Trick-taking Game - Partnerships

Partnerships

In many games such as Hearts and Oh Hell, all players play individually against each other, but in other games there are fixed or varying partnerships.

• In many four-player games such as Bridge and Spades, the players sitting opposite to each other form a fixed partnership.
• In some contract/auction games for three or more players, e.g. most Tarot variants, the contractor (declarer or taker) plays alone against all opponents, who form an ad hoc partnership (the defenders).
• In some games the partnerships are decided by accident; in some Schafkopf variants two players holding the black Queens are partners for that hand. Such games need special rules in case a single player holds both black Queens. Five-player French Tarot is similar but allows the taker to call out a suit for which he does not possess the King of that suit, and is partnered with whomever does have it against the other three.
• In some games the contractor forms a partnership with the winner of the first trick, or with the player who holds a certain card.

Some games such as Pinochle are commonly played with or without partnerships, depending on the number of players.