MARIANNA

Hey there! Marianna is a super fun card game that’s perfect for four players. The goal of the game is simple: you and your teammate need to score 501 points or more before the other team does.

Ready to learn how to play? Awesome! Let’s dive in.

First things first, Marianna is played over several rounds. In each round, you and your opponents will win tricks and try to collect specific combinations of cards to score points. Exciting, right?

Now, here’s the cool part: you’ll be playing alongside a teammate. They’ll be sitting across from you, so you’ll need to work together and communicate to win the game. Teamwork makes the dream work!

SETUP

Before we get started, let’s set up the game. We need to modify the deck a bit first. Take out all the 10s, 9s, and 8s from the deck, so you’re left with a deck of 40 cards.

Alright, now it’s time to choose the first dealer. You can do this by picking someone randomly. The dealer will change with each new deal, passing to the right. Once you’ve figured out who the dealer is, they’ll shuffle the deck and the player to their left will cut it.

Once everything is ready, the dealer will give each player a hand of 5 cards. Don’t worry, the remaining cards will go in the middle as the stockpile. Grab that popcorn, because we’re about to have some serious fun!

Sorting Cards and Their Values

When it comes to this game, the cards have a specific order. From highest to lowest, the ranking goes: Ace, 3, King, Queen, Jack, 7, 6, 5, 4, and 2.

Now, let’s talk about the values associated with some of these cards. Aces are special because they’re worth 11 points. 3s are also valuable, worth 10 points. Kings, on the other hand, have a value of 4 points. Queens hold their own too, with 3 points. And finally, jacks have a value of 2 points. All the other cards don’t have any value at all.

But wait, there’s more! In addition to the regular scoring values, there are special values for certain combinations of cards. Let’s dive into that.

First up, we have Mariannas. To declare a Marianna, you need to have both the king and queen of the same suit in your hand. Depending on the order of declaration, these Mariannas have different point values. The first Marianna is worth 40 points, followed by 60 points for the second one, 80 points for the third, and a whopping 100 points for the fourth one you declare.

Next, we have Marianninnos. These are declared when a player has 4 queens and a king in their hand. If you manage to collect this powerful combination, you score an outstanding 250 points.

I want to talk to you about a special hand in the game of cards called mariannones. When a player has 4 kings and a queen, they declare mariannones. It’s a powerful hand worth 500 points, and if someone gets it, they automatically win the game.

How to Play

Let’s go over the gameplay. The game begins with the player on the right side of the dealer. This player gets to start by playing any card they want. It’s important to note that there are no rules about what kind of card they have to play or whether they have to try to win the trick. The game doesn’t even start with a trump suit, but one could be established later on during play.

A trick is won if you have the highest trump card, if there is one. If no one plays a trump or if there isn’t a trump suit yet, then the trick is won by the player who played the highest card of the suit that was led. The winner of the trick gets to keep the cards in their score pile, and all the players, including the winner, draw back up to five cards in their hand. The winner also gets to lead the next trick.

When it’s my turn to play, I get to choose one thing to declare. I can only declare something once during my turn. If I declare a Marianna or Marianninnos, it changes the trump suit. The suit is determined by the king in a Marianninnos. If there are multiple trumps declared during a trick, the trump at the end of the trick decides the winner. But once all the cards have been drawn from the stockpile, I can no longer declare Mariannas.

After the last card is drawn from the stock, we play out the remaining tricks. When the last trick is played, the round is over.

SCORING

Once the last trick is won, we tally up our scores. We keep track of our scores over several rounds. Our scores come from the cards we win and the declarations we make during the game.

END OF GAME

The game ends when one team scores 501 or more points. If both teams score 501 or more in the same round, the team with the higher score wins.