Players and cards.
There are four players in fixed partnerships, partners sitting opposite. Deal and play are counter-clockwise. A standard international 52-card pack is used, but only 32 of the cards are used for play. These cards rank from high to low A-K-Q-J-10-9-8-7 in each suit. Other cards are used as tokens. Tokens are avorded to the winning side.
Deal and making trumps
Player to your left will deal first, and the turn to deal passes to the right after each hand. The dealer shuffles the 32-card pack and deals a batch of four cards to each player.
The player to dealer's right looks at the four cards and must decide and announce which suit will be trumps. The dealer then deals a second batch of four cards to each player, so that everyone get eight.
The player to dealer's right looks at the four cards and must decide and announce which suit will be trumps. The dealer then deals a second batch of four cards to each player, so that everyone get eight.
Play
The player to dealer's right, who announced the trump suit, leads any card to the first trick. The other players play in turn, anticlockwise around the table, and must follow suit if able to; a player who holds no card of the suit led may play any card.
If no trumps are played, the trick is won by the highest card of the suit that was led. If any trumps were played the highest trump wins the trick. The winner of the trick gathers the four cards, stacks them face down in the team's trick pile, and leads any card to the next trick.
If no trumps are played, the trick is won by the highest card of the suit that was led. If any trumps were played the highest trump wins the trick. The winner of the trick gathers the four cards, stacks them face down in the team's trick pile, and leads any card to the next trick.
Scoring
After the eighth trick, the tricks won by each team are counted.
- If the team that chose the trump suit have 5, 6 or 7 tricks, they win one token.
- If the team that did not choose the trump suit have 5, 6 or 7 tricks, they win two tokens.
- If either team wins all 8 tricks, they win three tokens. This is known as nil game.
- If the teams take 4 tricks each, no token cards are transferred, but an extra token card is won the next time a team takes more than 4 tricks.