Five Hundred (500)

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. Bidding
5. The kitty
6. Playing the tricks
7. Scoring
8. Winning the game
9. Tips for beginners
10. Variants

Overview

Five Hundred is a partnership game with bidding, best known today as the national card game of Australia. Four players form two teams of two; partners sit opposite each other. In every deal the players bid for the right to choose the trump suit: the highest bidder promises that their team will win at least a certain number of the 10 tricks. The first team to reach 500 points by making a bid wins.

• Players: exactly 4, in two fixed partnerships.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck plus one joker, and paper and pencil for the score.

This page follows the common Australian rules. There is no single official rulebook, so agree on the details before you start.

The cards

Take out all 2s and 3s and the 4♠ and 4♣, and add one joker. That leaves 43 cards:

• ♥ and ♦: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 (11 cards each)
• ♠ and ♣: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 (10 cards each)
• the joker

A trick is one round of play in which each player plays one card; the best card wins all four. Trumps are the cards of the suit chosen for the deal – any trump beats any card of another suit.

When there is a trump suit, the trumps rank from high to low:

1. the joker (Australians also call it "the bird")
2. the right bower – the Jack of the trump suit
3. the left bower – the other Jack of the same colour. For the whole deal it counts as a trump, not as a card of its printed suit.
4. then A K Q 10 9 8 7 6 5 (4) of the trump suit.

Example: Spades are trumps. The trumps are: joker, J♠, J♣, A♠ K♠ Q♠ 10♠ 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ 5♠ – 12 cards. Clubs are left without their Jack: A♣ K♣ Q♣ 10♣ 9♣ … 5♣.

The other suits rank normally: A K Q J 10 9 … 4 (or 5). In no trumps and misère (see below) there are no bowers – every suit ranks A K Q J 10 … – and the joker has special rules.

Setup

1. Teams and first dealer: agree on teams or draw cards. The first dealer is chosen at random; after each deal the turn to deal passes to the left.
2. The dealer shuffles, the player on the right cuts, and the dealer deals clockwise, starting with the player on the left: 3 cards to each player, 1 card face down to the middle, 4 to each player, 1 to the middle, 3 to each player, 1 to the middle.
3. Everyone now has 10 cards. The 3 face-down cards in the middle are the kitty: extra cards that only the winner of the bidding gets to use.

Bidding

Starting with the player to the dealer's left and going clockwise, each player either passes or makes a bid. A bid is a number of tricks (six to ten) plus a trump suit or no trumps, for example "seven hearts" or "six no trumps". The number is how many of the 10 tricks your team promises to win.

• Each bid must be higher than the one before, in the order of the table below (more tricks, or the same number in a higher suit): ♠ < ♣ < ♦ < ♥ < no trumps.
• Once you pass, you may not bid again in this deal.
• Bidding goes round as often as needed until three players have passed after a bid. The last bid is the contract; that player is the contractor, and their team the contractors.
• If all four players pass, the cards are thrown in and the next dealer deals.

Every bid has a fixed value (the Avondale table):

Two special bids ask to win no tricks at all. The contractor plays alone; their partner lays their cards face down and sits out the deal.

• Misère (250): ranks above every seven bid and below every eight bid. It may only be bid after someone has bid seven.
• Open misère (500): the same, but after the first trick the contractor lays all their cards face up on the table. It ranks between ten diamonds and ten hearts and may be bid at any time.

Example: Anna bids "six spades", Ben "six hearts", Carla passes, Dan "seven clubs". Anna passes, Ben bids "seven hearts", Dan passes. Ben's contract is seven hearts, worth 200.

The kitty

The contractor picks up the 3 kitty cards without showing them and then discards any 3 cards face down – they may be cards from the kitty or from their hand. The discards are not used for the rest of the deal.

Playing the tricks

The contractor leads to the first trick. Going clockwise, everyone plays one card:

• Follow suit: if you have a card of the suit led, you must play one. Remember that the left bower and the joker are trumps when there is a trump suit.
• If you can't follow suit, you may play any card – a trump or a discard.

The highest trump wins the trick; if no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led wins. The winner leads to the next trick. Play all 10 tricks.

The joker in no trumps and misère

• A contractor who holds the joker may name a suit for it before the first lead. It is then simply the highest card of that suit.
• Otherwise the joker belongs to no suit and wins any trick it is played to. You may only play it to a trick if you have no card of the suit led.
• If you lead the joker, you name a suit that the others must follow – but only a suit that has not yet been led (house rules vary). Once all four suits have been led, the joker can no longer be led except to the last trick.
• In misère the joker would win a trick, so a misère player holding it should name a suit for it.

Scoring

After 10 tricks:

• Contract made: the contractors score the value of their bid. If they win all 10 tricks (a slam) with a bid worth less than 250, they score 250 instead.
• Contract lost: the value of the bid is subtracted from their score – scores can go below zero.
• Opponents: in a trick contract the opponents always score 10 points per trick they won.
• Misère / open misère: the contractor's team scores 250 / 500 if the contractor takes no trick, and loses 250 / 500 if they take one. The opponents score nothing.

Example: Ben's seven hearts (200). Ben and Dan win 8 tricks: +200; Anna and Carla +20. Next deal Anna bids eight no trumps (320) but her team takes only 7: Anna and Carla −320, Ben and Dan +30 for their 3 tricks.

Winning the game

A team that reaches 500 points or more by making a contract wins. Points from the opponents' 10 per trick are not enough: if they take a team to 500 or more, play goes on until that team makes a contract. A team that sinks to minus 500 or less loses ("going out the back door").

Tips for beginners

• Count on the kitty only a little. Three unknown cards rarely rescue a weak hand.
• The joker and both bowers are worth a lot – with two of them and a long suit, bid.
• Talk through bidding. Your partner's bid tells you their best suit; raising in it is often safer than naming your own.
• Contractors lead trumps early to pull the opponents' trumps.
• Misère needs low cards in every suit; a single Ace or King can sink it.

Variants

Agree on these before you start.

• No joker nomination in no trumps: some groups never let the joker be named to a suit in no trumps – only in misère.
• Misère rank: some allow misère at any time, others leave it out, and some score it 150 between the seven and eight bids.
• Rebidding: some let a player who passed bid again later.
• No 10 per trick: some give the opponents nothing, or points only when the contract fails.
• No slam bonus: a slam just scores the bid.