The Complete Guide to All Rook Games
No need to search for your instruction manual, we got you covered with a complete guide to all of the games you and your family love to play with rook cards (57 cards plastics).
Kentucky Rook
Kentucky Rook is the most popular game that can be played using the 57 Card Deck. It is also the official tournament game.
Setup
First you need a standard 57 Card Deck. You then take out the 1s 2s 3s and 4s from the deck, the dealer shuffles and cuts the deck. Finally the dealer deals the cards so that everyone has 9 cards and there are 5 cards in the middle of the board. These 5 cards in the middle are called the nest.
Bidding
After the deal the players bid for the privilege of using the cards in the nest and naming the trump suit. The bidding starts with the person to the left of the dealer and passes around clockwise. The minimum bid is 100 and all bids must be increased by multiples of 5. If a player chooses not to increase the bid the bidding passes to the next player. Once a player passes they may not bid for the remainder of the round. Once all, but 1 of the players have passed the player with the highest bid gets to pick up the nest. Then they put any 5 cards back into the nest. They then name the trump suit.
Play
Once the trump suit is been named the play starts with the person to the left of the dealer. That person can play any card face up on the center of the table. The play goes clockwise around the table. Each player may either play a card with the same suit as the first card, or the wild 57th card. If a player reneges, or fails to play the same suit when he or she could have, the error may be corrected in the next play. If it is not discovered until later, the round ends, and the team that made the error loses a number of points equal to the bid, regardless of which team made the bid. The opposing team scores all the counters they captured before the error was discovered.choose to play a card of the trump suit. Finally after each play the person who played the highest card from the trump suit, or if no trump suit cards where played, the highest card from the initial suit wins that set. They get to take the cards and put them face down in front of them. PS the wild 57th card is the highest possible card so if it is played the player wins the cards automatically.
Scoring
When all rounds have been played each team adds up the value of the cards it won. If the bidding team does not get at least the bid that they made then they will lose points equal to the amount of the bid. The first team to reach 300 points wins.
Toonerville Rook
To have the lowest score at the end of the game. This is achieved by discarding your cards onto the play field and as few points against you as possible (which are left in your hand when someone wins the round).
Number of players
Three to five players per table. You can play tournament style in groups of three to five people. At the end of each round, move to another seat. Keep a master score sheet to record everyone’s score as in single table Toonerville Rook.
Materials
One deck of 57 Cards per person at the table. All decks are shuffled together so if you are sharing decks. Usually, the host provides a set of cards; four or five decks that can be used for play by everyone at the table.
Runs
A run is four or more cards of the same color (suit) in sequential order. “Wrap around” (13, 14, 1, 2, for example) is not allowed.
Sets
A set is three or more cards of the same number (and can be any combination of colors).
The 57th Card
The 57 card is a wild card. If the 57 card is in a run on the play field, a player, during his turn may substitute the card that the 57 card represents, taking the 57 card and using it to play in his own hand. However, whenever a 57 card is taken in this fashion, it must be played during the player’…
A Player’s Turn
At the beginning of a player’s turn, a player must draw one card from either the deck or the discard pile. At the end of a player’s turn a player must discard one card onto the discard pile, except when ending a round. (At the end of Round 11, a player must not discard when ending the round.) A play…
Buying a Card
An opponent states that he wants the card on top of the discard pile by saying “I’ll buy that!” If more than one opponent wants to buy the card, the buyer closest to the player’s left receives the card. The player buying the card draws an additional card from the deck (two cards total). Then play re…
Playing a Round
A player must obtain the specified number of runs and sets for any given round and play them on their field. When to play your cards is a matter of strategy.
A player may play cards on an opponent’s play field if:the player has played on his own play field with the required number of runs and sets…
Scoring
Cards 1 through 9 are 5 points each
Cards 10 through 14 are 10 points each
Rook cards are 25 points each
Tennessee for Two
Remove all the cards numbered 1, 2, and 3 of each color from the deck, leaving 44 cards.
Dealing
To choose dealer, plyers draw for high card. The dealer shuffles the pack thoroughly. He deals cards one at a time, until each player has 11 cards. Next he deals 4 cards face down to the center of the table to form the nest.
Drawing Pile
Place remainder of deck face down on the table to the left of the dealer, halfway between players. This is the drawing pile. Pick the top card from the pile, turn it face up and place it next to the drawing pile.
Bidding
Bide for privilege of naming trump color as in regular 57 card game. Dealer must begin by bidding 60 or over. The highest bidder names the trump color and then picks up the nest. He may exchange any of the cards in the nest for cards in his hand. If, however, there are any Count Cards – 5’s, 10’s, 1…
Play
The low bidder leads by playing a card from his own hand. High bidder then follows. The higher card takes the trick of 2 cards thus played. A player must always follow the color led if possible. If he cannot do so, he may play a trump card or any card he does not want. A player may lead trumps or an…
After Each Trick is Captured
hat player who captured a trick draws one card from the drawing pile and adds it to the other cards in his hand. He has his choice of drawing the top card from the drawing pile or the exposed card alongside it. The other player must draw one of these two cards not used at that turn by his appoinent….
