Duck Soup

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. Playing a trick
5. Drawing (Duck course only)
6. Quacking
7. Changing course
8. Scoring
9. Winning the game
10. Tips for beginners
11. Variants

Overview

Duck Soup is a trick-taking game for two, designed by the British games scholar David Parlett. A trick is one card from each player; one of the two cards wins it. Each deal has two halves, called courses. In the first course, the Duck, you draw a new card after every trick and the lowest card of the suit led wins. In the second course, the Soup, the stock is gone, you play out your hands and the highest card wins. Tricks with two different suits count double – and if you can match the rank of the card led, you can "quack" and steal the trick. Your score for a deal is your Duck points multiplied by your Soup points, so you need to do well in both courses.

• Players: 2.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, paper and pencil.

Designed by David Parlett – original rules: Duck Soup.

The cards

The four suits are equal; there are no trumps. What changes between the courses is the Ace:

So the Ace is the best card of its suit in both courses.

Setup

1. Choose the first dealer at random; after that you take turns to deal.
2. Shuffle and deal 13 cards each, one at a time. These are your hand; don't show them.
3. Put the other 26 cards face down as the stock (draw pile) and turn its top card face up on top of it.

Playing a trick

The non-dealer leads (plays the first card) to the first trick; after that, whoever won the last trick leads.

1. The leader plays any card face up.
2. The other player – the follower – plays any card too. You never have to follow suit (play the same suit as the lead): any card is allowed.
3. The trick is decided: - If the follower played a different suit, the leader wins – only cards of the suit led can win. - If both cards are of the same suit, the lower one wins in the Duck, the higher one in the Soup. - If the follower played the same rank as the lead, that's a quack (see below).
4. The winner stores the trick in front of them: - face down if both cards are of the same suit – worth 1 point; - face up if the two cards are of different suits – worth 2 points.

Example (Duck course): Anna leads the 9♣. Ben plays the 4♣ – a lower club, so Ben wins in the Duck course. Both cards are clubs, so Ben stores the trick face down: 1 point. Had Ben played the 4♥ instead, Anna would have won a face-up trick worth 2.

Drawing (Duck course only)

After each trick in the Duck course, both players draw to get back to 13 cards:

1. The winner of the trick takes the face-up card from the top of the stock.
2. The loser draws the next card, which neither player has seen.
3. The winner turns the new top card of the stock face up, then leads to the next trick.

The face-up card is worth fighting for: when you see a card you want on the stock, try to win the trick.

Quacking

There are no trumps, but you can still win a trick with a card of another suit: play a card of the same rank as the one led (an 8 on an 8, a Queen on a Queen …) and say "Quack!". If you play a matching rank and forget to say it, the leader wins the trick, and it counts double.

After a quack, the leader has two choices:

• "Duck": the leader can't or won't match again and says "Duck". The quacker wins the trick. It holds two different suits, so it goes face up: 2 points. The quacker leads next.
• "Quack-quack": the leader leads a third card of the same rank to start a second trick. Now the follower plays a fourth card:
• If it is the fourth card of that rank, the follower says "Duck soup!" and wins both tricks, both face up: 2 + 2 points.
• Otherwise the leader wins both tricks. The first trick goes face up (2 points). The second trick goes face down (1 point) if the follower's card is of the same suit as the leader's third card, and face up (2 points) if not.

After a quack-quack in the Duck course, you each draw two cards instead of one, so that you are back to 13: the winner takes the face-up card and the next card, the loser the two after that, and then the winner turns up the new top card. If the stock has only two cards left, the winner takes the face-up card and the loser the last one; the Soup course then has 12 tricks instead of 13.

Example: Anna leads the J♠. Ben plays the J♥ and says "Quack!". Anna holds the J♣ and says "Quack-quack", leading it to a second trick. Ben has no Jack left and plays the 9♣. Anna wins both tricks: the first (J♠, J♥) face up for 2 points, the second (J♣, 9♣, both clubs) face down for 1 point. Then Anna and Ben each draw two cards.

Changing course

The Duck course ends as soon as the last card has been drawn from the stock. Before the next trick is led, both players count their Duck points – 1 per face-down trick, 2 per face-up trick – write them down and put those tricks aside.

The Soup course follows: play out the remaining 13 cards in your hands (no more drawing), with the highest card of the suit led winning and Aces high. Quacking works just as before. At the end, count your Soup points the same way.

Scoring

Your score for the deal is your Duck points × your Soup points. If you have nothing in one course, you score nothing for the whole deal.

Example: In the Duck course Anna took 6 tricks, 4 face down and 2 face up: 4 + 4 = 8 points. Ben took 7 tricks, 5 face down and 2 face up: 9 points. In the Soup course Anna took 6 tricks, 3 face down and 3 face up: 9 points; Ben took 7, 4 face down and 3 face up: 10 points. Anna scores 8 × 9 = 72, Ben 9 × 10 = 90.

Winning the game

• Play deals until someone reaches 250 points – usually two deals. The higher total wins (if you are level, play one more deal).
• In the soup: if you lose and have fewer than 125 points in total, you lose a double game (it counts as two lost games).
• In the pond: if you score 125 or more in a single deal, you win a double game at once, without playing on.

Tips for beginners

• Balance matters more than volume: six tricks in each course beat ten in one and two in the other, because the two scores are multiplied.
• The Ace wins its suit in both courses – save Aces for a trick you really want.
• A low card in the Duck course is a strong card; a low card in the Soup course is only good for throwing away.
• Keep pairs of equal rank: they let you quack, or protect you when your opponent quacks.
• Remember which cards have gone. In the Soup course all cards are known, so you can work out your opponent's hand.

Variants

• Hidden stock: in Parlett's original rules the top card of the stock stayed face down. The face-up card was suggested by a player on BoardGameGeek, inspired by German Whist, and Parlett adopted it.
• Match play: a German translation of the rules plays a match of two out of three (or three out of five) games to 250; "in the pond" wins, and "in the soup" loses, two games at once.
• More players: Parlett has separate versions for three (Trebleduck, with two jokers as "ducks") and for four in partnerships (Doubleduck); see his website.