This is a partnership trick-taking game for four players. The speciality of the game is that each card (with a few exceptions) belongs to several suits.

Preparations
You need:

• 4 players
• printed card faces (see files section)
• 39 playing-cards (any)
• 39 card sleeves with opaque backs
• Pen and paper for keeping track of the score

Cut the card faces apart. Put the playing-cards into the card sleeves. Put the card faces into the card sleeves in front of the playing-cards. Now you have 39 cards, divided into three marker cards (large suit symbols) and 36 playing-cards (numbers and suit symbols).

Take the three marker cards and place them face up on the table, some 10 centimeters apart. They stay in their places for the rest of the game. The rest of the cards form the 36 playing-card deck.

Divide the players into two teams of two players. Team-mates sit opposite to each other so that every player sits in between two opponents.

The structure of the deck

In this section, we explain the structure of the deck formed by the 36 playing-cards.

There are three suits: Spades, diamonds and clubs. There are eleven ranks, from lowest to highest 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A.

Most of the cards have a rank in each suit. In the cards, the rank of a suit is marked next to the suit symbol. Some cards may lack ranks in one or two suits. The missing rank is marked with a hyphen (-).

As a general rule, cards tend to have either high ranks in all suits or low ranks in all suits. However, few cards contain exactly the same rank in each suit. In cards that lack ranks in some suits, the remaining ranks are low.

Each suit contains 2 aces, 4 kings, 1 queen, 4 jacks and several lower ranks.

How to play a trick

One player leads to the trick by placing one card from his hand on one of the marker cards. The choice the marker card determines the suit of the trick. The lead card and the marker card can be chosen otherwise freely, but the lead card must have a rank in the suit of the trick.

Then the other players play one card each to the trick by placing one card from his hand on the lead card. First plays the one left to the player who lead, then the player left to him, and then the final player.

When a player who does not lead to the trick plays a card to the trick, the player is subject to the following restrictions: The highest rank in the suit of the trick in the cards played to the trick so far is called the best so far.

• If the player
  has a card that has a rank in the suit of the trick that is equal or higher than the best so far, the player must play such a card.
• Otherwise, if the player has a card that has a rank in the suit of the trick, the player must play such card.
• Otherwise, the player may play any card.

The trick is won by the player who played the highest rank in the suit of the trick. In case of a tie, the last-played card of those equal highest ranks wins.

The winner of the trick takes the four cards (not including the marker card) that form the trick and places them face down on the table. Each team has a designated space on the table for cards won in the tricks, and the cards are placed so that it can be easily seen how many tricks each team has won.

How to play a deal

One of the players shuffles the deck of 36 playing-cards and deals everyone 9 cards. The players fan their cards in their hands so that everyone sees (only) his own cards. Every player selects three cards from their hands and places them face down on the table in front of him. After every player has placed the three cards on the table, every player gives the selected three cards to his team-mate, who adds the cards to his hand. During this card exchange, the opponents do not see the exchanged cards.

Then the player left to the dealer leads to the first trick. After the first trick, the winner of a trick leads to the next one. In this way nine tricks are played, so that the hands of the players are depleted.

The team that won more tricks gets points, one point for each tricks in excess of four. (That is, five tricks gives one point, six tricks two and so on.)

How to play a rubber

A game consists of several deals, and for each team, the points from deals are summed up. The turn to deal rotates clockwise. The game is won by the team that first collects five points. After a game the points of both teams are returned to zero.

The team that wins two games first wins the rubber.

Communication

The rules for communication are the same as in bridge.

The team-mates are not allowed to assist each other by speaking or making gestures. However, the team-mates may, before a game begins, agree that certain choices of the cards played or exchanged signal certain things. (For example, the team-mates may agree that they give their the three highest cards in the exchange, so that giving a certain card in the exchange signals that the player does not have higher cards in his hand. Also the team-mates can agree that leading a jack or lower in some suits asks the team-mate to lead a card in that suit later if he gets a chance.) Before the game starts, however, the players must explain all the signals they have agreed on for their opponents.