Each player receives 6 cards in batches of 3, and another card is turned up to determine the preferred trump suit. Now players in turn get the chance to take the deal, i.e. bet to make more points than the opponent, with the preferred trump suit. If both pass, they in turn may choose to take the deal with a freely chosen trump suit. If both players pass again, the deal is aborted and the other player deals. Once this phase is completed successfully, both players' hands are completed to 9 cards. In addition to the initial turn-up card, a second card is turned face up to give further information. If the trump suit is as determined by the (first) turn-up card, a player who holds the seven of trumps (
dix) may exchange it with the (first) turn-up card. This must be done before melding. In the melding phase, one of the players may meld any number of sequences of 3 or 4 cards in suit for 20 or 50 points, respectively. (For melding purposes the natural order of cards is used, and in particular tens rank between nines and jacks.) The player who holds the longest, highest-ranking such sequence is allowed to meld. This player is determined by a protocol that minimizes the information given to the opponent. The melding phase happens simultaneously with the first trick.
Elder hand leads a card to the first trick, and optionally announces
20 or
50. Dealer responds with
good to let this stand or with
not good if he or she can top that. If necessary, dealer asks
how many cards?,
how high?,
in trumps? until it is established whose meld is better. At the end of the first trick, the player who won the right to meld shows the cards of the winning combination and optionally another combination that will also be scored. At this point each player knows the precise locations of 11 of the 32 cards (the player's own hand plus the two face-up cards) and may have gleaned additional information from the opponent's melding behaviour. The melding player has revealed additional information to the other player, and if a player exchanged the dix this has also given the opponent information. Ranks and point values of cards are as shown in the table. In trick-play, a player who cannot follow suit must trump if possible, and any trump lead must be overtrumped. A player who holds both king and queen of trumps may score 20 for the marriage (
bela) when playing out the second of these cards. For this it is necessary to announce
bela when playing out the first of these cards, and
from the bela when playing the second. The winner of the last trick scores 10 points. At the end of the deal, for each player any points accrued for melds, bela and last trick are added to the card points in tricks taken to make the player's combined points. However, for a player who has won no tricks at all, only marriages but not melds factor into the combined points. If the player who took the deal has made more combined points than the opponent, both players simply score their combined points. In the opposite case the opponent scores the sum of the points made by both. In case of a tie, the player who took the deal scores nothing and the opponent scores their own score. Thus, the player who did not take the deal always scores at least their own points The first player who has a total score of 500 points or more at the end of a deal wins the game. ==Variations==