Gleek (Card game)

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Gleek was an English card game that was popular from the sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries. As first described by John Cotgrave, an Englishman, in 1662. It is a compound game for three players, involving an exchange of cards with a view to gaining a flush, a gleek (three of a kind) or mournival (four of a kind), followed by a round of trick-play. It could well be described as an adaptation of Piquet for three players instead of two.

The earliest mention of Gleek in English has been traced by Michael Dummett to a 1522 translation of a French work of 1511, namely Henry Watson's The chirche of the euyll men and women, from La Petite Dyablerie dont Lucifer est le chef by Varnet and Beda, itself based on the celebrated sermon De alearum ludo by St Bernardine of Siena. Later, Sir William Forrest represents Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536) preferring play to her more appropriate matronly duties:

With stoole and with needyl she was not to seeke,
And other practiseinges for ladyes meete,
[But] To pastyme at tables, tick tacke, or gleeke,
Cardis and dyce...

(Warton, History of English Poetry)

Contents

[edit] Gameplay

[edit] Cards

Forty-four, ranking AKQJ10987654 in each suit. (No Deuces or Treys.) Certain trumps have names and point-values as follows:

Ace (Tib) 15

King 3

Queen 3

Jack (Tom) 9

Six (Tumbler) 6 (optional)

Five (Towser) 5 (optional)

Four (Tiddy) 4


The point-values of the four honours (A-K-Q-J) apply when won in tricks. Those of the three lowest trumps denote only side-payments made for the fact of holding them or turning them for trump. The optional names and values are recorded only by Cotton and may be regarded as non-standard.

[edit] Stakes

The game is played for hard score (cash or counters). We will assume a basic unit of 1p.

[edit] Game structure

There are four parts to the game.

  1. The draw. Players bid for the right to draw card replacements in hope of improving their hand. Only the highest bidder may do this.
  2. Vying the ruff They vie as to who has the best ruff (= the highest value of cards in any one suit, like the 'point' in Piquet).
  3. Gleeks and mournivals. Payments are received for holding sets of three or four high cards of the same rank.
  4. Tricks. Twelve tricks are played.

[edit] Deal

Deal 12 cards each, face down, in three batches of four. Stack the remaining eight face down and turn the top card for trump. If the turn-up is a Four (Tiddy), the dealer receives 4p from each opponent - or, similarly, 5 for the Five (Towser) or 6 for the Six (Tumbler), but only by prior agreement.

[edit] Bidding for the stock

Players bid for the right to improve their hand by drawing from the stock. Eldest hand may not pass but must start the bidding at 12p. Each in turn thereafter, rotating to the left, must either pass or offer more than the previous bidder. It is usual, but not obligatory, to raise by 1p at a time. When two have passed, the third pays half the amount he bid to each opponent. (Sources vary as to what happens if an odd 1p remains: it may go to the pot, to eldest hand, or to the last player who dropped out.) The highest bidder must then make exactly seven discards and replenish his hand with the seven stock cards other than the turn-up.

[edit] Vying the ruff

Players then bet as to who holds the best ruff - that is, the greatest value of cards in any one suit, counting Ace 11, courts 10 each, and numerals at face value (as at Piquet). At the start of the game a certain amount will have been agreed upon as the basic stake for this phase. We will assume it to be 2p (following Willughby, to simplify comparison).

Each in turn has one opportunity to open this phase of the game (by saying, for example, 'I'll vie the ruff'). If no one will open, there is no vying, and the stake in the next deal is automatically doubled (4p).

If anyone does vie, then each in turn from the left of the opener may (a) pass, (b) see, or (c) raise. ('Raise' is modern Poker terminology: Cotton and Willughby say 'See and revie'.)

To pass is to fold: it means you relinquish all claim to the pot and will pay the eventual winner the amount of the stake as it was when you passed. There is no point in passing in the same round as the opening vie (unless you are third to speak and the second hand has revied), as you will not lose any greater stake for losing at a showdown than you will for passing, so you might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb (and may escape the gallows anyway).

To see is to call for a showdown by matching the previous stake, and to raise is to increase the stake by an additional 2p.

