Trick-taking card games

Bid how many tricks you'll take, then take exactly that many. The hands go down from seven cards to one and back up, and the turned-up card sets trumps each round.

Also as Nomination Whist

France's favourite card game, with a 32-card deck in which the jack and nine of trumps are the top cards. Take the trump, announce your sequences and say belote and rebelote.

Belote's bidding cousin: instead of taking the turned-up card, players bid how many points their side will make, from 80 to capot, and name trumps. The other side can coinche (double) and the bidders surcoinche (redouble).

The Netherlands' favourite card game, a cousin of Belote: choose any suit as trumps, then score more than half the points or go nat. Roem rewards runs, stuk and four of a kind in a single trick.

Germany's national card game: one player bids to play alone against the other two, takes the skat and chooses a suit, Grand or Null. The four jacks are always the highest trumps.

Played with two of every card from nine to ace. The two holders of the queen of clubs are secret partners (Re) against the other two (Kontra); the ten of hearts is the highest trump. Hochzeit, solos and announcements up to schwarz.

Whist with an auction: bid from seven to thirteen tricks with a trump suit or no trumps, and the side with the highest bid has to make it. Everyone plays their own cards, so it is a friendly first step towards Bridge.

Nepal's favourite card game, also big in India: spades are always trumps, everyone calls a number of tricks, and you must play to win every trick you can. Make your call for its points; fall short and you lose them.

The Portuguese partnership game: a 40-card deck where the seven ranks just under the ace, trumps from the dealer's last card, and no duty to trump. Take more than 60 of the 120 card points to score a game, two for capote, four for bandeira.

The Persian partnership game with 52 cards: the Hakem names trumps from their first five cards, there's no duty to trump, and the hand stops the moment a team has seven tricks. 1 point a hand, 2 for a kot, 3 for a kot against the Hakem; first to 7.

Also as حکم

The Levantine auction game with 52 cards: bid 7 to 13 tricks, the highest bidder names trumps and leads, and there's no duty to trump. Make the bid and score your tricks; fail and lose it while the defenders score theirs. Kaboot, all 13, is 16. In Tarneeb 41 hearts are trumps and each player bids alone.

Also as Tarneeb 41 · طرنيب