Solo

State of the Game

Please note that as of now, this game is playable, but not yet ready for full production release. There will be bugs and issues that appear. If a hand isn't working out, a replay hand button is available. If the game hangs for no apparent reason, restart the hand.

Solo is played with 4 people, with the goal to not get “The Buck”. There are no winners, only 1 loser. 

Cards in use: 1 partial deck of cards from 7 to Ace of all 4 suits.

 

Value of cards:

• Clubs is the dominant suit and is worth twice as much as the others.
• Queen of clubs (also called “The Old” and is a constant)
• 7 of trump
• Queen of spades (also called “The Blue” and is a constant)
• Ace of trump
• King of trump
• Queen of trump (if red cards are trump)
• Jack of trump
• 10 of trump
• 9 of trump
• 8 of trump
• All non-trump suits are Ace high, 7 low.

 

Deal:

Dealer deals cards clockwise, starting to the right, with each person receiving 8 cards. Often, they’re dealt as 3 cards, 2 cards, 3 cards instead of one at a time.

 

Game Play:

Partners are revolving for each hand, and the goal for each hand is to get 5 tricks minimum. These 5 tricks can be in total for a pair of partners or can be for a single person playing a solo. A solo will be played against the other 3 players. Under regular hands, the partner is not revealed until the Ace is played. In the case of a wedding, the partner is revealed early as they will be determining which suit is trump.

 

Bids:

Bids start with the player to the left of the dealer and go clockwise around the table with the dealer having the final bid. The bid determines what is trump, the type of play and partners. The bidder must have at least one suit card to be able to make that suit trump. Clubs always overrules the other suits, and non-club suits are referred to as “dirty”. Once the bid is won, an Ace can be called to determine the bidder’s partner. The bidder must have 1 matching suit to the Ace and will play it either when the partner plays the Ace or to draw out the partner’s Ace.

Exceptions:

• If the bidder has all 3 non-trump aces, they must call a king for their partner
• If the bidder has 2 of the non-trump aces and none of the 3rd non-trump suit, they must call an “ace unknown”

 

Pass: the hand doesn’t warrant a bid, as there isn’t enough of any one suit to be confident of getting 5 tricks, even with a partner.

Froke: the bidder wants to select the suit for trump, and it can be any suit. A partner will be needed to get 5 tricks.

Iss: this outranks froke and is used when the next bidder wants to make trump clubs. A partner will be needed to get 5 tricks. The person who froked does have the ability to keep their bid if they also wish to make clubs trump.

Wedding: the bidder has both the queen of clubs and the queen of spades (old & blue) in their hand, a partner will be needed to get 5 tricks. A wedding must be called unless someone is playing a solo. The bidder must call a partner to call trump. Often the wedding is first bid as a pass in case someone else wants to play a solo.

Solo: the bidder is confident they can get 5 tricks alone and will play against the other 3 players. If more than one player wishes to play a solo, the first one to call will play, unless another player overrules with clubs.

Solo Do: the bidder is confident they can get 8 tricks alone and will play against the other 3 players. If they don’t get all 8, the other players get all the points.

 

When a trick is played, each player must follow suit (play the suit that is lead). If the player doesn’t have any matching suit cards, they can either play a card of a different suit to toss off a card or play a trump card to win the trick (a low trump card will beat a high off-suit card). The ace which was called for partner must be played when that suit is led, and if that ace is not played over the course of the hand, those players lose the hand. When partnered, the Ace called for partner must be played in the first 5 tricks. The players who decide trump must win 5 tricks to be successful and count points. The opposing team only needs 4 tricks (as this prevents the bidder from getting 5).

 

Scoring:

The game is played to 36 points. Once a player gets to 36, they stop counting and are considered “out”. When 3 players are out, the final player is the loser, and has the honour of getting “the Buck”. When there are just two players left, those two players cannot be partners, as that eliminates the possibility that both could go out at the same time. When this happens the hand is thrown in and the next person deals.

“Dirty” froke or iss (anything but clubs as trump) - 2 points

“Clean” froke or iss (clubs as trump) - 4 points

Dirty solo - 6 points

Clean solo - 12 points

Dirty wedding - 4 points

Clean wedding - 8 points

Going “through” (winning all 8 tricks) doubles the score (not currently available). 

Calling a “do” (saying you can get all 8 tricks from the start) triples the score (not currently available).

If the hand called is not successful, the opposing team gets the points. If the team that calls the hand gets the first five tricks, they either stop the hand by throwing down their final three cards or continue by playing a card. If the sixth card is played, the hand will be considered a through hand and must be continued. If all 8 tricks are not captured, the other team gets the points.