The games · Coolhand Cards

Doppelkopf

A German partnership game on a doubled deck. The two holding a queen of clubs are partners, and nobody says so until the play gives it away.

Players: 4 to 5
Family: Bidding Games
App: Coolhand Cards · iOS and Android, soon

How it goes

Every card exists twice. The two players holding a queen of clubs are one side and the other two are the other side, and nobody says so. Your hand tells you your side, and the play shows the rest. First each player in turn says healthy, content with the normal game, or names a special game: a marriage (you hold both queens and want a partner) or a solo (you play alone). Trumps, which beat any plain suit, are the two tens of hearts, the queens, the jacks, then the diamonds. A trick is one card from each player, and the highest takes all. Follow suit if you can. Of two identical cards, the first played wins. Aces are worth eleven, tens ten, kings four, queens three, jacks two, two hundred and forty in all: the queens' side needs a hundred and twenty-one, and the other side a hundred and twenty, though a hundred and twenty is enough for the queens' side when only the other side has announced itself. A side may announce itself, then promise to hold the others under ninety, sixty, thirty or to no trick at all, each while it still holds enough cards. Each promise raises the value, and a side that misses its highest one cannot win: the other side takes the deal, with a point for every step you missed, or, if it missed its own as well, nobody wins. Announcing adds two to the value. Outside a solo, a fox caught (the ace of diamonds), the last trick taken with a jack of clubs, and a trick of forty points are a point each.

A good hand

Finding your partner before the other side finds theirs: a queen of clubs played early, a ten of hearts led, an announcement, a gift only a partner gives. Feed points to your side's tricks and duck the rest. With strong trumps, announce early: it tells your partner where you stand. Keep the fox, your ace of diamonds, out of enemy hands.

The usual mistake

Announcing on a hand that can't carry it, since a side that misses its highest announcement cannot win. Playing the ace of diamonds into a trick the other side takes. Trumping your partner's winner before you knew you had one. And calling a marriage with a hand that could have played alone, or a solo with one that couldn't.

Played differently where you are?

Card games change from table to table, and we researched some of these games instead of playing them. If Doppelkopf goes differently where you play it, tell us. That's one of the things the closed beta is for.

The closed beta is by invitation. How to ask to join.