How to Play Sobe e Desce

Goal

Every player for themselves. Everyone starts on 20 points and races down to 0. Each trick you take is −1; taking no trick at all in a round you play is +5. The round someone reaches 0 ends the match, and the lowest total wins.

The deal

A 40-card deck (no 8s, 9s or 10s), ranked Ace, 7, King, Jack, Queen, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. The dealer moves one seat every round. Everyone gets three cards; the player after the dealer names trumps, then everyone gets two more.

Turning up trumps

The player naming trumps looks at their three cards first. Rather than name a suit, they may turn up the next card of the deck: its suit is trumps, and the card is theirs, as one of the two they are dealt next.

Play or sit out

From the player who named trumps, round the table, each player exchanges from 0 to 5 cards for new ones from the stock and plays — or sits the round out, keeping their score.

1. The player who named trumps always plays.
2. With clubs as trumps, everyone plays.
3. Under 5 points, you must play.
4. Nobody sits out more than two rounds in a row.
5. If nobody else plays, the player who named trumps takes all five tricks without a card played.

The tricks

The player who named trumps leads. You must follow suit; when trumps are led, you must also go above the highest trump down if you can. If you can't follow, you must trump — above a trump already down if you can. Leading while holding the Ace of trumps, you must lead it. The highest card of the suit led, or the highest trump, takes the trick; its winner leads the next.

Hearts

With hearts as trumps every trick counts double: −2 each, and +10 for taking none.