Trappola

Trappola is an early 16th-century Venetian trick-taking card game which spread to most parts of Central Europe and survived, in various forms and under various names like Trapulka, Bulka and Hundertspiel until perhaps the middle of the 20th century. It was played with a special pack of Italian-suited cards and last reported to have been manufactured in Prague in 1944. Piatnik has reprinted their old Trappola deck for collectors.

History

We know from the Italian polymath and 'gambling scholar' Girolamo Cardano that Trappola was current in Venice "as early as 1524 and probably invented there". The original Venetian version described by Cardano in reasonable detail was for only two players and played without trumps or bidding. It is also the earliest known trick-taking game where the ace has been promoted above the king and played with a stripped deck.

From the 17th to 19th centuries, the game became popular in Central Europe after it declined in its homeland. In the 18th century, Central Europeans created versions that included three or four players, partnerships, trumps, and bidding. One particularly widespread descendant was Hundertspiel, also misleadingly called Hunderteins-Spiel, whose rules first appear in an 1824 treatise and in which two teams of two players competed to be first to reach the target of 100 points, hence the name. Trappola's focus on winning the last trick with a low card influenced other card games such as Tarot.