Bassetta
by Signora Giata Maddalena Alberti
From the Italian bassetta, a card game also known as
barbacole, considered one of the most polite pastimes of the quattrocento to
seicento. It was intended for persons of the highest rank because of the great
losses or gains that might be accrued by the players. This game financially
endangered some of the great French houses and was banned by the King of
France.
One player is the banker.
The banker has a full deck of cards, well shuffled. Each
punter, or player, has the 13 cards of a single suit of a similar deck in front
of him, or perhaps a board with marks for the 13 denominations.
Punters put bets on their boards before play begins. Once
all bets are placed, the banker turns up a single card from his deck (made up
of multiple decks of cards**) and wins all bets placed on the denomination
shown (suit is ignored). After the first card is turned up the banker turns up
cards from his deck in pairs, putting them on two piles alternately, until all
bets are resolved or the deck is exhausted. Denominations that match a card
turned up on the first pile lose their bets to the banker; denominations that
match a card turned up on the second pile win. The banker must pay equal to any
winning bets. As with the first card turned up, the banker wins any bets that
remain on the last card turned.
On any winning bet the punter may decline his winnings and
let the bet ride in the hope of further winnings. If the same denomination
shows up again on the winning pile, the banker must pay seven times the bet; if
the bet is let ride again and wins, the banker pays 15 times; if it is let ride
and shows up a fourth time on the winning pile the banker must pay 30 times the
bet. Finally, if it shows up four times in one deal, the punter lets it ride
into the next hand, and the same card shows up winners a fifth time, the banker
must pay 60 times the bet. The decision to let a bet ride is marked by bending
up a corner of the card it lies on each time (this is destructive of cards, so
it is suggested that you use some other way to mark a riding bet).
Once a payment is declined by a punter (leaving a bet to
ride) the punter cannot change his mind until the card shows up again on the
winning pile, when he again has the choice of taking his winnings or letting it
ride.
** One deck of cards is sufficient for 2 to 3 players, each
additional deck allows up to four more players.
SOURCES
Complete Anachronist #4. Indoor Games, or How to While Away
a Siege. SCA, Inc.
Partlett, David. A History of Card Games. 
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