Jass

Game rules

Jass is a typical swiss game. It is quite old and was already played in 18 and 19_th century, allthough the true first written game rules were only published near 1900.

The objective of the game is only to win a maximum of points by judiciousely playing your cards. It is played with 2 teams of 2 players, with a swiss card game containing 36 cards (from 6 to ace), and is organized in rounds of 9 tricks.

Course of the game

Participants make two teams of two players and sit down at the table so that each team plays alternatively. At the beginning of the round, the dealer give 9 cards to each player, in principle three at a time

Before actually playing the cards, the player on the left of the dealer must choose a color (heart, diamond, spades, club) as trump, which will be valable for the round. The designed color will gain special particularities which will make it the most important one, it is therefore important to choose one where you have high cards, or as default, one where you have many cards. IF the player who must choose the trump think he doesn't have a good enough hand to do so, he can pass that privilege to his teammate. IN this case, the teammate has to choose the trump, he isn't allowed to pass again.

Once the trump is chosen, the card play can begin as described below. The player on the left of the dealer always starts the first trick, even if he left his teammate choose the trump.

At the end of the round, points are counted and the player on the left of the dealer become dealer for the next round.

Card play

AT his turn, the player must :

IF there isn't any card on the table, he has to begin a new trick. as such, he can play any card of his choice. This first card will determine the suit.
IF he isn't the first one, then :
- If he owns a card having the same color as the suit (the first card played), then he has to follow, that is being obliged to play that color.
- If he doesn't own a card having the same color as the suit, then he can play any card of his choice.
- If he own trumps, he can play one at any time, even if he had the right color to follow. That action is called cut and permit to take the lead of the trick, possibly having the choice to begin the next one afterwards.
- IF the suit is not trump and if somebody has already cut, it is forbidden to undercut, that is, play a trump having a weakest value as those already on the table. The opposite, overcut, is totally legal and allow to counter against the opposite team.

When everybody has played his card, the player who put the strongest one win the trick. The strongest card is defined by :

If there are trumps, the highest trump card win the trick
Otherwise, if there isn't any trump, the highest card having the suit color win the trick

The team who win the trick get in theory points contained in it immediately. In practice, points are counted at the end of the whole round. In the playroom, points are counted immediately.

Card values

At trump color, order and value of cards are the following :

Jack, 20 points
9, 14 points
Ace, 11 points
King, 4 points
Queen, 3 points
10, 10 points
8, 7 and 6 aren't worth any point

At non-trump colors, order and value of cards are the following :

Ace, 11 points
King, 4 points
Queen, 3 points
Jack, 2 points
10, 10 points. Pay attention to play that card at the right moment, because it is often easy points.
9, 8, 7 and 6 aren't worth any point

Last trick of the round is worth 5 supplementary points. A round always totalize exactly 157 points. A whole jass game is usually played up to 1000, 1500 or 2000 points.

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