Playing the fool appeared in Russia in the 18th century (the “playing the fool” is mentioned in the well-known manual on card games “The Calculating Card Player” of the 1790s). At first, the game was popular only among the people's peasant part of the population. High society preferred games such as poker, bridge or solitaire. However, already in the 20th century in the former republics of the USSR, the game began to compete in popularity with such games as poker.
There is no particular reason for the name of the game. At the time, "fool" was one of the most common swear words in the country. This was the whole interest of the game - to leave in the "fools". Initially, the game was played according to rather simplified rules (“simple fool”). However, later there were also "throw-in" and "transferable" fools. This only increased the popularity of the "fool". A special kind of game also appeared, where spades beat only spades, and trump cards are always tambourines (“spade spades”, “blame win”, Japanese). And then about 80 more varieties appeared, in particular, the “round fool”; in this game, the top card on the table is beaten by the next player in turn, or the bottom card is taken from the table. Not all varieties can be called at least the date of creation.
The game uses a deck of 24 (reduced deck), 36, 52, 54 (with jokers) cards. Participate from two to six players; in the case of playing with a deck of 52 and 54 cards, up to 8 players can play. The seniority of cards in a deck of 24 cards (from lower to higher value): 9, 10, J, Q, K, A. The seniority of cards in a deck of 36 cards (from lower to higher value): 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A. Seniority of cards in a deck of 52 and 54 cards: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A. Seniority of suits for the game fool is not defined. Each is dealt 6 cards, the next (or last, possibly any of the deck) card is opened and its suit sets the trump card for this game, and the rest of the deck is placed on top so that the trump card is visible to everyone. The trump ace in the game does not fight back. The goal of the game is to get rid of all the cards. The last player who does not get rid of the cards remains in the "fools". A party in the fool is called "kon". The beaten cards go to the “hang up” (“bat”) and are stacked face down on the table.
