Vint

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Basic terms
3. Card order and suit order
4. Setup
5. The auction
6. Playing the tricks
7. Scoring
8. Game and rubber
9. Winning the game
10. Tips for beginners
11. Variants

Overview

Vint was the great card game of late 19th-century Russia and an ancestor of contract Bridge. Four players play in two fixed partnerships (teams of two). First comes an auction: the players bid to name the trump suit and to promise a number of tricks. Then all 13 tricks are played – and unlike Bridge, there is no dummy: everyone plays their own hand. Both teams score for every trick they take, and the higher the bid, the more each trick is worth. The name means "screw" in Russian: the bids go round and up like a screw being tightened.

These rules follow pagat.com's translation of a Moscow rule book of 1886, one of the few complete 19th-century descriptions. Vint is hardly played today; its living descendant is Skruuvi in Finland.

• Players: 4, in two partnerships. Partners sit opposite each other.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, and paper and pen for the score.

Basic terms

• Trick: each player plays one card, going clockwise; the best card wins all four. A deal has 13 tricks.
• Trumps: the suit named in the winning bid. A trump beats every card of the other suits. In a no trumps contract there is no trump suit.
• Follow suit: play a card of the suit that was led.
• Honours: the five top trumps, A K Q J 10.

Card order and suit order

In each suit the cards rank from high to low: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2.

For the auction, the suits have a rank too, from low to high:

♠ spades – ♣ clubs – ♦ diamonds – ♥ hearts – no trumps

Setup

1. Partners: draw cards or agree who plays with whom. Partners sit opposite. Below, Anna & Carla play against Ben & Dan, seated Anna, Ben, Carla, Dan clockwise.
2. Deal: the dealer shuffles, the player on the right cuts, and the dealer deals all 52 cards face down, one at a time, clockwise. Everyone gets 13 cards.
3. The deal passes to the left after each hand.

The auction

The dealer speaks first, then the others in turn clockwise. At your turn you either pass or make a bid.

A bid has a level from 1 to 7 and a denomination (a suit or no trumps). The level says how many tricks over six your team will take: level 1 = 7 tricks, level 4 = 10 tricks, level 7 = all 13. A level-1 bid is called simple: "diamonds" means 1♦. Level 6 is a small slam, level 7 a grand slam.

Each bid must be higher than the one before: either a higher level, or the same level in a higher denomination. After 2♦, for example, 2♥, 2 no trumps or anything at level 3 or more is allowed.

• No bid at all: if all four players pass twice in a row, the cards are thrown in and the next player deals.
• End of the auction: once someone has bid, the auction ends only after twelve passes in a row – every player, including the last bidder, passes three times. Until then anyone may bid again, even over their own bid – for instance to raise it to a higher level, which makes every trick worth more.
• There are no doubles or redoubles.

The last and highest bid is the contract. The player who made it is the declarer; the declarer and partner are the bidding team, the other two are the opponents.

Example: Anna deals and bids "diamonds" (1♦). Ben bids "hearts" (1♥), Carla "two diamonds" (2♦). Then everybody passes. After three passes Carla still has the right to speak again and could raise herself to 3♦, but she passes too. After twelve passes in a row, 2♦ is the contract and Carla is the declarer.

Playing the tricks

The player to the declarer's left leads the first trick. There is no dummy: all four hands stay hidden and each player plays their own cards.

• Going clockwise, everyone plays one card. You must follow suit if you can. If you can't, you may play any card, including a trump.
• The highest trump wins the trick. If no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led wins.
• The winner of a trick leads to the next one.

Keep the tricks of your team in one pile in front of one partner.

Scoring

Draw a line across the score sheet, with one column for each team. Points below the line count towards winning a game; points above the line only count at the end.

Tricks (below the line)

Both teams score for every trick they took – whether the contract was made or not. Each trick is worth the trick value of the contract:

So 2♠ is worth 14 a trick, 3♠ 24, 4♦ 38, 7 no trumps 72.

