Rook standard deck variant rules

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Rook - Standard Deck Variant

Step One: Beginning

First, the simple and straightforward stuff, for completeness.
The four players should sit around a card table or suitable substitute, partners sitting across from each other. Deal out the first 52 cards, placing the 53rd face down in the center. (Each person should now have 13 cards. Duh.) Arrange your cards in suit order without telling any other player what you have. (Don't worry about what the joker (or "rook") means just yet.) Now we are ready to bid.

Step Two: Bidding

After the cards are dealt, players bid for the right to call trump. Starting with the player to the left of the dealer and going around clockwise, each player either makes a bid, or passes. A player who passes may not re-enter the bidding. This process continues until three players have passed; the fourth is the winner of the bid. The winner gets to call trump (but not just yet! First, I must explain bidding a bit more).
A player's bid signifies the minimum number of points that he believes he and his partner will win in the hand. (More on winning points later.) Bidding starts at 70 and increases by 5 each time someone bids again. There are 200 total points in a hand, broken down as follows:

Each Ace is worth 15 points.
Each King is worth 10 points.
Each 10 is worth 10 points.
Each 5 is worth 5 points.
The joker (or "rook") is worth 20 points.
Winning the last trick is worth 20 points.
No other cards are worth points.
So what keeps people from bidding right up to 200 in order to get to call trump? If after playing the hand, the player who called trump and his partner do not make their bid (in other words, they get fewer points than they bid), then they lose the number of points that they bid.

Confused? Here are some bidding conventions and tips.

Step Three: After Bidding

After bidding, the winner of the bid takes the card from the center and drops a card from his hand, placing it face down in front of him. This card may be the card from the center. The winner and his partner keeps any points that the dropped card may be worth.
All players must now choose three cards to pass face-down to the opponent on either their left- or right-hand side. The direction of passing alternates between each hand (right, left, right, left, etc.). You may also alternate between passing to the right, to the left, and not passing, as long as the order is regular and agreed upon beforehand.

A player may not pass any cards that were passed to him. The winner of the bid may not look at the cards passed to him until trump has been called. All other players may look at the cards passed to them only after they have passed cards.

After the cards have been passed, the winner of the bid calls trump. Players may quietly curse or cheer within reason. The winner of the bid picks up the cards passed to him, and play commences.

Confused? Here are some tips on dropping and passing cards.

Step Four: Playing

The person who called trump gets to choose whether he goes first or the person to his left goes first. Whoever goes first plays a card (placing it face-up in the center). Each player in turn (clockwise) plays a card until all four have played a card. This is called a trick.
As in most games of this type, all other players must follow suit, if they can. In other words, a player must play a card in the suit that was led if he has any cards in that suit left. If a player does not have a card in the suit that was led, then he may play any card in his hand.

The winner of the trick is the person who played the winning card, as determined by the following rules:

If the lead card is not trump, and nobody else plays a trump card, then the winning card is the highest card played in the lead card's suit.
If the lead card is not trump, and someone else plays a trump card, then the winning card is the highest card played in the trump suit.
If the lead card is a trump, then the winning card is the highest card played in the trump suit.
Within each suit, Ace is high, 2 is low (with the Rook exception, below)
The Rook is the lowest trump card. In other words, it is lower than the 2 of trump, but higher than any other card. It is considered a trump suit card.
Whoever wins the trick keeps all the cards, and thus all the points in the trick, in a pile kept by him or his partner. He then leads for the next trick. Play continues in this way until all cards have been played, for a total of 13 tricks.
Confused? Here are some tips on playing.

Step Five: Scoring

After play is over, each team counts up the number of points in their pile. A reminder:
Each Ace is worth 15 points.
Each King is worth 10 points.
Each 10 is worth 10 points.
Each 5 is worth 5 points.
The joker (or "rook") is worth 20 points.
And winning the last trick is worth 20 points.
So there are 200 points in each game. A running score is kept; usually games go up to 1000 points (first team to reach or exceed 1000 points wins), but any number may be agreed upon beforehand.

If the team of the player who called trump has fewer points than he had originally bid, then they are "set." They do not add the amount of points they get to their total; rather, they subtract the amount of points that they bid. The team that did not call trump has no such restriction.

Example: If you and your partner win the bid at 110 points and you win 110 points in the game, then 110 points are added to your total score and 90 points (the number of points your opponents won) are added to your opponents' total score.

Another example: If you and your partner win the bid at 110 points and you win 105 points in the game, then 110 points (the number of points you bid) are subtracted from your total score and 95 points (the number of points your opponents won) are added to your opponents' total score.

One further scoring bonus: If a team takes all thirteen tricks, then they get a 100 point bonus, giving them 300 points for the game. This does not happen very often, so if it does, one has the right to gloat.

Other Rook Variations

Judging from your letters, the most common variation of Rook is to play without 2's, 3's, or 4's. Proponents of this variation say that it makes the game faster and makes playing 5's a bit trickier. Someone named Scott told me that this is the way they play in Rook tournaments.
Other common variations involve playing the rook card as either the highest trump or as a "10.5" of trump (i.e. higher than a 10, but lower than an 11 or jack).

Five-player rook is possible, too. If one is using a standard deck, discard two of the 2's (red or black - your choice) and deal 10 cards to each player. If one is using a Rook deck, deal 11 cards to each player. Both ways will leave one card in the middle, as usual. Players bid without knowing who will be their partner. Cards do not need to be passed. The winner of the bid calls trump and calls a card that he wants. The player with that card becomes his partner; however, the identity of the partner remains a secret, until of course certain tricks make it obvious. Each player keeps an individual score (each player on a team receives the full amount of points won by the team in a hand).

George Smith has posted rules for another version of five-player Rook. Her (yes, her) version is similar to mine, with different rules for cards left in the kitty, and with the ability to call a few different types of trump. She (yes, she) claims it's the best way to play, and fun as it might be, I must beg to differ! :-)

Six-player rook can be played with three on a team, alternating around the table. I leave it up to you to figure this one out.

John McLeod's Rook Page has other variations, as well as a brief history of the game.