| Alternative names | Zählspiel |
|---|---|
| Type | Trick-taking |
| Players | 2x2 |
| Cards | 32-card |
| Card rank (highest to lowest) | A K Q J 10 9 8 7 |
Einwerfen or Zählspiel is a German 8-card point-trick game for four players using a 32-card piquet pack. Its closest relative is the popular Portuguese game Sueca. Perhaps the most basic and typical representative of the Ace-Ten card games (along with Elfern), this game was first described in 1873 but may be considerably older.
| Rank | A | K | Q | J | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value | 11 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 10 | - | ||
Tens rank low. After cutting for trumps, all cards are dealt to the players in batches of 4, each receiving 8 cards. The standard rules of trick-play as in Whist apply. Any card may be led to a trick, subsequent players must follow suit if they can but are otherwise completely free in what they play. The trick is won with the highest trump, or if it does not contain trumps it is won with the highest card of the suit led. The winner of a trick leads to the next trick.
61-90 card-points win the deal, 91-119 win it double (Matsch), and 120 win it triple (Bombe). In case of a tie the outcome is held in abeyance and is decided by the outcome of the next deal. The trump suit of the first deal is couleur favorite, i.e. any subsequent game that happens to have the same trump suit as the first counts twice.
According to one account, a game always consists of 48 deals. At the beginning of such a game players draw card for being eldest hand (König) for every one of the 48 deals. The seating arrangement changes every 16 deals, as eldest hand's partner changes so that each of the three remaining players has that role once. The dealer is an opponent player determined by random.
Einwerfen refers to throwing in valuable cards, namely into tricks (likely to be) won by one's partner. The alternative name Zählspiel, i.e. counting game, evidently refers to the counting of card-points. These two aspects of the game were far from novel when it was first mentioned in 1873. For this reason and because tens are still low in the game, card game researcher David Parlett speculates that it is much older.
The name of the related Portuguese game Sueca means Swedish (woman).