This continues until either -

1. Two players have passed, in which case the third wins without a showdown, and each opponent pays the winner the amount of the stake as it was when he passed. Or:

2. One player has seen or raised, and at least one opponent has seen but neither has re-raised. This calls for a showdown, and the best hand wins the pot. If there is a tie for best, the elder tied hand wins it. (The dealer is youngest and his left-hand opponent eldest.)

Exception. There is an anomalous exception to all the above - namely, that a mournival of Aces (all four of them in one hand) beats any ruff whatsoever. If you hold a mournival of Aces, therefore, you can safely and legitimately vie the ruff without disclosing this fact until the showdown, when you will automatically win the pot without question.

[edit] Gleeks and mournivals

Next, players declare their gleeks and mournivals, and are paid by each opponent for each one held. A gleek is three alike, and a mournival four, of any rank higher than Ten. A gleek of Aces is paid by each opponent 4p, of Kings 3p, of Queens 2p, and of Jacks 1p, and these amounts are doubled for a mournival. (Thus a mournival of Aces earns 2 x 8 = 16, in addition to whatever it earned for the ruff.)

Query. It is unclear whether (a) everyone is paid for every gleek or mournival they declare, or (b) only the player holding the highest mournival (or gleek, if none) is paid for it, and, if so, whether that person is paid for any other gleeks and mournivals they may declare (as at Piquet). The former is probable because Willughby states that, when playing, it is important to check that everyone has the gleeks and mournivals that they claimed, and at end of play it is permissible to check through the discards to ensure that it contains no card that would invalidate either combination. On the other hand, this rule clashes with Piquet, which in other respects Gleek more closely resembles.

[edit] Trick-play

Eldest leads to the first of 12 tricks. You must follow suit if you can, but may play any card if you can't. (Furthermore - but only according to Willughby - you must not only follow suit if you can but must also play the highest card you hold of that suit.) The trick is taken by the highest card of the suit led, or by the highest trump if any are played, and the winner of each trick leads to the next.

If you hold Tiddy (the trump Four) you may claim a consolation of 2p from each opponent, either at start of play or when you play it to a trick. This optional rule may be ignored by prior agreement, as it is often forgotten. If it is admitted, then (according to Cotton, but not Willughby) it may also be agreed that when you play Towser (Five) or Tumbler (Six) to a trick you may claim a similar side payment of (probably) 5p or 6p respectively.

When you play an honour to a trick (Ace, King, Queen or Jack) you should simultaneously announce that fact, as its point-value will eventually contribute to your score.

[edit] Score

At end of play, you each count 3 points for each trick you have won, and add to this the point-value of any honours you may have played, namely Ace 15, King 3, Queen 3, Jack 9. (It is possible, but unlikely, that these points accrue for winning honours in tricks, or winning tricks with honours, rather than for merely having been dealt them.) Furthermore, if the turn-up was an Ace, King, Queen or Jack, the dealer counts it in with his total.

Each player then either wins or loses the difference between this total and 22. In other words: Any player whose count is less than 22 adds to the pot 1p for each point by which it falls short of 22, and then any player whose count exceeds 22 withdraws from the pot 1p for each point in excess of that figure.

The significance of 22, as Willughby observes, is that it is one third of the total value of counters (30) and tricks (36).

[edit] Notes on vying the ruff

Willughby says that if the first two players pass, the third may either pass too (in which case the next pot is doubled) or vie. As there would be no point in his vying if he could win without a showdown, we must assume that if he does vie the other two players may re-enter the vying, which makes their initial pass equivalent to a 'check' at Poker. It is not clear whether equalising the stake in order to 'see' forces a showdown, as at Poker, or still allows further raising until either two players pass or no one will raise any more. Willughby seems to suggest that raising may continue indefinitely. He and Cotton both give (different) examples of the vying phase, but what they lack in clarity they make up for in obscurity. The only certainty is that raises may only be made in specified quantities (such as 2p). In a private communication, Jeffrey Burton, who specialises in historical vying games, reconciles their two accounts by assuming that "Whether in effect or in fact, each player paid an ante of one chip before the ruff. If he then chose not to bet at all, he would forfeit the chip; if he joined in the vying, but failed to win, he would have to cough up another chip, as a sort of fine. This might not make much sense in modern terms, but neither does the game overall; if it did, we should still be playing it. It does seem to me to be entirely logical in its own context. What's more, it makes the sums add up."

[edit] References

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