Rikken

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Setup
3. The bids
4. Bidding
5. Trumps and the called Ace
6. Playing a deal
7. Paying
8. Winning the game
9. Tips for beginners
10. Variants
11. Wiezen (Belgium)

Overview

Rikken is the Dutch member of the Solo Whist family, played mainly in the province of North Brabant. It is a trick-taking game: a trick is one card from each player, and the best card wins all four. Everyone plays for themselves, but in each deal the players bid for a contract – a promise to win a certain number of tricks (or none, or exactly one). The highest bidder then names the trump suit and either calls an Ace – whoever holds it becomes their secret partner for this deal – or plays alone against the other three. Success is paid by the opponents; failure costs the bidder.

The Belgian cousin Wiezen is described in full at the end of this page.

• Players: 4 (rules for 3 and 5 under Variants).
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, and chips or counters (or paper and pencil) for paying.

Setup

The cards rank from high to low in every suit: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. Deal, bidding and play go clockwise.

1. Dealer: choose the first dealer at random. After each deal, the turn to deal passes to the left.
2. Shuffling: shuffle once before the first deal. After that, Rikken players traditionally don't shuffle – the player on the dealer's right only cuts the deck (lifts off part of it and puts it underneath).
3. Deal: the dealer deals all the cards so that everyone has 13, usually in packets of six and then seven cards. No card is turned up – there is no trump suit until the bidding is over.

The bids

From lowest to highest. Value is what each payment is worth (see Paying).

• Overtricks are tricks won beyond the number needed. In a solo there is no reward for bidding 9 to 12 instead of 8 – it scores the same or less. You only bid higher to beat another player's bid.
• Open contracts: after the first trick, the bidder lays their whole hand face up on the table and plays from it.
• With talk (met een praatje): after the first trick, all four players put their hands face up, and the opponents may discuss which cards to play.

Bidding

1. Starting with the player on the dealer's left, each player in turn passes or bids a contract higher than the last one. The bidding goes round as often as needed.
2. Once you have passed, you can't bid again in this deal.
3. The bidding ends when three players have passed. The last bidder is the declarer.
4. Equal bids: misère and piek are equal – a player may bid misère or piek after another player's misère or piek. The same goes for open misère and open piek, and for the two contracts with talk. If the latest bids of all players still in the bidding are equal, the bidding ends and all of these contracts are played at the same time.
5. Three Aces: if you hold three Aces, you must bid troela (or higher) at your first turn, unless someone has already bid higher.
6. If all four pass, the cards are thrown in and the next dealer deals.

Trumps and the called Ace

Just before the first lead, the declarer announces the trump suit – the suit that beats all others – and, in a rik, calls an Ace: "Spades are trumps, and the Ace of hearts is my partner." There are no trumps in misère and piek.

• In rik beter, hearts must be trumps.
• The called Ace may not be the Ace of trumps. It must be an Ace the declarer does not hold, of a suit in which the declarer holds at least one card.
• The player holding the called Ace becomes the declarer's partner – but must not say so. Nobody knows who it is until the Ace appears.
• If the declarer holds four Aces, they call a King instead; everything below applies to the called King.
• Blind call: if the declarer has no suit in which they hold cards but not the Ace, they call the Ace of a suit they don't have, and must say it is called "blind".
• Troela: the declarer announces the suit of the missing Ace. Its holder is the partner and names the trump suit – any suit except that of their single Ace.

Playing a deal

1. The player to the dealer's left leads (plays the first card to) the first trick.
2. The others play one card each, clockwise. You must follow suit – play a card of the suit led – if you can. If you can't, you may play any card, including a trump.
3. Who wins the trick: the highest trump in it; if there is none, the highest card of the suit led. The winner leads to the next trick.
4. The called Ace: the first time the suit of the called Ace is led, its holder must play the Ace to that trick, even if someone has already trumped it. The holder may also lead a low card of that suit themselves – then the Ace stays in their hand, and everyone knows who the partner is. The same applies to the single Ace in a troela.
5. Blind lead: after a blind call, the declarer may once lead a card face down, as long as the called Ace hasn't been played. The others must follow with the suit of the called Ace if they can, and the called Ace must be played. The trick is won by the called Ace, or by the highest trump if there is one. Then the face-down card is turned over.

Example: Anna bids rik and the others pass. She says: "Diamonds are trumps, the Ace of spades is my partner." Carla has the A♠ but keeps quiet. On the fifth trick Ben leads the 9♠, Carla must play the A♠ – now everyone knows that Anna and Carla are partners.

Paying

Payments are settled with chips after every deal.

• Rik, rik beter, troela: if the declarer and partner win 8 tricks or more, each of them receives the value (1, plus 1 per overtrick; in troela 2, plus 1 per overtrick). Each opponent pays that amount to one of the two winners. If they fail, each of the two pays 1 plus 1 per trick short (troela: 2 plus 1) to one of the opponents.
• Solo 8 to 12: the declarer receives 1 plus 1 per overtrick from each opponent, or pays each opponent 1 plus 1 per trick short.
• All 13 tricks: in rik, troela and solos up to 12, a side that wins every trick receives 1 extra.
• All other contracts: the declarer receives the fixed value from each opponent, or pays it to each.
• Contracts played together: every contract is paid separately.

