COMMERCE

This article appears in Volume V06, Page 771 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: CLI-COM

COMMERCE , the name of a card-game. Any number can play with an

ordinary

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

pack

. There are several variations of the game, but the following is a common one. Each player receives three

cards

CARDS, PLAYING

, and three more are turned up as a " pool." The first player may exchange one or two of his

cards

CARDS, PLAYING

for one or two of the exposed cards, putting his own, face upwards, in their place. His

object

OBJECT

is to " make his hand " (see below), but if he changes all three cards at once he cannot

change

CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. 冠 urmu', to bend)

again. The next player can do likewise, and so on. Usually there are as many rounds as there are players, and a fresh card is added to the pool at the beginning of each. If a player passes once he cannot ex-

change

CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. 冠 urmu', to bend)

afterwards. When the rounds are finished the hands are shown, the holder of the best either receiving a stake from
19th

century

CENTURY (from Lat. centuria, a division of a hundred men)

.
all the others, or, supposing each has started with three " lives," taking one

life

LIFE

from the lowest. The hands, in order of merit, are: (i.) Triconthree similar cards, three aces ranking above three kings, and so on. (ii.) Sequencethree cards of the same suit in consecutive order; the highest sequence is the best. (iii.) Flushthree cards of the same suit, the highest " point " wins, i.e. the highest number of pips, ace counting eleven and

court

COURT
COURT (from the O. Fr. court, Late Lat. cortis, curtis, a popular form of class. Lat. cohors, gen. cohortis; the mod. Fr. form tour is due to the
influence
- INFLUENCE (Late Lat. influentia, from influere, to flow in)
of the Lat. curia, the word used in medieval documents to translate " court " in the feudal sense)
COURT, ANTOINE (1696-176o)

-cards ten. (iv.) Pairtwo similar cards, the highest pair winning. (v.) Pointthe largest number of pips winning, as in " flush," but there is no restriction as to suit. Sometimes " pair " and " point " are not recognized. A popular variation of Commerce is

Pounce

POUNCE

Commerce. In this, if a player has already three similar cards, e.g. three nines, and the fourth nine comes into the pool, he says "

Pounce

POUNCE

!" and takes it, thus obtaining a hand of four, which is higher than any hand of three: whenever a pounce occurs, a new card is turned up from the

pack

.

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