The Deck
The deck has 57 cards: 1 through 14 in Black, Red, Green and Yellow, plus the Rook. Partners sit
across from each other, so play alternates between teams.
Deal & Bid
- Everyone gets 13 cards and 5 go face down in the middle as the widow. If anyone is dealt a hand
with no point cards, the cards are reshuffled.
- Starting left of the dealer, each player bids (100 to 180, in steps of 5) or passes. Once you
pass you're out of the bidding. If the first three players pass, the last player is stuck with
100.
- The winner can raise their own bid before seeing the widow.
- The widow is turned face up for everyone. Once all four players click Got It,
the bid winner picks it up, buries any 5 cards, and names trump.
Playing Tricks
- The bid winner leads the first trick. Whoever wins a trick leads the next one.
- You must follow the suit that was led. If you can't, you must play trump if you have any.
Otherwise play anything.
- The Rook is always trump and is the highest card in the game. 1s are high (above 14).
- The highest trump wins the trick. With no trump played, the highest card of the led suit wins.
Scoring
- Point cards: Rook 20, each 1 is 15, each 10 and 14 is 10, each 5 is 5. That's 180 points per hand.
- The team that takes the last trick also gets the points buried in the widow.
- The bidding team scores their bid if they took at least that many points, and loses their bid
if they didn't. The other team scores whatever points they took.
- First team to 500 (and ahead) wins.
Playing Online
Enter your name, click Host a Game, and send the link to three friends. The host
arranges the teams and starts the game. Your browsers connect directly to each other, so the
host needs to keep their tab open until the game is done. If anyone else drops, they can rejoin
with the same link and the same name.
Game Options
The host can turn these on or off at any time. Both start off.
- Live scores shows how many points each team has taken during the hand, and how
far the bidding team is from making their bid.
- Game log lets everyone look back at every trick: who led, what each player played,
and who took it. Handy when someone is learning the game.