500 (card game)


500 or five hundred, also called bid Euchre is a trick-taking game that is an extension of euchre with some ideas from bridge. For two to six players, it is most commonly played by four players in partnerships, but is sometimes recommended as a good three-player game. It arose in America before 1900 and was promoted by the United States Playing Card Company, which copyrighted and marketed the rules in 1904. 500 is a social card game and was highly popular in the United States until around 1920 when first auction bridge and then contract bridge drove it from favour. 500 continues to enjoy popularity in Ohio and Pennsylvania, where it has been taught through six generations community-wide, and in other countries: Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Shetland. The originator of Five Hundred, US Playing Card Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, now has headquarters across the Ohio River in Erlanger, Kentucky, west of Covington, KY. Five hundred is promoted by some as the national card game of Australia.

Setup

Of the many variants to 500, the standard deck contains 43 playing cards: a joker is included, and the 2s, 3s, and two 4s are removed. Either the two black 4s are removed, or the 4 of spades and 4 of diamonds are removed, in which case the 4 that matches the trump colour is also considered trump, so that there are always 13 trump cards. Cards are dealt to each of the four players and three are dealt face down on the table to form the kitty. Alternatively, a 45-card deck can be used, in which case the 4s are not removed. Each player still receives a hand of 10 cards, but the kitty is increased to five cards.
Players play in pairs, usually opposite each other. Traditionally, a bundle of three cards is dealt to each player, one to the kitty, a bundle of four to each player, one to the kitty, a bundle of three to each player, one to the kitty or with a 45-card deck: the deal is performed by dealing three cards to each player, then placing three cards in the kitty, four cards each and two to the kitty, and then three. In some versions, if a player does not receive a face card this is considered a misdeal and a redeal may be required.
As in euchre, in non-trump suits, the order of cards from highest to lowest is ace, king, queen,, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5,. In the trump suit, the highest card is the joker, sometimes known as best bower in reference to the trump jacks, followed by the jack of the trump suit called right bower, and then the jack of the suit of the same colour as the trump suit called left bower, which is considered part of the trump suit, followed by the ace, king, queen, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5,.
Bower is an Anglicization of the German Bauer, a word meaning farmer, peasant, or pawn. This name is often used to refer to the Jack of German games.

Bidding

After the deal, players call in turn, electing either to bid or to pass. A bid indicates the combined number of tricks the bidder believes they and their partner will take and the suit that will be trump for that hand, or that there will be no trump suit. For instance, a bid of "seven spades" indicates that the player intends to win seven or more tricks with spades being the trump suit, whereas a bid of "seven no-trump" indicates that the player intends to win seven or more tricks with no trump suit.
In American play, a bid of six is called an "inkle". A player who bids "inkle spades" is indicating to their partner that they have some spades but not enough to bid seven. Only the first two players may inkle.
A player may elect not to bid, or to "pass". Bidding proceeds clockwise around the table, with each player passing or making a higher-scoring bid. A player who passes cannot subsequently make a bid in that hand.
A player who has bid may only bid again in that hand if there has been an intervening bid by another player. However, in some variations a player who has bid and not passed may always bid again in that hand.
The order of seniority of suits in bidding is hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades. Therefore, for example, a player who bids 7 may be outbid by a subsequent bidding player on 7 or 7, but not seven spades. A "no-trump" bid beats any suited bid of the same number. Inkles are typically also similarly ranked: If the first player bids 6, the next player cannot inkle spades, clubs, or diamonds. Their only options are to 6NT, bid seven or more, or pass. Eventually, all but one player passes and the bid is decided.
In American play, there is only one round of bidding, with each player getting one chance, in turn, to either bid or pass. The player making the successful bid then collects the kitty. This player sorts through their hand and discards the least-useful three cards, and places them face down; the discarded cards playing no further part in the hand.
If nobody makes a bid, there are multiple variations. Most commonly, the hand is declared dead and a reshuffle and redeal is made. This can be repeated only twice, after which the deal passes to the next player. Alternatively, the game is played where no bids mean the round is played as no-trump, and scoring is ten points per trick. Other variations include that the deal passes to the next player ; or that if no one else makes a bid, the dealer is required to make a bid.

