JASS MANUAL
obviously, not all rules are bad: here is a really useful set of rules that can make for hours of excellent card-playing pleasure.
i prefer calling it a manual, because it just tells you how to play jass, one of my, and switzerland's, favourite pastimes.
jass is pronounced yuss with a y and to rhyme with thus – there is no other way to pronounce it.
i prefer calling it a manual, because it just tells you how to play jass, one of my, and switzerland's, favourite pastimes.
jass is pronounced yuss with a y and to rhyme with thus – there is no other way to pronounce it.
GLOSSARY
there is no standard spelling or grammar in swiss german and conventions vary widely between dialects; the following are based on a moderate, more or less zürich orientated pronunciation
banner
in the >german deck, this is the ten which therefore is worth 10 points; so called because it features a ‘banner’, german for ‘standard’ or ‘flag’ in this context
bedanke
in >schieber the game is over when one party literally expresses its thanks to signal it has reached the winning mark (for example 1000, 2500 or 3000 points, whichever has been agreed in advance); depending on dialect, this might ordinarily be phrased ‘mir bedanked öis’ or ‘mir bedanken uns’ and translates as ‘we thank you’ or, more liberally, ‘cheers for the jass’
bock / böck
a bock card (plural böck) is a card that cannot be beaten by any other card left in the current round of the game; so if, for example, all the trumps have gone and the >schälle ace and king have also been played, then schälle ober is now a bock card.
dreiblatt
a >wyys of three consecutive cards; for example ace, king and ober of the same suit make for a dreiblatt
eichle
in the >german deck the green suit depicting acorns; it’s one of the two ‘floral’ suits and is scored at single value
french deck
standard playing cards with red hearts and diamonds suits and black clubs and spades suits
german deck
a card design that is popular in parts of germany and in the german speaking part of switzerland; it depicts yellow >schälle (bells), green >eichle (acorns), yellow >rose (roses), and black >schilte (shields) suits
gschobe see > schiebe / schieber / gschobe
(the) house rules
the house rules specify in what order points are applied in the final round of a game; this can be of critical importance if it is a close score. unless otherwise agreed, the generally accepted house rules are stöck – wyys – stich, meaning that >stöck are applied first, then any >wyys and only then the value of the trick (>stich); so if, for example, both parties hover very near the winning score line of, say, 2500, with one party at 2422 and a wyys worth 50 points in their hand and the other party at 2434 with no wyys but the stöck in their hand, then by calling the stöck the latter can win the game
jass
there are many different types of jass games, but the most popular, and the one referred to throughout in this manual, is the >schieber. in general usage, playing a ‘jass’ tends to refer to this particular game
(the) letscht (or) letschti
the letscht is the last trick in a hand being played. the party winning this trick scores an extra 5 points
match
if one party wins all the tricks of one hand, it is said to have played, won, scored or ‘made a match’
näll
the nine of trumps is called näll, pronounced to rhyme with pal; worth 14 points, it is the second highest card and beats all other cards except the >puur in a trump round
obenabe
a contract in which, instead of a trump suit being chosen, all suits are of equal strength and cards are played simply from ‘the top down’, with ace being the highest and six being the lowest card; in this case the eight is worth 8 points to compensate for the absence of a >näll and a >puur
ober
in the >german deck the ober is the card that follows the king from the top down and thus sits in the place of the queen in the >french deck; like the queen in the french deck, it is worth three points
puur
the >under of trumps is called puur, which means ‘farmer’ and is pronounced to rhyme more or less with dour; it is the highest card that beats all other cards and it’s worth 20 points
rose / rösli
in the >german deck the yellow suit depicting a rose-like flower (rösli is the diminutive form of rose); it is a ‘floral’ suit and counts at single value
schälle
in the >german deck the yellow suit depicting bells; pronounced shalla, it is a ‘metal’ suit and counts double
schiebe / schieber / gschobe
schiebe means ‘to push’ and the term here stems from the fact that in the schieber jass you can push the decision of what contract to play across the table to your partner. the phrases used most commonly are: ‘ich schiebe’ (i push) and ‘gschobe’ (i have pushed or this call has been pushed); in english you’ll want to say ‘i schieb’ or ‘gschobe’
schilte
in the >german deck the black suit depicting a shield; pronounced shilta; it is a ‘metal’ suit and counts double
schnyder
