The Most Popular Trick Taking Card Games
There are literally hundreds of different variations of card games known today. One popular form of card games is trick taking card games. A trick is the collection of cards resulting from each player playing one card from their hand during one round of game play. Trump, Hi-Low Jack (or Nine-Fives) and Hearts are probably the most common trick taking card games in America. All four games are similar but have some distinct differences and they all have variations to add to the fun you can have while playing.
Trump (Spades)
Trump, also known as spades to some, is a trick taking card game that involves two teams of two players. Each player is dealt 13 cards and counts up tricks they believe they can capture with the hand given them. Both team members add their estimates together to come up with a final bid. Play begins with the person to the right of the dealer and does not need to start with the trump suit, which is spades.
Players must follow suit of whichever card is led with the highest card taking the trick. Variations include the use of sandbags which are tricks taken over the team’s bid, once ten are accumulated the team is penalized one hundred points and Blinding which allows a team that is more than a hundred points behind to bid blind before looking at their hands. If they manage to capture the number of tricks they bid while blind, the team receives double the number of points usually awarded.
Hi-Low Jack (Nine-Fives)
Hi-Low Jack is a trick taking card game that focuses on obtaining certain point cards instead of just any trick. Low (2), High (A), and Jack are all worth one point as well as one point given for game. Game is determined by counting all the points taken with 10 being the highest point card worth ten full points. Aces are worth four points, Kings, three and Queens, two. Number cards aside from the ten aren’t counted at all.
Players must bid on how many points they believe they can capture through tricks during the card game, with two being the minimum bid and four being the maximum. The highest bidder chooses trump and begins play by leading in trump. Some players find the biding system restrictive and opt instead to play the Nine-five variation, which places a point value of nine on the 9 card and five on the 5 card of trump. This gives bidders more chances for points and a higher bidding system. Play is pretty much the same as regular Hi-Low Jack otherwise.
Hearts
Hearts is a different theme of trick taking card games, where the objective is to not take tricks during card game play. Players try to avoid taking any points since the person with the fewest points when one player hits 100 points wins. All hearts are worth a point with the Queen of Spades worth either 12 or 13 points depending on house rules. Hearts are considered the trump suit but instead of taking the tricks, they are thrown on tricks to force points onto other people. Hearts can only be played if the player does not have the suit led with and cannot in fact be the leading suit unless hearts have already been broken (played on another hand). One variation of the game allows players to try to capture all of the points and is called Shooting the Moon. Whenever a player shoots the moon, all other players get 25 points tacked onto their score.
