German Drischaken or Trischaken

The Brothers Grimm give a brief description of Drischaken as a game for three to five players in which each receives 3 cards and the winner is the one who has the most cards of various possible combinations. They give various alternative spellings as drischäken, drischeken, dreschakn, trischaken and trischakeln. and adds that, "likewise karnöfeln means playing as well as thrashing", referring to another widespread card game of the time.^[10]

A detailed description in German of the rules of Brelan (aka Trischaken) is given in Pierer's Universal Lexikon, Volume 3 in 1868.^[11]

Austrian Trischack

According to Popowitsch (1705–1774), the Austrian game of Trischack (Trischackspiel) was played with 3 cards and the Jack (Bub) or Nine – known as Pamfili – of each suit are wild. In Saxony and Silesia, they were called Wenzels or Scharwenzels. Thus it may have been related to the Bavarian game of Scherwenzel. However, Hommel equates Trischak to Grobhäusern which was essentially Scherwenzel without any wild cards.^[12]

In Austria, the Schärwenzel (i.e. the 7, 8 and 9 or the 7, 8 and Jack) was the highest card. In Franconia and Saxony, Trischaken was played with 4 cards per player using German-suited cards.^[13]

Polish Tryszak

Tryszak (German: Treschak^[14]), also called Straszak and Fluss because a flush was an important feature, was an old gambling game that was popular at the beginning of the reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski (reigned 1764–1795), but had been attested much earlier since there is a story that when King Sigismund I (reigned 1506–1548) was playing the game with two ministers, he was dealt two Kings but did not have a third one in his hand. So he claimed that he counted as the third king and thus ensured he won.^[15] A detailed description of the game is given by Chomentowski and reproduced by Łukasz Gołębiowski (1831).^[16]

The game was played thus: a silver plate was placed on the table and each player laid his money in front of him and anted a stake to the plate. A pack of 36 German-suited cards was shuffled and the dealer dealt two cards each. Obers and Nines were better than the others and could be used as wild cards to make up a triplet or quartet. After the deal, if a player had poor cards and couldn't form a pair, they were discarded. A player with a Nine, an Ober or a pair, passed, waiting for someone to say "play", then replied "I'll keep it". Those left in would play; out of 6 to 9 players, often only 2 or 3 would play. A bold player or one with good cards could raise the stake before the next two cards were dealt. A player decided how many cards he wanted to exchange, raising the stake each time. The aim was to scare the opponent into folding and, with a poor card or a good one, force the stakes up. However, if no-one wanted to take a risk, the rate was suddenly reduced and returned to the basic stake.^[16]

The cards ranked in the typical order for Polish cards. Four-card combinations ranked above 3-card combinations; a straight flush outranked a flush which, in turn, beat a set (triplet or quartet). Obers and 9s were wild; one wild card could be used to make up a 3-card combination and up to two could be used to make up a 4-card combination. Natural combinations outranked wild combinations of the same type; likewise three Kings outranked three Obers etc.^[16]

Tryszak may be ancestral to Chlust which has been know since the early 19th century.