1) The Bidding
The aim of bidding is determination of the game variant which is going to be played. Here are the possibilities:
1.1 Specific trump game - this game considers one suit as a trump suit which means - dominating over the others, while the rest are equal in strength.
The strength of the cards of the trump suit is displayed below in descending order: J, 9, A, 10, K, Q, 8, 7; The rest of the suits keep the following order: A, 10, K, Q, J, 9, 8, 7;
Card of a trump suit beats any card of the other suits regardless of its strength.
1.2 No trumps game - This game excludes a dominating suit. The order of the cards is: A, 10, K, Q, J, 9, 8, 7 - no matter what suit is played.
1.3 All trumps - All suits are acting as trumps in this game i.e. the strength of the cards is as follows: J, 9, A, 10, K, Q, 8, 7;. Again no dominating suit.
Bidding procedure:
The players consecutively propose the game variant (as shown above: Specific trump game, No trumps game or All trumps game). If they can’t choose a variant they declare “pass”
The strength of the variants follows the listed order: The lowest is clubs followed by diamonds, hearts, spades, no trumps and all trumps.
When the last valid bid is made the player opponent may declare “double”. That means that he / she has the intention to win the game chosen by the first bidder.
In this case the score is doubled. However in response to the challenge the original bidders’ team may declare a “redouble” which quadruples the score (multiplies the score by four). Bidding ends when three subsequent players declare “pass”.
2) Playing.
2.1 Specific trump game A basic rule in this variant is the obligation of following the requested suit as well as covering the cards (playing a higher trump).
If the player lacks cards of the wanted suit and the opponent owns the trick by the moment then he / she should trump. If the opponent has already trumped then the first player should cover (overtrump) if such a higher trump available otherwise he / she can play any card.
2.2.No trumps game - This game is led as a specific trump game, but without a trump and by the only rule of following suit.
2.3 All trumps. The difference here is that all suits are trumps so besides following the suits the players are obliged to cover them no matter who has won the trick up to that moment.
3) Scoring
At the end of the game each team views its score:
Card |
trump suit |
non-trump suit |
7 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
9 |
14 |
0 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
J |
20 |
2 |
D |
3 |
3 |
K |
4 |
4 |
A |
11 |
11 |
Finaly to the obtained score we are adding the points of the declarations (see below).
When playing a No trump game the final score is doubled except for the bonus for “capot” (winning all the tricks).
If the team which bid the game has a higher score than its opponent’s then the bidding team has “made its contract”.
If the score is even we call that “a drawn game” or “the game hangs”.
And if the bidding team scores less than its opponent does, then the bidders are “inside”.
When the bidders have “made their contract”, the teams score their respective points divided by 10 and rounded to a whole number.
When the bidders are “inside” the opponents take all the points including the bidders’ ones divided by 10 and rounded off again.
If the game is “drawn”, the bidding team does not record its score. It is kept for the one who wins the next game. The opponent though records its score as shown above (divided by 10 and rounded). If the next game hangs again, the points accumulate and are added to the winner’s at the end of the next game and so on.
When a “double” has been declared, the team that gains more points takes the total score and doubles it no matter who had made the declaration (all bonuses are doubled including the bonus for capot).
When a “redouble” has been declared, the team that has more points takes the total score quadrupled no matter who had made the declaration (all bonuses are quadrupled including the bonus for capot).
When a “double” or “redouble” has been declared and the game hangs then all the points (doubled or quadrupled) remain for the winner of the next game.
The game ends when one of the teams scores 151 points or more. If both teams reach this bound at same time the winner is the one with more points. If both are equal then there will be another deal and so on until one overcomes.
There is an exception for the situation called “Capot”. In this case there is one more deal (except for a deal ending with “pass” and deal ending in capot).
3) Declarations
A player holding the following combinations of cards and declaring so when playing his / her first card of the game (no matter whether that card is part of the combination or not) wins for his / her team the respective points :
Combination : points - sequences of three cards of the same suit 20
sequences of four cards of the same suit 50
sequences of five or more cards of the same suit
100 four equal cards (10, Q, K A) 100 Four nines
150 four Jacks (J) 200 The order of the cards when declarations take place is: 7, 8, 9,, 10, J, Q, K, A.
At a game of no trumps, the players have no right to declare their combinations, i.e. there are no bonuses except for capot or 10 points for winning the last trick.
If a card is part of a “quad” (four of a kind) and at the same time is part of a sequence from the shown above combinations, then it’s up to the player which one he / she will choose to declare.
If both teams have declared combinations of cards in sequences the bonus goes to the team which has declared a sequence of a higher value.
When the declared sequences are equal in length, the highest is the one that has a higher card at the end.
If the highest declarations of sequential cards of both teams are equal then the sequential bonuses are dropped out.
If both teams have declared quads, the bonus goes to the team holding the quad of the higher cards (in trump suit).
The combination kind is clarified at the end of the game. So if a player holds for instance J, Q, and K of spades, at the first trick he just declares “run of three” and it is after the last one when he specifies “a run of three up to K of spades”.
The Belote bonus: if a player holds Q and K of trumps (at a game of all trumps the suit doesn’t matter) and declares it during the play he gets 20 points for his / her team.
The declaration of belote is done by playing the first card and if one of the following is true:
1. The played card is first of that trick
2. The played card is of the requested suit
3. The player is trumping, overtrumping or under trumping at a trump game.
The team who wins the last trick called “final 10” is given 10 points bonus. If the team wins all the tricks it gets “the all points bonus” - a bonus of 90 points.
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