4 players, 2 teams — You & North vs East & West.
Play with a 32-card deck (7 through Ace in each suit).
First team to reach the target score wins.
Each hand has four phases: Deal & Bid, Declare, Play Tricks, Score.
Each player gets dealt 6 cards (3 then 3), then 2 side cards face-down. The dealer flips one side card face-up — its suit is the proposed trump.
Starting left of the dealer, each player may either Accept the proposed suit or Pass.
Whoever accepts becomes the trump caller.
If all four pass, a second round of bidding begins where players may call any suit except the one initially proposed.
The dealer must call if everyone passes again — this is called being "On The Bima."
Once trump is decided, everyone picks up their side cards — bringing each hand to 8 cards.
In trumps, the Jack (called the "Yas") is the highest card, worth 20pts. The 9 (called the "Menel") is the second-highest, worth 14pts. In plain suits these two cards are weak.
The remaining cards have the same value in both trumps and plain: A = 11pts, 10 = 10pts, K = 4pts, Q = 3pts. In plain suits J = 2pts. The 7 and 8 (and 9 in plain) are worth 0pts.
70 ‹ 80 ‹ Q3 ‹ K4 ‹ 1010 ‹ A11 ‹ 914 ‹ J20
70 ‹ 80 ‹ 90 ‹ J2 ‹ Q3 ‹ K4 ‹ 1010 ‹ A11
The player left of the dealer leads the first trick, and play continues to the left.
You must follow suit if you can. The highest card of the leading suit wins — unless it is trumped.
If you can't follow suit, you must play a trump.
Even if your partner is winning the trick, you must play a trump if you do not have the leading suit.
If you can't do either, you can play any remaining suit.
Before the first trick starts, players have their only opportunity to declare any scoring combinations of cards they might be holding.
There are two types of scoring combinations:
Sequences — consecutive cards in one suit can score points. Using plain rank order (7-8-9-10-J-Q-K-A), three cards in a row = 20pts and four in a row = 50pts. Across all four players, only the best single sequence (the highest ranking) is counted in scoring — everything outranked is not counted. If the winner has additional sequences, they score those too.
Tiebreakers — a 50 always beats a 20. Between equal sequences, the higher top card wins. If still tied, the sequence in the trump suit wins. If neither is in trumps, the player closest to the dealer's left (forehand) wins.
Bella — holding both the Q and K of trumps = 20pts. Bella is declared only when the first of the pair is played during the hand.
If you forget to declare, you forfeit the points.
Winning the last trick of the hand is called Shtoch = 10pts.
The special cards: the Yas (J of trump) and the Menel (9 of trump) = 20 and 14pts respectively.
Each team gets points from all of the following that they have won in tricks or declarations:
Plain cards + Yas + Menel + Shtoch + any sequences + Bella
If the trump caller's team scores more than the opponents, both teams keep their points.
If the trump caller's team scores equal or fewer points, they forfeit all of their points to their opponents.
In every hand, every card is dealt — meaning every powerful card is distributed to someone.
Protect your Yas & Menel — they're worth 34pts combined.
Leading with the Yas can flush out opponents' (and teammate's) trumps.
Don't call trump lightly — you need to outscore the opponents or your team gets nothing. Having the Yas + Menel + several other trumps + strong plain suits or a declaration is a strong hand for calling that suit. More mixed hands require weighing how powerful your trump cards would be with how powerful your plain suits are, against what you are gambling the other players do and do not have.
Plan for Shtoch (the last trick) — it is worth 10 points.
Declare your sequences and Bella! Otherwise you miss out on big points.