The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (116 page)

There wil be nine tricks if two or four play, twelve if three.

Object The aim is to win tricks and either bring home certain high

cards, or at least prevent the others from doing so. Game is 9 points

(12 if three play) over as many deals as necessary. Scores are

normal y kept by erasing or crossing of the appropriate number of

arms of cross-strokes from a diagram like this:

Rank of cards Below the top three cards, ranks beat one another in

the order shown – any Nine beats any Ace, etc.

The fol owing cards have special properties:

3 Powerless if led to a trick, but unbeatable if played from any

other position.

any 7 Powerless unless led to a trick, when it can be beaten only by

3, K, or a higher-suited Seven. A Seven counts as ‘led’ if played

second fol owing 3. It loses in al other circumstances.