A classic 4-player partnership trick-taking game played with a stripped-down 24-card deck (9 through Ace): quick hands, real teamwork, and one card that breaks the normal ranking entirely.
How to play
- Partners sit across the table from each other, not side by side.
- Each hand, 5 cards are dealt to every player and one card is turned face up to start bidding for trump.
- In turn, players may order it up (accept the turned-up suit as trump) or pass. If everyone passes twice, the dealer may be forced to call a trump suit of their own choosing.
- The jack of trump is the highest card in the game, the “right bower.” The jack of the matching color is the second-highest, the “left bower”, and counts as trump even though it’s printed in the other suit.
- Tricks play out normally otherwise: follow suit if you can, highest card (accounting for the bowers) wins the trick.
- A partnership that wins 3+ tricks scores a point; sweep all 5 for a bonus. First team to 10 points wins the match.
Good to know
- Exactly 4 players, fixed into 2 partnerships. The host assigns pairs before the match starts (or it defaults to seating order).
- Host settings: Stick the dealer (the dealer must call trump rather than let the hand get thrown in) and Buy a hand (trade three-of-a-kind for the leftover kitty).
- A team can also go alone: sit out your partner for the hand for a bigger bonus if you sweep all 5 tricks solo.
- Two more host settings end a hand early, without ever changing who scores: Skip settled tricks drops the last trick or two once they can’t change the points, and Lay down winning hands lets a player who can see they’ll take every trick left, however they play, claim them with one tap. Either way, everyone’s cards are turned face up so the table sees why.