Cego

Cego, also called Zeco or Ceco from the Latin "Caecus" or "blind", is a card game played mainly in Baden, Schwarzwald, and Lake Constance. It is similar to French Tarot and Austrian Tarock. The game is distinguished by a large Skat or Talon called "the Blind"

The Cards

The 54 cards are made up of 22 "trumps", 16 "images" and 16 "empty cards".

21 of the trumps cards are numbered from one to twenty-one. The highest trump is not numbered. It shows a gleeman and is called the Stieß or G'stieß (Fool).

All the rest of the cards ("images" and "empty cards") are of the regular suits clubs, spades, hearts, and diamonds. In addition to king, queen, and jack there is the image of the horseman. The "images" cannot win over the trumps, but are important because of their card value in respect to the total of points. The "empty cards" have no high card value and are the last in order to win the trick. The red "empty cards" are numbered from one to four (one being the highest card!), the black suit of "empty cards" from seven to ten.

Card point values

Rules

Cego can be played with three or four players that play in counter-clockwise direction.

Normally, one player plays against the rest. By winning tricks he tries to accumulate more card points than the rest of the players together - just as in Skat, a card game which is played a lot in all of Germany. There are some special games called "Räuber" (robber), "Drescher" (tresher), in which every player plays for himself.

Unlike in Skat or other major card games, there is no official set of rules for Cego. Because of that every region has established their own set of rules in the history of the game. Sometimes, the rules differ even within a village. The following description is therefore to be seen as a general guideline only.

Dealing

4 players: The dealer deals 11 cards per player and 10 cards separately on the table. Those ten cards are called "the blind" (Der Blinde).

3 players: Every player gets 13 cards, 12 go into the blind. With three players the cards "spades 7", "cubs 7", and "diamonds 4" are taken out of the game. It's played with 51 cards only.

In both cases there is no special order of dealing as there exists in Skat.

After the dealing the players have to check if they can play a "Solo": If a player has more than 8 "truck" (trumps) or 8 "truck"+ only 2 colors + 2 "truck" with a card value higher than 17 he should call a Solo. If no one goes against it this player will play a hand game. He may not look at the blind but in the scoring it counts for him.

The "solo" can be played as "ultimo", if one has strong truck and Additionally the "small man"(truck no.1). At the "ultimo" the last trick has to be taken with the "small man". In some regions "ultimos" are also played with the 2- or 3-"truck" or with specific combinations of 1-, 2-, and 3-"trucks". Playing solo one can call beforehand that he will not loose any tricks (called "Durchmarsch" - walkover).

If a player meets the requirements for a solo but doesn't say it, it's possible for the player who takes the blind to demand that all cards are put on the table. If a player is then caught copping-out the Solo, he has to pay the game (8 times the last bidded game value). This process called "Schinden" is not cheating, but a legal way of conduct bearing the risk of being caught.