Play

The talon winner leads to the first trick, and the winner of each trick leads to the next. Initially there are no trumps, but if the winner of a trick holds the king and queen of a suit, he may announce them and lead the king or queen to the next trick. The suit of the king-queen immediately becomes trumps, and remains so until another pair is announced or until the end of the play if there are no further announcements.

Players must always follow suit if possible. When there are no trumps, a player who is unable to follow suit may play any card. A trick is won by the highest trump played to it, or, if it contains no trump, by the highest card of the suit led.

Announcements of marriage may cause the trump suit to change several times during the play. It is even possible for each of the four suits to be trumps in turn. However, the following restrictions should be noted:

• The player can only announce a marriage immediately after he won a trick (therefore a marriage cannot be announced in the first trick.)
• To announce a marriage you must have both cards in your hand at the time of the announcement and you must lead one of them. Although it is in the interests of the talon winner’s opponents to cooperate to defeat the bid, they each keep the tricks they win in a separate pile, and each scores only for their own tricks and announcements.

The marriage is announced automatically when the first card (king or queen) is played.