Pharaon and Basset

Faro of the 19th and 20th centuries had its origins in the early 18th century in a game called Basset. It was also spelled Bassette, or Basetta, and other similar spellings. Basset was a game of the wealthy and conspicuous consumption. It drove status seeking noblemen and women to gamble incredible amounts of money for show. More than a few noble families were impoverished as a result and laws were passed to protect the nobles from themselves hoping to win their losses back again the next night. So to keep playing the same game and get around the laws, Basset was essentially renamed Faro and play resumed as the same. It is unclear what changed from Basset, but the 18th century descriptions of Faro and Basset are essentially the same. This game and mode of play was popular in England and Europe but was not popular or played widely by average people until the 19th century. Rather than spreading from the Atlantic seaboard, Faro was presumably brought to American popularity through New Orleans and the river towns by French influence. Since it was popular in France, many of the terms for play are in French even when they used were in English speaking lands. As a result of this French influence and for the clarity of this piece, this late form of Basset and early form of Pre-United States Faro, will be known as Pharaon to distinguish it from the later mode of play, though its name was still known as “Faro”, “Pharaoh”, “Pharo”, and other similar spellings. There are many gaps in the narrative finding information on this version of play that are still being worked out and this piece should not be taken as definitive and permanent, but as a work in progress as more information is collected and then shared.

The first description in English of this Pharaon comes from 1794 with the Sporting Magazine in Volume 4 under the name of “Faro”, but the game had certainly been played long before this description was set down. It is merely the earliest description of how to play under this name found so far. It can be a bit difficult to read with the modern viewer’s eye as the ‘long s’ was still used in the earlier descriptions. What is also interesting is that at the end of the description came a warning not to play as it was a game for cheating and swindling.

Components of Play

THE TABLE was described as oval with a green cloth, but any table and cloth may do. Lobed tables, such as the ones used in Rouge et Noir, are seen in depictions. Colored cloth tape or a wooden rim followed 8 inches from the circumference of the table to separate the cards being bet upon (left image) or only ring the dealer’s area (above image). The colored tape was used to separate cards not bet on, that are not in play, from cards that are bet on in play. On one end of the table sat the Tailleur and opposite of him, the Croupier. The Tailleur dealt the 52 card deck and announced the cards while the Croupier shuffled decks, collected the bets and awarded winnings, watched for fair play, and so on. This is equivalent to the Dealer and the Look-out in Faro. The center of the table had the well with loose cash and some cash separated into rouleaus (stacks). It is not exactly expressed what purpose the well served; it might be where the winnings were paid from and the losses went to, like a primitive centrally located chip rack.

THE CARDS used in Pharaon were the 52 cards of the “French” variety that is familiar today, with the exception that these cards would have had single faced face cards and no indices in the corners. However, playing at home, you can play whatever 52 card deck you want. You will need a few decks. It might be a good idea to have a few of those decks be ones that can be bent and shaped. One deck will be used by the Tailleur to turn over the cards; the other decks should be split up into their suits. New decks usually come this way anyway. The suits are called the livret and each ponte or punter (players) has their own livret to bet from. The ponte should never handle the Tailleur’s deck unless when offered to cut.

In addition to the 13 cards, 4 additional cards were furnished: the Little Figure, the Yellow Figure, the Black Figure and the Great Figure. They are also called the Blue Cross card, the Yellow Cross card, the Black Lozenge and the Red Lozenge, respectively. They represent fields of cards. The Blue Cross card, or the Little Figure, had a blue cross on both sides of the card that represented the Ace, Deuce, and Trey, so a bet with the Little Figure was spread between those three cards. The Yellow Cross also was on both sides of the card and represented Four, Five, and Six. The Black Figure represented Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten. The Great Figure represented the Jack or Knave, Queen, and King. Note that the Little Figure is the lowest cards while the Great Figure is the face cards. The image above seems to be one of the cross cards, though it is hard to tell which one or if it is at all.

