Get Ready to Play Solo 66!

Hey there! I’m here to tell you all about Solo 66, a super cool card game that you’re gonna love. It’s kind of like Skat, but with its own twist. Solo 66 is a five-player game where everyone competes to win tricks and score points. Sounds exciting, right?

Here’s How It Works:

First things first, each player tries to win the bid. The person who wins the bid gets to declare the trump suit and becomes the soloist. But here’s the catch: winning tricks isn’t the main goal here. Instead, you’re aiming to capture point cards. The soloist’s mission is to gather at least 66 points in order to claim victory. Meanwhile, the other four players form the defending team, and their job is to stop the soloist from reaching that goal. It’s a real battle of wits!

Let’s Talk About the Cards:

In Solo 66, you’ll need a special deck of 32 cards. This deck includes all the 7’s through A’s of each suit. Here’s the card order, starting from lowest to highest: 7, 8, 9, J, Q, K, 10, A. Keep these cards in mind, because they’re the keys to victory!

Dealing the Cards:

To determine the dealer, we’ll cut the deck and whoever gets the lowest card takes on this important role. After shuffling the deck, each player receives six cards. The last two cards are placed facedown to create the “kitty” – it’s a secret stash of cards that could make or break the game. Are you ready to dive in and start playing Solo 66? Let’s go!

Let’s Talk About Bidding

So, here’s the deal: When we play this game, we need to figure out who’s going solo for the round. And that’s where bidding comes into play. The person who wins the bid gets to be the soloist, call the shots, and play against the other four players all by themselves.

Alright, let’s break it down. Bidding starts with the player on the left-hand side of the dealer. And we bid by suit. Now, remember, the suits have a pecking order. We’ve got Diamonds at the bottom, then Hearts, Spades, and last but not least, Clubs.

At each turn, a player can either bid or pass. It’s pretty simple, right? And the bidding keeps going until everyone except one player has passed. That means, even if you pass once, you still have a chance to jump back in and make a bid later.

Now, the big moment arrives when the bid-winner gets to choose the trump suit for the game. They can stick with the suit they won the bid with, or they can go even higher. Let’s say they won the bid with Hearts, they can make the trump suit Hearts, Spades, or even Clubs.

But what happens if all the players pass? Well, in that case, we play without a trump suit. And here’s the clincher: the player who takes the very last trick in the game, they’re the winner. Pretty neat, huh?

Let’s talk about how bidding works in a game. It’s an interesting process that can really change the game!

So, the bidding starts with Player 1. They choose Diamonds as their bid. If they win, they can make Diamonds the strongest suit.

But what happens next? Player 2 decides to pass. They don’t want to raise the bid.

Player 3, on the other hand, raises the bid with Hearts. If they win, they can choose Hearts, Spades, or Clubs as the trump suit.

Player 4 passes, just like Player 2. They don’t want to raise the bid either.

Now it’s Player 5’s turn. They decide to raise the bid with Clubs. And guess what? Clubs becomes the highest bid!

What does this mean for Player 3? Unfortunately, they automatically lose the bid.

Player 5 becomes the soloist for the game. They have to declare Clubs as the trump suit.

So that’s how bidding works in a nutshell. It’s a game within a game, and it can really shake things up!

Now let’s talk about how the play unfolds.

When the game starts, we have to look at the first trick.

When we play this game, there are rules we must follow to determine who captures each trick.

The player sitting on the dealer’s left gets to lead the first trick. The rest of us must play a card that matches the suit if we have one. If we don’t, we have to play a trump card. And if we don’t have that either, we can play any card we want. To win the trick, we need to have the highest-ranking card in the suit that was led or, if there are trump cards in play, the highest-ranking trump card.

After each trick is won, it’s the winner’s turn to lead the next trick. We keep playing like this until we’ve played all the tricks.

Let me show you an example to make it clearer. In this example, the trump suit is Hearts. The first player leads with an Ace of Diamonds. The second player doesn’t have any Diamonds, so they play a 9 of Diamonds. The third player also doesn’t have any Diamonds, so they have to play a trump card – a 10 of Hearts. The fourth player doesn’t have any Diamonds or a trump-hearted card, so they play a 9 of Spades instead. The third player wins the trick with their 10 of Hearts, and now it’s their turn to lead the next trick.

SCORING

So here’s the deal – you earn points for the cards you capture. It’s like a little reward for your efforts!

Now, let’s go over the point values of each card:

• 7’s, 8’s, and 9’s: Worth a big fat zero. Sorry, no points for these guys.
• Jacks: A handsome 2 points. Not bad at all.
• Queens: Each one is worth a solid 3 points. They’re really adding up now!
• Kings: Get ready for 4 points per card. Nice work!
• Aces: These are the stars of the show, racking up a whopping 11 points each. They’re definitely the ones to aim for!

But we’re not done yet. There’s one more way to score points – the last trick. It’s worth a cool 10 points, so don’t forget about it!

WINNING

Now that you know how to score points, let’s talk about how to win the game. It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for!

If you’re playing as the soloist, you win if you capture 66 points or more. That’s your ticket to victory!

But hey, the defending team isn’t just sitting around twiddling their thumbs. They can win too! If they manage to capture 66 points or more, they become the champions.

Now, here’s an interesting twist. If the game is played without a trump suit, things get really interesting. In that case, the player who takes the last trick becomes the ultimate winner. Talk about a game changer!

So remember, whether you’re playing as the soloist or defending team, you’ve got to keep your eyes on those points. Aim high, strategize wisely, and may the best player win!