How to play Clubs Trump
Clubs Trump is a trick-taking card game for two or more players. It's quick to learn, fast to play, and rewards careful hand reading. This tutorial walks you through every rule you need, with examples, so you can start a game in about ten minutes.
If you've played Spades, Oh Hell, or Wizard, much of this will feel familiar — the twist is that clubs are always trump, and the number of cards dealt changes every round.
- ✓ How the deck and card ranks work
- ✓ How the deal changes across ten rounds
- ✓ How to bid — and why the dealer's bid is special
- ✓ How tricks are played and won
- ✓ How to score each round and win the game
The Deck
Clubs Trump uses a standard 52-card deck — no jokers. Cards rank from highest to lowest in this order:
The four suits are clubs (♣), hearts (♥), spades (♠), and diamonds (♦). In every round of every game, clubs are trump. That means the lowest club beats the highest card of any other suit.
The Deal
A game of Clubs Trump is always exactly ten rounds. The number of cards dealt changes every round in a fixed pattern.
To pick the first dealer, everyone draws a card — highest card deals. After that, the deal rotates clockwise each round.
Round 1 starts with five cards per player. Each round the hand size drops by one until everyone is dealt a single card, then it climbs back up to five. Ten rounds, every time.
Bidding
After the deal, each player looks at their hand and bids — the number of tricks they think they can win this round.
Bidding starts with the player to the left of the dealer and goes clockwise. The dealer bids last. Every player must bid a number; you may bid 0, but you may not pass.
The total of all bids cannot equal the number of cards dealt. Because the dealer bids last, they must avoid whatever number would make the total match. This guarantees that at least one player will either over- or under-shoot their bid.
The four other players bid 2 + 1 + 0 + 1 = 4. Since 5 cards were dealt, Dana cannot bid 1 (that would make the total 5). She may bid 0, 2, 3, 4, or 5 — but not 1.
Playing a Trick
The player to the left of the dealer leads the first trick by playing any card from their hand (with one exception we'll cover in Lesson 5). Play continues clockwise, with each player putting down one card.
When a card is led, every other player must follow suit if they can. If you have no cards in the suit that was led, you may play anything — including a trump.
Eli wins the trick with J♣ — the highest trump played. Cass's 7♣ was beaten when Eli trumped in higher. Eli leads the next trick.
The Trump Rule
There's one important restriction on leading: you cannot lead a club until clubs have been "broken" — meaning a club has already been played on a previous trick (usually because someone trumped in).
The only exception: if your hand has nothing but clubs, you're allowed to lead one.
This rule keeps early tricks interesting. Players can't immediately dump their strongest cards to sweep the round.
Scoring a Round
At the end of each round, count the tricks each player actually won and compare them to their bid.
Take exactly the number you bid and earn a flat 10-point bonus on top.
Take too few or too many and you only score the tricks you actually won — no bonus.
Here's a sample scorecard after three rounds:
| Round | Cards | Ada bid / won |
Ben bid / won |
Cass bid / won |
Dana bid / won |
Eli bid / won |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 2 / 2 +12 | 1 / 0 +0 | 0 / 0 +10 | 2 / 3 +3 | 1 / 0 +0 |
| 2 | 4 | 1 / 2 +2 | 2 / 2 +12 | 0 / 1 +1 | 1 / 1 +11 | 0 / 0 +10 |
| 3 | 3 | 1 / 1 +11 | 2 / 1 +1 | 0 / 0 +10 | 1 / 0 +0 | 1 / 1 +11 |
| Total | 25 | 13 | 21 | 14 | 21 | |
Winning the Game
After all ten rounds have been played, add up every player's points. Highest total wins.
Because the 10-point bonus for making a bid is so large compared to the 1 point per trick, the game rewards accuracy over greed. A player who bids 1 and takes 1 (+11) scores better than a player who bids 4 and takes 5 (+5).
That's the whole game. You now know everything you need to sit down and play a full round of Clubs Trump.