherwise it loses. The points taken by the opponents of the team that claimed are irrelevant.