Playing Rules

The rules as the game implements them. Every agreement below is a switch in Settings, so a table can be set up the way it has always played.

Players and Cards

There are three active players. A 24-card pack is used (which includes “9”, “10”, “Jack”, “Queen”, “King” and “Ace” cards). 1000 is a point-trick game: the aim is to win tricks containing valuable cards; there are just six cards in each of the suits – Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs and Spades – and their ranking from high to low and their point values are as follows:

There are therefore 120 card points in the pack altogether and a player who holds both the king and the queen of a suit (a pair or marriage) can obtain additional points by declaring them as follows:

Deal

Dealing, declaring and play all go clockwise. Who deals first is chosen at random, and the turn to deal passes to the left after each hand. The cards are dealt one at a time: seven cards to each of the three active players and three cards face down to the center of the table. These three cards are known as the “talon”.

Contracts

Contracts are numbers: the lowest contract is 100 and every contract must be a multiple of 5, so the possible contracts are 100, 105, 110, 115, 120, etc. The player who declares the highest contract undertakes to win at least this number of points from cards in tricks plus declarations. The player to the left of whoever dealt declares first and must declare at least 100. Declaring continues clockwise and each player must either declare higher than the previous contract or pass. A player who has passed cannot declare again. Declaring continues for as many rounds as necessary until two players have passed. The last player to declare becomes the talon winner.

Since there are only 120 card points, higher contracts can only be fulfilled by declaring king-queen pairs called “marriage”. Players are not allowed to declare more than 120 unless they have at least one marriage on hands.

Exchanging Cards

Talon winner exposes the three talon cards for all to see and adds them to his hand. He then gives away any two unwanted cards from his hand, passing one unwanted card to each opponent, so that each player has eight cards.

At this point the talon winner is allowed to increase the contract to any higher multiple of 5, or to leave it as it is.

Play

The talon winner leads to the first trick, and the winner of each trick leads to the next. Initially there are no trumps, but if the winner of a trick holds the king and queen of a suit, he may announce them and lead the king or queen to the next trick. The suit of the king-queen immediately becomes trumps, and remains so until another pair is announced or until the end of the play if there are no further announcements.

Players must always follow suit if possible. When there are no trumps, a player who is unable to follow suit may play any card. A trick is won by the highest trump played to it, or, if it contains no trump, by the highest card of the suit led.

Announcements of marriage may cause the trump suit to change several times during the play. It is even possible for each of the four suits to be trumps in turn. However, the following restrictions should be noted:

• The player can only announce a marriage immediately after he won a trick (therefore a marriage cannot be announced in the first trick.)
• To announce a marriage you must have both cards in your hand at the time of the announcement and you must lead one of them. Although it is in the interests of the talon winner’s opponents to cooperate to defeat the contract, they each keep the tricks they win in a separate pile, and each scores only for their own tricks and announcements.

The marriage is announced automatically when the first card (king or queen) is played.

Scoring

Each of the three players adds up the card points in their own tricks and adds the value of any marriages they announced. The values of the cards and the various marriages are given above.

Each player’s score starts at zero and the goal is to reach a cumulative score of 1000 points or more.

If the talon winner’s points total is at least as much as the contract, the contract is added to the talon winner’s cumulative score. If not, the contract is subtracted from the talon winner’s cumulative score.

Example: the talon winner took the contract at 130, and after exchanging the talon increased it to 160. If the talon winner takes 215 points including announcements, he will add 160 to his cumulative score; if he takes 155 points including announcements, he will subtract 160 points from his cumulative score.

Irrespective of whether the talon winner’s contract was successful or not, each of the other players rounds the point value of their tricks and announcements to the nearest 5, and adds the result to his or her cumulative score.

Barrel

It is not possible to have a cumulative score between 880 and 1000. If a player whose score was previously below 880 scores enough points to take it to 880 or more (but less than 1000), the player’s score becomes 880 and a symbol of barrel is drawn (to show that the player is “on the barrel”). If you are on the barrel, you have three chances to become the talon winner and to get a score of at least 120 points on a hand to win the game. You cannot stay on the barrel for more than three consecutive hands – if you fail to win on the third hand, you fall off the barrel and lose 120 points. So the possibilities for a player on a barrel are as follows:

• If you are the talon winner and score at least 120 points on a hand, you win the game.
• If you are the talon winner and fail to win, then the amount of your contract is not subtracted from your score.
• If you are not the talon winner, then any points that you make do not count for you – even if you take 120 or more you do not win.
• If this is your first or second hand on the barrel, then your cumulative score stays at 880 and you are still on the barrel. But if this is your third consecutive hand on the barrel, you are fined 120 points and are off the barrel – your score is therefore reduced from 880 to 760 points.

It is not possible to win without first being on the barrel.

Zero Scores

If an opponent of the declarer takes no points at all in tricks, a zero (“bolt”) is marked in the player’s score column. If you score zero on three occasions, not necessarily consecutive, then 120 points are subtracted from your score.

Hands played while you are on the barrel do not count towards your allowance of zero scores, even if you take no tricks.

Distribution

If as talon winner, having seen the talon, you decide that you have little chance of making your contract, you can avoid losing points by declaring a distribution. The cards are not played, but icon of a bolt is entered in your column of the score sheet. Each of the opponents scores half of the contract.

You are not allowed to declare a distribution while you are on the barrel.

