Call Deuces
Contributed by Simon Haddad (simon@iwon.com), and previously published on his website as "New Card Games for the College Student".
- Players
- Four or five.
- Cards
- A standard pack of 52, with two Jokers added in for the four-player version. The cards rank:
- Non-trump: Ace (highest) to the 2 (lowest).
- Trump; Four-player: Big Joker (highest), Little Joker (2nd), Ace(3rd), down to the 2.
- Trump; Five-player: Ace (highest) to the 2 (lowest).
- The Deal
- The entire pack is dealt, with the exception of two cards. These two are referred to as the buried or kitty. The kitty remains hidden (face-down) until after the bid.
- The Bid
- Bidding proceeds clockwise from the dealer's left. Bidding range is 15-33 for four players and 10-30 for five players. The bid represents the minimum score needed to make game. Highest bidder picks up the kitty, calls the trump suit, and exchanges the kitty for two cards of his own.
- The Play
- The bidder then leads, with the play proceeding clockwise. All players must follow the suit led. If a player can not follow suit, he may either discard or trump, neither required. A trick is won by the highest trump played or the highest card of the suit led (in that order). The winner of each trick leads the next one, and so on until completion of the hand. The trump suit need not be broken (nothing needs to be trumped) in order for anyone to lead trump.
- The Gimmick
- The bidder's partner (for that particular hand) is the one with the 2 (or Deuce) of the trump suit. Their respective scores will rise and fall together that hand. If the bidder does not have a partner, (either the deuce is in his hand or buried in the kitty) then he is "going solo" or "shooting the moon". This has the benefit of doubling the point value for his hand, provided enough points were made to cover his bid, of course.
- Scoring
- You get 1 point for each trick taken and 5 points for every 5 (5 of hearts, 5 of diamonds, etc.) taken in a trick. At the end of the hand, any fives discarded to the kitty are added to the bidder's (and therefore his/her partner's) score.
- The bidder and partner (if any) go down in points if they miss their bid. If the bidder is "going solo" the loss is not doubled.
- The first player to 150 in a four-player game, or 100 in a five-player game wins.