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The 52 Qard Game Series · Season 3

500 · Five Hundred

Bid from six spades to ten no trumps; the joker is the top card.

Home AustraliaSeats 4, in partnershipsFamily Trick-taking tablesStatus At the table
W.F.A. deck43cards in play
Five Hundred on the W.F.A. deck, on black velvet under a brass lamp
500 · Australia

How to deal

Partners sit across the table. Deal ten cards each in bundles of three, four and three, and put three cards face down in the middle as the kitty.

How to play

Each player bids a number of tricks from six to ten and a trump suit, or no trumps; higher numbers beat lower, and within a number the suits rank spades, clubs, diamonds, hearts, no trumps. The winner takes the kitty, discards three, and leads. The joker is the top trump; in the trump suit the Jack is next, then the Jack of the same colour. Follow suit if you can; otherwise play anything.

How you win

A made contract scores by a table: six spades is forty, rising to ten no trumps at five hundred and twenty. A failed contract loses that amount, and the defenders score ten for each trick they take. First partnership to five hundred wins; a partnership at minus five hundred has lost.

W.F.A. deck setup for 500

Play without the four 1s, strip every 2 and 3 and the black 4s, then add one 1 back as the joker: 43 cards for the four-handed game.

Sixty seconds at the table

Five Hundred on the W.F.A. deck, on black velvet under a brass lampVideo · coming with the table500

The 52 Qard Game Series

Sit down at this table

500 is played in The Qard Game Room, free, on the W.F.A. deck.

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Free play. No wagering. Traditional games belong to everyone; the table is ours.