Rules

Players

This particular game requires 5 players.

Cards

A standard 52 card deck is used. The cards in each suit rank (from high to low) A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2.

Sequence of Hands

The game consists of a series of hands. The first hand is played with 1 card dealt to each player.
Each successive hand is played with one card more, up to a hand of 10 cards each, then one card less per hand back down to the starting level.

So the hands are 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 then 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 for a total of 20 hands to the game. A game should take approximately 45 - 60 minutes.

Object of the Game

The object is for each player to bid the number of tricks he thinks he can take from each hand, then to take exactly that many; no more and no fewer. Points are awarded only for making the bid exactly, and are deducted for missing the bid, either over or under (see scoring below).

Deal

To first dealer is chosen randomly. The turn to deal rotates clockwise with each hand.

The cards are shuffled and cut and the dealer deals the cards singly until everyone has the appropriate number of cards for the hand being played. The next card is turned face up and the suit of this card is the trump suit for the hand. The trump suit beats any of the other three suits played in that hand. The remaining undealt cards are placed in a face down stack with the turned trump on top of it.

Bidding

The bidding in each hand is done by all players knocking three times on the table, and holds out a number of fingers representing their bid. Each bid is a number representing the number of tricks that player will try to take. Everyone must bid - it is not possible to pass, but you can bid zero, in which case your object is to take no tricks at all. A bid may not be changed. Keep in mind when bidding that not all cards in the deck are in play in any hand.

Play

The play begins with the player who bid the most. If several players bid the same, the player closest to the dealer begins. The lead may be any suit (including trump). Play follows clockwise. Each player must follow the suit led, if he can. If not, he may play any other card in his hand, including trump. The player who has played the highest trump card, or if no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led, wins the trick. That player then leads to the next trick. Continue until all tricks have been played and won.

Scoring

A player who wins the exact number of tricks bid scores 10 plus the number of tricks bid (10 points for zero tricks, 11 for 1 trick, 12 for two tricks, etc.) Players who take more or fewer tricks than they bid score nothing.
If a player has bid on half or more of the tricks in a hand, and wins the exact number, he gets a "double". This means he will get 20 plus the number of tricks bid, times 2.
Example: There is 6 cards in the hand, a player bids 3 and wins 3 tricks. He gets 20 + 3 * 2 (26) points.