ROUGE ET NOIR (Fr. " red and black"), TRENTE-UN ("thirty-one"), or TRENT ET QUARANTE ("thirty and forty"), is a modern game of chance, which is played by the aid of packs of cards on a table covered with green cloth. The table is divided into four portions, each marked in the center with a diamond, the diamonds being alternately red and black; and these quarters are further separated, two and two, by bands which cross the table at its narrowest part. At the end of the table are a series of concentric bands painted of a yellow color. The game is played as follows: one of the tanieurs (or dealers, who manage the table, take charge of the bank, and keep an eye on the players) takes up his position at one side of the table, opposite to the croupier (another tailleur), and unseals, in the presence of the players, six packs of cards, which are first counted, then shuttled by several tailleurs, and returned to the first tailleur, who presents them to one of the players to he cut. This is performed by the insertion of a blank card in any part of the pack, which is then adjusted, and the game proceeds. Each player must stake his money on some one of the four chances, denominated 220ir, , rouge, couleur, and l'inrerAe, which will be afterward explained, After the stakes have been laid on the table (those for the noir being laid on either of the quarters marked with a black,- and those for tho rouge, on either of the quarters marked with a nd diamond; those for the "couleur" on one of the transverse bands; and those for the "inverse" on one of the yellow circles at the each of the table), the tailleur takes a handful of cards from the top of the pack, and deals first for the noir, taking one card after another from the top of the handful and placing them on the table side by side, till the number of pips on them amounts to more then 30, when he stops. He then deals out another row in a similar manner for the rouge, till, as before, the number of pips amounts to more than 30. In reckoning the number of pips, the ace is counted as one, the other plain cards according to the number of pips, and the court-cards 10 each. It will thus be seen that the number to which each of the two rows of cards amounts, must be more than 30 and not more than 40. If the
value of the first row is nearer 31 than that of the second, then the first row, or noir, wins, if the contrary is the case, then the second row, or rouge wins. Couleur wins if the first card tabled by the tailleur is of the winning color; thus, for instance, if the first card laid down is a "spade" or "club," and if noirwins; but if the first card dealt be not of the winning color, then inverse wins, and couleur loses. Two (and no more) of „the four chances can be winning chances at one time; and the winning players have their stakes increased by an equal sum from the bank, and then withdraw their stake and winnings, while the stakes of the losers are raked by the tailleurs to the bank in the cen ter of the table. When the value of the first, or uotr-row, is equal to that of the second, or rouge-row, it is a refait, and the dealer must commence to deal anew from the cards remaining in his hand; when the refait occurs, the player may either withdraw his stake, or stake on a different chance, with the same or more or less money as lie thinks proper. The game of rouge et noir would be an even one between the players and the hank, were it not for the following regulation: When the points dealt for the noir and the rouge each amount to 31 (" un refait de treat-et-un"), the half of all the stakes on each of the chances belongs to the bank, and this the players may either pay or have their stakes "put in prison," the next deal determining whether they shall belong to the batik or be restored to the player. If a second doublet of 31 occurs in the deal immediately succeeding, the stakes which were in prison are diminished by one-half, which goes. to the bank, and the other half is " putt into the second prison." from which it requires two successive winnings of the player to regain them. The chance of "un refait de treat e et-un" is about once in 64 deals.
This game superseded faro (q.v.).and btribi in France about 1789, but along with roulette (q.v.), was forbidden by law in 1838.