Piquet, a game at cards for two players, played with thirty-two cards, the sixes, fives, fours, threes, and twos being rejected. The game was formerly played a hundred up, a partie being the best of five games; but about 1880 the rubicon game superseded piquet au cent. At the rubicon game six hands are played, each player dealing alternately. The one whose aggregate score is the higher wins the partie. He deducts the loser's score, and adds a hundred to the difference. If the loser fails to score a hundred in the six hands, he is rubiconed, and the scores are added instead of being deducted. For a description of the mode of play, handbooks should be consulted.
The earliest known mention of piquet is by Rabelais in the Gargantuan list of games (1530-45). Hence it has been concluded that piquet is of French origin. But it is more probable that a similar game, called ronfa, was played in Italy at an earlier date, and that this game, with modifications, travelled from Italy to Spain, where it was re-named cientos, and to France, where it was re-named piquet. Piquet seldom, if ever, occurs in English books of the Shakespearian period, but cent (cientos) frequently does. From this it may be concluded that piquet, under the name of cent, was played in England until about the middle of the 17th century, when the word 'cent' went out of use, and was replaced by the word 'piquet.' It may be noticed in this connection that from the time of the marriage of Mary to Philip of Spain (1554) the English equivalent of the Spanish name of the game was in vogue, and that contemporaneously with the marriage of Charles I. to the daughter of Henry IV. of France (1625) the French name piquet was substituted.
The etymology of piquet has been much speculated on; no satisfactory settlement has been arrived at. In 1651 was published The Royall and Delightfull Game of Piequet, translated from the earliest known French book on the subject. This was followed by several others, more or less resembling it, Wit's Interpreter (1671), Cotton's Compleat Gamesster (1674), and Seymour's Court Gamesster (1719), all containing piquet. The next original work was Hoyle's Short Treatise on the Game of Piquet (1744). This included the laws which were the authority until 1873, when the Portland Club issued a code. The general adoption of the rubicon game, shortly afterwards, necessitated a fresh revision; and in 1881 the Portland and Turf Clubs agreed to the code of laws which now govern the game. These laws were published in 1882, together with a treatise on the game, by 'Cavendish.'