All Fives

Players and equipment

All Fives is for two or three players, each playing for themselves — there are no partnerships at this table size. Use a standard 52-card deck, aces high and twos low in every suit. The trump suit is not fixed before the game starts; it is set fresh by the turn of a card at the start of each hand.

The deal

Deal and the turn to deal both pass to the left after each hand. The dealer deals six cards to each player, three at a time, then turns the next card face up: this shows the trump suit. If the card that finally settles trumps is a jack, the dealer scores one point for it; a jack turned before the cards are run, or before a bunch, scores nothing.

The player to the dealer's left looks at their hand and either accepts the trump suit shown or begs for a different one. If they accept, play starts at once. If they beg, the dealer has two choices: take it, or run the cards. Taking it means keeping the suit as it stands — every other player at the table scores one point as a gift for that, unless the player who did not beg needs only a single point to win the whole game, in which case that player may not win that way and the dealer must run the cards instead.

Running the cards means dealing three more cards to everyone and turning up another card to decide trumps. If the new card is the same suit as before, the dealer runs again, and again, until a different suit turns up — or the deck runs out, in which case every card dealt is bunched together, shuffled and dealt again by the same dealer. Once a new trump suit is settled this way, every player discards face down back down to six cards before play begins.

Play

The player to the dealer's left leads the first trick, whatever happened over the trump suit, and the winner of each trick leads the next one. You may always play a trump. If a trump is led, follow with a trump if you have one. If a plain suit is led, follow that suit if you can, or play a trump instead; only play a card of some other plain suit if you hold neither. The highest trump played to a trick wins it; if nobody played a trump, the highest card of the suit led wins. Keep playing until every card dealt has gone into a trick — six tricks in the ordinary hand, more if the cards were run for a new suit.

Scoring

Four points are up for grabs every hand, and six trump cards score for themselves on top of them.

High

1

dealt the highest trump in play this hand

Low

1

dealt the lowest trump in play this hand, whoever wins the trick with it

Jack

1

wins the trick that holds the trump jack

Game

1

holds the highest total below across the tricks you won; a tie goes against the dealer, and if the two non-dealers tie, nobody scores

Ace, king, queen, jack and ten count toward Game in every suit, but have no value of their own until the totals are compared at the end of the hand:

Ace

4

counts toward Game

King

3

counts toward Game

Queen

2

counts toward Game

Jack

1

counts toward Game

Ten

10

counts toward Game

Catch one of these while it is trumps, though, and it scores for you on the spot, on top of anything else it earns:

Ace of trumps

4

caught in a trick

King of trumps

3

caught in a trick

Queen of trumps

2

caught in a trick

Jack of trumps

1

caught in a trick, on top of the Jack point above

Ten of trumps

10

caught in a trick

Five of trumps

5

caught in a trick

A round on the sheet is one hand. Once you have added everything up — High, Low, Jack, Game and every trump card you caught — type your own hand's total into your own column; the host can type or correct anyone's. The running line is your race to the target, and once somebody's line reaches it, any player at the table can tap End match to bank it, not only the host. SquareScores does not deal the cards or watch the tricks; you count the hand and tell the sheet the number.

A worked hand

Three players: Alice deals, Bob sits to her left, Carol to his. Spades are trumps. Carol was dealt the trump ace — the highest in play — and the trump seven; Bob holds the trump three, the lowest. Alice holds the trump jack.

Early in the hand Alice leads her own trump jack and wins the trick, catching Bob's trump ten along with it; Carol follows with her trump seven, keeping the ace back for later. In the last trick, Carol leads her trump ace and wins that too.

Carol

1

High, for holding the top trump

Carol

4

catches her own trump ace

Bob

1

Low, for holding the bottom trump — Carol's catch at the end makes no difference to it

Alice

1

Jack, for winning the trick with the trump jack in it

Alice

1

catches her own trump jack

Alice

10

catches Bob's trump ten

Bob

1

Game, for tying the dealer on card points — a tie goes against the dealer

Added up, Alice's and Bob's tricks come out level on card points and ahead of Carol's. Because Alice dealt, the tie goes against her and Bob takes Game. Alice enters 12 for the hand (1 + 1 + 10), Carol enters 5 (1 + 4), and Bob enters 2 (1 + 1). The trump ten that Alice caught was worth five times her Jack point and her catch of the jack put together.

