chemin de fer

chemin de fer, French card game played mainly in European and Latin American casinos. The game is played by up to 12 players, on a kidney-shaped table; the object is to total 9 with a hand of two or three cards. When the cards total a two-digit number, the first digit is ignored, so that 14 would count as 4. Ace counts as 1, number cards at face value, and picture cards as 10 (which counts 0). Chemin de fer derives from the Italian game baccarat, differing from it in that players bet one at a time against each other instead of against the house. As a casino game in the United States, chemin de fer was displaced by baccarat in the late 1950s.