Bidding
Bidding is the key to the game, as it is essentially what makes it different from Euchre. Starting at the person to the left of the dealer, each player "bids" how many "tricks" he or she thinks it is possible to get in partnership with his/her partner (sitting across the table). Players may pass or bid, and a "one" bid is generally not used. Common bids are 3, 4, and 5.
There are some variations, but in most traditional pepper games the bidding only goes around the table once. That is, each player only bids once. At the end of bidding, he or she who bid the highest wins the bid and gets to name the suit which will become trump. Bidding does not generally exceed 5 (6 is maximum), as there are two special bids.
- A small pepper, also called "shooting" or "give me your best", is where the bidder gets to exchange one card with his/her partner (but does not get to choose or say which card he/she wants...he/she may only say the suit that is trump) and then plays alone against the other two players. He/she must get all six tricks. If all six tricks are won, the team with the winning small pepper receives 12 points.
- A big pepper, also called "loner", is the same as a small pepper, except the bidder does not get any cards from his/her partner, and, if successful, receives 14 points.
Note: In another variation of this game, known as "hawsy" (also short for Hasenpfeffer), the little pepper is known as "hawsy" and there is no big pepper. If one player bids hawsy, the next player can bid "double hawsy" for an attempt at 24 points.
Read more about this topic: Bid Euchre
Famous quotes containing the word bidding:
“Practically speaking, the opponents to a reform in Massachusetts are not a hundred thousand politicians at the South, but a hundred thousand merchants and farmers here, who are more interested in commerce and agriculture than they are in humanity, and are not prepared to do justice to the slave and to Mexico, cost what it may. I quarrel not with far-off foes, but with those who, near at home, coöperate with, and do the bidding of, those far away, and without whom the latter would be harmless.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—John Donne (1572–1631)