Special bids

The game focuses on tricks. The lead starts with the player who won the bidding. In some variations, the player to the dealer's left leads first regardless of who won the bid. Players must follow suit if they can. If a player no longer has any cards of the suit that is led, they may play any card in their hand. After all four players have played a card, the highest trump takes the trick. If no trump is played, the highest card of the lead suit wins the trick. The winner of the trick leads on the next trick. Once all ten tricks have been played, the hand is scored. The player to the left of the previous dealer deals for the next hand, so that the deal moves clockwise around the table.
Double nullo may be called by one partner even if the other partner passes. In this instance the player who calls nullo draws in his/her partner and both must play and not take any tricks. The person who calls double nullo picks up the kitty and gives the five cards he/she wants to discard to their partner. Their partner then must take those five cards and pick the ones he/she wants to keep and discard the rest.

Variations

Variations exist, with appropriate additions or deductions to the deck for playing three, five or six-handed 500. Three-handed uses no teams, five-handed teams rotate and each player takes a turn without a partner, six-handed can be played as either three teams of two or two teams of three. Six-handed 500 requires a special deck with 63 cards.

Set Rule

The game may be played with a standard variation known as setting. An opponent is set when they fail to fulfill a contract by a predetermined number of bids. The point system and scoring remain as per standard, but an opponent who is awarded the kitty and is subsequently set is not allowed to bid in the next round. Note that it is only the player awarded the kitty that is not allowed to bid in the next round. In the case of a set occurring during double misère the player who touches the kitty first is not allowed to bid in the next round.
Typically, the set occurs at one trick more than is actually necessary to break the bidding team's contract. In other words, 5 tricks in a 7-trick bid, 4 tricks in an 8-trick bid, 3 tricks in a 9-trick bid, 2 tricks in a 10-trick bid. However, for misère, open misère, and double misère a set always occurs at 3 tricks.

Breach rule (related to the Set rule)

Breach indicates that a non-bidding team intends to breach the contract of a bidding team by at least one more trick than is actually necessary to break the contract. As opposed to the Setting rule, Breach must be called on a per hand basis, and does result in additional scoring. Typically, Breach is not played in a game when the setting rule is being used.
A single player from a non-bidding partnership may call to breach another team's contract after a successful bid for a seven-trick contract has been made. The breach call may be made before or after the contracting team picks up the kitty, but must be made before game play starts. Typically, a breach occurs at one trick more than is actually necessary to break the bidding team's contract. In other words, 5 tricks in a 7-trick bid, 4 tricks in an 8-trick bid, 3 tricks in a 9-trick bid, 2 tricks in a 10-trick bid. However, for misère, open misère, and double misère a breach always occurs at 3 tricks.
A breach call can result in three different scenarios:
;Win/Lose: If the bidding team successfully fulfills its contract, then it receives the full points of the original bid, and the team calling breach loses points.
;Lose/Lose: If the bidding team does not fulfill its bid, but the opposing team does not take the necessary number of tricks to perform a breach, then the bidding team loses the point value of the original bid, and the team calling breach loses the predetermined value of the breach call.
;Lose/Win: If the bidding team loses its bid by the pre-established number of tricks, then the bidding team loses the contract points, and the team calling breach gains the predetermined value of the breach call.
Because breach is not considered an actual bid, a team may not win or lose based on points gained or lost from a breach call.
A player who calls breach but does not fulfill the conditions of breach is not allowed to bid in the next round. A player who bids a seven-trick contract but is successfully breached by an opponent is not allowed to bid in the next round.

Point Spread rule

A variation on the score keeping, the point-spread rule ends the game when one team has a negative score and the other team has a positive score, which results in a point spread of 500 or more points.

Versions

Two-handed 500

Two-handed 500 is played with a deck of 43 cards as per the standard game. Whereas in the standard game which includes partners, in the Two-handed game each player plays both the hand that is dealt to them and their partner's which is dealt to the table. The deal is the same as the standard game, except that the partners hands are dealt to the table so that they have 5 cards face down, each covered by a face up card. Bidding is the same as the standard game except Misère is generally not allowed. The kitty is used with the player's hand only and no cards can be swapped between the hands. Order of play is as per the standard game. After each trick any exposed face down cards from the partner's hands are turned up and revealed. Play then continues with the lead from the hand that won the last trick.
Alternatively, the game can be played as per three-handed but with a "dead hand".
An alternative version is played with the standard 52 card deck. Each player is dealt ten cards and then 8 more cards are exposed on the table. Each player chooses one of these cards to be added to the kitty. No dummies are used and the bidding is standard. After the bid is won the defending player adds one of the remaining exposed cards to their hand and discards an unwanted card. The remaining exposed cards are added to the dead card pile.
One additional variant is to use a standard game deck of 45 cards and have players alternate in drawing cards from the central deck. The kitty is set aside in advance, and in turn, players draw a card, choose to keep or discard it, and then either discard or keep the next card, taking the opposite action as with the previous card.

