Pepper

Players and equipment

Pepper is a partnership game for four. You and the player sitting across the table are a side; the other two players, on either side of you, are the other side. Seating always alternates sides around the table.

The pack is 24 cards: 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace in each of the four suits. When a suit is trumps, its Jack becomes the right bower, the single highest card in the game, and the Jack of the other suit of the same colour becomes the left bower, ranking second and counting as a trump card for the rest of the hand. Below the bowers, trumps run Ace, King, Queen, 10, 9. In the three plain suits the order is Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, except that the plain suit sharing trumps' colour has no Jack, because that Jack has joined the trumps. In no trump there are no bowers: every suit runs Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9.

You will want a way to keep a running score to 42. SquareScores does that for you.

The deal

Deal six cards to each player, going clockwise starting with the player on your left, in batches of two or three at a time — one at a time is fine too, just never more than three together. All 24 cards are out, six to a player, before the bidding starts. The deal passes one seat to the left after every hand.

Play

Starting on the dealer's left, bid once round the table. A bid names how many of the hand's six tricks your side will win if you get to name trumps: one through six, then little pepper and big pepper above six. Both peppers promise all six tricks — little pepper with your partner helping as usual, big pepper with you alone against the other three. Every bid must beat the one before it, or you pass. If all four of you pass, the hand is thrown in and the next dealer deals.

Whoever bids highest names trumps, or calls no trump, and that fixes how the hand is played. Every lower bid is forgotten from here on — only the winning bid is scored.

Once trumps are named, the bidder may discard one unwanted card face down, unless the bid was big pepper. The bidder's partner then discards one card too, without looking at what the bidder put down, and the bidder picks it up: usually a trump or an ace, offered blind by a partner trying to help. The partner's remaining hand goes face down and out of play for the rest of that hand — only three of you are left in it. The bidder may choose "with partner" instead of exchanging: nobody discards, and all four of you play the hand out together. Big pepper allows no exchange at all — the bidder plays the original six cards alone, needing every trick.

Before a card is led, the side that did not bid decides whether to play or surrender, without naming any of their cards out loud. Say "yes" to play, "no" to surrender, or "maybe" if you are not sure, and settle it between you. Some tables let the bidder's left-hand opponent speak first and the right-hand opponent make the final call. Surrendering hands the bid's points to the bidding side at once, with no play; choosing to play means the hand goes ahead and either side can still come out ahead.

If you are playing it out, the high bidder leads any card to the first trick. Follow suit if you can; play anything if you cannot. The highest trump played wins the trick, or, with no trump played, the highest card of the suit led. Whoever wins a trick leads the next one. Remember that the left bower belongs to trumps, not to its own printed suit, for every purpose including following suit — it does not count as its printed suit: when that suit is led you must follow with a real card of it if you have one, and if you have none the left bower may be played, as a trump.

Scoring

A hand's result depends on the bid and on what happened in the play. The bidding side adds its bid to the running score if it won at least that many tricks, or loses the bid's value if it fell short. The side that did not bid adds one point for every trick it won, so long as it won at least one — or loses the bid's value if it won none at all. A side that surrendered neither gains nor loses anything that hand.

Little pepper and big pepper are flat scores, not a count of tricks, and they count for both sides. If the bidder takes all six tricks, the bidding side scores 7 and the other side loses 7. If the other side takes even one trick, the bidding side loses 7 and the other side scores 7, not a point a trick. Big pepper doubles each of those to 14. Surrendering against a pepper hands the bidding side the same 7 or 14 with no play, and the surrendering side scores nothing.

SquareScores deals nothing and never sees a card. Work out each side's result by hand after the tricks are counted, then either of you enters it in your side's column — the host may enter either side's. The score table only takes whole numbers of 0 or upward in a cell — where a side's result for the hand is a loss, enter 0 for that side on this hand, and take the shortfall off that side's next gain before you enter it; if the gain does not cover it, enter 0 again and carry the rest. Where a side's result is a gain, enter the amount gained as usual.

A hand worked through

North and South bid 3 and name spades. East and West decide to play rather than surrender.

North and South's bid

3

tricks contracted to win

Tricks North and South took

2

out of six played

North and South's result

−3

bid missed by one, lose the bid

Tricks East and West took

4

out of six played

East and West's result

+4

four tricks won, a point each

East and West's +4 goes straight into their column on the sheet. North and South's −3 does not: the sheet takes 0 upward only, so their column gets a 0 for this hand, and the 3-point shortfall comes off their side's next gain before it goes on the sheet.