As an aside, physical examples of the figure cards have not yet been found so some depictions are the only things that indicate that these cards existed and were used. Until examples of these cards are found, it is possible to ignore their absence and simply flat bet rather than spread. It also seems strange that one of the Figures is a red lozenge which is somehow distinguishable from an Ace of Diamonds.

Local hard currency was the primary means of betting. In an English setting guineas were used. In France, the livre. The Tailleur set the limit. The bet was placed directly upon the card bet upon. Though having the bet directly adjacent to the bet would not obscure the value of the card in game play. The higher class would probably play on credit after they had lost their cash. It seems that the Croupier would sometimes use a rake to gather and move winnings and losses.

Playing Pharaon

A ponte selected a card or cards from their livret to stake and placed it on the table on the other side of the colored tape in play with their wager placed on or near it. It may be a better practice to have the wager near the card as to not obscure its face; a gain cannot be made if the Croupier cannot see what card has cash piled all over it, but also cannot collect it if it lost. But if the wager was in front or side of the card the value of the card is easily seen.

Once the wagers are on the table the Tailleur began. They were supposed to count out the cards to make sure there were 52. Once the party was satisfied of the amount of cards, he then shuffled and may have offered the deck to a ponte to cut, the only time the players might touch the deck. He showed the bottom of the deck first, as the last card of the deal is a dead card. An example of the card was set in the middle to remind the ponte to not bet on this card as the end of the deal drew near, it was signified by having the corners cut off, probably from an old deck. However, the second to last card was the Hoclty, called a surety, which the house automatically wins.

Then just as in Faro, he dealt first to the right and then to the left from his hand; the first card won for the bank, the second won for the ponte. This was called a Coup. Between each Coup, the Croupier collected the bets and awarded winnings, while the ponte could take up bets, or move them, or paroli their bets. The first card was not valid until the second, according to the descriptions. The action continued until the last 8 cards when the Tailleur announced that no more changes to the bets may be made. The coups continued until the last pair, which was called the hoclty or the hoc. The second to last card was taken by the Croup. Thus finished, the deck was reshuffled, bets were placed, and play began anew.

Features

A large part of the game was to utilize paroli or parolet. The paroli was the bet plus the winnings. This was indicated by bending the corner of the card up after a successful gain. It was also called cocking. If they were again successful they might bend up another corner indicating that the gain would be seven times the amount. This was called Sept et la va [Seven and it goes]. If the ponte, being so bold as to play this again and it won, they bent up a third corner and played for fifteen times the amount of the stake. This was called Quinze et la va [Fifteen and it goes]. Another cock upon the card was Trente et la va, or thirty and it goes. At this point all the number in a denomination are exhausted - the first win, the second paroli was Sept et la va, the third win was Quinze et la va, and then the fourth was the Trente et la va. The last paroli was Soixante et la va, sixty and it goes. This was signified by cutting into the card and making a bend up on the cut portion. It was not necessary, but this was when the party gasps in collective amazement of so bold of a bet. Hoyle's Games Improved (1826) stated, "a Soixante et la va ... which is signified by making a fifth paroli, either on another card, if he has parolied on one only before, or by breaking the side of that one which contains four, to pursue his luck in the next deal." So it seems that the fifth paroli can be switched to a new denomination "if he has parolied on only one before" or the same denomination in the next deal, meaning the next time the cards a shuffled and play begins again [Thanks to Tomb Dweller for the information!].

