How to Play Five Hundred
How to Play Five Hundred
Five Hundred is a lively partnership trick-taking game for four players. You need a normal deck of cards to make the special Five Hundred pack, plus paper or a notes app for the score. For an easy place to start, find a regular deck of playing cards from Playmore. This guide uses one common American version; regional and family house rules can vary.
Quick facts
| Players | 4, in two partnerships |
|---|---|
| Deck | 45 cards: cards 4 through ace in all four suits, plus one joker |
| Goal | Be the first partnership to reach 500 points |
| Hand length | 10 tricks |
| Main skills | Bidding, remembering cards, and working with your partner |
What you are trying to do
In Five Hundred, a trick is one round in which every player plays one card. Before the tricks begin, players bid: they predict how many tricks their partnership can win and name the suit that will be trump, meaning that suit beats cards from the other suits. The highest bidder becomes the declarer, or the player responsible for the contract. The declarer and partner try to take at least the number of tricks promised. The other partnership tries to stop them and earns points for its own tricks.
What you need
Start with a 52-card deck. Remove every 2 and 3, keep all four 4s, and add one joker, making 45 cards. You also need four players, two teams, and a way to record positive and negative scores. Partners sit opposite each other, not beside each other.
Set it up
Choose a first dealer. Deal clockwise in this pattern: three cards to each player, two cards face down to the center, two cards to each player, two cards to the center, three cards to each player, and two cards to each player. Each player now has 10 cards, and the center packet, called the kitty, has five.
The player to the dealer's left starts the bidding. After the hand, the deal moves one seat clockwise. Dealings and bidding always move clockwise around the table.
How to play
- Bid or pass. A bid names a number from six to ten and a suit, such as “seven hearts.” A higher number always beats a lower number. At the same number, spades is lowest, then clubs, diamonds, hearts, and no-trump is highest. In this version, the first two bidders may also make a six-level “inkle” bid, such as “inkle clubs”; later players must begin at seven. An inkle is a real bid and can be raised, but it cannot win by itself. If everyone passes, redeal and move the deal.
- Finish the auction. Players continue for three rounds, raising the current bid or passing. The last and highest bidder wins the auction. That partnership's bid is its contract, the target number of tricks for both partners together.
- Use the kitty. The declarer takes all five kitty cards, looks at them, and then discards five cards face down. The declarer still has 10 cards for play. The discarded cards are out of the hand and are not shown to anyone.
- Learn the trump order. If a suit is trump, the joker is highest, followed by the jack of trump, called the right bower. Next comes the jack of the same color as trump, called the left bower; it counts as trump, not as its printed suit. After those cards, trump ranks ace, king, queen, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, and 4. In the other suits, cards rank normally with ace high, except that the left bower has moved into trump. In a no-trump contract, there is no trump suit and the joker stands alone as the top card.
- Lead the first trick. The declarer leads any card. Everyone else plays clockwise. The player who wins the trick leads the next one.
- Follow suit. If the first card is a heart, for example, you must play a heart if you have one. If you do not, you may play any card, including a trump. The highest trump played wins; if no trump appears, the highest card of the suit led wins. Remember that the left bower is trump, so it does not count as a card of its printed suit.
- Keep the tricks visible. Put each won trick in a neat pile in front of the winning partnership, turning the next trick at a right angle so the count is easy to check. Play all 10 tricks, even if it already seems clear whether the contract will succeed.
How you win
After all 10 tricks, count the declarer's partnership tricks. If it made at least its contract, add the contract's value to its score. If it fell short, subtract that value instead. Extra tricks do not add a bonus in this version.
The bid values are easy to use: at six tricks, the suits are worth 40, 60, 80, 100, and 120 points from spades through no-trump. At seven tricks, they are 140 through 220 in the same five-suit order. At eight, nine, and ten tricks, the values are 240–320, 340–420, and 440–520. The defenders score 10 points for every trick they won, whether or not the declarer's contract succeeded. In a hand where everyone passes, there is no contract and each partnership scores 10 points per trick it takes.
Continue dealing hands until one partnership reaches or passes 500 by successfully making a contract. A score of 500 reached only through defensive or no-contract points does not end the game immediately. In this version, a partnership that reaches -500 loses at once.
Easy first-game tips
When deciding whether to bid, count your likely winners rather than simply counting cards in one suit. The joker and the two bowers are especially powerful, but remember that the left bower is only trump after a trump suit has been named. A strong side-suit ace can also become a winner once opponents run out of that suit.
Bid carefully because a failed contract costs the full bid value. As declarer, look at the kitty for cards that improve your plan, then discard cards from a weak suit or cards that are unlikely to win. As a defender, watch which suits your opponents cannot follow. You can then lead that suit and make them spend trump, or save your own high cards for the right moment. Most importantly, do not announce your hand through secret signals; use only the information that ordinary legal bids and plays reveal.
Quick questions
Can I play a card from another suit when I have the led suit?
No. You must follow the suit that was led whenever you can. You may play another suit only when you have none of the led suit.
What happens if the declarer misses the bid?
The declarer's partnership subtracts the bid's point value from its score, while the defenders still receive 10 points for each trick they took.