The games · Coolhand Cards

Five Hundred

A bidding game grown out of Euchre. Bid the tricks your side will take, pick up the kitty, and play to five hundred.

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

How it goes

Partners sit opposite. Red suits run four to ace, black suits five to ace, plus a joker. Ten cards each, and three face down: the kitty. Starting left of whoever dealt, bid six to ten tricks in a suit or no trumps, or pass for good. A bid beats the last with more tricks, or as many in a higher suit, from spades up: clubs, diamonds, hearts, no trumps. If nobody bids, deal again. Once the rest pass, the last bidder takes the kitty, buries three and leads. A trick is one card each. Trumps beat the other suits, in the order joker, jack, the other jack of that color, then ace down. Follow suit if you can. A made bid scores its value and a failed one loses it, and the other side scores ten a trick. Six spades is worth forty, each extra trick adds a hundred and each higher suit twenty, so ten no trumps is five hundred and twenty. Taking all ten tricks lifts a smaller bid to two hundred and fifty. Misère, taking no trick with your partner sitting out, is worth two hundred and fifty. It may be bid once someone has bid seven, and ranks above every seven and below every eight. Open misère shows your hand from the start, is worth five hundred, may be bid any time, and ranks between ten diamonds and ten hearts. Against either, the other side scores nothing. Five hundred on a made bid wins, and minus five hundred loses.

A good hand

Count your tricks against what each bid is worth before you bid: six spades is forty, and every extra trick adds a hundred. A hand that can take all ten tricks is worth at least two hundred and fifty on any bid. A hand with no tricks in it can bid misère for two hundred and fifty, or open misère for five hundred.

The usual mistake

Getting the joker wrong in no trumps or misère. There it belongs to no suit. It wins any trick, but may be played only when you can't follow the suit led. It may also be led, and then it calls no suit, so the others may play anything. And counting the ten a trick toward the win. Those points never finish a game, however long a side sits on four hundred and ninety.

Played differently where you are?

Card games change from table to table, and we researched some of these games instead of playing them. If Five Hundred 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.