The object is to win the majority of the 20 honours: the Ace, King, Queen, Jack and Ten in a Piquet pack or the Ace, King, Ober, Unter and Ten in a Skat pack.

Elfern is at least 250 years old and a possible ancestor to the Marriage family of card games, yet it is still played by German children.

[2][3] Elfern is a primitive German game, similar to Bohemian Schneider, that is mentioned as early as 1759 in a letter by Christian Fürchtegott Gellert;[2] its rules appearing in Hammer's Taschenbuch in 1811[4] and in the Neuester Spielalmanach published in Berlin in 1820.

[9] The first dealer is chosen by lots; the player who draws the lower-ranking card dealing first.

In the second phase, players use up their hand cards and must follow suit, as revoking can now be proved in all cases.

If the game is tied with both players winning 10 points, this is called a Ständer (formerly Stender).

However, he goes on to say that, in practice, players usually record the scores in writing by chalking up one line for a simple win, two for schneider and 3 for schwarz.

This avoids the "boring toing and froing of payments for each deal won or lost".

One should try to use these near the end of the game because, by then, most of the blanks have been discarded and one can now reckon on winning an honour with almost every trick.

Equally, if one has the Ace, Jack and Ten of a suit, one doesn't have to win the trick immediately the opponent plays the King because, if the opponent also has the Queen, it is likely to be played next and now it can be captured, freeing up one's Jack and Ten as trick-winners.