Put (card game)

Put

The Tavern Game of Ill Repute
A game of cards Joos van Craesbeeck.
Origin	England
Family	Trick-taking
Players	2-4
Skills required	Tactics & Strategy
Cards	52
Deck	English
Play	Clockwise
Playing time	15 min.
Random chance	Medium
Related games
Brelan, Brag

Put is an English tavern trick-taking card game first recorded in the 16th century and later castigated by 17th century moralists as one of ill repute. It belongs to a very ancient family of card games and clearly relates to a group known as Trut, Truque, also Tru, and the South American game Truco. Its more elaborate version is the Spanish game of Truc, which is still much played in many parts of Southern France and Spain.

The name Put, pronounced "u", like the name of the English village of Putney, derives from "putting up your cards in cafe", if you do not like them, or from "putting each other to the shift".

The game of Put appears in a "riddle", or acrostic, probably written by a Royalist in the thrilling interval between the resignation of Richard Cromwell on May 25, 1659 and the restoration of Charles II, crowned at Westminster Abbey on 23 April 1661. It expresses in enigmatical terms the designs and hopes of the King's adherents, under colour of describing a game of "Put". The initial letters of the seven verses are an anagram, and indicate the number of cards shared between the two players in the game. S, X, I, C, R, A, T, make SIX CART, or six cartes (six cards). Six cards, also, are expressly mentioned in the riddle itself, namely: "the Knave" (line 2), "a King" (3), "Heart" (5), "Trey", "Quarter" or quatre, and "the Buck" (7). "The Buck", probably one of the picture-cards, or the ace, inferior to "Trey", which is the best card in the game of put; therefore "Trey" comes "to pull down the Buck".

"The Buck" is an old English synonym for the Coarse Appellation, intended, no doubt, for a Puritan, or for the Puritan party.
"Pulling down the Buck", is also an allusion to hunting.

The game of Put is played generally by two people, sometimes by three, and often by four, with a 52-card pack with cards ranking 3-2-A-K-Q-J-T-9-8-7-6-5-4 in each suit. The game is won by the first player to score 5 points over as many deals as necessary, or by the player who wins a majority of three tricks played in any deal.