After several lighter articles, I’m back to something a little heavier, third and probably not last in an ongoing series.

Name: Trick-taking

Problem: All players have an equal number of cards with two attributes, suit (or some other category) and rank. (Ordinary playing cards are by far the most common example.) The play is to take place in turns, with high cards more able to influence the flow of the hand. Also, you would like to take advantage of a common mechanic that makes your game easier to learn.

Discussion: Somehow, one player is chosen to lead to the first trick. For subsequent tricks, the winner of each trick gets to (alternatively, is forced to) lead to the next trick. Other players must play a card of the same suit, if possible, but usually may play any card if this is not possible. This proceeds until all cards have been played.

The variance in quality of hands tends to be very high in trick-taking games, so many hands are usually played as part of a single game. This smoothes out scoring differences and gives the players the chance to play many different kinds of hands.

Examples: From this basic model of game flow, the diversity of games that can arise is astounding. First, just look at the ways the first player can be chosen:

• Position relative to the dealer (Euchre, Oh Hell)
• Holder of a specific card (Hearts—and the holder has to play that card)
• Winner of the auction (Pinochle)
• Opponent of the auction winner (Bridge)

Even more remarkable is the wide variety of objectives:

• Take as many tricks as possible. (Euchre, Bridge)
• Take as many of a set of specific cards as possible. Pinochle follows this model, as do games like Skat and Schafkopf. (It seems to be common to German games.)
• Take exactly the number of tricks bid. (Oh Hell, and Spades, to a lesser extent.) Shooting for a higher number of tricks may or may not be scored higher.
• Avoid taking tricks, or avoid taking certain cards. (Hearts)

Within the “winner leads the next trick” model, a large variety of options is also available in the flow of play. Following suit is almost always required, but some games have a trump suit that automatically wins the trick if it can be played because that player is void in the suit led. Pinochle adds the restriction that a player must play above the card led or must trump if following suit is impossible. The commercial game Wizard adds to an ordinary 52-card deck special cards which are exempt from suit-following rules and can be played at any time.