Asszorti

Players and equipment

Asszorti is a trick-taking game for exactly three players, played with a thirty-six-card pack — a standard French-suited deck with every 2, 3, 4 and 5 removed. In each suit the cards rank ace, king, queen, jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, high to low. Deal and play both move clockwise.

One player — the declarer — plays alone each hand against the other two, who are temporary partners for that hand only. Whoever is paired against the declarer changes hand to hand, so there is no fixed partnership across the session.

The deal

Shuffle and let the player to the dealer's right cut. The dealer deals clockwise starting on their own left: first three cards to each player, then three more face down in the middle of the table — the talon — then the rest out two at a time, until every player holds eleven cards. The turn to deal moves one place left after each hand.

Play

Starting on the dealer's left, players speak in turn and bid for the right to play the hand alone. A bid of "3", "2", "1" or "hand" says how many cards the bidder will later draw from the talon and discard — "hand" means none at all, playing entirely with the eleven cards dealt. There are no jump bids: the first player bids 3 or passes, and each later bid is the next one up — 2, then 1, then hand. A player who spoke earlier than the latest bidder does not raise but either says "hold", equalling that bid, or passes; a player who spoke later must bid the next level or pass. A player who has passed is out of the auction for good.

Whoever is left when the other two have passed becomes the declarer, and must play a contract at least as high as the last bid made. If both of the first two players pass straight away, the dealer cannot pass and must declare one of the four contracts.

Having set the contract, the declarer — unless playing "hand" — draws that many cards from the top of the talon without showing them, then discards the same number face down on top of what is left of it. The declarer then names a trump suit, or chooses to play with no trumps at all, and may also announce arrivázs: a bet to win the last three tricks of the hand outright. Only the declarer may announce it.

Either opponent who thinks the basic hand, or an announced arrivázs, will fail can double the stake by calling kontra — the game and the arrivázs are doubled separately, and a kontra turns the talon and the discard face up for the table to see. The declarer can answer with a redouble (rekontra); the partner of whoever first called kontra can double again (szubkontra); and from there the doubling can keep going — hirskontra, then mordkontra — each step multiplying what the hand is worth.

The opponent to the declarer's right leads to the first trick, so the declarer is always second to play — a small disadvantage that balances the advantage of choosing trumps. Players must follow the suit led if they can; a player with none of that suit must play a trump if they hold one, and only a player with neither may play any card they like. The highest trump wins a trick, or, where none was played, the highest card of the suit led; the winner leads the next trick. A kontra'd talon goes back face down once the first trick is won.

A confident declarer may show their hand and claim the rest of the tricks; an opponent may dispute the claim and insist on finishing it played out, and if the declarer then loses a trick, every trick played since the claim goes to the opponents instead.

Scoring

A round on the sheet is one hand of Asszorti, run from the bid to the last trick. Whoever gains points on the hand enters what they won; whoever pays out that hand enters 0, because the sheet only takes whole numbers from zero up and cannot show a loss as a minus. If you lose points on a hand, enter 0 for that round, and the amount you owe is taken off your next win before anything new goes onto the sheet, carried forward hand to hand until it is cleared. SquareScores does not deal or see a single card — it only keeps the running line you enter after each hand. Add a round for every hand; there is no target to reach, so the table plays until it decides to stop, and End match — any player's door — banks the totals exactly as they stand.

The side taking six or more of the eleven tricks wins the basic game, worth points set by the contract and whether trumps were in play:

3, with trumps

2

Basic game, six tricks

2, with trumps

4

Basic game, six tricks

1, with trumps

6

Basic game, six tricks

Hand, with trumps

8

Basic game, six tricks

3, no trumps

4

Basic game, six tricks

2, no trumps

8

Basic game, six tricks

1, no trumps

12

Basic game, six tricks

Hand, no trumps

16

Basic game, six tricks

Every trick past the sixth is worth half the basic game on top of it. A contract of 2 with trumps, for example, pays out like this as the declarer takes more tricks:

Six tricks

4

Basic game only

Seven tricks

6

One overtrick

Eight tricks

8

Two overtricks

Whichever side loses the basic game pays the same scale for the tricks it fell short by — a declarer who takes only five tricks against a trump contract of 2 pays the opponents the 4 points for their six. Kontra and its doubles multiply the whole basic-game score, overtricks included: a no-trump contract of 1 taken with seven tricks under kontra, rekontra and szubkontra wins (12 + 6) × 8 = 144. One oddity: if the declarer wins exactly six tricks and the split comes out 6:5:0 — one opponent taking all five of the rest — the plain contract value is subtracted from what the declarer wins for the basic game, so with no kontra the hand's basic game scores nothing; the subtraction is never doubled, so under kontra and rekontra a contract worth 4 wins 4 × 4 − 4 = 12.

Arrivázs scores only when the declarer announced it, separately from the basic game and whether that is won or lost — only on the last three tricks. If the declarer takes all three, the declarer wins it; if the declarer loses any of them, the opponents win it:

Arrivázs, with trumps

8

Last three tricks

Arrivázs, no trumps

16

Last three tricks

Idegen arrivázs

16

Last three tricks won in a trump contract, no trump played in them

Idegen arrivázs — a "foreign arrival" — is what the declarer scores for winning the last three tricks of a trump contract without playing a single trump in any of them, worth double the ordinary arrivázs. Both arrivázs scores double, redouble and so on under their own kontras, separate from the basic game's.

