In 1781, Court de Gébelin published an essay associating the cards with ancient wisdom, the earliest record of this idea, subsequently debunked by Dummett. Tarot decks did not precede decks having four suits of the same length, and they were invented not for occult purposes but purely for gaming. More recent tarot games borrowed features from other games like bidding from Ombre and winning the last trick with the lowest trump from Trappola. Tarot games have introduced the concept of trumps to card games. They are characterised by the rule that a player who cannot follow to a trick with a card of the suit led must play a trump to the trick if possible.

Tarot card games are played with decks having four ordinary suits, and one additional, longer suit of tarots, which are always trumps. The usual Tarot rules or play and card point values applied the winner was the one with the most points in tricks and was paid an amount by the losers based on the difference in scores. There were payments for declaring certain card combinations at the start, for playing the Ace of Coins and for taking the last trick with a King or the Pagat. Two players received 21 cards each, while the dealer received 25 from which four were discarded. It was played by three players with a 66-card pack obtained by removing the 3 lowest cards of each suit from a standard 78-card, Italian-suited Tarot pack. The abbot had learnt this variant from Princess Louise-Marie of Gonzague-Nevers who had introduced some rule variations from the normal game. The earliest detailed description of rules for a Tarot game in any language were published by the Abbé de Marolles in Nevers in 1637. Tarot games originated in Italy, and spread to most parts of Europe, notable exceptions being the British Isles, the Iberian peninsula, and the Balkans. The games are known in many variations, mostly cultural and regional. The basic rules first appeared in the manuscript of Martiano da Tortona, written before 1425. The games and decks which English-speakers call by the French name Tarot are called Tarocchi in the original Italian, Tarock in German and various similar words in other languages. Tarot games are card games played with tarot decks, that is, decks with numbered permanent trumps parallel to the suit cards. The Trull, the highest-valued trumps in Central European Tarock games Hungarian statesmen playing tarokk in 1895, the preferred card game of the pre-communist era.

For other uses, see Tarot (disambiguation). This article is about a family of trick taking card games.

Card game rules for playing 21