HORSESHOES

A trick taking card game designed to emphasize precision bidding

Deck

In a four-player game, use a standard 52 card deck. In a three-player game, remove the face cards to leave the ace through ten of each suit (40 cards).

Deal

Deal thirteen cards to each player. In the three-player game, there will be a left-over card. The dealer can either turn this card face-up for all to see or leave it face down so that no player knows what it is.

Bid

The player to the left of the dealer bids first and also declares the trump suit or no-trump. The other players bid in clockwise order. You may not pass. Bids of zero are allowed. The dealer, who bids last, is under no obligation to make the total bids total thirteen.

Play

The player to left of the first bidder (two seats to the left of the dealer) leads the first trick. You must follow suit, if possible. If you cannot follow suit, you may play any card.

The trick is won by the highest trump card played. If no one played trumps or the game is no-trump, the trick is won by the high card of the lead suit. The player who wins the trick leads the next trick.

Aces may be high or low. When you play an ace to a trick, you declare whether it is high or low; if the ace is not trump and does not follow suit, this is not really necessary.

Option for Breaking Trump: The trump suit cannot be lead until a trump card has been played to a trick, unless the player with the lead has nothing but trump.

Scoring

The player to the dealer's left begins scoring after the last trick is played. Each player scores their hand clockwise around the table.

The goal is finish the game with the fewest number of points.

If you win exactly the number of tricks you bid, you earn no points. But if everyone wins the correct number of tricks, everyone takes three points.

If you do not win exactly the tricks you bid, you take one point for every trick by which you missed your bid.

Examples:

If you bid five but win only three tricks, you get two points.
If you bid zero but win three tricks, you earn three points.

The game continues with the deal passing to the left until one player accumulates a score of thirteen or more points at the end of scoring. At this point, the game is over and the player with the fewest points wins. If everyone is tied, play another hand to determine the winner. Of course, you can vary the length of the game by changing the number of points per game.

Partnerships

With four players, you may wish to play in two teams of two players. Teammates sit across from each other. The deal and bidding is unchanged. Teammates add their bids together and try to take a combined number of tricks equal to the bid. For example, if you bid five and your partner bids zero, you have to take five tricks between you. Unlike the game of Spades, the player who bid nil can take tricks without added penalty—only the total tricks among teammates matters.