How to Play Doppelkopf
How to Play Doppelkopf
Doppelkopf is a lively four-player trick-taking game in which two secret partners try to collect more card points than the other pair. You need a normal deck of cards, and a regular deck of playing cards from Playmore can get you ready to play. This guide uses one common basic partnership version; regional and family house rules can vary.
Quick facts
| Players | 4 |
|---|---|
| Cards | 48 cards: two copies each of 9, 10, jack, queen, king, and ace in every suit |
| Hand size | 12 cards per player |
| Teams | The two players holding the queens of clubs versus the other two |
| Goal | Take at least 121 of the 240 card points |
| Length | 12 tricks per hand |
What you are trying to do
Your team wants to win tricks containing valuable cards. A trick is one card played by each person, and the winner collects those four cards. In the usual game, the players with the two queens of clubs are the Re team. Everyone else forms the Kontra team. Keep your team secret at first: you may not know who your partner is until a queen of clubs appears or the play makes it obvious.
The whole deck is worth 240 card points. Aces are worth 11, tens 10, kings 4, queens 3, jacks 2, and nines 0. Re wins the hand with 121 or more points. Kontra wins with 120 or more, because every point must belong to one side.
What you need
Use two identical 24-card packs, or use two standard 52-card decks and remove every card from 2 through 8; one normal 52-card deck is not enough. You need two copies of each of those cards, for 48 cards total. You will also need paper and a pencil, or a notes app, for recording the result. For a first game, skip advanced bids, solo contracts, and bonus announcements.
Set it up
Choose a dealer and shuffle thoroughly. Deal all 48 cards, one card at a time or in small packets, moving clockwise around the table. Each player receives 12 cards. The dealer for the next hand is the player to the dealer’s left.
Sort your hand by suit, but remember that several cards normally count as trumps. Quietly check for the queens of clubs. If you have one, you are on Re; if you have none, you are on Kontra. Do not announce your team. The two queens of clubs are the only cards that identify the normal partnerships.
How to play
- Learn the trump order. In this basic version, trumps from highest to lowest are the two 10s of hearts, the two queens of clubs, the two queens of spades, the two queens of hearts, the two queens of diamonds, the two jacks of clubs, the two jacks of spades, the two jacks of hearts, the two jacks of diamonds, then the two aces, tens, kings, and nines of diamonds. The two copies of any one card are equal; if both are played, the one played first wins.
- Understand the other suits. Clubs, spades, and hearts are non-trump suits. In each of them, the order is ace, 10, king, 9. A heart 10 is a trump, not an ordinary heart. A trump is treated as its own suit, so a queen of spades is not a spade when players are following suit.
- Lead the first trick. The player to the dealer’s left plays any card. This is called leading. The other three players then play one card each, moving clockwise.
- Follow the led suit. If the lead is a non-trump card, you must play a card of that same suit if you have one. If the lead is a trump, you must play a trump if you have one. If you cannot follow the required suit, you may play any card, including a trump.
- Find the winner. If one or more trumps are played, the highest trump wins. If no trump is played, the highest card in the suit led wins. The winner gathers the trick face down and leads the next one.
- Play all 12 tricks. Continue until everyone has played all their cards. Keep each team’s tricks together, and avoid mixing the two teams’ piles. The cards in your tricks are what you count at the end.
- Reveal the partnerships. Once both queens of clubs have been seen, players know the teams. Before that moment, make sensible plays without assuming that a particular person is your partner. A player may accidentally win a trick for the other team, so watch the cards carefully.
How you win
After the last trick, each team adds the values of the cards it captured. Count aces as 11, tens as 10, kings as 4, queens as 3, jacks as 2, and nines as 0. The team with at least 121 points wins the hand. If Re has 121 or more, Re wins; if Re has 120 or fewer, Kontra wins with the remaining 120 or more. Write down one simple win for the successful team, then deal again. You can play 4, 8, or 12 hands, giving each player the same number of deals, and compare the total wins.
Easy first-game tips
Protect valuable aces and tens when you can, because they provide most of the points. Do not waste a high trump on a trick worth nothing unless you need to take the lead. When a suit is led, check your hand before playing: accidentally failing to follow suit changes the result and is usually a mistake.
Pay attention to which trumps have already appeared. The heart 10s are especially powerful, while diamond nines are weak. If you hold a queen of clubs, try to signal useful information through ordinary play rather than announcing yourself. If you do not know your partner yet, avoid giving away a valuable trick until you have a good reason. Most importantly, say the trump order aloud before the first hand and agree that everyone will help check legal plays.
Quick questions
Can I play with one ordinary 52-card deck?
Not for the standard hand. You need two copies of the six ranks from 9 through ace in all four suits, making 48 cards. Remove the cards from 2 through 8 from two normal decks, then combine the remaining cards.
Do the queens of clubs always make a team?
They make the two partners in the common normal game described here. Some groups use special contracts or different partnership rules, so agree on the version before dealing.