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War and Peace vocabulary

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faro: synonyms: pharo ???

tags: [recreation]

► definition

Definition:

a once very popular and simple card game where players (known as "punters") bet against the dealer (the "banker"). After each punter places their bets on a card denomination on the game board (see image) the banker flips a winning card and a losing card from the deck. There are three possible outcomes for each round. If the banker's flipped cards do not match their bet the punter stays even. If the punter's card matches the banker's winning or losing card the punter doubles or loses their bet respectively. Each of the four suits, ♥♦♣♠, has the same denominational value.

^{image: By Walter Nelson - "The Merry Gamester", https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1458287}
^{photo: (1895) https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7864393}

^{gratuitous shuffle noise: by empraetorius, license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/}
^{https://www.freesound.org/people/empraetorius/sounds/201253/ (original trimmed/edited to reduce file size)}

► uses

Uses:

All the great ladies played faro, then. On one occasion, while playing with the Duke of Orleans, she lost an enormous sum. She told her husband of the debt, but he refused outright to pay it.

Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin. The Queen Of Spades

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“I say, come round some evening and we’ll have a game of faro!” said Zherkov.

“Why, have you too much money?”

Leo Tolstoy. War and Peace: With bonus material from Give War and Peace A Chance by Andrew D. Kaufman

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He could get a job dealing faro in Reno—regular hours and no dames. Maybe get himself an apartment and fix it up—big chairs and a davenport.

John Steinbeck. East of Eden, p.552 (1952)