Rules

What is it about?

Hit your call and you score; misjudge it and you lose points. The number of cards in hand changes over 19 rounds: first everyone gets more and more cards, then fewer again. Some rounds also change the rules for trump or bidding.

That is what makes the game exciting: sometimes winning a trick is the clever move. At other times you want to avoid it at all costs, because it would take you past your own call.

The goal

After 19 rounds, whoever has the most points wins. Points are not awarded for many tricks but for accurate calls. If several players share the highest score, they win together.

What you need

Two complete 32-card decks without jokers – 64 cards in all –, a score sheet and a pen. Every card exists twice, so two identical cards can end up in the same trick.

Card ranking, high to low

1. A
2. K
3. Q
4. J
5. 10
6. 9
7. 8
8. 7

The 19 rounds

With six players, exactly 60 cards are dealt in round 10; the trump card is then turned up from the rest.

How a round is played

1. Shuffle and deal

Before every round all 64 cards are shuffled anew. The dealer deals each player as many cards as the round calls for.

2. Turn up trump

After dealing, one more card is turned face up from the rest of the deck. Its suit is trump for this round. The card stays visible and is not played. In the special rounds trump is chosen differently or there is none.

Example: If the nine of hearts is turned up, all hearts are trump – not just the nine.

3. Call your tricks

The player to the dealer's left starts and calls how many tricks they will take this round. The others follow clockwise; the dealer calls last. Any number from 0 up to the number of cards in hand is allowed. The calls go on the score sheet.

4. Play the cards

The player to the dealer's left leads the first trick with any card. Then each player plays exactly one card, clockwise.

• If you have the suit that was led, you must follow suit. Which card of that suit is up to you.
• If you don't have it, you may play any card – trump too, but you don't have to.
• There is no obligation to trump and no obligation to win the trick.
• If you can follow suit, you may not trump instead.

5. Who wins the trick?

• If there is trump in the trick, the highest trump wins.
• Without trump, the highest card of the suit led wins. Other suits cannot win without trump.
• If two cards that could win are equal, the one played first wins.

Whoever wins the trick leads the next one – until all cards are played.

Who deals?

Choose the first dealer however you like. After that the deal passes clockwise every round – across games, too: in round 1 of the next game, the player to the left of the last dealer deals.

The end of the game

After the forehead round the totals are compared. The highest score wins; if several share the top, they win together. There is no tiebreak.