Similar to the parole was paix, or double-or-quits. Rather than play their paroli but risk their winnings only, they bent the card upward like a bridge and might proceed to Sept et la va, Quinze et la va, and so on by adding more cards to the bridge. This action could also be done with the paroli. If their card lost, they lost the winnings but not the original stake. At any time the bold ponte, feeling slightly less bold, might bend the cocked card into the bridge formation, indicating that the parole was still active but now excluded the original stake. A Doublet was when two of the same card were turned over, such as two fours. In this case the house took half the bet, probably taking the balance if an odd bet. If the Doublet affected a bet that was cocked, one paroli was taken down if there are several. A Pli could be made on a bet that had half the bet claimed by the bank by bending the card in the middle so that it stood on all four corners facing the dealer, indicating that the ponte wished to recover the balance or lose it to the bank. Another account stated that half of the money was not taken but by making a pli, the ponte doubled the money or lost it all. Check with the Tailleur and what he will offer before this situation arises.

Turning over a card bet or adding another card face down over the bet was called a Masque. It appears this might be the way that one bars their bet, or stops their bet in the middle of play so that it neither wins nor loses, and resume play again as they wish, "unless he has an event undetermined when the dealer has only eight cards in his hand." [Thanks to Tomb Dweller for the information!]

Opposé was the reversing the order in the Coup so that the losing card won and the winning card lost; the same thing as coppering in Faro. I received a tip from a "tomb dweller" that found an entry in the Encyclopaedia Londinensis, volume 7, printed in 1810, that indicated that if the punter wished to play the opposé game, that "cards were made with word OPPOSÉ in Roman capitals on the face of them." Though it also mentioned that a punter could turn the card horizontally sideways or on its side to indicate an opposé but not the end toward the punter. Look at the above image by James Gillray, the punters have their cards all oriented with the short edge toward themselves. It also mentioned because it created confusion, the opposé was generally disused. [Thanks to Tomb Dweller for the information!]

Options

A few spare decks can be used for other things such as using a livret as a primitive case counter. In Hoyle’s 1796 entry on Pharaon, Hoyle suggests bending the corners of the spare livret spread up or down depending on which cards won or lost.

In some circles the ponte may not move their bets, only add or subtract to the original amount.

A livret with missing corners is used to denote which card is the Hockelty. So when the Tailleur reveals the hoc card, its same denomination without corners is placed on the table to remind the ponte to not bet on that card near the end of the coup. According to one source, if more than four punters wish to play, a spare livret was spread out in a tableau and the betting was placed on this tableau. This is likely where the Faro layout of the 19th century came from is this is true.

One thing further, if you want to be historically accurate, announce the Jack card as a Knave. The term Knave was used in English games and only later became known as the Jack. If you want to keep with the French names, call the Jack the Valet.

Food for Thought

In Pantologia: A New Cabinet Cyclopaedia published in 1819, the entry for Faro brought up an interesting claim about the origins of the name of the game. It claimed that the word "faro" is Greek in origin as pharos, meaning to mask, cover, or "integument". It explained further:

"This is often written, but erroneously, as Pharaoh or Pharaon, as though it derived from the common title of the monarchs of ancient Egypt, instead of from the Greek (pharos); whence the Italian faro, in which last country this country this game originated, and where the term was formerly used, as among the Greeks, to imply a cloak, covering, veil or mask. The reason of this name the reader will perceive as he peruses our account of it, which will embrace the rules of the game, the method of playing it, its peculiar glossary, and the scale of odds or chances."

Despite the promise of making it obvious why the game is called pharos, it never fully makes that direct connection. Perhaps it is called so because the cards are turned over, unmasking the cards for all to see. Still, this seems to be reasonable explanation for the name of the game compared to the usual explanation of the artwork of the backs of the French court's cards.

Further questions

There are clearly some points that need further clarification and more information. Such as:

o When did Basset become known as Faro? When did Faro fade from the European scene?

o What designs are the Figures: Blue Cross card, the Yellow Cross card, the Black Lozenge and the Red Lozenge?

o What is the function of the well?

o How can a bet be have paroli five times when there are only four of any such cards in a deck?

o What is the purpose of the Masque option?

The answers to these questions may only come through time and further research, but this piece is not intended to be definitive in nature, but to be expository in gaining a better understanding of gaming in the 18th century and how this play eventually becomes Faro of the 19th and 20 centuries.