In trick-taking card games like bridge, the beer card is the 7♦ playing card when it is agreed that, if a player wins the last trick of a hand with the 7♦, his partner must buy him a beer. It is not considered as part of the rules of these games, but is merely an informal side-bet between players.
The additional requirements vary depending whether the beer card trick winner is the declarer or one of the defenders. For the declarer, the requirements are generally that:
- He must make contract
- He must win last trick with the 7♦
- Diamonds must not be trumps (though some people play that only diamond part scores are excluded)
- He must take a justifiable line on the contract to win as many tricks as possible (i.e. not lose tricks to set up the beer or in order to keep the 7♦ until the last trick)
For a defender, the requirements are generally that:
- Contract must be defeated
- He must win last trick with the beer card
- Diamonds must not be trumps
- He must try to win as many tricks as possible (i.e. not lose tricks to set up the beer or in order to keep the 7♦ until the last trick)
If the contract is doubled then two beers are earned. If the contract is redoubled then four beers are earned.
Read more about Beer Card: Examples
Famous quotes containing the words beer and/or card:
“I’m only a beer teetotaller, not a champagne teetotaller. I don’t like beer.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“There is undoubtedly something religious about it: everyone believes that they are special, that they are chosen, that they have a special relation with fate. Here is the test: you turn over card after card to see in which way that is true. If you can defy the odds, you may be saved. And when you are cleaned out, the last penny gone, you are enlightened at last, free perhaps, exhilarated like an ascetic by the falling away of the material world.”
—Andrei Codrescu (b. 1947)