Scoring
250 points win the game. Count Cards score as in the regular 57 cards game. Each 14 counts 10, each 10 counts 10, and each 5 counts 5. Every trick captured counts 2 additional points. The highest possible score would be 140 if one player were to take every trick. Bidding therefore usually reaches 80…
Over the Top
Remove all cards numbered 1, 2 and 3 of each color from deck, leaving 44 cards.
Dealing
To choose dealer, players draw for high card. The dealer shuffles the deck well and deals 10 cards each, face down, one at a time, alternately to opponent and self. Dealer then deals 10 cards each for opponent’s battery and dealer’s battery. The first 5 cards of each battery are dealt face down, sid…
Bidding
Bid for the privilege of naming the trump color as in regular game. The dealer must begin by bidding 50 or over. High bidder names the trump color and then picks up the nest. He may exchange any of the cards in the nest for cards in the hand in order to strengthen his hand. He puts 4 cards back into…
Play
Low bidder leads by playing a card from his own hand. High bidder follows. Opponent then plays any exposed card from his battery. High bidder follows by playing from his battery, completing a trick of 4 cards. The hand or battery capturing a trick leads for the next play. When a battery card takes a…
Scoring
200 points win the game. Count Cards score as in regular game- each 14 counts 10, each 10 counts 10 and each 5 counts 5. Points captured by a player’s battery count as his own. If high bidder makes good his bid, both players score what they earn. If he fails to equal his bid, he receives no score, a…
3-Handed Partnership
To choose dealer, players draw for high card. Dealer shuffles deck and deals 4 hands of 14 cards each, as if 4 people were playing. One of these hands is therefore dealt to a dummy.
Bidding
The 3 players bid for the privilege of naming the trump color as in regular game. Player at left of dealer must start with a bid of 40 or more.
High bidder always seats himself or changes places so as to sit opposite dummy, who becomes his partner for that hand. The 2 other players are his opposing…
Bidding
The player at the left of high bidder begins by leading any card he chooses. After this lead, dummy’s hand is displayed face up on the table in front of the imaginary 4th player, and arranged by color so that they may readily be seen. High bidder then plays a card from his dummy partner’s hand, and …
Scoring
The score of each person is recorded. Partners in each hand score the total they have made together, as if each alone had captured all tricks. Each records identical score for that hand. High bidder is set back the amount of his bid if he fails to earn it. The pack is then redealt, and whoever becom…
After Each Trick is Captured
hat player who captured a trick draws one card from the drawing pile and adds it to the other cards in his hand. He has his choice of drawing the top card from the drawing pile or the exposed card alongside it. The other player must draw one of these two cards not used at that turn by his appoinent….
Scoring
250 points win the game. Count Cards score as in the regular 57 cards game. Each 14 counts 10, each 10 counts 10, and each 5 counts 5. Every trick captured counts 2 additional points. The highest possible score would be 140 if one player were to take every trick. Bidding therefore usually reaches 80…
Pounce with 57 Cards
Pounce is a card game for two or more players, but works best with no more than six. It is played like solitaire, with each player in command of his own deck of cards, but all building piles are shared between all players. To win, you will need fast hands, quick thinking, and more than a little luck…
Setup
To begin, each player must have his own deck of cards, and each deck must have a unique back design to it. Verify that all decks contain only the 1 through 14 cards, without the 57 card. Nominate one person to be scorekeeper; the scorekeeper needs only a pen and standard writing pad. Find a table la…
How To Play
Play is like Klondike solitaire. The 1 card may be placed in the field (the table space bounded by all players’ layouts) to start build piles. Building on a build pile means placing the next higher card in rank of the same suit on top of the top card of the pile. So if the build pile’s top card is a…
Special Rules
If a build pile goes all the way up to 14, the player who played the 14 on the pile must say “Stop” and remove the pile from play. When the pile has been removed and everybody is ready again, the scorekeeper will signal to continue play.
The one-hand rule: No player may use both hands for building,…
Scoring
As previously stated, when a player goes pounce, all other players must count the number of remaining pounce cards that they have. Each of these cards counts as -2 points against the player’s score.
After each player has made note of this, all build piles, complete and incomplete, are gathered, sep…
Winning
The first player to score 100 points is the winner!
Rummy
One deck of 56 cards is used. The wild 57th card is not used in this game. Cards in each color rank, from low to high:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
The Deal
The first dealer is chosen randomly, and the turn to deal alternates if there are two players, and rotates clockwise if there are more than two. In a two player game, each player is dealt a hand of ten cards. Seven cards each are dealt if there are three or four players, and when five or six play ea…
Object of the Game
The object of the game is to dispose of all the cards in your hand. There are three ways to get rid of cards: melding, laying off, and discarding.
Melding is taking a combination of cards from your hand, and placing it face up in front of you on the table, where it stays. There are two kinds of com…
Play
If there are two players, they take alternate turns starting with the non dealer. If there are more than two players, they take turns in clockwise rotation, beginning with the player to dealer’s left.
