In the Aubrey-Maturin series, they play a two-player card game called Piquet. The rules are on Pagat, and it turns out it's a two-player trick taking game with a cribbage like scoring. The interesting thing is that you score the hand before the play, but scoring reveals details about your hand.
You play with a deck missing 2-6, dealing out 12 cards per player. That leaves 8 cards, and the non-dealer (elder) can exchange 1-5 cards (must exchange at least one). The dealer (younger) can then exchange 1-5, but can't exchange more than the deck (Talon) has left, so usually exchanges three. So each player will see about half the deck. That, combined with the scoring mechanism, means that you can often tell almost exactly what your opponent has ... if you aren't lazy.
The trick-taking part isn't as interesting as could be, because often one (or both) players can run a suit for most of the tricks, but there's a big score (10 points) for most tricks, and a minor score (1point) for last trick, which often requires an endplay.
I found a nice software version, with one month free demo. I'm not sure how strong the computer is ... I think the Expert version has some weaknesses in card play (or I'm misreading the hands).
Anyway, worth checking out.
I believe most of the skill is in choosing the correct exchanges, bearing in mind the possibilities of Pique, Repique &Capot.
As you say the exchanges &declarations often leave the play fairly trivial, thugh note that declarations are optional and sometimes shouldn't be made if they will be almost certainly beaten and just reveal useful info.
Simon J, who can't remember what his login is :)
It does have an interesting compound structure with the card exchange, declarations and trick-taking. looks like a more interesting compound game to me, but I haven't got around to trying it.
The real play of Piquet is, as mentioned, about exchanging and when to deliberately underbid. But it's not a bad card game. And when you consider its age, it seems pretty good.
That being said, I think there's probably a better game that can be be built if you tinkered with this.
Galapagos looks interesting, in a highly inorganic way. Piquet seems elegant.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/29578
Bridgette is excellent. I played it the other day and didn't write a blog post about it. I'll have to fix that...