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Goal

Win deals by reaching 66 card points first. Each deal won takes 1, 2, or 3 game points off your 7, and the first player down to 0 wins the game.

Cards

Use 20 cards: the A, 10, K, Q, and J of each suit. A card is worth card points to the player who takes it in a trick: an Ace is worth 11, a Ten 10, a King 4, a Queen 3, and a Jack 2. The whole pack is worth 120.

Ranking

In each suit, from highest to lowest: A, 10, K, Q, J. The 10 outranks the King. Any trump beats any card of another suit.

Starting hand

Deal 5 cards to each player.

Setup

Turn the next card face up. Its suit is trumps. Put the other 9 cards face down across it as the talon, so the face-up trump is the last card drawn.

Play

1. The non-dealer leads the first trick. The winner of each trick leads the next and counts its card points.
2. While the talon is open, play any card. You don’t have to follow suit or trump. The higher card of the suit led wins, unless a trump is played, and then the trump wins.
3. Draw after each trick. While the talon is open, the winner draws the top card, then the loser. The last card drawn is the face-up trump, and it goes to the loser of that trick.
4. Before you lead, you may:
   • exchange the trump Jack for the face-up trump, while the talon is open;
   • close the talon, while it’s open, so that nobody draws again;
   • declare a marriage, the King and Queen of one suit, and then lead one of them. It’s worth 20 card points, or 40 in trumps, and counts only once you have won a trick.
   You can exchange the Jack and then close before the same lead.
5. Once the talon is closed or used up, play is strict. Follow suit and beat the card led if you can. If you can’t follow suit, you must play a trump if you have one.
6. Go out at 66. Card points are counted in your head, and nothing is written down. Just after you win a trick or declare a marriage, you may claim to have 66. Play stops and your points are counted: your tricks, plus the marriages that count. With 66 or more you win the deal, and otherwise your opponent wins it.
7. If the cards run out before anyone goes out, the winner of the last trick wins the deal, unless the talon was closed. A closed deal is scored as below.

Scoring

A player who goes out with 66 or more wins game points by how their opponent did:

• 1 if the opponent has 33 card points or more;
• 2 if the opponent has under 33 but has won a trick;
• 3 if the opponent has won no trick.

A player who claims 66 without having it gives the opponent 2 game points, or 3 if the opponent has won no trick.

Closing is a promise to go out. If you close and then go out, your game points are set by your opponent’s card points and tricks at the moment you closed. If you close and your opponent goes out first, or you claim without 66, or the cards run out before you go out, your opponent wins 2 game points, or 3 if they had no trick when you closed. Because you can’t go out after losing a trick, a closer who loses the last trick fails even with 66.

If nobody closed and nobody went out, the winner of the last trick can go out with 66, and otherwise wins the deal for 1 game point.

Both players start with 7 game points and subtract the game points they win. The first to 0 wins the game, and the deal alternates.

Examples

• You go out with 70 Your 4 tricks are worth 21 + 21 + 14 + 14 = 70 card points, and you claim 66 just after winning the last of them.

What you win depends on how your opponent did:

Your opponent’s tricks	Card points	You win
	34	1 game point 33 or more
	19	2 game points under 33, with a trick
None	0	3 game points no trick

• You close: 2 game points You close the talon when your opponent has these 2 tricks, worth 19. They then win the A♣ and the 10♣, for 40, before you go out. Your game points are set by the 19 they had when you closed, so you win 2, not 1.
• You close, but they go out first Close at the same moment, and if your opponent goes out first, they win 2 game points. They’d win 3 if they had won no trick when you closed.

Variants

Tracked scorekeeping is a house rule. Both players’ card points are kept where both can see them, and a player with 66 or more goes out at the first moment they’re allowed to. It replaces counting in your head.

Playing with your own deck

You need paper and a pencil to keep both players’ game points, counting down from 7. For tracked scorekeeping, keep both players’ card points on paper too.