Ending

The game ends the moment either side's running score reaches 42 or more at the end of a hand, and whoever has the higher score wins. If you are both at 42 or more and level, play one more hand to settle it.

On SquareScores, tap End match the instant a side crosses the line — any player at the table may do it, not only somebody on the winning side.

Bid on your bowers, not your points

Count what you can actually win if you name trumps, not how many high cards you are holding. A hand with both bowers and the ace of trumps is close to four tricks on its own; a hand of plain-suit aces and kings with no trump strength at all might win you one trick, however impressive it looks. Bid the tricks you can see, and leave the pepper bids for a hand that can genuinely win them all.

Read the discard, not just your own hand

When you are the bidder's partner, your discard is a message: send the best trump or ace you can spare, because the bidder is about to build a hand around it. When you are the bidder, a card your partner sends you blind is nearly always their strongest spare, so trust it and plan the hand around what just arrived rather than what you expected.

Decide to play or surrender on the bid, not on your hand alone

A low bid of one or two against you is cheap to let through — surrendering against it only matters if your side is close to 42 and needs the points more than the safety. A bid of five, six or a pepper is a different question: losing it could cost you heavily if you take no tricks at all, so weigh your own trump holding honestly before saying "yes."

Hold your trump for the moment it decides the hand

A trump played too early just wins a trick you might have won anyway with a plain card. Save your best trump for the trick that actually threatens the bid — stopping the bidder's last trick is worth more than leading with strength nobody is contesting.

Treat little pepper and big pepper as bets, not routine bids

A pepper bid is worth seven or fourteen points either way, which can swing a close game outright. Bid one only when you can see all six tricks in your own hand (big pepper) or with one specific card from your partner (little pepper) — not because the bidding has run out of smaller numbers to call.

Minimum bid and stick the dealer

Many tables set a minimum opening bid of 3 or 4. If the first three players pass, the dealer must either meet that minimum or surrender at once, losing the minimum bid's value while the other side scores nothing. Some tables go further and forbid the opponents from dropping out against a forced minimum bid at all.

Dirty clubs

Some tables remove the surrender option entirely whenever the bidder names clubs as trumps — the other side must play the hand out and takes the usual penalty if it wins no tricks. A house rule worth agreeing before the cards are dealt, since it only matters once somebody actually bids clubs.

No trumps, restricted

Several tables do not allow "no trump" as a choice at all, so the highest bidder must always name a suit. Others keep no trump but strip it of the surrender option too, or change who leads the first trick to the bidder's left rather than the bidder.

Score what you get

Instead of scoring the bid's flat value, some tables let the bidding side score one point for every trick it actually won, not just the number bid. A big win over a small bid is worth more this way, though a bid exactly made scores the same either way.

A different target

30, 31 and 43 are all played as the winning score, alongside 42. 42 is sometimes explained as "three big peppers"; 31 and 43 come from tables that play to exceed rather than reach the number, so check before the first hand which line you are using.

How many cards do you deal in Pepper?

Six to each of the four players, dealt clockwise from the dealer's left. All 24 cards in the pack go out — there is no leftover kitty.

What is little pepper, and how is it different from big pepper?

Both are bids above six that promise every trick in the hand. Little pepper is played with your partner's help as usual, after the normal card exchange, and is worth 7 points made or lost. Big pepper drops the exchange entirely — you play your original six cards completely alone against the other three — and is worth double, 14 points either way.

Can you refuse to play against a big bid?

Yes, if you are on the side that did not bid. Before any card is led you and your partner decide, without discussing your hands aloud, whether to play the hand out or surrender it. Surrendering always hands the bidding side its bid's points without a card played, and your side scores nothing that deal. You give up the point a trick you might have won, and in return you can't lose the bid's value for taking no tricks.

What happens if everyone passes?

The hand is abandoned with no score to either side, the cards are gathered in, and the next dealer in turn deals a fresh hand. In practice this is rare — holding even one jack is usually enough to risk a bid of one.

Is Pepper the same game as Euchre?

Related, not identical. Pepper uses Euchre's 24-card pack, its bower ranking and its basic trick play, but adds a bidding auction with a contracted number of tricks, a card exchange between the bidder and their partner, and the chance for the other side to surrender rather than play — none of which plain Euchre has. Pepper is really a member of the wider bid-Euchre family, descended from games once called Hasenpfeffer.

Can a team's score go negative in Pepper?

Yes — losing a bid, failing to take a single trick as the non-bidding side, or losing a pepper call all cost points rather than adding them, so a side's running total can sit below zero for a while. See Scoring, above, for how that is handled on the sheet.