Agreements

Restrictions

The restriction agreements are about rules which may affect the basics of the gameplay.

Throw off Barrel

If somebody is on the barrel and another player gets on it, the previous player will be thrown off.

Several Players on Barrel

When two players get on the barrel together, both of them are thrown off: players cannot be on the barrel simultaneously.

Don’t Expose on 100

If the player takes the contract at 100, the talon cards won’t be shown to the other players.

Quiet Drop

The odd cards are dropped without exposing to the other players.

Round Own Points

Points of your own game will be rounded by the nearest 5. For example, if you took the contract at 120 but got just 118 you will still be the winner of the game because 118 will be rounded to 120.

More than 1000 to Win

To win the game, players have to get more than a thousand points (1005 or more).

No Jumping

When declaring, the contract can only go up by 5 points at a time.

900 Points for Barrel

Player needs to get 900 points (instead of 880 by default) to get on the barrel.

Penalty Charges

The penalty agreements are all about special penalty rules; these will generally affect the game scoring.

Skip Declaring

Skip declaring if the player got less than the value specified.

Score Reset on 555

When the player gets exactly 555 points of score, the score will be thrown back to zero.

Score Reset on -555

When the player gets exactly minus 555 points of score, the score will be thrown back to zero.

3 Zero Wins in a Row

If the player doesn’t win for three games in a row, penalty will be charged after the third bolt.

3 Zero Wins in a Game

If the player doesn’t win for three games in the game (not in a row), penalty will be charged after the third bolt.

Zero after 3 Barrels

When the player gets on the barrel for three times, the score will be reset after the third attempt.

Avoid own Bolt

If the talon winner gets a zero score on his game, he won’t get a bolt for that.

Penalty Amount

Set custom penalty amount to value specified.

Reshuffle

Reshuffle on Talon Score

Reshuffle when the talon cards score is less than the value specified.

Reshuffle on Card Score

Reshuffle when the player card score is less than the value specified.

4 Nines after Deal

Player may ask for a reshuffle if there’re four nines on hands after the deal.

2 Nines in Talon

Talon winner may ask for a reshuffle if there’re two nines on in talon after he wins the talon.

4 Nines on Hands

Player may ask for a reshuffle if there’re four nines on hands after the odd cards are dropped.

On 100 Only

Reshuffle is only possible when the talon winner’s contract is 100 points.

Point Distribution

60 Points per Player

When the player decides to distribute, two other players are getting 60 points each (instead of half of the contract).

Don’t Subtract Order

Don’t subtract the contract from the player who is distributing.

Subtract on Third

Subtract each third distribution only (this agreement only makes sense when “Don’t Subtract Order” agreement is active).

Distributions Limit

Each player is only allowed to distribute three times per game.

Distribute on Barrel

The players are allowed to distribute when somebody got onto the barrel.

Distribute When the Golden Round is played

The players are allowed to distribute when the Golden Round is played.

Golden Round

Golden Round is a special game mode which lets the player to get the maximum score from the beginning of the game. Each player takes the talon without declaring. The scores are doubling at the end of the round. Each player has to play a round within the Golden Round. If nobody wins, the round has to be restarted; if anyone makes the contract, the next round will be started normally (without score doubling).

Enable

Enable the Golden Round mode.

Reset to Zero

If nobody wins the Golden Round, the scores and bolts will be reset for all players.

Allow Increase

Let the player increase his points when the Golden Round is played.

Bolt Doubling

When the player gets a zero on Golden round, he also gets two bolts instead of one.

Hidden Round

Hidden round is a special mode which allows getting double points. Only the player who declares first (at 100) is allowed to play the hidden round. When the player declares the hidden round, he takes the talon without seeing his own cards. The player who declares the hidden round has to get at least 120 points or more; the points will be doubled at the end of the round.

Enable

Enable the Hidden Round mode.

Hide Talon

Don’t show talon cards to other players when the hidden round is played.

Disabled on Barrel

Don’t allow the Hidden Round if someone is on the barrel.

Allow Distribute

Allow to distribute when the Hidden Round is played.

Allow Unhide

If any of the players has marriage, he may want to “unhide” the player who has declared the Hidden Round. Normal declaring starts again, with the first contract at 120 points.

No Declaring When Unhidden

When somebody un-hides the player who has declared the Hidden Round, no new declaring is started.

No More than 240

Don’t allow to get more than 240 points when the Hidden Round is played.

Bolt Doubling

Bolts are doubled when the Hidden Round is played.

Trumps

Trumps in First Move

Allow to declare trumps within the first trick.

Declaring without Marriage

Allow to declare more than 120 without actually having any marriage.

Ace Marriage

Ace Marriage is a special marriage of four aces, without trumps. The player immediately gets 200 points when declaring the Ace Marriage. When the “Trumps in First Move” agreement is inactive, the player may only declare the Ace Marriage after the first trick is played.

Don’t Allow Opponent Trumps

If any trump is declared, no one except of the trump owner is allowed to play with trumps.

Should Play with Trumps

If any trump is declared, all players have to play with trumps if any.

Miscellaneous Options

4 Nines Bonus

If any player has four nines on hands after the odd cards are given, he gets the +120 bonus. This bonus doesn’t affect the overall round score, e.g. if player wins a game and doesn’t make the contract, he still won’t win with “4 Nines Bonus” agreement in effect.