Welcome to Troika!

I’m here to introduce you to an incredible game called Troika. It’s a fantastic trick-taking game that started in Canada. When you play Troika, you’ll need four players, and you can team up in pairs. The objective is to collect fifty-two points.

Let’s Get Started!

First things first, we need to set up the game. To do that, we have to create a deck of thirty-two cards. Here’s how you do it: take out the aces, Kings, Queens, Jacks, tens, nines, eights, seven of Clubs, seven of Diamonds, three of Spades, and five of Hearts. These cards will make up the deck you’ll be using throughout the game.

In order to find out who will be paired together, we will each draw a card. The two players with the highest cards will be a team, and the other two players will be a team. Now, let’s figure out who will be the dealer. We’ll keep shuffling the cards until someone gets a Jack. That lucky person will be the first dealer. After each round, the dealer role will pass to the next player in a clockwise direction.

When we sit down to play, we’ll make sure that each player is sitting across from their partner. The dealer will then shuffle the cards and ask the person on their right to cut the deck. After that, the dealer will deal eight cards to each player. And now, we’re ready to start the game!

GAMEPLAY

Once all the cards are dealt, bidding starts off with the player on the left side of the dealer. Here’s the catch – you only get one chance to either pass or make a bid. If you decide to bid, your bid must be higher than the previous one, ranging from six to twelve. Oh, and don’t forget to let everyone know if you’re playing without a trump suit.

Now, the dealer is in the hot seat. They must make a bid that is at least as high as the previous bid. This bid represents the estimated number of points that their team will score in the upcoming hand. Once the bidding phase is over, the player with the highest bid becomes the big boss and gets to choose the trump suit. And guess what? They also get the honor of playing the first trick. Talk about a power move!

So here’s how the game works: Each player takes turns placing a card on the truck, starting in a clockwise order. If you have a card that matches the suit of the card played first, you have to play it. But if you don’t have a matching card, you can play any card from your hand. The player with the highest trump card wins the round. And if there are no trump cards, then it’s the highest scoring card that wins.

After each round, the played cards are set aside for scoring later. This goes on until eight rounds have been played.

Now, for each round won, the team gets one point. And if they win a specific card, like the five of Hearts, they get five points. But if they win the three of Spades, they actually lose three points. It’s all about playing smart and strategizing!

So, here’s the deal: if my team doesn’t make the points we bet, we have to subtract that amount from our overall score. When the hand is over, if we manage to accumulate a total of fifty-two points, we win the game!

The Exciting Conclusion

Believe it or not, the game ends as soon as one team reaches fifty-two points. At that point, they are officially crowned the champions!

In other words, once a team reaches fifty-two points, they’ve got the game in the bag. They can sit back, relax, and bask in their victorious glory!