The Ten Point Smear Card Game

Welcome to the Ten Point Smear card game! It’s a fun and exciting trick-taking game designed for 4 to 6 players. The objective is simple: be the first team to score 52 points before your opponents do.

In this game, you’ll be playing in partnerships. For 4 and 6-player games, the partnerships are fixed. You and your partner will sit opposite each other, between two opponents. In 5-player games, the bidder gets to choose a temporary teammate for each round, while the remaining players form a team.

Getting Started

To determine the first dealer, someone is chosen at random. After each round, the dealer position will pass to the left.

The deck of cards used in this game will be shuffled, and each player will be dealt 10 cards for 4 and 5-player games, or 8 cards for a 6-player game. The rest of the deck will be kept by the dealer.

Understanding Card Rankings

The trump suit in the game is ranked from highest to lowest as follows: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Jick, Jokers, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2. The trump suit also includes a special card called the Jick, which is the jack of the same color as the trump jack.

When two jokers are played in the same trick, the first joker played outranks the second. The other suits in the game follow the traditional ranking: Ace (high), King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2 (low).

Bidding Point Values

During the bidding phase of the game, players can earn points by winning certain cards or meeting specific criteria. There are several actions or events in the game that award points. These include having the high trump card, low trump card, Jack, Jick, jokers, 3 of trumps, and Game.

When it comes to playing trump in a game, the team that plays the ace of trump receives the high trump point. On the other hand, the team that plays the 2 of trump gets the low trump point. If a team wins the jack of trump in a trick, they are awarded the Jack point. Similarly, if a team wins a trick containing the same-colored jack, they receive the Jick point.

The joker points are given to the team that wins a trick containing each of the jokers. Each joker is worth one point. Additionally, the three of trumps is worth 3 points and is awarded to the team that wins it in a trick. Finally, the game point is given to the team that has scored the highest number of points throughout the game.

When scoring the game point, players take into account the cards their team has won in tricks. Each ace is worth 4 points, each king is worth 3 points, and each queen is worth 2 points. The value of each jack is 1 point, while each 10 is worth 10 points. Lastly, the joker is worth 1 point.

Okay, listen up! There’s a total of 10 points up for grabs in this game.

Let’s Begin – The Bidding Round

So, once all of us have our hands, the bidding round starts. The player to the left of the dealer will kick things off. Each player, in turn, must bid higher than the previous player or they can just pass. Remember, you only get one shot at bidding. We bid on how many of those points we think we can win in a round.

Now, here’s the deal. The minimum bid is 4, and the highest bid you can make is 10.

But hey, here’s a twist. If every other player passes and there’s just one left, then the cards are thrown in and the same dealer deals again.

The bidding keeps going until the dealer either bids or passes, or until someone makes a bid of 10. The highest bidder is the winner, and guess what? They become the big boss, the bidder.

Once the bidding is done, it’s the bidder’s turn to choose the trump suit. Got it? Good.

When playing a game with four players, I take all 14 undealt cards and add them to my hand. Then, everyone discards cards until they have a 6-card hand. However, I can’t discard any trump cards if I have more than 6 of them.

Now, if we have five players, things are a little different. After we finish the bidding, everyone has to discard cards until they have a 6-card hand. The undealt cards are off-limits and will stay hidden for this round. Once the trump suit is chosen, the bidder will call their partner by saying a specific card. But there are rules for this too – they can’t call a card that they already have or the 3 of trumps.

Here’s where it gets interesting. If someone actually holds the card the bidder called, they have to show it to everyone and play it in the first trick. But if no one has the called card, then the bidder has to go it alone and play the round by themselves.

When playing a game with six players, it’s time for the bidder to add the six remaining cards to their hand. Now, everyone needs to discard cards until they have only six left. But hold on, there’s a rule – you can’t discard any trumps unless you have more than six of them.

Let the Game Begin!

It’s the bidder’s turn to start the game by leading the first trick. From there, the play continues in a clockwise direction. When it’s your turn, you must follow suit if you have a card of that suit. But don’t worry, if you can’t follow suit, you can play any card, even a trump!

Now, here’s how you can win a trick – by playing the highest-ranked trump card. But if trumps aren’t in play, no worries, the highest card of the suit led will do the job. The winner of the trick gets to collect it and lead the next trick.

When all six tricks have been played, the round comes to an end.

Show Me the Score!

After each round, it’s time to tally up the scores. A round isn’t just about playing tricks, after all.

So here’s the deal: if I’m part of the team making a bid, I gotta see if we were successful. If we were, we get the points we won, which might be more than what we bid. But if we didn’t succeed, we lose the number we bid from our score. Yup, we can even end up with a negative score. And guess what? The other team also adds any points they earned to their score. They’re not getting away that easily!

THE END IS HERE

The game keeps going until a team or player reaches a score of 52 or higher. Once that happens, they win! Simple as that.

Now, if more than one team or player manages to reach 52 in the same round, the one with more points wins. And if it’s still a tie, the team or player who made the bid comes out on top. Talk about intense!

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