if, in the final score of a game, the losing party has scored at least half the points required to win, they are said to be ‘zum schnyder us’, or ‘out of the schnyder’; conversely, if the losing party scores less than half the number of points required to win, it is said to not be out of the schnyder. among teams who pay into a kitty, in such an event the contribution made by the losing party is doubled
stich
a trick
stöck
the stöck are the king and ober of the suit that is trump, and, if held together, are worth 20 points. like the >wyys and the ordinary trick score, the stöck are doubled, tripled or quadrupled according to what suit is trump or whether >obenabe or >undenufe is played
thank you see > bedanke
undenufe
a contract in which, instead of a trump suit being chosen, all suits are of equal strength and cards are played simply from ‘the bottom up’ with six being the strongest and ace being the weakest card; in this case, the six is worth 11 points to reflect this reverse order and the eight 8 points, to compensate for the absence of a >näll and a >puur
under
in the >german deck, the under is the card that follows the >ober from the top down and therefore sits in the place of the jack in a >french deck of cards; like the jack, it is worth two points
wyys / wyyse
at the beginning of each round, each player, while playing their first card, may declare part of their hand in order to communicate a particular strength to their partner and to score additional points. this is called ‘wyyse’, which roughly translates as ‘to show’. cards only have to be shown literally if this is requested by another player, and then only that part of a hand may be shown that includes the wyys. normally, it is enough for a wyys to be declared. for a table of wyys values and the procedure, see below.
HOW TO PLAY
as with any good game, the best way to learn jass is by playing it; it sounds much dryer and far more complicated 'on paper' than it really is in practice. (remember: millions of swiss people from all walks of life and of all ages play this all the time. you can do this!)
so here goes:
there are several different types of game, but by far the most popular is the schieber. when people say: ‘machemer no en jass’ ('how about a game of jass') they almost always mean a schieber.
the schieber is a contract game played by four people in pairs; similar to bridge but considerably simpler and therefore much easier to learn and remember.
the object of the game is to win tricks and score higher than the opposing party so as to reach the winning score first. the party who does so wins the game. the number of hands or rounds played to win a game depends on the number of points scored in each round and the agreed number of points required to win, and can therefore vary considerably.
traditionally, among people who play jass regularly with each other, the losing party pays an agreed (normally very small) amount of money into a kitty. when the kitty is full or a target is reached or a period has come full circle, all four players spend the kitty on something they can enjoy together, such as a meal or an outing or a trip. jass is never played to earn money to keep or for personal gain.
THE DECK
you can play jass with any standard set of playing cards that ranges (or can be adapted to range) from six through ace consecutively. the deck thus contains 36 cards with no jokers.
this manual is written for the german deck. the rules for french decks are exactly the same, but:
for banner read zäni (ten)
for under read bueb (jack)
for ober read dame (queen)
for rose read herz (hearts)
for schälle read egge (diamonds)
for eichle read chrüz (clubs)
for schilte read schufle (spades)
(for the distinction between french and german cards, see glossary above.)
CARD HIERARCHY AND VALUES
in the trump suit, the under is called puur and the nine is called näll and they rise to the top of the table; thus puur is the most powerful card, followed by näll and then ace.
in trump rounds, trumps beat any other suit and can be played any time; when trump is played, you have to follow suit, except for the puur: you do not have to play the puur, you can hold on to the puur until it is best for you to play him.
there is no standard spelling or grammar in swiss german and conventions vary widely between dialects; the following are based on a moderate, more or less zürich orientated pronunciation
banner
in the >german deck, this is the ten which therefore is worth 10 points; so called because it features a ‘banner’, german for ‘standard’ or ‘flag’ in this context
bedanke
in >schieber the game is over when one party literally expresses its thanks to signal it has reached the winning mark (for example 1000, 2500 or 3000 points, whichever has been agreed in advance); depending on dialect, this might ordinarily be phrased ‘mir bedanked öis’ or ‘mir bedanken uns’ and translates as ‘we thank you’ or, more liberally, ‘cheers for the jass’
bock / böck
a bock card (plural böck) is a card that cannot be beaten by any other card left in the current round of the game; so if, for example, all the trumps have gone and the >schälle ace and king have also been played, then schälle ober is now a bock card.
