Point Tarock

 

 

Another 3 player game, this time with a reputation for being a little more convoluted than the others, though I cannot agree. If this does seem a little complicated at first, please, don’t be put off too quickly. Read the rules through a couple of times and everything will fall into place - you should however be familiar with at least tapp tarock before attempting this one.

 

I have two sources for this. The first is an all too brief booklet published by Piatnik. The second is that by Michael Dummett. I’ve made things easy as possible by selecting from the many variations those that seemed to play best.

 

 

Cards

 

The 54 card Austrian pack consists of 22 trump cards numbered I-XXI and the Fool, which is the highest trump. There are then 8 cards in each of the four suits, using irrational ranking:

 

Swords & Batons / Spades & Clubs

K, Q, C, V, 10, 9, 8 , 7

 

Cups & Coins / Hearts & Diamonds

K, Q, C, V, 1, 2, 3, 4

 

Honours  5 points

Kings   5 points

Queens   4 points

Cavaliers  3 points

Valets   2 points

Other cards  1 point

 

 

 

 

Cards are counted in groups of three, subtracting 2 points for each group. There are 70 points in the pack. A Declarer must win 36 points to win a hand.

 

 

Deal

 

First Dealer is chosen at random, with deal moving to the right after each hand. The first six cards are dealt to the stock, then each player receives four packets of 4 cards.

 

 

Bidding

 

There is a short round of bidding to determine who shall play as Declarer against the other two who will be the defenders. There are five available bids

 

Three Cards   x1

Also Three   x2

Two Cards   x3

One Card  x4

Solo   x8

 

 

 

 

 

The multiplier next to each bid is used to determine the final game score.

 

Three Cards: Declarer exposes the entire stock to all players and chooses either the first three or the second three to take into his/her hand. The remaining cards of the stock will count towards the defender’s tricks at the end. Declarer then discards three cards that may not include either Honours or Kings and will count towards his/her tricks at the end.

 

Also Three: Played exactly the same as Three and may only be called to over-bid a call of Three Cards.

 

Two Cards: The same as Three Cards but Declarer takes either the first two cards of the stock, or the middle two, or the last two. The discard is, of course, two cards.

 

One Card: The same as Three Cards but Declarer takes  only one card from the stock and makes a discard of just one.

 

Solo: The stock goes unseen to one side and counts towards the defenders’ tricks at the end.

 

An elder player who is outbid may call “I hold” and take the higher bid for him/her self. Any player who has passed may not bid again - but they may make a contra. (see below)

 

If all players pass, then a Beggar’s game is played to punish anyone who could have bid at least Three Cards. All play for themselves to avoid winning points but must take a trick if they can. The player who wins the most points is the loser and the other two each score game points equal to the difference between the card points they won and those of the loser.

 

 

Bonuses & Announcements

 

For All: Six bonuses are available to all players. The first four are declarations for having cards in your hand after any discard. The cards do not have to be shown and I would suggest that if someone makes a declaration and is found not to have the cards, then the other two players should score for double the points instead.

 

Honours: If a player has all three Honours. Scores 3

Half Honours: If a player has any two Honours. Scores 2

Kings: If a player has all four Kings. Scores 5

 

Half Kings: If a player has three Kings. Scores 3 (this last one is my own addition - we found it to work well, I leave it up to you if you wish to include it)

 

There are three Ultimos that may be won:

 

Pagat Ulitmo: A player wins the last trick with the Pagat. Scores 5

The Owl: A Player wins the last trick with the II of trumps. Scores 10

The Cockatoo: A Player wins the last trick with the III of trumps. Scores 15

 

If one of these cards is played to the last trick and loses, then it is considered to be a failed attempt and the other two players score for it.

 

 

For Declarer Only: There are seven announcements that may be made by the Declarer only. These announcements may be made either before or after drawing cards from the stock.

 

Announcements before the draw are made as part of a bid and are worth double the points. If the bid with which the announcement was made is outbid, then the announcement is void.

 

 

   Before the Draw  After the Draw

Ultimos:

Pagat     20     10

Owl     40     20

Cockatoo    60     30

 

Conditions to Win:

 

With 40    10     5

With 50    40     20

Without Honours   20     10

Without Kings    20     10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As anything else in this game, if the Declarer fails any announcement, each of the defenders scores the points for it.

 

When announcing an Ultimo, Declarer places the declared trump face up and may not play it to any trick but the last unless forced to do so.

 

With 40: Declarer contracts to win at least 40 card points.

 

With 50: Declarer contracts to win at least 50 card points.

 

Without Honours: Declarer contracts to win the game without having any Honours in his/her hand or discards.

 

Without Kings: Declarer contracts to win the game without having any Kings in his/her hand or discards.

 

If either of the last two announcements are made before the draw, then the relevant cards cannot be taken from the stock. However, if the conditions of the draw force a relevant card to be taken (for example, if Three Cards is bid and Without Kings announced but each of the two groups in the stock contains a King), the Declarer has lost both the announcement and the hand!

 

If With 40 is announced before the draw, it is legal for Declarer to announce With 50 after the draw as well and both announcements may score.

 

 

Play

 

Declarer leads to the first trick with play moving to the right, each player in turn must follow suit or, if they cannot, they must play a trump. If they can neither follow suit or trump, then they may play any card - though it cannot win. The highest card of the led suit wins the trick unless a trump was played, then it is the highest trump that wins.

 

 

Contras

 

If you wish to allow them, these can raise the score considerably - so be wary if you are playing for money! During the bidding round, a player may call “contra” to any bid or announcement that is made. The bidder may, in turn “re-contra” and any other player may call “sub-contra”. Each contra will multiply the points for an announcement or bid (being the Basic Score + Over Score) by 4. Also, any contra but the bidder’s “re-contra” is considered a pass.

 

Contras may also be made (following the same scheme - with Declarer only able to “re-contra”) after the draw to either the bid or any announcement made. However, a contra made at this stage will multiply the score by 2.

 

 

Scoring

 

In this game, players only make positive scores. So, if Declarer wins an announcement, he/she scores points for it - but the other players do not deduct anything from their own score. At the end of a game, each player settles up with each of the other players according to the difference in the game points they have won. Obviously, this scheme was created for gambling.

 

For each hand, players receive a ‘Raw Score’ which is then multiplied according to Declarer’s bid. This Raw Score is itself made up of:

 

Basic Score = 2 + the number of bids made during the bidding round. This is scored by Declarer if the bid is won and scored by the defenders if lost. A call of “I hold” is not counted as a bid.

 

Over Score = the number of card points won by Declarer over or above 35. Scored by Declarer if the bid is won or scored by the defenders if lost.

 

Bonuses: There are six bonuses available to all players discussed above.

 

Announcements: There are seven feats that Declarer can contract to achieve by announcing them with his/her bid or after any discard.

 

Bids and announcements may be subject to contras, increasing their score significantly.

 

The game points won for a hand = the total Raw Score (after any contras have been applied) x the multiplier for the bid made.

 

For most of the games you will have played, a ‘game’ will require that each player has been Dealer an equal number of times. Here, a game ends when one or more players scores over 100 points. Any player(s) who has made 100 is awarded a bonus of 10 points and everyone settles up. If play continues then scoring is begun from scratch.