Each turn consists of the following parts:The Draw. You must begin by taking one card from either…
Scoring
When a player goes out, the other players add up the value of all the cards still remaining in their hands, as follows:
All cards are worth the number value displayed on the card. 10s are worth 10 points while 14s are worth 14 points.
Ones are worth 1 point each
The total value of all the cards i…
Optional House Rules
These optional rules should be discussed and decided by the players before the beginning of the first deal.
Multiple Melds
Some people play that you can lay down as many melds as you desire in each turn.
Most people allow a player who has not previously melded or laid off any cards to earn a spec…
8-Up
8 up is played with a numbered playing card deck of 57 cards. 8 up is a clever game that consists of 16 rounds of play. Each round a different amount of cards is dealt out to all of the players. Starting from round one where 8 cards are dealt. Then round two where 7 cards are dealt. All the way down…
Amount of Cards per Round
8 Cards
7 Cards
6 Cards
5 Cards
4 Cards
3 Cards
2 Cards
1 Card
1 Card. Note: This should be done “Indian style” by placing the card on your forehead without looking at it so you can see all of the other players cards, but do not know what card you have. You then bid accordingly.
2 cards
3 Cards
4 C…
Bidding
After all the players are dealt their cards for the round, one card is flipped over from the top of the deck. The color of the card is then trump for this round (if the wild 57th card is flipped, pick the next card). Players then look at their hand and based on knowing the trump color, the amount of…
Winning
Each round totals are added per player until all rounds have been played. The payer with the most points at the end of all 16 rounds wins.
Example ScenarioPlayer bids 3 for the round
Players gets 3 tricks at the end of the round
Player is awarded 8 pointsExample Scenario 2Player bids 3 for the…
On-Off Rook [Rook-on, Rook-off] [On-off 57]
Scum
Scum is a card game based on the ideals of cutthroat American Capitalism: to wit, the rich get richer, and the poor…well, don’t be poor.
Scum works best for four players, but it is possible to play with more. For reasons that will become clear later, you will need at least four to play.
Scum can b…
Hierarchy of Cards
The heirarchy of cards is as follows: 57 Wild Card is highest, followed by 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 as the lowest. I thought I’d mention this now, because after the cards are dealt, Worker has to give the highest card in his hand to Manager. That’s right, the highest card, n…
Play
The President leads on the first trick; after that, the last player to play on the previous trick leads. The leader will play one or more cards. The next player in line must then beat that play. This is done by playing a higher card or combination of cards. Matching is not enough; a player must play…
Tricks
President opens the game by playing a 6. Manager follows by playing an 8. Worker plays a 9, and Scum plays an 11. Scum then cleans up the cards before the others start taunting him.
Scum leads off the next trick with three 6’s. President passes, having no triples. Manager has three 11s but wants to…
Notes
Scum can also be played by having a continuous flow of play. Meaning, a round does not officially end until all players have passed. Therefore, the last player to play will get lead and you can choose to keep playing higher and higher in each round that is started.
Another version of scum can inclu…
BS
To set up the game you deal a no wild 57 Card deck out (removing the 57th Card) equally to everyone that is playing. Do not worry if one or more players have more cards then another.
Play
The first player discards 1s face down into the middle of the table, the next player discards 2s face down, then 3s, 4s, … And so on until you get to 14s and then you go back to 1s.
When it is your turn you can put down as many cards face down as you would like as long as they are the right number….
Winning
The first person to get rid of their cards is the winner.
Tip
When you cheat make it small. No one will expect you of cheating if you only discard 1 or 2 cards.
Hearts with 57 Cards
The Hearts card game rules are simple to follow and you can play it with just a standard 52 card deck or you can play this modified version with 57 cards. The modified version with 57 cards using the same hearts rules, only Red are considered hearts, and the 57th card is considered the Queen of spad…
Set Up
You set the game up by dealing clockwise until all of the cards are used up. Deal so that all players have the same amount of cards using all the cards available. Any remaining cards are left to the side to be taken by the last trick.
Passing Cards
You can also pass 3 cards face down to other players. The dealer should call out how many cards to pass and what direction while dealing out the deck of cards.
Playing
Whoever has the 2 of green goes first. The first person plays 1 card of 1 color; all other players must play a card of the same color if possible. If you don’t have a card from that color you can play any other card from your hand.
Whoever has the highest card of the starting color wins that point …
Winning
In this game getting points is bad. Each red that is played is 1 point and the 57th card is 14 points.
The game continues until 1 player has 100 points or more. When that happens whoever has the least amount of points wins.
Shooting the Moon
A player may shoot the moon by collecting all the point cards in their hand during one round. That would mean winning all of the 14 red cards as well as the 14 pt 57th card. This then gives 28 points to all of the other players and the individual shooting the moon receives 0 pts for the round.
Golden Ten
Another version of Hearts played with 56 cards has been called golden ten. The rules for this version are as follows:
This is a game for 3 to 7 players, related to Hearts, played with a Rook deck of 56 cards. The cards are of four colors: red, yellow, green and black. In each color there are cards …
