Konter a Matt

Konter a Matt, “Kontra a Matt” or “Konter a Midd” is a Luxembourgish trick-taking card game played by four players. The game is popular enough to have been televised on RTL, Luxembourg's leading TV station^[1] and for tournaments to be organised.^[a]

Rules[]

The following rules are based on those published online by Wellkomm.^[3]

Aim[]

Players form two teams of two partners with partners sitting at opposite seats. In order to win a match, a team has to get more than 21 points. If each team gets 20 points, the game ends as a draw.

Cards[]

A 24-card stripped deck is used: the four suits with ace (A), king (K), queen (Q), jack (J), ten (10) and nine (9). The value in points of the cards are: ace 4, king 3, queen 2, jack 1, 10 and 9 nothing.

At the beginning of one game, the trump suit is fixed. Additionally, three cards are always trumps: the queens of spades ♠Q, hearts ♥Q and diamonds ♦Q are always trumps. This is what gave the name to the game: the two queens of hearts ♥Q and diamonds ♦Q are the two Kontra trumps, the queen of spades Q is the “Matt”.

As a consequence, in a match, depending on which suit is the trump, there are nine or eight trumps, four possibilities, the value of the cards is as follows (from highest to lowest, the point value is not affected):

• ♠ : ♠A, ♠Q, ♥Q, ♦Q, ♠K, ♠J, ♠10, ♠9
• ♥ : ♥A, ♠Q, ♥Q, ♦Q, ♥K, ♥J, ♥10, ♥9
• ♦ : ♦A, ♠Q, ♥Q, ♦Q, ♦K, ♦J, ♦10, ♦9
• ♣ : ♣A, ♠Q, ♥Q, ♦Q, ♣K, ♣Q, ♣J, ♣10, ♣9

Play[]

Teams are fixed, the persons sit down according to the team they belong to.

The dealer shuffles the cards and offers them to the person on his left to cut the pack. The person to his right is then dealt receive three cards upon which he will decide trumps. The dealer waits until trumps are announced, then continues to deal. Every player receives six cards in two packets of three.

Before playing their first card, they have to announce Kontra, Matt or Kontra-Matt. If said after playing their first card – too late. Kontra means that you have ♥Q and ♦Q in your hands, Matt means that you have ♠Q, Kontra and Matt means you have all three ♠Q ♥Q ♦Q.

Players must either follow suit or trump as they choose. So if a player can follow suit, they may not play a card of another side suit. If a trump is led, they must play a trump if able.

If no trump is played, the suit that must be followed is that of the first card played. The highest card of this suit wins the trick. The value range is (highest to lowest): A, K, Q, J, 10, and 9.

The person that wins the four cards puts them next to his place face down, paying attention not to mix them with the other cards. Sometimes, it will be necessary to cross check whether somebody played a trump or not.

Winning[]

During a match, more than one game is played – minimum is three. When beginning a match, the person counting will draw the following picture. A player has won a match if all of the stripes have been crossed out. By convention the counter is with the team second row.

There are different ways to win or to lose a game.

First, you may have been the one that has chosen the trump and you lose. Second, the game counts differently according whether Kontra, Matt or Kontra-Matt has been announced. (You must have the cards to announce them.) Kontra or Matt doubles, Kontra and Matt multiples by three. Last, you may win or lose without the other team getting a draw. If the match was won against those who decided the trump, there will be as many stripes added as those that are removed (see below chart), viewed from the counter. If the other team got no draw at all, there will be one more stripe removed, and eventually one more added.

• A. Simple loss
• B. Simple loss, but your team chose trumps
• C. lose but kontra or matt was announced,
• D. lose but kontra or matt was announced but your team fixed trump

• A. Simple loss, so: one crossed out
• B. Simple loss, but your team chose trumps, so: one crossed out, one added
• C. lose but kontra or matt was announced, so: two crossed out
• D. lose but kontra or matt was announced but your team chose trumps; so: two crossed out, two added
• lose but kontra and matt was announced, so: three crossed out
• lose but kontra and matt was announced but your team chose trumps; so: three crossed out, three added

For a draw, no stripes are removed, but the team that fixed the trump will have stripes added, one to three depending on the announcements.

For the next game, the person that decided trumps will be the dealer.

After a match, the losing team may ask for a "revenge", a new match with the same team setup. Otherwise, the team composition is changed.

Strategy[]

Konter a Matt strategy is complex. Some high-level considerations are: If the trumps are equally distributed among the players, playing twice a trump may leave none or one trump. If the trumps are out, the aces are the highest cards.

A good player always knows:

• how many trumps are still in the game.
• what are the cards still in the game.
• how many points both teams have.

If a team has more than 20 points, they may put the rest of the cards to the table and announce “we have xx”.

Footnotes[]

References[]

External links[]

• Konter a Matt rules in English.

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