How to play

The basics

Court Piece (Rung) is played by four players in two teams of two. Partners sit opposite each other, and play goes anticlockwise.

  • Everyone is dealt 13 cards.
  • You must follow suit if you can. If you cannot, you may play any card.
  • The highest trump wins the trick; otherwise the highest card of the suit led. Whoever wins a trick leads the next one.
  • A team needs seven hands to win the round.

Picking up hands

Tricks pile up in the middle of the table. To pick up the pile, the same player must win two tricks in a row; a partner's win does not count. Whoever wins the last trick of the round takes what is left.

The person who creates the table chooses the pile size:

  • 3-2-2: the first pile needs at least 3 tricks in it, later piles at least 2.
  • 5-3-3: the first pile needs at least 5 tricks, later piles at least 3.

The sizes are only the least a pile must hold. In 3-2-2, winning the second and third tricks picks up all three.

The four games

Choose a game to read how it is played.

Ace Rule

  • The caller sees their first five cards and chooses the trump suit. The rest of the cards are then dealt, and the caller leads.
  • You cannot pick up with an ace on an ace: when your trick before was also won with an ace, the pile stays where it is.
  • That trick still counts as one of your two wins in a row, so you pick up on your next win in a row with any other card.
  • The last trick of the round is the exception: its winner always takes what is left.

Double Sar

  • The caller sees their first five cards and chooses the trump suit. The rest of the cards are then dealt, and the caller leads.
  • The normal game, with nothing added: win two tricks in a row to pick up the pile, once it is big enough.

Hidden

  • The caller sees their first five cards and places one of them face down. Its suit is the trump, and nobody else is told the suit. The rest of the cards are then dealt, and the caller leads.
  • Until the trump is shown, the suit has no trump power and no pile can be picked up.
  • Any player who cannot follow suit can ask to see the trump before playing. Whoever asks must then play a trump if they have one.
  • The caller can show the trump before leading, when they won the trick before. Not on the very first lead of the round.
  • Until the trump is shown, a card the caller throws away when they cannot follow suit is played face down: nobody sees it, and it cannot win the trick.
  • Once the trump is shown, two fresh wins in a row are needed to pick up. The trick being played counts as the first.

Rung Kaat

  • Nobody calls a trump. Everyone is dealt all 13 cards at once, and play starts with no trump.
  • The first player who cannot follow suit throws a card of another suit. That suit is the trump from that moment, for the rest of the round.
  • That card takes the trick, unless a later player in the same trick beats it with a higher trump.
  • A card of another suit thrown after that is only thrown away: the trump does not change.
  • No pile can be picked up before there is a trump. After that it takes the usual two wins in a row and the pile sizes, even when the trump is made on the very first trick.
  • The player who made the trump is the caller of the round and wears the crown.
  • If your time runs out when it is you who must make the trump, the lowest card of the suit you hold most of is thrown.

Ace cannot win the pile

An option the person who creates the table can switch on with any of the four games.

  • A trick won with an ace never picks up the pile, whatever won the trick before.
  • The trick is still won, and still counts as one of your two wins in a row. Win with the ace of clubs, the ace of spades and then the king of clubs, and the king picks up all three.
  • The last trick of the round is the exception: its winner always takes what is left.

Who calls next

  • The caller's team wins the round: the same player calls again.
  • The caller's team takes all 13 hands: the caller's partner calls.
  • The caller's team loses: the call passes to the next player.

In Rung Kaat nobody calls, so this decides who leads the first trick.

Points

A round ends as soon as one team has seven hands and the other team has picked up at least one. While the other team has picked up nothing, play goes on, for all 13.

  • 1 point for a normal win.
  • 2 points for a Court: all 13 hands on your own trump.
  • 3 points for a Goon Court: all 13 hands on the other team's trump.
  • A table can also switch on a 4-point win: all 13 hands, taking the last trick with a card chosen when the table is created.
  • With that, it can switch on a 6-point win: as for 4 points, and your partner's last card is the same card in another suit, which nothing left could beat.

The first team to reach the winning points set for the table, from 10 to 100, wins it.

Coins

Every table has a bet, from 25 to 1,000 coins. After every round each player on the losing team pays the bet and each player on the winning team is paid it; double when the round is won with all 13 hands. To sit down, a player needs double the bet.

At the table

  • Share the 6-digit code or the invite link with your friends.
  • The first player to join sits opposite whoever created the table, as their partner; the next two are the opponents. The table host can pick another partner if both opponents agree.
  • The game starts by itself five seconds after the fourth seat is taken. The table host can start it sooner, and bots then take the empty seats.
  • Seats nobody has taken are played by bots.
  • Each turn is timed, from 5 to 30 seconds as the table host chooses. If your time runs out a card is played for you; after five in a row a bot takes over until you return.