Bezique
Bezique is a two-player card game combining trick-taking with meld scoring. Its namesake meld is the queen of spades and jack of diamonds.
Trick-taking game: A card-game family in which players contribute cards to tricks, usually following a led suit, and compete to win them. Bezique’s play alternates between forming melds and winning tricks.
Card game: A game played with a deck of cards, using rules that determine how cards are dealt and played. Bezique belongs to the broad family of games played with cards.
Pinochle: A trick-taking and meld-scoring card game played with a specialized deck, related to Bezique. Pinochle adapts related meld-and-trick ideas into a distinct popular game.
Whist: A classic trick-taking card game in which partnerships compete to win tricks, usually without meld scoring. Whist emphasizes partnership tricks rather than Bezique’s individual melds.
Meld (card games): A declared combination of cards that earns points or affects play in a card game. Players score Bezique by declaring qualifying card combinations.
Two-player games: Games designed for two participants, with rules governing their direct competition or cooperation. Bezique’s standard form is built around direct play between two opponents.
Rubicon Bezique: A Bezique variant that uses a larger deck and includes scoring for achieving a high total. This variant offers a longer, more elaborate form of Bezique.
Cribbage: A card game in which players score combinations during play and in their hands, using a pegging board. Cribbage also rewards combinations, but its play and scoring system differ sharply.
Bezique meld: The combination of the queen of spades and jack of diamonds, worth points in Bezique. This namesake combination gives the game its distinctive meld.
French playing cards: A 52-card deck with four suits—clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades—and thirteen ranks per suit. Bezique uses French-suited cards, including the spade and diamond ranks in its signature meld.