| Bauerchen | |
| Image Link: | File:Berlinerbild Buben.jpg |
| Image Caption: | The four Bowers |
| Type: | Trick-taking |
| Players: | 4 |
| Num Cards: | 20 |
| Deck: | French pack |
| Play: | Clockwise |
| Card Rank: | J J J J TA TK TQ T10-7 A K Q 10-7 (led suit) |
| Origin: | Palatinate, Germany |
Bauerchen, also Bauerchens, Bauerspiel, Bauersche or Bauersches, is a trick-taking card game of the ace–ten family for four players that is played in the Palatinate region of Germany, especially around the city of Kaiserslautern,[1] as well as in south Hesse.It is often played during leisure times as an alternative to well known games such as Schafkopf or Skat.[1] Regular Bauerchen tournaments also take place.[1] The game is named after its four permanent trumps or "Bowers" (German and Palatine: Bauer).
Historically the game was popular in the Siegerland and in the county of Lahn-Dill-Kreis, where this "strange and traditional card game" was associated with the tradition of making Stauze(n)weck or Studdewäcke - local buns, particularly around the Christmas-New Year holiday period. The game was played in taverns that were often attached to bakeries. The winners of a game won a Stauzeweck from each of the losing players. It was already popular in Kaiserslautern in 1949.[2] In 1965 it was reported as dying out with only 10 men in the village of Haiger able to master the game and being completely unknown in the surrounding area.[3]
Today the game seems to have centred itself on the city of Kaiserslautern where Bauerchen tournaments (Bauersches Turniere or Preisbauer-Turniere) take place irregularly in various pubs in and around the city and also in the surrounding region, for example at Herborn,[4] Oberwörresbach,[5] Schwedelbach,[6] Weilerbach[7] and Rodenbach.[8] Tournaments have also been organised in the Darmstadt area at Worfelden.[9] The entry fee is decided by the publican[10] or tournament organiser.[6]
Bauerchen is a game for four, the two players sitting diagonally opposite one another forming a team, resulting in two teams of two.[11]
The game is played with 20 cards from a French-suited pack, typically of the Berlin pattern. A French-suited Skat pack may be used, in which case the Sevens, Eights and Nines are removed leaving the: Ace, Ten, King, Queen and Bower (Jack). The suits are:
| - | French suits | - align="center" | Diamonds | ||||||
| Kreuz/Kreiz | Schippe/Schibbe | Herz | Karo/Karro | - align="center" | |||||
Permanent trumps are the so-called Bowers (Bauern) i.e. promoted Jacks, from which the game gets its name. In addition there are all the cards in the trump suit, the ranking of the individual cards remaining the same as normal. Consequently there are always eight trumps in the game. These are, from the highest Bower to the lowest trump card: Bower of Clubs (Pal.: de Ald) > Bower of Spades (Pal.: Noo-Beschd) > Bower of Hearts > Bower of Diamonds > Trump Ace > Trump 10 > Trump King (Pal.: Kenisch) > Trump Queen (Pal.: Dahm).
The values of the individual cards are as follows:
| Ranks and card-point values of cards | |||||||||
| Rank | A | 10 | K | Q | J (Bower) | 9 | 8 | 7 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value | 11 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 2 | – | |||
In addition, the last trick of the game usually scores 10 points extra, so that there is a total of 130 points per game. Where this is the case, it is referred to as the 'Lautern game' (Pal.: Lautrer Spiel) because there is a variant played outside of Kaiserslautern in which the last trick does not score a bonus. Schneider is then 31 points, not 33 and only 61 are required to win, not 66.
A 'game' is a deal of five tricks, a 'round' comprises several games - until one team reaches 12 points. The team that wins two rounds scores a stein ("rock"), sometimes called a knoddel; after which a new stein is played.
Dealing and play are clockwise. Dealer shuffles the cards and offers them to the right for cutting. The cards are then dealt in packets of 2 and then 3 to each player, each player receiving five cards. Players pick up their cards and forehand (on the dealer's left) calls trumps before leading to the first trick. When the game is finished, forehand then becomes the next dealer. Sometimes, trumps are announced as soon as forehand receives and picks up the first two cards and before the rest are dealt.
Each player must play to the trick in accordance with the following rules:
Game is 12 points. If a team reaches 12, the opposing side is given a knoddel.
If the opponents get 2 knoddels, the team wins a stein, which used to mean that their opponents had to buy them a stein of beer, i.e. a litre of beer.
If both teams have one knoddel (or sometimes two knoddels[6]) each, the deciding game is called a "Gehampelter", "Hängo" or various other names.
Game points are awarded depending on the level of card points won. If the game is played without a bonus for the last trick, the levels are correspondingly lower. So, if the opposing team scores...
If playing with the last trick bonus, the target to be out of schneider is sometimes set at 34, not 31. If the points are split 65:65, the away team wins. If the away team wins they always get an extra game point (i.e. 2, 3 or 4 game points). If players have doubled (spritzt), the points are doubled for each Spritze.
The former Hessian variant was described by Löeber in 1965 under the name Bauerschspiel. It was a game for four players in two teams of two using a Skat pack minus the 7s and 8s leaving 24 cards. Again the highest cards were the Jacks. After dealing 5 cards to each player, trumps were determined by turning the next card (not by forehand). Curiously, you had to take either the first two tricks or the last three to win. Each team chalked up five crosses (Striche) thus, +++++, and one was erased for each win (en Strich aus) or added if you lost (en Strich oo), which suggests there may have been some sort of bidding. The team that was first to erase all five received a 'blob' (Nullchen) on the slate and a bun called a Stauzewecke from each of the losing players. Löeber admits that he has not been able to describe the finer points of the game.[3]