Players and Cards
The deck is a standard American deck of fifty-two cards, ace high. The game is usually for four players in two teams, partners sitting across from each other. The game is played clockwise.
Each player receives six cards, dealt three at a time. The turn to deal rotates clockwise after each hand.
There is one round of bidding. The possible bids are two, three, four and smudge (smudge is really a bid of five). Each player in turn either passes or bids higher than the previous bid if any, except for the dealer, who, having last bid, may "steal the bid" by bidding the same as the highest bid. The final bidder becomes the pitcher, and has the right to name trump and lead to the first trick.
If the first three players pass, the dealer must bid at least the minimum bid of two. This is called a "force bid".
The bids represent how many of the following four items will be won when the tricks of the game are played out:
- awarded to the team which holds the highest card in the trump suit in play, i.e. the ace if it has been dealt;
- awarded to the team which wins the trick containing the lowest trump card in play, i.e. the two if it has been dealt. If the two is not dealt in play, the three may be low. If the three was not dealt either, the four, and so on;
- awarded to the team which wins the trick containing the jack of trumps. If the jack of trumps was not dealt no one gets this point;
- awarded to the team which has the higher total value of cards in its tricks. Card values are as follows:
each ace 4 each king 3 each queen 2 each jack 1 each ten 10
The bid of smudge requires all six tricks to be won by the declaring side, in addition to the four items listed above. (Sometimes a team can win all the tricks, but if the jack of trumps was not dealt, that is not sufficient to win a smudge bid.)
The pitcher leads a card to the first trick, and the suit of this card becomes the trump suit. The winner of each trick leads the next, and may lead any card. A player who has a card of the suit led must either follow suit or trump. Players may play trump on any trick, even if they can follow suit. A player who has no cards of the suit led can play anything - either a trump or a card of another suit. Each trick is won by the highest trump card played, or if there are no trumps in it then by the highest card in the suit led.
Each of the items High, Low, Jack and Game is worth one point. If you bid and make your bid, you get the number of points you make (in other words, if you bid two and make four, your team scores four points). However, to score five points (smudge), you need to actually bid smudge - if you bid four, and actually win all the tricks, including the jack of trump, you still only score four. The opposing team makes whatever number of points they earn. For example if the declarer's team bid two, but the opponents capture the 2 of trump, the opponents score one for Low.
If a team fails to make its bid is said to be set. It loses (or is set back) the value of the bid, while the other team again scores whatever points it makes.
Note that if a side that bids smudge loses a trick, the bid has failed and they will be set back 5 points no matter what happens after that. However, the play must be continued to the end to give the other side a chance to score points.
A cumulative score is kept for each team. A team's score can be negative.
In order to win, a team needs at least 21 points, but they can only win at the end of a hand in which they made their bid. A team which reaches 21 or more on a hand where they are against the declarer - nor do they win if they bid and lose a contract, but still have 21 or more points.
It is therefore possible for the winning team to have fewer points than the losing team. For example, suppose that we have 18 points and they have 24, but they have not yet won because they acquired their last 4 points playing against our bids. If we now bid 3 and make it, and they take 1 point, we win, even though we have just 21 points while they have 25.