Toepen

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. Laundry: swapping a bad hand
5. Playing the tricks
6. Knocking
7. Winning the game
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

Toepen (say "TOO-pen") is a quick Dutch card game full of bluff. Everyone gets just 4 cards and plays for themselves. Only one thing matters: winning the last trick. Everyone else collects penalty points. At any moment a player may knock on the table to raise the stakes – the others must then decide whether to stay in and risk more, or fold and take their loss now. Whoever first reaches 10 penalty points loses the game.

• Players: 3–8; best with 4.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck, and paper and pencil (or chalk and slate) for the penalty points.

The cards

Take out the 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K and A of every suit – 32 cards. The 2s to 6s are not used.

The ranking is unusual. In every suit, from high to low:

10 9 8 7 A K Q J

The 10 is the highest card and the Jack the lowest. There are no trumps.

Setup

1. Dealer: choose the first dealer at random. Later, the winner of each hand deals the next one.
2. The dealer shuffles and deals 4 cards to each player, clockwise. The rest of the pack is placed face down in the middle as a stock. (With 8 players the whole pack is dealt out: there is no stock, so no laundry swap is possible.)
3. Every hand starts at a value of 1 penalty point.

Laundry: swapping a bad hand

A hand made up only of A, K, Q and J – no 10, 9, 8 or 7 – is called laundry (Dutch witte was, "white laundry"). Before the first card is played, a player may lay their hand face down on the table, say "laundry", and deal themselves 4 new cards from the stock.

Anyone may check the discarded hand by turning it face up:

• If it really was laundry, the checker gets 1 penalty point.
• If it contained a 10, 9, 8 or 7, the player who swapped gets 1 penalty point (but keeps the new hand).

Anyone may also swap without checking – it's a bluff that costs a point if someone looks. Several players may swap, even more than once, until the stock is used up.

Playing the tricks

The player to the dealer's left leads to the first trick. Going clockwise, everyone plays one card face up:

• Follow suit: you must play a card of the suit that was led if you can.
• If you can't, play any card – it cannot win.
• The highest card of the suit led wins the trick, and its winner leads to the next one.

After 4 tricks the hand is over. The winner of the fourth trick wins the hand and scores nothing. Every other player who is still in gets the hand's value in penalty points.

Knocking

At any time – before the first lead, in the middle of a trick, even during the last trick – a player may knock on the table (or say "toep"). This raises the value of the hand by 1 point.

After a knock, going clockwise from the knocker's left, every other player still in says whether they stay in or fold:

• Fold: put your cards face down. You take the value the hand had before this knock (1 on the first knock, 2 on the second, …) and play no further part.
• Stay in: if you then don't win the last trick, you take the new, higher value.

More rules for knocking:

• You may not knock twice in a row: after knocking, you may only knock again once someone else has knocked.
• You can't fold on your own knock.
• If everyone else folds, the knocker wins the hand at once and deals next.
• If the winner of a trick folds, the next player to the left who is still in leads.
• Near the limit: you may only knock if losing the new value would not take you past the limit. With a limit of 10, a player with 9 points may not knock at all, one with 8 may not make the second knock, and so on.

Example: Anna, Ben, Carla and Dan play. After two tricks Ben knocks: the hand is now worth 2. Carla folds and gets 1 point. Dan and Anna stay in. Before the last trick Anna knocks again: now it's worth 3. Dan folds and gets 2 points. Ben stays in. Anna leads the 9♠ and Ben has only 8♠ – Anna wins. Ben gets 3 points, Anna none. Anna deals next.

Winning the game

Keep a running total of each player's penalty points. The first player to reach 10 loses the game. Then clear the score and start a new game.

Tips for beginners

• Knock when you're sure. If you'll certainly win the last trick – say, you hold the 10 of the suit that has just been led – knock before you show it. Anyone who stays in pays extra.
• Fold early and cheaply. Folding on the first knock costs only 1 point.
• Bluff now and then. If you only knock with sure winners, everyone will fold every time.
• Save your best card. Winning early tricks is worthless; keep a high card for the last trick.

Variants

Agree on these before you start.

• 15 points: in the Netherlands many groups play until someone reaches 15 penalty points.
• Dirty laundry (vuile was): a hand of three A/K/Q/J plus one 7 may also be swapped.
• Cards face up: a player caught swapping a hand that wasn't laundry must also play that hand with their cards face up.
• Poverty (armoede): a player one point short of the limit starts the hand as if they had knocked, so it is worth 2 from the start. The others must decide before the first lead whether to stay in or fold for 1 point. The poor player leads and may not knock.
• Whistling: a player who holds three 10s must whistle (anyone who can't whistle must sing loudly); three Jacks may whistle. Four 10s: stand up; four Jacks: may stand up.
• Play to the end: the player who reaches the limit drops out, and the others play on until only one is left – the winner.