1 &30_ Knock 31 - Thirty-one or Trente et un- the card game with history and rules

August 27, 2024

One & Thirty

Thirty-One is one of the card world’s oldest games, dating back to at least the 1440s. Considered a gentleman’s gambling game, Thirty-One was mentioned in one of Bernadine of Sienne’s anti-gambling sermons. Many games scholars consider Thirty-One to be an early ancestor of the games Blackjack and Cribbage.

Thirty-One is first mentioned in a French translation of a 1440 sermon by the Italian, Saint Bernadine, so is believed to be of Italian origin. It is mentioned by Rabelais, Cardano, and numerous other 16th century sources.

The game spread rapidly across Europe to become popular in France, England, and Ireland and is a precursor to Vingt-Un. In the 1670s, Francis Willughby recorded Thirty-One being played in England.

mentioned in Shakespeare

"Bone-ace. This old game, popularly called "One-and-Thirty," is alluded to by Grumio in "Taming of the Shrew" (i. 2): "Well, was it fit for a servant to use his master so; being, perhaps, for aught I see, two-and-thirty — a pip out."¹⁰ It was very like the French game of "Vingt-un," only a longer reckoning. Strutt¹¹ says that "perhaps Bone-ace is the same as the game called Ace of Hearts, prohibited with all lotteries by cards and dice. An. 12 Geor. II., Cap. 38, sect. 2." It is mentioned in Massinger's "Fatal Dowry" (ii. 2): "You think, because you served my lady's mother, [you] are thirty-two years old, which is a pip out, you know." The phrase "to be two-and-thirty," a pip out, was an old cant term applied to a person who was intoxicated."

~Dyer, T. F. Thiselton. Folk-lore of Shakespeare.

1 & 30 (Knock 31)

Needed: 52 card deck

2-9 players

Goal: Winner has the highest hand of one suit in their hand

Cards 2-10: scored at face value. For example, a 3 card would be worth 3 points.

Jacks, Queens, Kings: 10 points

Aces: 11 points

Rules

All players ante one into the pot. (if betting is happening)

Deal 3 cards to each player face down

Place the deck in the center of the players & flip the top card next to the deck

Each player's goal is to get the highest points with only one suit of cards, hearts, spades, clubs, or diamonds— only counting the cards in that suit. A player wants as many points as possible, so choose a suit that you have a lot of or a suit that you have high cards in.

Should a player have 31 in their hand they say 31 and win the hand automatically.

Moving clockwise from the dealer (left) each player takes their turn

During the player's turn, they choose from either the discard pile or the deck one card. They then choose to discard a card bringing their hand back to 3 cards.

If a player feels they may have the highest hand they can knock at the beginning or end of their turn. They can say knock or knock on the table.

Once a player knocks on their turn, the round will wind down and every player has 1 more turn before the round is over.

The player who knocks can raise the stakes and up the ante. If this happens then each player must match the ante to stay in., They also have one chance to increase the bet over what the knocker has done, which gives the players a chance to not do so and fold. Even the player who knocked can fold if another player raises their ante further.

The player with the highest valued hand in one suit between 2 and 31 wins (Remember, if someone had 31, they would have called it immediately though)

Only 1 player can knock per round. Since knocking triggers, the end of a round, you usually don't want to knock unless you are satisfied with the cards in your hand, and you think you have a high score.

If you're dealt a good hand to start with, you can knock on your first turn or early in the game, so the rest of the players don't have as many chances to draw the cards they need.

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Bibliography

Bernardino of Siena, OFM (Bernardine or Bernadine;
8 September 1380 – 20 May 1444
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Habig, Marion A. “THE WORKS OF ST. BERNARDINE.” Franciscan Studies, vol. 4, no. 3, 1944, pp. 229–46. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23802378. Accessed 6 Nov. 2024.
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Forgeng, Jeff, Dorothy Johnston, and David Cram: Francis Willughby's Book of Games (2003). Ashgate Press. ISBN 1 85928 460 4
PAGE 274
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Parlett, David (1991). A History of Card Games, OUP, Oxford. ISBN 0-19-282905-X
Parlett (1990), p. 80
Parlett (1991), pp. 80–81.
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David Parlett, Oxford Dictionary of Card Games, pg. 307-308 Oxford University Press (1996) ISBN 0-19-869173-4
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Diagram Group The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Card Games pg. 341 Sterling (1995) ISBN 0-8069-1330-4
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John Taylor
https://playingcarddecks.com/blogs/how-to-play/thirty-one-game-rules
-Last update date: 08/30/20- retrieved 11-05-2024
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link maintained by John McLeod.
https://jan.ucc.nau.edu/wew/Tattershall-tb/cards.html
retrieved 11-05-2024
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31 / Scat / Ride the Bus / Cadillac
© John McLeod, 1998, 2006, 2020, 2021. Last updated: 18th October 2021
https://www.pagat.com/draw/scat.html
retrieved- 11/5/2024
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Historic Card Games by David Parlett- BLACKJACK
also Pontoon, Vingt-Un, Twenty-One, Thirty-One
https://www.parlettgames.uk/histocs/blackjack.html
retrieved 11/05-/2024
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Dyer, T. F. Thiselton. Folk-lore of Shakespeare. New York: Harper, 1884. Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2000. (date when you accessed the information) < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/sportsshakespeare.html >.

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