Whatever the declarer wins, both opponents pay it equally; whatever the declarer loses, both opponents are paid it equally — never just one of the two.

A worked hand

Anna deals to Berta and Csaba. Berta bids 3, Csaba bids 2 and Anna passes. Berta holds the 2; Csaba bids 1; Berta holds the 1, and Csaba, not willing to bid hand, passes. With two players passed, Berta becomes the declarer and announces a contract of 1, with diamonds as trumps. Nobody calls kontra.

Berta wins seven of the eleven tricks. A contract of 1 with trumps is worth 6 points for the basic six tricks, plus half that again — 3 points — for the seventh, for 9 points in total. Anna and Csaba each pay Berta 9.

Berta

18

Won the basic game and one overtrick

Anna

0

Paid as an opponent

Csaba

0

Paid as an opponent

On the sheet, Berta's cell for the hand reads 18 — the 9 she took from each of Anna and Csaba, added together — and Anna's and Csaba's both read 0, each carrying the 9 they paid against their next win.

Ending

There is no finish line and no fixed number of hands — Asszorti is played until the table has had enough, whether that is an agreed number of deals, an agreed amount of time, or simply everybody deciding together that the sitting is over. End match is any player's door, not just the dealer's or whoever is ahead, and it banks the running totals exactly as they stand. Whoever has the highest total when the table stops has had the better of it.

Weigh the talon against the bid

A higher bid draws more cards from the talon, which helps a weak hand far more than a strong one — three fresh cards can turn a poor hand playable, but just as easily cost you a hand that was already close to six tricks. "Hand" is the boldest bid: no talon at all, so only bid it with a hand that can already win six tricks unimproved.

No trumps pays more, and asks for more

Every contract pays double with no trumps compared to the same bid with a trump suit — but a no-trump hand has no safety net once a long suit runs out. Only play no trumps with a hand that can genuinely win six tricks on card strength alone.

Watch what the discard tells you

A kontra turns the talon and the declarer's discard face up, handing the table real information about what the declarer kept and let go. An opponent who sees the low cards of a long suit discarded knows exactly where that suit's strength went, and can lead to strip it out early.

Arrivázs is a separate bet, so weigh it separately

Announcing arrivázs does not change what you need for the basic game — you can win one and lose the other. Only announce it once you are confident of the last three tricks specifically, usually because you hold the top trumps or a long suit nobody else can get into; announcing it on a hopeful hand turns one gamble into two.

Doubling is a bet on the whole hand

Kontra and its answers escalate fast — a hand carried to mordkontra is worth thirty-two times the basic score — so only call kontra when you are genuinely confident the declarer has overbid, not simply because the contract looks high. A declarer who sees the table double should weigh a rekontra the same way.

Simpler bidding

Some tables allow jump bids straight to any of the four levels, with the contract fixed at whatever was bid rather than free to rise afterwards. Quicker to learn, though it loses the information a round of minimum bids gives away.

No kontra

A table can agree to drop kontra, rekontra and the doubles beyond it entirely, scoring every hand at its plain contract value. It takes away a layer of the game, but also the big swings, which suits a table still learning to read a hand.

Settling in chips

Rather than keeping a running score on the sheet, some tables settle each hand in coins or chips as it is played, paying or collecting on the spot and starting the next hand even. The sheet works just as well as the record of who is ahead, whichever way a table settles up.

A fixed number of deals

Tables that want a defined end agree a number of deals in advance — a multiple of three passes the deal round evenly — rather than stopping whenever somebody calls it. End match is still the way to close it out.

How many cards do you deal in Asszorti?

Eleven to each of the three players, with three more set aside face down as the talon. That accounts for all thirty-six cards in the pack used for the game.

Can two people play Asszorti?

No. The bidding, the talon exchange and the scoring are all built around exactly three players, one bidding alone against the other two as a pair; there is no way to play it with two or four.

What is arrivázs?

A side bet the declarer can make on top of the basic game: a commitment, announced before play, to win the last three tricks outright. It scores or loses separately from the basic game, so a declarer can win the main contract and still lose the arrivázs, or the other way round.

What happens if nobody wants to bid?

The first two players may both pass, but the dealer cannot: with two passes already made, the dealer must declare a contract — any of the four — and become the declarer by default.

How do kontra and rekontra work?

Either opponent who thinks the declarer will fail may call kontra, doubling the stake for the basic game or for an announced arrivázs; the declarer can answer with rekontra, and the doubling can continue further — szubkontra, hirskontra, mordkontra — each one doubling the last. A kontra also turns the talon and the declarer's discard face up until the first trick is won.

Why does the 6:5:0 split score differently?

If the declarer wins exactly the six tricks needed and a single opponent takes all five of the rest, the plain contract value is subtracted from what the declarer wins for the basic game — so with no kontra the declarer wins nothing for it. Kontras double the basic score as usual, but the amount subtracted is never doubled.

Is there a target score in Asszorti?

No. Tables play until they agree to stop, whether that is after a set number of hands, a set time, or simply when everybody is ready to go home. Whoever has the most points on the sheet at that point has had the better of the sitting.