Trump (card games)

A trump is a playing card which is elevated above its usual rank in trick-taking games. Typically an entire suit is nominated as a trump suit; these cards then outrank all cards of plain (non-trump) suits. In other contexts the terms trump card or to trump refers to any sort of action, authority or policy which automatically prevails over all others.

The introduction of trumps is one of only two major innovations to trick-taking games since they were invented; the other being the idea of bidding.^[1] Trump cards, initially called trionfi, first appeared with the advent of Tarot cards in which there is a separate, permanent trump suit comprising a number of picture cards.^[2] The first known example of such cards was ordered by the Duke of Milan around 1420 and included 16 trumps with images of Greek and Roman gods.^[3]

Around the same time that Tarot cards were invented with the purpose of adding a trump suit to the existing four suits, a similar concept arose in the game of Karnöffel. However, in this south German game played with an ordinary pack, some cards of a given suit had full trump powers, others were partial trumps and the 7s had a special role. These features have been retained in games of the Karnöffel family down to the present, but are never seen in Tarot games.^[4] Suits with these variable powers are thus called chosen suits or selected suits to distinguish them from trump suits.^[5]