Welcome to Back Alley!

Hey there! I want to introduce you to a super cool card game called Back Alley. It’s a game where you work in pairs and try to guess how many tricks you can win. And guess what? The more tricks you win, the more points you get. Let’s get started!

Getting Set Up

Before we begin, let’s make sure we’re all set up. You’ll need a standard deck of 52 cards, plus two special cards called jokers. Make sure the jokers look different from the rest of the cards. Mix them all up by shuffling the deck. Oh, and don’t forget to choose someone to be the dealer. The dealer will change with each new round, going clockwise. Cool, we’re almost ready to play!

Now let’s talk about the rounds. We’re going to play a total of 25 rounds. In the first round, each player will start with a hand of 13 cards. Exciting, right? But here’s the twist: with each round, your hand size will decrease by one. So, for the second round, you’ll have 12 cards, and it keeps going down until you have only 1 card left. But don’t worry, it’s not all downsides! After that, your hand size will increase again, going back up to 13 cards. Phew! We made it through the rounds! Now you know how to get ready to play Back Alley. Let’s start the game and have some fun!

Once the cards are dealt, we flip the top card of the remaining deck to reveal the trump suit for this round. If we happen to reveal a joker, then there won’t be a trump suit, and the player holding the other joker must discard their card and draw a new one from the deck.

Ranking the Cards

We have two rankings, one for trump suits and one for non-trump suits, but they are quite similar. The jokers are always part of the trump suit and are known as the Big Blooper and Little Blooper.

The ranking for non-trump suits is as follows: Ace (the highest), King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2 (the lowest).

The ranking for trump suits is the same, with the additional rule that both jokers are considered higher trumps. So the ranking for the trump suit is as follows: Big Blooper (the highest), Little Blooper, Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2 (the lowest).

Bidding

When the cards land on the table, that’s when the bidding starts. You only get one shot at bidding, and the totals of each teammate’s bids determine how many tricks you aim to win. There are three bidding options to choose from. You can pass, which means you don’t bid and no tricks get added to your tally. You can bid a certain number of tricks, up to one less than the number of cards you have. So, if you have thirteen cards, your highest bid can be twelve. Or, you can claim board, where you and your partner win all the tricks together, making your partner’s bid irrelevant.

Your bid doesn’t have to be higher than the previous player’s bid. If everyone passes, the cards are shuffled again and dealt by the next dealer. And if multiple players claim board, it’s called double board, then triple board, and finally quadruple board.

GAMEPLAY

Once the bidding is finished, the player who made the highest bid gets to start the game. If there is a tie, the player who placed the highest numerical value bid first becomes the first player. If there are ties on the gameboard, the player who bid last gets to go first.

When leading the first trick, the player can play any card except for a trump card. The following players must play a card of the same suit if they have one. However, if they don’t have a card of the same suit, they can play any card, including trumps.

The trick is won by the player who plays the highest trump card. If no trump cards are played, then the player who plays the highest card of the original suit leads the trick. The winner of the trick then leads the next trick.

Before leading a trick with a trump card, a player must have played at least one trump card in a previous trick or claimed a bid of a board.

If you use the Big Blooper card to start a trick, everyone has to play their highest trump card. But if you use the Little Blooper, everyone has to play their lowest trump card.

SCORING

When a team successfully completes their bid, they earn 5 points for each trick they bid, and 1 point for each additional trick. If a team fails to meet their bid, they lose 5 points for each trick they bid.

When a team bids “board” and succeeds, they earn 10 points for each trick. If they fail to complete the board, they lose those points instead. If you bid two boards, your points will be multiplied by 2. If you bid three boards, they’ll be multiplied by 3. And if you bid four boards, they’ll be multiplied by 4.

END OF GAME

The game consists of 25 hands. The player or team with the most points at the end of the game is the winner.