Katko (Last Trick)

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Cards and tricks
3. Setup
4. Playing a deal
5. The 2 in the last trick
6. Winning the game
7. Tips for beginners
8. Variants

Overview

Katko is a Finnish trick-taking game in which only the last trick counts. Everyone gets four or five cards and plays them out in tricks, but winning the early tricks earns nothing – except the right to lead the next one. Whoever wins the final trick of the deal scores a point, and the first player to 3 points wins. In Finnish it is also simply called viimeinen tikki, "last trick". With its short hands and no trumps it is one of the easiest ways to learn how tricks work, and a game takes only a few minutes.

• Players: 2–10 with one deck, up to 20 with two; each for themselves.
• You need: a standard 52-card deck without jokers (two decks for 11 or more players), and something to note the points.

Cards and tricks

In each suit the cards rank from high to low: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. There are no trumps.

A trick is one round of play in which everyone puts down one card:

• The first player leads: they may play any card.
• The others follow in turn, clockwise. You must follow suit – play a card of the suit that was led – if you can. If you have none of that suit, you may play any card.
• The highest card of the suit led wins the trick. A card of another suit never wins, however high it is.
• The winner takes the trick (set it aside face down) and leads to the next trick.

Example: Anna leads the 9♠. Ben plays the K♠, Carla has no spades and plays the A♥, Dan plays the 4♠. Ben wins with the K♠ – Carla's Ace doesn't count, because it isn't a spade. Ben leads to the next trick.

Setup

1. Dealer: draw lots for the first dealer. After that the previous winner deals.
2. Deal: the dealer deals five cards to each player, one at a time, clockwise. With a large group, deal four cards each instead.
3. The rest of the deck is not used in this deal. Put it aside.

Playing a deal

The player to the dealer's left leads to the first trick. Play trick after trick until everyone has one card left; that last card is played to the last trick. The winner of the last trick scores 1 point. All the other tricks are worth nothing.

Example: Five cards each. Carla wins the fourth trick, so she leads to the last one. She has kept the A♦ for it: nobody can beat an Ace in its own suit, so she wins the last trick and scores 1 point.

The 2 in the last trick

If the player who leads the last trick leads a 2 and wins the trick with it – nobody else could follow suit – they score 3 points and win the whole game at once.

This bonus is only used with four or more players, and not when playing with two decks (see Variants).

Example: Anna, Ben, Carla and Dan are playing. Dan wins the fourth trick and leads the 2♣ to the last one. Nobody else has a club left, so the little 2 wins. Dan scores 3 points and wins the game.

Winning the game

The first player to reach 3 points wins the game. Then start a new game.

Tips for beginners

• Time your strength. The early tricks don't count, but the winner of the second-to-last trick leads to the last one. Leading the last trick with a card nobody can beat wins it.
• Keep your best card for last. An Ace kept to the end is very strong – as long as you get the lead, or its suit is led.
• Use the early tricks. When you can't follow suit, throw away the cards you don't need.
• Watch the suits. If you notice that the others have run out of a suit, a low card of that suit can win the last trick.

Variants

All optional – agree before you start.

• Longer games: play to 5 points.
• Points for 2s: every trick won with a 2 scores 1 point, so a player can score several points in one deal. This works best with two or three players.
• Trumps: turn up the next card of the deck after dealing; its suit is trumps. A trump beats every card of other suits, and the highest trump wins the trick.
• Must beat: you must play a card that beats the cards so far if you can. In a game with trumps, this rule comes before following suit: if you can't beat the trick in the suit led, you must play a trump.
• Big groups: with 11 to 20 players, shuffle two decks together and deal four cards each. Agree beforehand which of two identical cards wins, for example the one played first.