Differenzler

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup, deal and trumps
4. Predicting
5. Playing a trick
6. Scoring
7. Winning the game
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

Differenzler is a Swiss Jass game in which everyone plays for themselves. It uses the cards and trick rules of Jass (Schieber), but with a twist: before play, each player predicts how many card points they will take. Afterwards, the difference between prediction and result is written down as penalty points. Being close is what counts – taking lots of points is no help if you predicted few.

It is a trick-taking game: everyone plays one card, and the highest card wins all of them – together they form a trick.

• Players: 3–5, best with 4 (for 5 see Variants), each for themselves.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck, paper and pencil. One player is the scorer.
• Goal: the fewest penalty points after 12 hands.

The cards

Take out the 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K and A of every suit – 36 cards. The 2s to 5s are not used.

Cards rank and score differently in the trump suit (the suit that beats all others):

Both columns go from highest to lowest. The winner of the last trick gets 5 extra points, so every hand is worth 157 points. There are no points for Weis, Stöck or match in the basic game.

Setup, deal and trumps

Jass is played anticlockwise: dealing, predicting and play all go to the right.

1. Choose the first dealer at random; afterwards the deal passes to the right.
2. The dealer shuffles, and another player cuts. The card at the bottom of the cut-off packet decides the trump suit: it is shown to everyone and ends up as the dealer's last card.
3. The dealer deals 3 cards at a time until all cards are dealt: 9 each with four players, 12 each with three. The trump card stays face up in front of the dealer until play begins.
4. The player to the dealer's right is forehand.

Predicting

Look at your cards and think about how many points you will take. Starting with forehand and going anticlockwise, each player announces a number from 0 to 157; the dealer goes last. You may correct your number only until the next player has spoken. The scorer writes all predictions down.

Everyone hears the other predictions – use them! If the others together have predicted 140, there are only 17 points left for you.

Playing a trick

Forehand leads any card. Then each player in turn, anticlockwise, plays one card. The winner of a trick leads to the next.

• Following: if you have a card of the suit led, you must play that suit – or a trump. You may trump even if you could follow suit.
• If you can't follow suit, play any card.
• Undertrumping: once someone has trumped a trick, you may play a lower trump only if you have no card of the suit led (stricter in Schieber, where that is only allowed if you have nothing but trumps).
• Trumps led: you must play a trump if you have one. Exception: if your only trump is the Puur, you don't have to play it.

The trick goes to the highest trump in it; if there's no trump, to the highest card of the suit led. You may look through your own tricks at any time to count your points.

Example: ♦ trumps. Anna leads 10♠. Ben has spades and plays K♠. Carla has no spades and trumps with 6♦. Dan has no spades either and plays the J♦ – the Puur – and wins 10 + 4 + 0 + 20 = 34 points.

Scoring

After the last trick, everyone counts their points (the last trick +5). Your penalty is the difference between prediction and points taken – always counted positive.

Example: Predictions: Anna 40, Ben 25, Carla 60, Dan 30. Taken: Anna 46, Ben 25, Carla 51, Dan 35 (together 157). Penalties: Anna 6, Ben 0, Carla 9, Dan 5.

Winning the game

Play 12 hands with four players (each deals three times), or another number divisible by the number of players so that everyone deals equally often. With five players, play 10 or 15 hands. The player with the fewest penalty points wins; a tie is shared.

Tips for beginners

• Count trumps and Aces. The Puur, the Nell and trump Aces almost always win tricks; plain Aces often do.
• Low predictions are safest with few trumps – but beware: others may dump points on your tricks.
• Listen to the predictions. The dealer, who speaks last, knows the most.
• Steer your tricks. Once you have enough points, play low and avoid winning tricks; if you're short, try to grab the last trick (+5).
• Keep counting your own tricks – you're allowed to look.

Variants

All optional – agree before you play.

• Hidden predictions (verdeckt): everyone writes their prediction secretly on a slip of paper that stays hidden until the end of the hand. This is the form played on Swiss TV (Samschtig-Jass).
• Bonus for a direct hit: a player who takes exactly their prediction scores −10 instead of 0 (some groups don't give it for a prediction of 0).
• Stöck: the K and Q of trumps in one hand count 20 points, which the holder may add or subtract.
• Five players: remove one 6 – 35 cards, 7 each.
• Penalty for not following suit: 20 penalty points.
• 16 hands: some groups play 16 hands with four players.