dreiblatt
a >wyys of three consecutive cards; for example ace, king and ober of the same suit make for a dreiblatt
eichle
in the >german deck the green suit depicting acorns; it’s one of the two ‘floral’ suits and is scored at single value
french deck
standard playing cards with red hearts and diamonds suits and black clubs and spades suits
german deck
a card design that is popular in parts of germany and in the german speaking part of switzerland; it depicts yellow >schälle (bells), green >eichle (acorns), yellow >rose (roses), and black >schilte (shields) suits
gschobe see > schiebe / schieber / gschobe
(the) house rules
the house rules specify in what order points are applied in the final round of a game; this can be of critical importance if it is a close score. unless otherwise agreed, the generally accepted house rules are stöck – wyys – stich, meaning that >stöck are applied first, then any >wyys and only then the value of the trick (>stich); so if, for example, both parties hover very near the winning score line of, say, 2500, with one party at 2422 and a wyys worth 50 points in their hand and the other party at 2434 with no wyys but the stöck in their hand, then by calling the stöck the latter can win the game
jass
there are many different types of jass games, but the most popular, and the one referred to throughout in this manual, is the >schieber. in general usage, playing a ‘jass’ tends to refer to this particular game
(the) letscht (or) letschti
the letscht is the last trick in a hand being played. the party winning this trick scores an extra 5 points
match
if one party wins all the tricks of one hand, it is said to have played, won, scored or ‘made a match’
näll
the nine of trumps is called näll, pronounced to rhyme with pal; worth 14 points, it is the second highest card and beats all other cards except the >puur in a trump round
obenabe
a contract in which, instead of a trump suit being chosen, all suits are of equal strength and cards are played simply from ‘the top down’, with ace being the highest and six being the lowest card; in this case the eight is worth 8 points to compensate for the absence of a >näll and a >puur
ober
in the >german deck the ober is the card that follows the king from the top down and thus sits in the place of the queen in the >french deck; like the queen in the french deck, it is worth three points
puur
the >under of trumps is called puur, which means ‘farmer’ and is pronounced to rhyme more or less with dour; it is the highest card that beats all other cards and it’s worth 20 points
rose / rösli
in the >german deck the yellow suit depicting a rose-like flower (rösli is the diminutive form of rose); it is a ‘floral’ suit and counts at single value
schälle
in the >german deck the yellow suit depicting bells; pronounced shalla, it is a ‘metal’ suit and counts double
schiebe / schieber / gschobe
schiebe means ‘to push’ and the term here stems from the fact that in the schieber jass you can push the decision of what contract to play across the table to your partner. the phrases used most commonly are: ‘ich schiebe’ (i push) and ‘gschobe’ (i have pushed or this call has been pushed); in english you’ll want to say ‘i schieb’ or ‘gschobe’
schilte
in the >german deck the black suit depicting a shield; pronounced shilta; it is a ‘metal’ suit and counts double
schnyder
if, in the final score of a game, the losing party has scored at least half the points required to win, they are said to be ‘zum schnyder us’, or ‘out of the schnyder’; conversely, if the losing party scores less than half the number of points required to win, it is said to not be out of the schnyder. among teams who pay into a kitty, in such an event the contribution made by the losing party is doubled
stich
a trick
stöck
the stöck are the king and ober of the suit that is trump, and, if held together, are worth 20 points. like the >wyys and the ordinary trick score, the stöck are doubled, tripled or quadrupled according to what suit is trump or whether >obenabe or >undenufe is played
thank you see > bedanke
undenufe
a contract in which, instead of a trump suit being chosen, all suits are of equal strength and cards are played simply from ‘the bottom up’ with six being the strongest and ace being the weakest card; in this case, the six is worth 11 points to reflect this reverse order and the eight 8 points, to compensate for the absence of a >näll and a >puur
under
in the >german deck, the under is the card that follows the >ober from the top down and therefore sits in the place of the jack in a >french deck of cards; like the jack, it is worth two points
wyys / wyyse
at the beginning of each round, each player, while playing their first card, may declare part of their hand in order to communicate a particular strength to their partner and to score additional points. this is called ‘wyyse’, which roughly translates as ‘to show’. cards only have to be shown literally if this is requested by another player, and then only that part of a hand may be shown that includes the wyys. normally, it is enough for a wyys to be declared. for a table of wyys values and the procedure, see below.