Example: Anna and Carla (rik) take 10 tricks – two overtricks, so the value is 3. Ben pays 3 to Anna and Dan pays 3 to Carla. Had they taken only 7, Anna would pay Ben 2 and Carla would pay Dan 2.

Example: Anna bids misère and Ben bids piek; both succeed. Anna receives 5 from each of the other three and pays 5 for Ben's piek: +10. Ben also gets +10, Carla and Dan pay 10 each. If Ben had failed instead, he would pay 5 to each of the others for his piek on top of the 5 he pays Anna for her misère: Anna +20, Ben −20, Carla and Dan 0.

Winning the game

There is no fixed end. Play as long as you like, or an agreed number of deals (a multiple of four, so everyone deals equally often). Whoever has won the most chips wins.

Tips for beginners

• For a rik you want about five sure tricks of your own. Call the Ace of a suit in which you hold a King or a Queen – your partner's Ace protects it.
• As the partner, help without giving yourself away too early: the opponents don't know whom to play against.
• Misère needs low cards in every suit. Keep your 2s and 3s – they let you duck under other players' cards to the end.
• Piek is easier than it looks with one sure winner (a lone Ace) and low cards everywhere else.
• Against a lone declarer, the three opponents work together: lead the declarer's weak suits and don't overtake each other's winning cards.

Variants

Rikken has countless house rules; every family and club plays its own. Frequent ones:

• Better suit by cut: the "beter" suit is cut from the deck before each deal instead of always being hearts. Many allow "beter" solos too (solo 8 beter ranks just above solo 8 and scores the same); some forbid all "beter" bids.
• No piek: many players leave out all piek bids.
• Partner pays nothing: if a rik fails, only the declarer pays – double. The partner is still paid when the rik succeeds.
• No solo as first bid: a rik, misère, piek or troela must have been bid before anyone may bid a solo.
• Solo 7: an extra bid between rik beter and solo 8.
• Dealer must bid if the first three players have passed.
• Troela: some don't force a player with three Aces to bid it, some leave it out, and some let the declarer choose trumps.
• All pass – a special game without trumps:
• Queen of Spades (schoppen mie): avoid the Q♠ and the last trick. The two losers pay 10 each to the other two; if one player takes both, they pay 10 to each of the others.
• Queens (mie-en): each Queen taken costs 5; the 20 go to the player without Queens (or are split between two).
• 1-5-11: try to win exactly 1, 5 or 11 tricks; each loser pays 10 to a winner.
• Five players: the dealer deals but gets no cards and sits out the deal, taking no part in the play or the paying.
• Three players: deal four hands as usual. The fourth hand is a dummy: after the bidding it is laid face up, and the dummy's partner or partners choose which card it plays.

Wiezen (Belgium)

Wiezen is Flemish for Whist. The Belgian game works like Rikken, with three big differences: the trump suit is turned up at the deal, partners join openly in the bidding, and solos are for only five tricks. Values below are those of one club in Sint-Niklaas – every group has its own.

Deal

The dealer gives everyone 4, then 4, then 5 cards (13 each). The dealer's last card is shown to everyone: its suit is the proposed trump suit. The card belongs to the dealer, who takes it into hand when play begins.

Bids (lowest first)

• Vraag ("I ask") offers to win 8 tricks with a partner; another player joins by saying meegaan ("I go with"). The two then play together, wherever they sit.
• A player whose vraag nobody accepts may change it to solo or higher – the only way to bid solo.
• Abondance in troef (9 tricks, turned suit trumps) ranks just above abondance and scores the same; it is only used to beat an abondance.
• The player on the dealer's left may also say wachten ("wait"): at their next turn they may then only accept a vraag or pass.
• Troel is compulsory with three or four Aces, and only open miserie or solo slim beat it. With four Aces, the holder of the highest heart the bidder doesn't have is the partner, and hearts are trumps.
• Several players may bid miserie (or open miserie) at the same time; the contracts are played together.
• If all pass, the same dealer deals again.

Play and paying

The player on the dealer's left leads – except in troel, where the partner must lead the fourth Ace (or the called heart), and in solo slim, where the bidder leads. Follow suit if you can; otherwise play any card.

A lone player collects the value from each opponent or pays it to each. In the two-against-two contracts, each loser pays each winner the value. All 13 tricks in vraag, solo or troel double the value.

Example: Anna asks, Carla goes with her, and they take 10 tricks: value 1 + 2 = 3. Ben and Dan each pay 3 to Anna and 3 to Carla.

Common Wiezen extras: pico (win exactly one trick, no trumps, 6) and kleine miserie (everyone first discards one card face down, then lose all 12 tricks, 5), both ranked between solo and abondance; and when everyone passes, a round without trumps such as lose the last trick, no Queens or fewest tricks.