Welcome to Auction Forty-Five!

Have you ever played Auction Forty-Five? It’s a really cool card game where you try to win tricks and score points. The main objective is to have the most points at the end of the game. You can play with either 4 or 6 players, and you’ll be in a partnership with either 1 or 2 other players, depending on the number of players.

Let’s Get Started

First things first, we need to set up the game. To do that, we shuffle the deck of cards and deal them out. Each player will get 5 cards, which are dealt in two separate groups – three cards first, and then two cards. Once everyone has their cards, the remaining cards are placed in the middle of the table. The top card from the deck is then turned over to determine the trump suit for the game.

Once the trump card is revealed, I get to decide if I want to grab that card and swap it for one in my hand. If I do, I make the exchange. But if I don’t, I have to let everyone know that I have the Ace of the trump suit. Otherwise, the Ace becomes the lowest-ranking trump card in the game.

If the revealed card happens to be an Ace, the dealer can decide to swap it for another card after the first trick is won. Otherwise, they can choose not to make the exchange.

Card Rankings

The ranking of cards depends on whether they are trumps or not. The Ace of hearts is always the third-highest ranked trump card, no matter the suit.

Here are the rankings for trump suits:

When it comes to playing cards, each suit has its own hierarchy. Let me explain the rankings for each suit.

Let’s start with spades and clubs. In these suits, the highest cards are the 5, Jack, Ace of Hearts, Ace, King, and Queen. The lowest cards are the 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.

For hearts, the rankings are similar. The highest cards are the 5, Jack, Ace, King, and Queen. Then we have the 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 4, 3, and 2.

And finally, we have diamonds. The highest cards in diamonds are the 5, Jack, Ace of Hearts, Ace, King, and Queen. The lower cards are the 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 4, 3, and 2.

However, when the suits are not trumps, their rankings change.

For spades and clubs, the new rankings are King, Queen, Jack, Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.

For diamonds, the new ranking is King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and Ace.

And for hearts, the new ranking is King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2.

Now, let’s talk about gameplay.

Hey there! Let me explain how this game works. When we start, I’ll be sitting on the dealer’s left. Now, I have the freedom to lead with any card from my hand. And here’s the thing: everyone else after me must follow suit if they can, or they can play a trump card. If they can’t do either of those, they can play any card. Simple enough, right?

But wait, there’s a special rule. If the person leading the trick plays a trump card that happens to be lower in rank than the ace of hearts, the other players don’t necessarily have to follow suit. In fact, they can play specific cards: the 5 of trump, the jack of trump, or the ace of hearts.

Alright, now let’s talk about winning tricks. A trick is won by playing the highest-ranking trump card. If no trump cards are played, then the highest-ranking card of the suit led takes the trick. Nice and straightforward, right? The player who wins the trick gets to lead the next one. This keeps going until all the tricks have been played.

And now let’s talk about scoring. This is where things can get interesting, depending on the rules you want to follow.

So, there are a few different ways to score in this game. It all depends on the rules you choose to play by. How exciting is that?!

So, here’s how you can score in the game of tricks:

The first way is simply by reaching a certain number of tricks won. If your team wins three to four tricks, you earn five points. And if you manage to win all five tricks, you get a whopping ten points!

But there’s another way to score too. In this method, each trick is worth five points. And the team that won fewer tricks subtracts their score from the winners. So, if you win all five tricks, you can score 25 points. If you win four tricks, you get 15 points. And if you win three tricks, you still get 5 points.

The target score in this game is usually 45 points. And the game ends when one team reaches or exceeds this score. At the end, the team with the highest score is declared the winner!