How to Play Rook

Rook is a fun 4-player card game where players try to win tricks to score points. At the start of the game, the players split into 2 teams of 2, and the Rook cards are dealt out 1 by 1 to all 4 players except for 1 card, which is placed face down in the middle of the playing area. Then, each player looks at the cards in their hand and assesses how many points they think they’ll win that round. The more high cards a player has, the more likely they are to win points. Starting with the player to the left of the dealer, each player bids how many points they think their team will win. The minimum bid is 70 points. Each player can pass or increase the previous bid by 5 points. Bidding continues around the table until every player except for 1 has passed or until the maximum bid of 200 is reached. The player with the highest bid wins the bid and decides which color is trump for that round. However, if the highest bidder’s team ends up winning fewer points than they bid, they lose the points. The highest bidder declares the trump for that round, then has the option of swapping 1 of their cards with the face down card in the middle of the table. Each player then passes 3 cards from their hand to the player on their right, face down. Once all of the cards have been passed, the player to the left of the dealer goes first. They can play any cards from their hand face up in the middle of the table. Then, play continues clockwise. Players must play a card in the same color as the leading card if they have it. If they don’t, they can play any card. Once everyone has played a card, whoever played the highest card in the leading color wins the trick and collects all of the cards. The exception is if someone played a card in the trump color. Trump cards always win. Additionally, the single Rook card in the deck beats all other cards. If a player plays the Rook card, they win the trick. Whoever wins the trick leads the next trick. This continues until all of the cards in each player’s hand have been played. At that point, each player counts the number of points in their hand and adds that number to their teammate’s score. Fives are worth 5 points; Kings, 10’s, and 14’s are worth 10 points; Aces are worth 15 points; and the Rook card is worth 20 points. Whoever wins the last trick of the round gets a 20 point bonus. Teams add their scores for the round to their total scores. If that round’s highest bidder’s team scored less than their winning bid, they subtract those points from their total score instead. Whichever team gets to 1,000 points first wins the game! To learn how to bid and pass at the beginning of each game in Rook, scroll down!