500 Card Game Scorekeeper and Rules

A partnership bidding game for 4 players, popular in Australia, New Zealand and parts of the US. It uses a 43-card deck: remove the 2s, 3s and black 4s from a standard deck, and add one joker.

Setup

Partners sit across from each other. Deal 10 cards to each player and 3 cards face down to the middle (the kitty).

Card ranking

• The joker is the highest card. Next is the jack of trumps (right bower), then the other jack of the same color (left bower), then trump A, K, Q, 10 down.
• In no trumps, the joker is the only trump.

Bidding

• Each bid names a number of tricks (6 to 10) and a trump suit or no trumps. Each bid must be worth more than the last.
• Misère is a bid to lose every trick, playing without your partner. Open misère is the same with your cards face up on the table.
• The winner picks up the kitty and discards three cards.

Bid values

Scoring

• Make your bid and score its value. Taking all 10 tricks on a bid worth less than 250 scores 250.
• Miss your bid and lose its value.
• The other team scores 10 for each trick they took.

Winning

The first team to 500 wins. A team that falls to −500 loses.