The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (34 page)

30 or 60 respectively. This goes to the declarer if successful,

otherwise to each opponent, whether or not they succeeded. Note:

The highest possible score is 99, obtained if one player bids and

wins nine tricks revealed and is the only player to succeed, making

9+30+60.

Game A game is 100 points. The winner, and any opponent who

reaches 100 or more in play, adds a bonus of 100. A rubber is won

by the first to win three games, each in turn dealing first to a new

game. The winner adds 100 for each game played fewer than eight

– e.g. 500 for winning three straight of ((8 – 3) x 100).

Two-handed Ninety-Nine (with dummy)

Deal three hands of twelve cards each, face down. Separate the top

three cards of the dummy hand as its ‘bid’. These remain face down

and unseen til end of play. Each player bids in the usual way.

Either or both players may declare, but neither may reveal. After

the bids and any declarations have been made, the dummy hand

only is turned face up and sorted into suits. The first deal is played

at no trump; thereafter, the trump suit is determined as in the three-

hand game.

Non-dealer leads to the first trick, waits for the second to play,

then plays any legal card from dummy. If a live player wins the

trick, he leads first from hand and third from dummy. If the dummy

wins a trick, the person who played from it then leads first from

dummy and third from hand.

dummy and third from hand.

At end of play, the dummy’s bid-cards are turned up and both

live players score as in the three-hand game. However, because the

dummy rarely makes its bid exactly, consider it to have failed if it

won more tricks than bid, succeeded if it won fewer, and declared

if it made its bid exactly. If one live player declares and fails, the

other two score the bonus of 30. If both declare and fail, neither

gains it but the dummy scores 60 extra.

Two-handed Ninety-Nine (without dummy)

Deal twelve cards each from a 24-card pack ranking AKQJT9. Bid

as usual, but without declaring or revealing. Play the first deal at no

trump. At any subsequent point, the player with the higher score is

‘vulnerable’, and if scores are equal both are vulnerable. If both

succeed, each adds 10. If only one succeeds, add 20. If a vulnerable

player fails, the other, if not vulnerable, adds a further 10,

regardless of his own success or failure.

Four-handed Ninety-Nine

Deal thirteen cards each from a 52-card pack. Use three bid-cards to

bid up to 10 tricks. A bid of three diamonds represents either 0 or

10 tricks, and either number of tricks automatical y fulfils the

contract. The contract score is 30 if one player succeeds, 20 each if

two, 10 each if three, zero if al four either succeed or fail in their

contract. If al four succeed, the next deal is played at no trump,

otherwise the trump suit is determined as in the three-hand game.

The premium score is 30 or 60 as before.

Five-handed Ninety-Nine

Five players receive twelve each from the Australian ‘Five Hundred’

pack including Elevens and Twelves (but ignoring Thirteens) and

lay aside three cards to bid up to nine. The contract bonus is 10 if

al five succeed, 20 if four, 30 if three, 40 if two, 50 if only one. No

one may reveal, but any number of players may declare for a

premium of 50 points if successful or minus 50 if not. If four or five

players succeed, the next deal is played at no trump.

Comments These notes on play relate to the three-handed game,

but similar principles apply to other numbers.

Your main strategic task is first to assess how many of your

trumps and high cards are probable winners and how many

probable losers, and then to select three cards whose absence from

the hand leaves exactly the right number of tricks to be made from

the remaining nine. Ideal y, the three you bid with wil be middling

cards (Jack, Ten, Nine) whose winning or losing potential is highly

unpredictable. Ninety-Nine thus dif ers markedly from other trick

games in which only high cards are real y significant. Here, Sixes

are as important as Aces, and Sevens as Kings. If you can’t bid with

middling ranks it is desirable to use Aces or trumps, whose absence

from play may confuse the opposition. Sometimes more than one

reasonable bid is possible, in which case choose the one that

involves confusing discards. For instance, with diamonds as trump:

AKQ AT86 76 T86

you can reasonably bid zero by discarding three diamonds ( A is

no problem – you can throw it to a trump lead or the third round

of hearts), or bid three by discarding the spades, leaving your