Ramsch
When nobody wants it: most Augen pays.
When all four pass, some tables do not scrap the hand — they play a Ramsch: the hand is played out, everyone for themselves, and whoever ends up with the most Augen pays. The goal is upside down.
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And it gets played anyway
A Ramsch is never announced. There is no Ramsch bid and no rank for one — it simply happens when nobody wants to play. The player left of the dealer leads, as always. And there is a second way in: a Hochzeit nobody takes goes the same road at a Ramsch table.
Said plainly: the “official” rules do not mention the Ramsch at all. This is tavern convention — a genuine house rule.
The goal inverts
It is played with the Rufspiel trumps: four Ober, four Unter, the whole Herz suit — fourteen of them. You follow suit as usual. But: no Stichzwang (no duty to head a trick, none to trump), no called Ass, no partner, nothing hidden. Every seat is its own party.
Fourteen trumps, eight tricks — and nobody trying to win anything. It is a completely different game with the same cards.
Everything you learned, the other way round
The whole doctrine of the Ramsch in one sentence: if you cannot take the trick cheaply anyway, throw your fattest card into it — not your cheapest. The Augen land with whoever takes the trick, and that should not be you.
And for the same reason: do not trump a fat trick just because you can. You would be taking it — Augen and all.
All eight — and you win alone
A player who takes all eight tricks has made a Durchmarsch and wins the Ramsch alone: they collect from all three.
Here it is all eight and nothing else, and it is never declared — it is noticed. So a Durchmarsch that fails is not a special disaster: you simply hold most of the Augen and pay like anyone else. (Some tables play it with point thresholds or with an announcement — we do not.)
No Schneider, no Kontra, no Laufende
No Schneider, no Schwarz, no Laufende — all of those need two parties splitting 120 Augen between them, and there are none here. And no Kontra, no Re: there is no game to double and nobody to answer.
No Jungfrau either — the Ramsch’s name for a seat that takes no trick at all. At some tables it doubles the price; here we do not play it, and that is a house decision rather than something the rules force. Only the Legen composes: it happened before the auction, and it multiplies a Ramsch like any other hand.
And why two Legen is plenty
The loser pays each of the other three 20 — that is 60 out of pocket. A Durchmarsch collects 50 from each, +150 in total.
These numbers are our own — the sources deliberately leave the money out. And because four Legen make ×16, a Ramsch could cost 960. That is exactly the argument for capping it at two Legen when money is involved.