PURPLE RULES FOR TRICK TAKING GAMES – THE BICYCLE® PURPLE POKER PACK

PURPLE RULES FOR TRICK TAKING GAMES

Purple Rules Modifications:

12 cards are dealt to Players and 12 Tricks are played, not the 13 cards and Tricks in the Standard Rules.

Players can Follow Color as well as Follow Suit, not just Follow Suit like the Standard Rules.

The Trump is a Declared Color, not a Declared Suit like the Standard Rules.

Players use the Rank Points and/or the Color Points in Scoring, not the Scoring of the Standard Rules.

Object of the Game: To Score more Points than the other Players or Partnership by winning Tricks and/or predicting the number of Tricks won.

Number of Players: 2 to 4 Players, usually 2 Partnerships of 2 Players each

The Deal: Each Player is dealt 12 cards and 12 Tricks are played. There will be one card left over which is shown to all Players before setting it aside. No Jokers are used.

Following Suit: This is a typical Standard Rule which requires a Player to play a card with the same Suit as the Lead Card if they have one in their Hand, unless they play a Trump Card.

Following Color: With the Purple Rules, Players have the additional option of playing a card with the same Color of the Lead Card, which is called Following Color. Like a Trump Card, a player is not required to Follow Color if they have a card of the same Color.

If a Player cannot Follow Suit, they can play any card, but the card will lose to any card of the same Suit or same Color of the Lead Card or a Trump Card.

As in Standard Rules, a player is not required to play a Trump Card if they have one in their Hand.

Playing Trump: Playing Trump in the Standard Rules is playing a card from a Suit which has been Declared as Trump. It outranks and wins over any card from the other 3 Suits. In the Purple Rules, a Suit is not Declared as Trump, instead a Color is Declared as Trump. A card from the Trump Color will win over any other card except for a card from the Trump Color with a higher Rank.

THE PURPLE RULES FOR TRICK PLAY

The Highest Ranked card from the Trump Color wins.

If no Trump Card is played:
The Highest Ranked card which Follows Color wins.

If no card Follows Color:
The Highest Ranked card which Follows Suit wins.

In the case of a Tie, the Tied Player who went first wins.

Bidding For Trump: This is a Rule in some Trick Taking Games where Players Bid in an Auction to determine which Suit is Declared as Trump. With the Purple Rules a Color is Declared as Trump, not a Suit.

Players Bid by Declaring the number of Tricks above 6 that they predict that they will win, combined with the Color that they want Declared as Trump. This is called the Contract. The lowest allowed Bid of Tricks won is 1, which is predicting to win 7 out of 12 Tricks. Bidding 1 means winning 1 more Trick than the other Players or Partners. The highest Bid is 6, which is predicting they will win 6 more Tricks, which would be all 12 Tricks.

In the Standard Rules there is a Suit Order which is used in Bidding. The Suit Order in Bridge is Spades as the highest Suit, then Hearts, then Diamonds, and Clubs as the lowest. With the Purple Rules, the Color Point Numbers determine the Bidding Order.

No Trump has a higher Bidding Order than any Color Trump.

Players on their Turn Bid by Declaring a Number (Tricks over 6 won) and a Color or No Trump, or they can Pass. The last Bid before all Players Pass is the Contract.

TRUMP BIDDING CHART

The Black Numbers are the Tricks over 6 predicted to win.
The Trump Color Bids are shown from Lowest to Highest, Left to Right, Top to Bottom:

Scoring: There are two types of Trick Taking Games based on their Scoring method. One type is Plain Trick Games where Scoring is based on the number of Tricks won. The other is Point Trick Games where the Points Value of the cards won are Totaled. The Rank Point Number and the Color Point Number are both Totaled for this type of Trick Taking Game.

Basic Strategy:
There are only 7 Trump Color cards compared to 13 Trump Suit cards in standard Trick Taking Games. Fewer Tricks will be won with a Trump Card, so playing a Trump Card requires more thought. There are 6 possible cards that can Follow Color of any Lead Card. Keeping track of the High Cards played of each Color as well as the Trump Cards played will be needed for maximum strategy. Playing a Color Follow card a Player thinks could win and saving Trump Color cards for other Tricks could be a successful tactic.

During the Bidding process experienced Players have custom ways to communicate to their Partners which Suit their Partner should Bid, by their own Bids. A method of communicating a Bid preference for the Colors will need to be devised by experienced Players for high strategy Bidding.

Trick Taking Games such as Contract Bridge allow for a high level of strategy which appeals to many Players. Playing with this unique deck and the Purple Rules allow for even more strategy because there are more options in game play.