Ending

The hand ends once every card dealt has been played. Add up High, Low, Jack, Game and whatever trumps you caught, and enter your own total. The first player whose running line reaches the target wins the match — tap End match to bank it, which any player may do. If two players' new totals would both cross the target in the same hand, whoever gets there first wins: points scored at the deal (a turned jack, a gift) count first, and High, Low, Jack and Game then count in that order. The rules do not say where the trump catches fall, so agree before you start whether they count as they are won or after Game. If the table calls it a night before anyone gets there, End match still closes the match; it just closes without that result.

Protect your big trumps

Losing the trick that holds your trump ten hands ten points straight to whoever wins it — more than any other single card in the game. Don't lead a lone trump ten hoping to sneak a trick; hold it until you can be sure of winning with it, or play it only once a bigger trump has already gone.

Weigh up a beg

If your hand has none of the counting cards — no ace, king, queen, jack or ten, trump or otherwise — begging costs you nothing but a point you were unlikely to score anyway, and a fresh batch of cards might hand you something worth keeping. A strong trump hand is usually worth standing on.

Count what has already fallen

Keep track of the top trumps as they go. Once the trump ace and king have both been played, your queen is as good as the top card left, and you can lead it with real confidence of winning the trick — and whatever is riding in it.

Don't waste a winning trick on nothing

A trick with three blank cards in it is worth exactly nothing, however good the card you won it with. Save your strong trumps for tricks that are likely to be carrying an ace, a ten or the jack of trumps, and let the worthless ones go to whoever wants them.

Remember what the begging told you

Every beg and every "take it" tells the table something. A player who stood on a weak-looking trump suit either has the top trumps to back it or had nothing better to beg for — watch how confidently they play their first trump to find out which.

Trumps only

Some tables drop High, Low, Jack and Game altogether and score purely by the six trump cards caught in tricks. It is a shorter count each hand — a glance at what each player caught rather than four separate comparisons — and it suits a table that finds the extra arithmetic more trouble than it is worth.

The four-handed game

All Fives, as written, is for two or three players on their own. A table that wants four players in fixed partnerships is really looking for All Fours itself, the parent game, which plays the same way but without the trump bonuses.

A higher target

Thirty-one is already well above the seven or so that plain two- and three-player All Fours plays to — it's borrowed from Running All-Fours, the closest source rule for a game that scores its trump catches by face value. Even so, a hand with a trump ten or ace in it can close a chunk of that gap in one go, so a table that wants a longer game is free to agree a higher number — fifty, or a hundred — before dealing. There is no fixed number every table uses; agree one before you start.

How many cards do you deal in All Fives?

Six to each player, dealt three at a time. If the trump suit is begged and the dealer runs the cards, everybody gets three more, and then everybody discards back down to six once a new suit is settled.

What happens if nobody wants the trump suit that is turned up?

The player to the dealer's left can beg for a different one. The dealer either takes it anyway, handing everyone else a point, or runs the cards — dealing three more each and turning a fresh card — until a different suit comes up.

Can two people play All Fives?

Yes. All Fives is written for two or three players and works the same way either way; with two, there is simply nobody else to beg from or deal to.

What is the difference between All Fives and All Fours?

All Fives adds six extra prizes to an ordinary All Fours hand: catch the ace, king, queen, jack, ten or five of trumps in a trick and you score its face value on top of the usual High, Low, Jack and Game. Some tables keep both sets of points; others drop the older four and score on the trump catches alone.

Do you score the Jack if the trump jack was not dealt?

No. If the trump jack was never dealt to anyone, neither the Jack point nor its matching trump bonus is scored by anybody that hand — there is nothing to catch.

What score do you play All Fives to?

Thirty-one, on this sheet. The All Fives rules themselves never name a target, so this board borrows the line from Running All-Fours — the closest source rule for a game that scores trump catches by face value the way All Fives does. The trump bonuses can run a hand's score up quickly, so if thirty-one goes by too fast or too slow for your table, agree your own number and move the line before you deal.