Rook
Rook is a five (5) person trick taking card game with trump.
What you need
Use a standard Poker deck with one Joker, for 53 cards total.
Winning
To win, be the first person to reach 500 points. If two (or more) people cross the 500 mark after the
same hand, the highest score wins. If two (or more) people have the same score, they tie.
You do not have to win the bid to go out.
Deal
Deal all the cards out - 10 to each player, and 3 face down into a kitty. Deal passes to the left.
Bid
The person to the left of the dealer starts bidding. The minimum bid opens at 75, the maximum is
200 (referred to as "shooting the moon"), and the bidding increments by 5. Once a person passes,
they may not rejoin the bidding. Bidding continues until all but one person has passed.
There is a special bid of "shoot the sun", where you and your partner must also take all of the tricks,
as well as all of the point cards.
Whoever wins the bid picks up the kitty. They name a trump suit and call any card that is not in their
hand or the kitty to be the "partner card". Then they discard three cards off to the side. These cards
are out of play, but if there are any point cards, the points go to whoever takes the last trick in the
hand.
Naming Trump
There are six different trump calls:
•Normal
Hearts, diamonds, clubs, or spades is named trump. The winning bidder then decides if
the rook card will be “high” (above the ace) or “low” (below the 2) of trumps.
•No Trump
No suit is more powerful than any other. There is one trump card, the rook, which beats
anything. The highest card in the led suit takes the trick. The rook can only be played if the
player does not have any cards of the suit led.
Calling the Partner Card
Whoever wins the bid calls a "partner card" while they are naming trump, before play starts. They
can name any card in the deck as the "partner card", except cards that are in their hand or the kitty.
Most likely they will choose a card they need, like a high trump card or an ace. The partner should
not reveal in any way who they are until the card is revealed during play.
Whoever has the "partner card" shares their trick points with the person who won the bid, and the
three players who are left become partners, and share their points with each other.
Play
To start, whoever won the bid may choose to lead, or he may choose the person on his left to lead.
No other player may lead.
Play continues until all 10 tricks have been taken. For play details, see the Princeton rules - they're
basically the same for this part.
Trump does not need to be "broken", and it does not have to be played if you cannot follow suit, nor
do you have to beat the highest card on the table if you do not wish to. However, if at all possible,
you must follow the led suit. You cannot trump a trick if you have any cards in the led suit. If trump
is led and you do not have any trump but you have the rook, you have to play the rook (it counts as
a trump card).
Scoring
There are five cards that are worth points:
•Rook = 20 Points
•Ace (A) = 15 Points
•King (K) = 10 Points
•10 = 10 Points
•5 = 5 Points
The winner of the last trick also scores 20 points, making the total available points 200.
The person who won the bid and his partner add their points together, and the three other people
(the "defense") add their points together. Whoever took the last trick also wins any points that were
in the kitty to their score.