Example: the contract is 2♦ (trick value 18). Anna & Carla take 9 tricks: 9 × 18 = 162 below the line. Ben & Dan take 4 tricks: 4 × 18 = 72 below the line.

It pays to bid high: 4♦ made with 10 tricks scores 10 × 38 = 380, but 3♦ with the same 10 tricks only 10 × 28 = 280.

Honours (above the line)

In a suit contract, the team that holds three or more of the five honours (A K Q J 10 of trumps) between them scores above the line:

It doesn't matter how the honours are split between the partners. Show them after the last trick.

Aces (above the line)

In every contract, suit or no trumps, the team with more Aces scores 10 × trick value for each Ace it holds. If each team has two Aces, the team that took more tricks scores for two Aces.

Example: in 2♦ (trick value 18), Anna & Carla hold three diamond honours: 20 × 18 = 360 above. Ben & Dan hold three Aces: 3 × 10 × 18 = 540 above.

Slams (above the line)

Undertricks (above the line)

If the bidding team takes fewer tricks than it bid, the opponents score above the line:

number of missing tricks × level of the contract × 500

A failed small slam costs another 3000, a failed grand slam another 5000. The suit doesn't matter here. Both teams still score their tricks below the line as usual.

Example: Ben bids 4♠ (trick value 34) and his team takes only 7 tricks – 3 short. Anna & Carla score 3 × 4 × 500 = 6000 above the line. Below the line, Ben & Dan still score 7 × 34 = 238 and Anna & Carla 6 × 34 = 204.

Game and rubber

• A team that reaches 500 points below the line wins a game. This can happen in the middle of a deal; the deal is still played to the end. If both teams pass 500 in the same deal, the one that got there first, trick by trick, wins the game – so count as you play.
• Every game won earns a bonus of 500 above the line. Then draw a new line: both teams start the next game from 0 below the line.
• The team that wins two games wins the rubber, and its second game earns 1000 (instead of 500). So a rubber lasts two or three games.
• Now add up everything each team scored in the rubber, above and below the line. The team with more points wins the difference. Winning the rubber doesn't guarantee winning on points.

Winning the game

After each rubber the players change partners. A full session is three rubbers, so that everyone plays once with each of the others (e.g. Anna & Carla, then Anna & Ben, then Anna & Dan). Each player adds up their own wins and losses over the three rubbers; whoever is furthest ahead wins.

Tips for beginners

• Name the suit in which you and your partner hold honours: 4 honours in a level-3 heart contract are worth 900 – more than all the tricks.
• The auction is your only way of talking to your partner. A bid in a suit tells them where your strength is.
• Undertricks are very expensive: one trick short at level 4 costs 2000. Bid high only when you are sure.
• Even so, a sacrifice can pay. If the opponents would score a lot of honours and Aces in their contract, overbidding them in your own suit may cost less than letting them play.
• The defenders' tricks count towards game too – taking tricks as opponents is never wasted.

Variants

Optional – agree before you start.

• Short auction: at many tables, players stopped the auction early when it was clear nobody would bid again. The 1886 rule book advised against it, as it leads to arguments.
• Foster's rules (USA, c. 1900): every trick is worth 10 per level (20 in a level-2 contract, and so on), whatever the suit. The four Aces always count as honours along with the five trump honours, and the team holding the majority scores 10 × trick value for each one it holds (in no trumps only the Aces count, at 25 × trick value). Three Aces or three or more cards in sequence in one player's hand are a coronet, worth 500 plus 500 for each extra card (double in trumps or no trumps). Undertricks cost 100 × trick value each. A game is worth 1000, the rubber 2000.
• Vint with a kitty: late 19th-century Russians dealt 12 cards each and set 4 aside. The declarer took them, showed them and then gave one card from their hand to each other player. In a further form, the declarer passed four cards to their partner, who gave one to each player. This became the basis of Finnish Skruuvi.