also known as 28, 29
4 players, 1 deck of 32 cards (A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7 in each suit). Highest cumulative score over 11 rounds wins.
Starting at 150, players bid clockwise, each raise 5–30 over the current bid. Highest bidder wins and picks trump. If everyone passes, the dealer wins at 150.
If you win the bid, set the trump suit, then call a partner by naming any card you don't hold. Both the trump suit and the called card are shown to everyone right away — only who's actually holding that card stays hidden.
You must follow the led suit if you hold one; if you're void, you may play anything, including trump. Highest trump wins the trick, or if no trump was played, the highest card of the suit that was led. Card strength (low to high): 7, 8, Q, K, 10, A, 9, J — not the same as point value.
The partner is revealed the moment the bidder leads a trick in the called card's suit — the partner must play that exact card. If it gets beaten by someone else's trump in that trick, the bidder plays the rest of the round alone (1 vs 3) — but the partner still shares the bidder's final score either way.
Holding the King and Queen of the same suit lets you show them for bonus points, but only after your team has won at least one trick. Your team showing it shifts the target you need to hit by 20 (40 if it's the trump suit) in your favor; the other team showing it shifts it against you.
If you're the bidder or partner, you may announce before the 6th trick begins that your team will win all 8 tricks. Pull it off after announcing and you both score +4 instead of the usual +1 — but winning everything without announcing first still only scores the normal +1.
Card point values: J=30, 9=20, A=11, 10=10, K=3, Q=2, 8/7=0 (the deck totals exactly 304). If the bidder and partner's trick points meet or beat their target, both score +1 (or +4 for a valid slam); if they fall short, both score −1. The other two players always score 0 for the round.
A different version: no partner — the bidder plays alone against the other two (1 vs 2), and defenders always score 0 no matter the outcome. Everyone's dealt 10 cards instead of 8, and 2 more are set aside face-down as the “widow.” Once bidding closes, the winning bidder sees the widow and may pick up any of the 2 cards they want — none, either one alone, or both — then discards the same number of cards back out from the combined pool. Either way, whichever 2 cards end up discarded still count toward the bidder's final total, even though they're never played in a trick.