Ninety-Nine for Three Players.md

Deal

Three players each receive 12 cards from a 36-pack ranking A K Q J T 9 8 7 6 in each suit. The turn to deal and play passes always to the left.

Objective

The players each lay aside three bid-cards and play the remaining nine cards to tricks. Each player aims to win exactly as many tricks as indicated secretly and in code by their bid-cards. For this purpose, the suits of the bid-cards represent numbers of tricks bid as follows:

= 3 tricks = 2 tricks = 1 trick = 0 tricks

Example: Bid nine tricks by laying aside (3 + 3 + 3 = 9), none by laying aside (0 + 0 + 0 = 0). Three may be bid (3 + 0 + 0), (2 + 1 + 0) or (1 + 1 + 1). And so on.

Play

The player at the dealer's left leads first. Any suit may be led. Players must follow suit if possible, otherwise may play any card. A trick is taken by the highest card of the suit led or by the highest trump if any are played. The winner of each trick leads to the next.

Score

Each player's score for the deal consists of two components, namely

• Trick score

  1 point per trick taken, regardless of bid.

• Contract score

  For fulfilling one's contract, 10 points if all three succeeded, 20 if only two players succeeded, 30 if only one player succeeds.

Game

Game is 100 points