The Lansquenet

from the Encyclopedia of Card Games: games of combinations, tricks, chance, and patience.
Author: Boussac, Jean 
Publisher: L. Chailley (Paris)
Date of publication: 1896
Translation: Lydie M.

The Lansquenet

Baccarat has almost everywhere dethroned the Lansquenet card game. The Lansquenet is a simple and fast game.  It is enough to have seen it played for a few minutes to understand the betting and combinations.

It is used to play five or six games of 52 cards, as the more games there are, the more interesting the game is. These games must be shuffled together several times for this, we share the mass of cards between several players; each, after having beaten the part which he has received, passes it to his neighbor on the right, who mixes him among the cards which he himself has just beaten, since he passes the two packets thus mixed with his neighbor which does the same, etc. When all these combinations are made, the cards are placed in front of the banker.

The dealer gives them one last very brief row, and is cut off by a person from the society, who is lucky.

In Lansquenet, 'the number' of players is unlimited. The spell refers to the banker, whose role is to hold the cards, to give them and especially to play big game, as we will see. The other players are called the clutches. After cutting, as has just been said, the banker announces the sum he wants to play.

The player placed at his right has the floor; he may hold any or a little sum proposed by the banker, or pass. When he keeps the whole sum, it means that the game is done. When he keeps a part of the sum, the second player can swagger him by taking into all; and as long as the' everything is done, each player may speak following his turn. If no one took the blow, the first player, in other words, the one who had the first word and which is placed immediately to the right of the banker, said I am one, two, three…  And then the second player will perfect the difference, or bet what he wants; of even the third player until the issue of the banker is covered; the other clutches can play only if the sum has been supplemented by the first players.

When the games are made, the banker returns a card, which he places on his right; then he returns a second, which he places on his left, for the clutches. In order to understand it very well, we suppose that the card on the right, is a king, and that the card on the left, is a new one. The value and the color of these two cards are absolutely indifferent things. Between these two cards, we will cut down one 3 °, one 4 °, one 5 ° card which will be returned until it emerges a king or a new one; if it is the king who goes out, the banker picks up the stakes; if it is new, the clutches have won, and they share the money of the banker in proportion to the sum engaged by each of them. As long as the banker wins, he keeps his hand; but as soon as he has lost a blow, the bank passes to the neighbor on the right of the preceding banker; this one, bank the sum he wants.

Redone or doublet. From this summary overview, you might think that the banker has no advantage; it would be a serious mistake, and here is what this advantage is if the card had been a king, the banker would have won, without the need to draw a third card, so that at each beginning of the stroke, if two such cards follow each other, there is redo or doublet and the banker wins. This chance seems minimal here, on paper, but we take cards in hand and we will see how many times the red is presented in a size. If the two cards are dissimilar, the banker, after having 'run the chance to remake, still has equal chance checks spawns until the decision of the middle card, which will end up being a king or a new one, because he will draw the cards until one or both of these cards are removed.

After the first row, if it is won by the banker, he is bound to leave the money he had put on the first row, with the one he won so that, for the second shot, the stakes are doubled; for the third row, it is quadrupled and so on until the banker loses. When the bank is thus swollen, the player who has held a whole coup, third or last, always has the right to follow his money and to cover only the following rows; But if it covers only part of it, the floor returns to the first player, and the one who sits the banker's right, who does what he wants; And it is up to the following players to do the rest, according to their turn. The standing players still are the last. As long as the banker passes (wins), he can hold the cards, but nothing obliges him he can pass the bank to his right neighbor; when he wants it, after the first row. When the banker has lost what he has. In place and what he had won in the moves he played, the bank passes to his neighbor on the right, without the other players being able to oppose it; but if the banker leaves voluntarily, the other players can offer to buy it. So, for example, the banker made a Louis by taking the cards, if he passes two rows, the bank happens to be four Louis. That the banker then leaves the store voluntarily, his neighbor on the right takes it, and he only puts in the bank the sum he wants to play; But if another player offers to take the hand, that is to buy the bank, he puts in bank the four Louis, and he takes the cards preferably to the player placed to the right of the banker.

The preference for the purchase of the bank is always determined by the rank that the player occupies to the right of the banker. If this purchaser is reload, the bank returns to that of the players who were entitled to it when it was purchased; But if the buyer leaves voluntarily, it can be bought again, and it only comes back to the rightful owner when it prunes, or if it does not show up as a buyer.

However, when the bank was bought three times in a row, it can no longer be a fourth, and it is rightfully the player who had to have it when it was purchased the first time.