Thousand Card Game

The goal of the Thousand Card Game
The goal of the game is to win tricks containing valuable cards in order to get 1000 scores.

The Deal
The first dealer is chosen at random and the turn to deal passes to the left after each hand. The cards are dealt one at a time: seven cards to each of the three active players and three cards face down to the center of the table. These three cards are known as the Talon; cards are dealt to the talon one at a time during the first three rounds of the deal, usually between the second and third card of each round.

The Play
There are just six cards in each of the suits Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs and Spades and their ranking from high to low and their point values are as follows:

There are therefore 120 card points in the pack altogether, and a player who holds both the king and the queen of a suit (a pair or marriage) can obtain additional points by declaring them as follows:

The bids start with 100 and then can be increased by 5 (possible bids – 100, 105, 110, 115, 120, 125, etc.).

The player to the dealer's left bids first and must bid at least 100. The bidding continues clockwise and each player must either bid higher than the previous bid or pass. A player who has passed cannot bid again.

The bidding continues for as many rounds as necessary until two players have passed. The final bidder becomes the declarer.

Bids over 120 can only be declared if the player has one of the marriages, because it is not possible to take over 120 points without declaring the marriage.

After bidding the declarer takes the three talon cards showing them to other players. Then the player gives away two unwanted cards face down to his or her opponents so that every player has 8 cards. Now the player declares his final bid, which cannot be lower than that declared at first bidding in the Thousand Card Game.

At this moment if any player notices that he or she has four 9s, they can demand for re-deal.

The declarer leads to the first trick, and the winner of each trick leads to the next.

Players should throw cards of the same suit, if they have them. If they don't, they should throw a trump if there is any.

Initially there are no trump cards, but if the player declares marriage, the suit of the marriage becomes a trump until another player declares another marriage. A trick is won by the highest trump played to it, or, if it contains no trump, by the highest card of the suit led.

NOTE: 10s are higher than Kings, Queens and Jacks.

Announcement of the marriage.
The player can announce the marriage only after he or she has won a trick. To announce the marriage the player should lead with King or Queen of the pair. (If you want to announce the marriage you should keep both cards in hand).

The scores in the Thousand Card Game
Each player counts their scores after the round. The scores of the cards and marriages announced are given above.

The scoring starts with zero and is summed up at each round.The declarer. If the declarer gets as much as the bid or more, he or she adds the number of the bid. But if the player gets less than he or she declared, they subtract from their total sum. For example: the declared bid stopped at 130, but he won 150 points. Only 130 will be added to the total sum. If he gets 120 points, hi should subtract 130 from the total sum.

Other players count the points in their tricks and include the marriages they probably have announced. The result should be rounded out to the nearest 5 and added to the total sum.

The peculiarities
*When the player comes to 880 scores he or she may not gain less than 120 points. This situation is called the Barrel. If the player is on the Barrel, he or she has only three rounds to gain 120 points and win, otherwise they will lose 120 point and the total score is reduced to 760. There are 3 possibilities:

1. If you are the declarer and bid at least 120 points and gain them, you win the game.

2. If you are the declarer and fail to make your bid, then the amount of your bid is subtracted from your score as usual and you are no longer on the barrel.

3. If you are not the declarer, then any points that you make do not count for you - even if you take 120 or more you do not win. If this is your first or second hand on the barrel, then your cumulative score stays at 880 and you are still on the barrel. But if this is your third consecutive hand on the barrel, you are fined 120 points and are off the barrel - your score is therefore reduced from 880 to 760 points.

* If the players gain zero points three times (not necessarily consequently), they lose 120 points on the third occasion. Another three zero's lead to points subtraction as well. Rounds played while you are on the barrel do not count towards your allowance of zero scores, even if you take no tricks.

* If the player comes to 555 score, he or she reduces their total sum to zero.

* Another peculiarity is the possibility to Reset the round. If the declarer after seeing the talon understands that he or she cannot fulfill the bid, they can reset the deal. This can be done only twice without subtraction of the scores. The third reset will cost player 120 points. Reset cannot be declared if the player in on the Barrel.

The example of the score table in the Thousand Card Game

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