Trix

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup and the kingdoms
4. The trick-taking contracts
5. The Trix contract
6. Scoring
7. Winning the game
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

Trix (also written Trex) is a compendium game from the Middle East, popular in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. A session is made up of five different games, called contracts, and every player chooses each of them once – much like the French game Barbu. In four contracts you try to avoid something: the King of Hearts, the Queens, the diamonds or tricks in general. In the fifth, Trix, you try to get rid of your cards first. Everyone plays for themselves (a partnership version is under Variants).

A trick is one card from each player; the best card wins all four. A session has 20 deals. Whoever has the most points at the end wins.

• Players: exactly 4.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, a score sheet and pencil.

The cards

In every 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.

Setup and the kingdoms

Dealing and play go anticlockwise (to the right).

1. Anyone shuffles and deals all 52 cards one at a time, so that everyone has 13 cards.
2. The player who got the 7♥ in this first deal owns the kingdom: they choose the contract for this deal and then deal the next four deals themselves, choosing a different contract each time. A kingdom is these five deals, in which the owner chooses each contract once, in any order.
3. After the first kingdom, the player to the owner's right owns the next kingdom, then the next player, and so on. Each owner deals all five deals of their kingdom.
4. After four kingdoms (20 deals) the game is over.

The trick-taking contracts

In the first four contracts, the dealer leads (plays the first card) to the first trick. The others play one card each in turn to the right. You must follow suit – play a card of the suit led – if you can; if you can't, you may play any card. The highest card of the suit led wins the trick, and its winner leads to the next.

• King of Hearts: you may not lead a heart unless you have only hearts left.
• Queens and Diamonds: put the penalty cards you take face up in front of you so everyone can see who has what.

Doubling the King and the Queens

In King of Hearts, the player holding the K♥ may double it by showing it to everyone before the first lead. Then:

• If another player takes the K♥: that player scores −150, the holder +75.
• If the holder wins a trick with the K♥: the holder scores −150, and the player who led to that trick +75. If the holder led the K♥ themselves and it wins, they just score −75.

In Queens, each player may double any Queens they hold in the same way. A doubled Queen costs −50, and the player who doubled it gets +25 – or, if the holder takes it back, the holder gets −50 and the player who led to that trick +25 (−25 only if the holder led it).

The Trix contract

Trix has no tricks. Players build four rows on the table, one per suit, and try to get rid of their cards first.

1. The dealer starts; then each player in turn to the right plays one card face up if they can.
2. A card is playable if it is a Jack, or next in rank and in the same suit to a card already on the table. Each suit starts with its Jack and is built up to the Ace on one side and down to the 2 on the other.
3. If you can play, you must. If you can't, you pass.
4. Continue until everyone is out. 1st out +200, 2nd +150, 3rd +100, 4th +50.

Example: Anna leads the J♠. Ben has no Jack and no card next to it – he passes. Carla plays the 10♠, Dan the J♥. Anna may now play the Q♠, 9♠, Q♥, 10♥ or any other Jack.

Bad hand: if Trix is announced and a player holds four 2s, or three 2s and the 3 of the fourth suit, that player may demand a new deal. The dealer then chooses again from the contracts they haven't played yet (Trix included).

Scoring

Write each player's points after every deal. Over the five contracts the totals are −75, −100, −130, −195 and +500, which add up to 0 – so after every kingdom the four scores together are 0, an easy check.

Example: Queens, no doubling. Dan takes two Queens, Anna and Carla one each: Anna −25, Ben 0, Carla −25, Dan −50. Had Ben doubled his Q♠ and Dan taken it, Dan would lose another 25 (−75 in all) and Ben would score +25.

Winning the game

After 20 deals the player with the highest total wins. The four totals always add up to 0.

Tips for beginners

• Choose King of Hearts when you have many hearts: your other suits are short, so you'll soon be able to throw away the King when another suit is led.
• King of Hearts is worth only 75, but all of it goes to one player – in Collections the 195 points are usually shared.
• In Trix, 2s and other low cards are a burden, and Aces too. A block like 7-6-5 in a suit where you don't hold the 4, 3 and 2 holds everyone else up.
• Get rid of high cards early in the avoidance contracts, while others still have to follow suit.

Variants

• Without doubling: many groups leave it out.
• Penalty cards first: in the first three contracts, a player who can't follow suit must throw away a penalty card (K♥, a Queen, a diamond) if they have one.
• Swapped scores: at some tables Diamonds cost −15 each and Collections −10 per trick.
• Free heart leads in King of Hearts.
• Fixed order: at some tables the contracts are played in a set order, e.g. in Jordan sometimes Trix, Queens, King of Hearts, Diamonds, Collections.
• Reversed scores: positive points for the first four contracts and negative for Trix; the lowest total wins.
• Partnership Trix: partners sit opposite each other. Everyone still keeps their own score and has their own kingdom. In Trix, after everyone's first turn, all players put their 2s face up on the table. At the end the partners' scores are added up – or, in some groups, the team of the player with the worst score loses.
• Trix Complex: the dealer may play two or more of the first four contracts at once, scoring all of them in one deal; their kingdom has fewer deals. It makes the game more a matter of luck.