Deal and trump
- Deal 13 cards each. Place the remaining 26 as a face-down stock and turn its top card face up.
- The face-up card’s suit is trump for the entire deal. Non-dealer leads first.
- Cards rank ace high through 2 low.
Phase one: build the hand
- Players follow suit when able. Highest trump wins; without trump, highest card of the led suit wins.
- Trick winner takes the face-up stock card. Loser takes the next stock card face down. Turn the next card face up and the winner leads again.
- The first 13 tricks do not score. Their purpose is to improve the 13-card hand used in phase two.
Phase two: decide the deal
- When stock is empty, continue for 13 more tricks without drawing.
- Follow suit when able. Highest trump wins, otherwise highest led-suit card wins. Trick winner leads next.
- Only phase-two tricks count. Winning 7 or more wins the deal. Record one game point for the deal winner; first to the agreed number of deals wins the session.
Common house rules
- No requirement to follow suit during phase one
- Count all 26 tricks
- Best-of-3 rather than first to 5 deals
- Score one point per phase-two trick over six