Three-handed 500

Three-handed 500 is played with a deck of 33 cards. Dealing, scoring and game play are as for the standard game. The common variant is in bidding, where misère may be bid before a bid for seven tricks. This variant is permitted due to the relative rarity of seven-trick bids outside of team play. Open misère may be bid in a similar fashion. Alternatively, the game may be played with the standard deck with one hand dealt face down, which remains untouched during the game. The common strategy is that the two players who are unsuccessful in bidding form a temporary alliance in an attempt to force the other player to lose their bid.

Five-handed 500

Another variation allows five players to play. All of the cards in a deck are used so that each player can be dealt ten cards. The bidding starts to the dealer's left, and works by the same system as normal 500. The player who wins the bidding may then choose to "go it alone" or gets to choose a card to select a partner. One of the bowers is usually chosen, or another high card; however, some variants prevent any trump card from being called. There are two versions of this variation. In one, the player who owns the chosen card announces that they have it, and then becomes the bidder's partner for that round. In the other, even the player winning the bidding will not know who the partner is until the chosen card is played. Note that the partnership will usually change for each round. The remaining three players then play against the partnership. The player who won the bid gets to play the first card.
Scoring for this variation uses the same values as normal 500. If the partnership wins the required number of tricks, they will both get points, and if they don't, they will both lose points. If one of the three remaining players wins a trick, that player will receive ten points. Neither misère nor open misère is usually permitted in this variant since it is too easy to win. Because the partnership changes each round, there are no fixed teams and each player plays for themselves. This adds dynamic, and new strategies will arise.

Six-handed 500

Special decks of cards were created by the United States Playing Card Company for playing six-handed 500, using a total of 63 cards. Besides using all 52 cards of the standard poker deck, plus one joker, these sets include 11s, 12s, and red 13s. Each player receives 10 cards, and the kitty receives 3. Players seated in alternating positions around the table form two teams of three players each. These decks are also made by Queen's Slipper, Piatnik, and Cartamundi. A variation is to use two jokers, the black-and-white one ranking highest.

No Trump 500

In some versions, no trump games, the only trump card is the joker and it has no suit. There are no bowers and all the jacks fall between the queen and highest number card of their respective suits. Players must always follow suit and may use the joker to trump a trick only if they cannot otherwise follow suit. A player may lead a trick with the joker by naming the suit to be followed, but may not name a suit to which the player has previously claimed to be void. In some variations, a player may not "renege" with the joker – that is, use it as a card of a suit in which the player has already claimed to be void. In some variations, the joker may only be played as the first or last card in a suit.
In other variations, the person who wins the bid also has the option to 'Declare'. Such a declaration entitles the winner of the bid to receive one card from their partner after discarding from the kitty or blind. The partner picks their best card and hands it face down to the winning bidder, who must then discard one additional card to retain a ten-card hand. The winning bidder now plays against the opponents without the assistance of the partner and must take all ten tricks. If such a bid is unsuccessful it is scored as −500.

Walker Ultimate 500

A variation in which the winning team/player must win exactly 500 points. The game is played as normal, with the additional rule that 1000 points loses the game. "Peggings" must be played. This variation usually results in a longer game, and generates an enjoyable level of complexity to both the bidding and playing.
Local variants may exclude either open misère, misère or both.

French Canadian Variation

A variation for four players using two Jokers and a standard 52-card pack stripped of 2s and 3s. The white Joker is considered stronger. The players are dealt 10 cards each in batches of 3–3–4. When 3 are passed, another 3 go to the kitty. There should be 6 cards in the middle after the deal. Some variations allow for the final card placed in the kitty to be turned upright for all players to see.
The attacking player takes the kitty and discards six cards of their choice, and no other player may see them. The bidding goes accordingly with the other variation, and Misère may be allowed. The "petite" misère is equal to 500 points and can only be outbid by 8NT while "la grosse" or open misère is worth 1000 points and can only be outbid by 10NT.
The game is played to a total of 1000 points. If a team fails to fulfil its contract, the points are added to the other team's total. Points are never subtracted.

