Spoil Five
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| Origin | Ireland |
|---|---|
| Type | Trick-taking |
| Players | 3-8 |
| Skills required | Tactics & Strategy |
| Cards | 52 |
| Deck | Anglo-American |
| Play | Clockwise |
| Playing time | 25 min. |
| Random chance | Medium |
| Related games | |
| Forty-five | |
Spoil-Five (also Spoilt Five and Five and Ten) is the traditional book version of the Irish national card game called Twenty-Five, which underlies the Canadian game of Forty-Five. Charles Cotton describes it in 1674 as "Five Fingers", a nickname applied to the Five of Trumps extracted from the fact that the Irish word cuig means both 'five' and 'trick'. It is supposed to be of great antiquity, and widely believed to have originated in Ireland. It may be identified with the game of Maw, of which James I of England was very fond.
Edmund Hoyle in his The Complete Gamester describes it as Five-cards. In the game of Five Cards, for example, when played by only two persons, Five and Ten, the card second in value is stated to be the ace of hearts, instead of the knave of trumps.
Spoil Five is a respected member of one of the most prolific families of card games based on this pattern: each player receives five cards, or six or nine, and another is turned up to fix the trump suit. The object of the play is to win one trick, or at least three or five.
The game is played by 2–8 persons, five being the best number. When three play at this game, it is still necessary that one of them should win the three tricks in order to make a Five, as the stakes must remain for the next game if two of the players get two tricks each, and the other one. If the party consists of four, they play in two partnerships, which are determined by cutting the cards, the two lowest playing against the two highest, or by agreement among the parties. When six play, it is usual to play in three partnerships, and when eight play, in four. When five or six play it makes a very interesting game.
A full pack of 52 cards is used and each player receives five cards, dealt in pairs and triplets, being the next card on the top of the pack turned up for trumps. Each player starts with a pre-arranged amount, which may be of 20 chips or counters, and puts up one chip upon the table to form a pool. The pool is usually limited to a certain maximum, which once reached there is no further subscription, though each dealer is required to "tit-up" the pool.
The turn to deal and play always passes to the left, and after the first hand, each player deals in rotation. Where the game is strictly played, the person who misdeals, or who departs from the order with which the game began, of dealing either the three or the two cards first, forfeits his stake. Stack the rest face down, turning the topmost card for trumps.
If the turn-up is an Ace, the dealer may "rob" the trump, i.e. put out, face downwards, any card from his hand and take in the Ace, but the trump suit remains unaltered. Similarly, a player who holds the Ace of trumps may himself rob the trump at any time before playing to the first trick, putting out any card and taking in the turn-up, but need not disclose the fact until it is his turn to play. If the holder of the trump Ace does not wish to rob, and does not announce the fact that he holds it before playing to the first trick, then, whenever he does play it, it counts as the lowest trump. A player who fails to rob cannot go out that hand. The card put out may not be seen. Robbing must take place before the first player on the dealer's left leads. Some players make "robbing" optional.
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Wikipedia