Boston (card game)
| Origin | France |
|---|---|
| Family | Trick-taking |
| Players | 4 |
| Skills required | Strategy |
| Cards | 52 |
| Deck | French |
| Play | Clockwise |
| Playing time | 25 min. |
| Random chance | Medium |
| Related games | |
| Whist | |
Boston is an 18th-century trick-taking card game played throughout the Western world apart from Britain, forming an evolutionary link between Hombre and Solo Whist. Appropriately named after a key location in the American War of Independence, it was probably devised in France in the 1770s, combining the 52-card pack and logical ranking system of partnership Whist with a range of solo and alliance bids borrowed from Quadrille (card game). Other lines of descent and hybridization produced the games of Twenty-five, Preference and Skat.
Two early forms of Boston, Le Whischt Bostonien and Le Mariland, are described in the Almanach des Jeux of 1783.
The object of the game is: a player pledges himself to perform a certain task, which we shall call an announcement. That player who makes the highest announcement, is entitled, if successful, to the contents of the pool, and a certain number of counters from each of the players.
The game of Boston, Boston De Fontainebleau or French Boston, whose appearance dates of around 1810, is played by four persons with a pack of 52 cards, which rank as at Whist. There are, moreover, four baskets or trays of different colors, one for each player, containing each five round counters, which represent one hundred each; twenty short counters which represent fifties, and twenty long counters, which represent fives. The deal is decided by cutting, and the player cutting the lowest card deals. The cards are not shuffled by the dealer, but each player has the privilege of cutting the pack once, the dealer last. The deal is performed by giving each player four cards twice around, and then five, thus giving thirteen cards to each. Each dealer deposits one short counter of fifty in the pool for the privilege of dealing.
After the preliminaries of cutting and dealing have been concluded, the eldest hand proceeds to make his announcement, or pass; the succeeding players have then, each in his turn, the opportunity of over bidding or passing. Thus, if the eldest hand thinks he can get five tricks with Clubs for trump, he announces, "five in Clubs". But if the second player undertakes to make five tricks with Diamonds for trump, he supersedes the first, and may in his turn be superseded by the third engaging to get six or seven Levees, or play Little Misere. The fourth hand, or dealer, may also supersede the third hand by announcing Picolissimo, or eight Levees, or any of the other chances lower down on the table. In short, whoever undertakes to do more than the other players has the preference. When a player has once declined announcing, he cannot afterwards do so in that hand; but if he makes an announcement, and it be exceeded by some other subsequent announcement, he may, in his regular turn, increase his first announcement if he chooses. If all pass without announcing, then the hand must be played, and he who takes the least number of tricks wins the pool. In this hand there is no trump. Any player whose announcement proves to be the highest can, if he pleases, call for a partner. The privilege of calling for a partner extends only to announcements number 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10; the other being bids to play solo.
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