Trick-taking Game - Trumps

Trumps

Trump cards are a set of one or more cards in the deck that, when played, are of higher value than the suit led. If a trick contains any trump cards, it is won by the highest-value trump card played, not the highest-value card of the suit led.

In most games with trumps, one of the four suits is identified as the trump suit. In the simplest case, there is a static trump suit such as the Spade suit in the game Spades, or a dedicated symbol-less trump suit in the Tarot family. More often, a dynamic trump suit is determined by some means, either randomly by selection of a card, or decided by the winner or winning bid of an auction. In certain games, such as Rowboat and Rage, the trump suit may change during the course of the hand, even from trick to trick.

In most modern games with trump suits, the rules for following suit do not distinguish between the trump suit and the plain suits. If a trick begins with a plain suit card and a later player cannot follow suit, the player may choose freely to either sluff (discard a card of another plain suit), or ruff (trump the trick by playing a trump card). Subsequent players to the trick must still follow the original suit, and may only discard or trump if they do not hold a card of the suit led. Certain games are "play to beat" or "must-trump"; if a player cannot follow suit but can play trump, they must play trump, and additionally if they are able they must beat any trump card already played to the trick. Pinochle and several of the Tarot card game variants have this rule.

In some games, in addition to or separately from a trump suit, certain fixed cards are always the highest trumps, e.g. the Jacks in Skat, the Jacks or Jokers in Euchre, the Rook Bird card in Rook, or the Fool in certain Tarot games.