Q&A for How to Play 500

How many tricks do you think you'll win? If you think you could win 6 tricks, call 6 no-trumps. If 7, go 7 no-trumps, and so on. If you have heaps of hearts, for example, call 6 hearts instead, allowing the hearts to be the trump cards and the jacks of hearts and diamonds to be bowers. The bowers are powerful in trumps, and the joker and aces are powerful in no-trumps. NEVER make a bid of 10 without the joker, because you will not win the bid if you or your partner doesn't have it. The higher you bid, the more points you gain if you win and vice versa.

No. Sometimes the best strategy may be to hold the higher card for later. However, remember that you have to follow the suit played.

Yes, you must follow suit first. The person who bid no trump may lead the joker and call a suit to pull high trump out so his/her cards in a suit will be high.

It is recommended that you play through all 10 tricks, even after the bid is won/lost and any player is confident that they will win any tricks. In the case of a player throwing all his trumps down declaring that he's won and he actually didn't win one of the tricks, give him the tricks that he did win and give the lost tricks to the other player.

The way I was taught was that this is a "grand slam" and is worth either 250 points, or the actual contract value, whichever is higher.

If your partner has already won the bid, it is best that you throw out the lowest card possible so they can win the trick, and so you have good cards to use later on. If you are almost certain that an opponent will win the trick, throw the Joker out to stop them. Remember, if you win a trick with the Joker (or any other card), you lead the next one, so smart play can ultimately score you many tricks.

The first team to go over 500 is the winner, then the game stops. The other team doesn't have the chance to go over 500.

We take out the 2's, 3's, 4's and 5's and have 7 in the blind and each person still has 10 cards. Everyone plays for themselves and when one person takes the bid the other two people are partners and try to set the bidder. Scoring is the same.

The points will depend on whatever the winning bid was for (e.g. 7 clubs = 160 points.) Some people have other rules, like when the bid is 6 or 7 clubs and they get all 10 points, they get 250 points instead of 160 points.

Joker is the highest, followed by the right bower, the left bower, then Ace on down.

If the bid is "no trump" then the joker is part of no suit. As such, it can only be used if you have no cards of a suit which has been led. If you are the person in the lead, you may play the joker and specify for which suit it is calling (which is handy if you are trying to get an opponent's high card out of their hand).

Yes, but you must be confident that no one else will trump your individual cards.

It depends. Assuming you are talking about a non-trump suit being led, they are not compelled to play the joker. If the trump was led, then the joker is trump and must be played as a trump card if that is the only one they have.

If you have the lead and you have not led the suit that you have in hand, then yes, you may call that trump and then lead the card you have in hand.

If you can't follow suit, you can play any card in your hand that you wish (including a trump card).

The value will depend on the precise bid, but in general, Spades will score you the least amount of points, and then the points increase with Clubs, Diamonds, and Hearts earning the most points.

You have to follow suit. If you have more than one card of the suit played, you may keep the king and play a smaller card.

One option is to play multiple four player games, with three people always sitting out. Rotate players through, so everyone plays the same number of games and always has a different partner. One option is, instead of playing to 500, just play a certain number of hands per round (often four, so everyone deals once). The points for each team count toward each player’s individual total. Highest total at the end of he evening wins.

You can play the joker if you have others of the suit only if the suit led is trump, so that technically with the joker, you would still be following suit.

The person who won the bid makes the first lead. Then, whoever wins each trick leads for the next trick.

Strictly speaking, the deck should be reshuffled if play has begun, but casually, the winner should just throw surplus cards into the kitty once he realizes.

You must play the suit that is led. If the first player puts down a club, you must also follow with a club. If you don't have any clubs, play any card. You will not win the trick if you do not play the suit that was led, unless you play a trump card. If you are leading, you may play any card, but if you play Joker in no-trumps, make sure to declare what suit it is.

It is common to make it a rule that having no face cards allows that person to request a new hand.

You do not have to beat it. It is advisable that you do not beat it because you will lose a valuable high card or trump card, which could have won you a trick later on. However, if your partner's trump gets trumped and you only have trump suit, you should aim to go higher so you can still win the trick.

Nullo is 250 points "to the good" if you are able to make your bid. Grand Nullo is 510 points.

It depends on the bid. It could be anywhere from 140 (for 7 spades) to 520 (for 10 no trump).

The right bower is higher in the color suit bid; the left bower is of the same color suit. (Ex. Rt bower hearts, then jack of diamonds is left bower.)

It depends on house rules. We usually say “no-face-no-ace,” which means no, you can’t declare a misdeal if you have an ace.

Whichever suit was declared in the winning bid. For example, if the winning bid was 7 of diamonds, then diamonds are trump for that hand.

Strictly speaking, if you play a different suit where you could have played the following suit, the game should be reshuffled. If you're just playing casually, just let it go or quickly switch your card. For the game to work, it is critical that you only break suit if you cannot play the leading suit.