The Charlemagne card game, online, with friends or the computer

What Charlemagne is, and where it comes from

Charlemagne is played in Eastern Canada and across the border in Maine. Neither rules page we read says how old it is or where the name comes from. John McLeod's page at Pagat says it could be considered a version of Bid Euchre, and the ranking shows why: the jack of trumps and the other jack of the same colour sit high in the suit, and le bar, French for the jack of trumps, is adapted from bower, the Euchre word for the trump jacks.

The two pages we checked agree on every number, but McLeod’s is dated 2013, based mainly on information from three people, and it leaves gaps. Where it is silent we say what we chose.

Charlemagne rules: the deck, the deal and the eight bids

Thirty-two cards, ace down to seven in each suit, plus two jokers you can tell apart, the Big joker and the Little joker: thirty-four. Four seats in two teams, partners opposite. The deal moves one seat along every hand, and each seat is dealt eight cards, with two more set face down as the kitty. Bidding goes once round, starting left of the dealer and ending with the dealer. You pass, and that is final, or you bid higher than anything so far. Then eight tricks: everyone plays one card, the highest trump wins, or the highest card of the suit led if nobody trumps, and the winner leads next.

The bids, lowest to highest: 5, 6, 7, 8, Mulot, Charlemagne, Gros Mulot, Gros Charlemagne. A number bid says your team, you and your partner, will win at least that many of the eight tricks, and 8 means all of them. The other four are solo bids, and the bidder’s partner sits out. Mulot is a bid to win no trick at all. Charlemagne, which some call Petit Charles, is a bid to win every trick, with the kitty and one card from your partner to help. Gros Mulot is a Mulot with your hand spread face up after the first trick. Gros Charlemagne is a Charlemagne where you get the kitty or a card from your partner, not both. Both are worth twice as much when they come off. After a number bid the bidder takes the kitty, discards two cards face down and names trump. The how-to page has the kitty and the partner’s card for each solo bid.

Trumps, the jokers and the two jacks

Say hearts are trump. From the top: the Big joker, the Little joker, the jack of hearts, the jack of diamonds, then the ace, king, queen, 10, 9, 8 and 7 of hearts. That is eleven trumps. Diamonds keep seven cards, ace down to seven with no jack, because theirs has moved into trumps. Clubs and spades keep all eight. Eleven, seven, eight and eight make the 34.

The jack of the other red suit is the trap. With hearts trump, the jack of diamonds is a heart for every purpose. Somebody leads the king of diamonds and you hold that jack and two spades: you have no diamond to follow with, so you may play anything. Turn it round. If a heart is led, both jokers and that jack count as hearts, and if they are all the trumps you hold, one of them has to go down.

Mulot and Gros Mulot have no trump suit, only the jokers, Big over Little, and every suit runs ace, king, queen, jack, 10 down to 7. Two extra rules apply to the jokers. With a plain suit led and no card of it in your hand, you must play a joker if you hold one. When a joker is led, the holder of the other one must play it. So a Mulot bidder can lead the Little joker and hand trick one to the holder of the Big joker. If the Big joker is in the kitty, or in your partner’s discarded hand, nobody holds it, your joker wins the trick, and the bid fails.

Scoring: what a bid is worth

One team scores each hand, and only the bidder’s bid is at stake. A number bid scores its number in points if made and gives the same number to the opponents if missed. Bid 6 and take seven tricks and you score 6, not 7: tricks beyond the bid earn nothing. Mulot is worth 15 made, or 7 to the opponents if the bidder takes even one trick. Charlemagne is 16 and 8, Gros Mulot 30 and 15, Gros Charlemagne 32 and 16.

The first team to 32 points wins, so a made Gros Charlemagne wins from any score. A worked hand: your team is on 27 and bids 5. You take five tricks, 27 and 5 are 32, and the match is over. Take four and the other team scores 5 instead.

Charlemagne among the Euchre variations, and where the pages differ

Two forms turn up in the sources. The Canadian one is what we deal: 34 cards, two jokers as top trumps, a kitty, bids from 5, first to 32. The Maine form, from the St. John River valley according to McLeod, has 32 cards, no jokers and no kitty, the nine of trumps on top, bids from 1 that name the trump suit, a target of 21, and a Charlemagne bid that ends the match either way. We do not deal it.

McLeod’s prose trump order has a stray second jack that his own hearts example lacks, and CatsAtCards agrees with the example, so eleven trumps it is. The bigger gap: the Canadian description never says what happens when all four pass. The Maine form makes the dealer bid at least 5 if nobody else has, so the dealer here is stuck the same way. A pass is refused, and they can bid 5 or higher. That is our choice, not the rules pages’. They differ on one more point: CatsAtCards has a Gros Mulot hand face up before the first lead, McLeod’s has it spread after the first trick, and we follow McLeod.

What the table does, and what it does not

This is what a rules page cannot do: deal it. A table is four seats, two teams of two, a double date if you like. Press Play with three friends and you are handed three links, one per seat. No account, no download. The server shuffles and deals, and every seat sees its own cards and nothing else, except a Gros Mulot bidder’s hand, which goes face up after the first trick. What you discard is never shown to anyone, and neither is an unused kitty or the hand your partner throws away when they sit out.

The computer table seats you with a computer partner against two computer opponents, on the same board and rules as a shared table. Its play is simple, and we would not bet on it against anyone who counts cards. It sees only what a seat would see. Before it bids it adds up tricks from jokers, jacks and high cards, and it saves 8 and Charlemagne for a hand with both jokers, both jacks and the ace of trump. It never bids Gros Mulot. A computer partner asked to pass you a card blind sends a joker if it has one, then a jack, then an ace.

A table has text chat, and voice if the person who made it switches it on. The rules ask for the partner’s blind pass to be made without discussion, which a chat box cannot enforce, so that one is on your honour. The jokers are lettered rather than illustrated, a star with BIG or LITTLE on it. The computer table forgets the match when you leave, and a shared table stays open until 48 hours after its last move.

In our opinion the best card game for friends is the one where you all know the rules or none of you does. If nobody at your table has met Charlemagne, that is you. It is free, and if an ad ever turns up, discreet is the aim.