Score keeping

The goal is for the team who wins the bid to take at least as many tricks as they bid. If the high bid is 8, then the team wins the hand if they take 8, 9, or all 10 tricks and are awarded points according to the table below. There are no bonuses for overtricks in the original rules. If they do not make their bid, the same number of points is subtracted from their score. Whether or not the bid winning team achieves its bid, the opposing team receives 10 points for each trick they take. A team wins the game by scoring at least 500 points; if two teams score 500 or more in the same hand, one by winning their contracted bid and the opponent by winning some tricks, only the team winning the bid wins the game, although some Australian versions hold that winning the game at any time requires winning a bid. The original rules, by the U.S. Playing Card Co., state "If any player scores out during play of a hand, balance of hand is not played, unless the bidder can win out" meaning that the first player to make 500 wins, unless the bidder makes 500 later in the same hand. A team whose score dips to −500 points or below loses the game. This is also known as going "out the back door" or "out backwards".

Avondale Scoring Table

The following table is the most commonly used "Avondale" Scoring convention| class="wikitable"
!Tricks
! Spades !! Clubs !! Diamonds !! Hearts
! No Trump
! 6 tricks
! 7 tricks
! 8 tricks
! 9 tricks
! 10 tricks
! Slam
! Misère
! Open Misère
! Blind Misère

Original Scoring Table

Other Scoring Variations

These are options that may be agreed upon amongst players at the outset, or regional variations of the usually-assumed rules.
Scoring for each family of tricks is reduced by 20 points, causing 10NT to be worth exactly 500 points.

Strategy

Bidding

Bids are typically made with the consideration that you will be receiving cards from the kitty and playing with a partner who hopefully will also be able to win a certain number of tricks. While the number of tricks you feel your partner will be able to win will vary in each situation, you should bid based on that assumption and not only on the cards in your hand.
On the other hand, it is also important to remember that your partner will be using the same strategy in their bidding; and therefore, if your partner bids 6, for example, you may not necessarily want to bid 8 simply because you have two cards of the proposed trump suit in your hand.
When confronted with a hand that is more-or-less even in two different suits, it is customary to bid on the suit with a higher point value.

Card Counting

When playing with 45 cards, the deck is composed of four suits with 11 cards each, and one Joker. In a suited contract, the trump suit will have 13 cards, the suit of the same colour will have only ten, and the two suits of opposite colour will remain at 11 cards each.
A simple strategy to bidding is to attempt to predict how the unaccounted-for trump cards would be distributed among the remaining players, excluding the kitty, with all things being equal. In other words, if you hold seven cards of one suit it can be helpful to assume that the remaining six trump cards are distributed evenly among the remaining three players. Doing so can provide a basic idea of how many times your opponents will be able to follow suit in each of the four suits.

Discarding the kitty

If you are successful at bidding a suited contract and are awarded the kitty, a basic strategy of discarding is to eliminate as many non-trump suits from your hand as possible, thus giving the most opportunity to use trump cards. However, discarding as many suits as possible is only a basic strategy, and should be met with some qualifications.
First, in most contract bids it is beneficial to keep an ace of any non-trump suit, as with all things being equal each player will with high probability have at least two cards of any given non-trump suit, making the ace of that suit a winning card.
Second, it can also be effective in some circumstances to intentionally keep the king of a non-trump suit and a low card of the same suit when you are unable to discard that suit entirely. The resulting strategy is to then play the low card first, with the assumption that you will lose the trick to the player holding the ace of that suit, and then when you have regained control of the table the king is played under the assumption that it will be a winning card.

Playing the cards

The way in which cards should be led will always be situational, and is subject to variations in the rules described in the Rules section.

Leading trump

Sometimes called flushing or bleeding trump, leading the trump suit immediately can often be an effective strategy. This is typically done in the following situations.
First, when a player has an above-average number of high trump cards they may wish to flush out the missing high trump cards. For example, if a player who has bid 7 is left holding the red joker and, then they have five of the six highest cards. A suitable strategy would be to start the game playing highest trump in an attempt to force the play of the J.
An alternative, but similar, strategy in this situation would be to play the Q. This alternative strategy would force the player holding the J to decide between either playing the jack, or throwing away a lower trump card to intentionally lose to the queen.