HOW TO PLAY
as with any good game, the best way to learn jass is by playing it; it sounds much dryer and far more complicated 'on paper' than it really is in practice. (remember: millions of swiss people from all walks of life and of all ages play this all the time. you can do this!)
so here goes:
there are several different types of game, but by far the most popular is the schieber. when people say: ‘machemer no en jass’ ('how about a game of jass') they almost always mean a schieber.
the schieber is a contract game played by four people in pairs; similar to bridge but considerably simpler and therefore much easier to learn and remember.
the object of the game is to win tricks and score higher than the opposing party so as to reach the winning score first. the party who does so wins the game. the number of hands or rounds played to win a game depends on the number of points scored in each round and the agreed number of points required to win, and can therefore vary considerably.
traditionally, among people who play jass regularly with each other, the losing party pays an agreed (normally very small) amount of money into a kitty. when the kitty is full or a target is reached or a period has come full circle, all four players spend the kitty on something they can enjoy together, such as a meal or an outing or a trip. jass is never played to earn money to keep or for personal gain.
THE DECK
you can play jass with any standard set of playing cards that ranges (or can be adapted to range) from six through ace consecutively. the deck thus contains 36 cards with no jokers.
this manual is written for the german deck. the rules for french decks are exactly the same, but:
for banner read zäni (ten)
for under read bueb (jack)
for ober read dame (queen)
for rose read herz (hearts)
for schälle read egge (diamonds)
for eichle read chrüz (clubs)
for schilte read schufle (spades)
(for the distinction between french and german cards, see glossary above.)
CARD HIERARCHY AND VALUES
in the trump suit, the under is called puur and the nine is called näll and they rise to the top of the table; thus puur is the most powerful card, followed by näll and then ace.
in trump rounds, trumps beat any other suit and can be played any time; when trump is played, you have to follow suit, except for the puur: you do not have to play the puur, you can hold on to the puur until it is best for you to play him.
SCORING
the total possible score per round is 152 from card values plus 5 for the letschti (the final trick); making the ‘net’ score per round 157.
multipliers are then applied as follows:
rose & eichle (‘flora’) counts single, which makes for a maximum score of 157 per round
schälle & schilte (metal) count double, which makes for a maximum score of 314 per round
obenabe counts triple, which makes for a maximum score of 471 per round
undenufe counts quadruple, which makes for a maximum score of 628 per round
if agreed in advance, undenufe can be treated equal to obenabe and scored triple instead of quadruple.
also decide before the game what the winning score is going to be; most common are
1000 points (often played as simplified version with all suits being equal)
2500 points, or
3000 points
but any other winning score is fine, as long as you all agree on it before you start playing
if a party wins all tricks in one round, they are said to have won a ‘match’ and they score an additional 100 points. this is multiplied in the same way as ordinary points according to the mode of play outlined above; thus:
a single count match (rose or eichle) is always worth 257 points
a double count match (schälle or schilte) is always worth 514 points
a triple count match (obenabe / undenufe if agreed) is always worth 771 points
a quadruple count match (undenufe) is always worth 1028 points
CHOOSING PARTNERS
there is no rule that specifies how partners are chosen; some people always play in the same constellation, others swap and change, and in ad-hoc games often cards are drawn to decide who plays with whom, or partners are chosen according to known or assumed strength or experience, to get more or less balanced teams. once play is underway, however, partners cannot be swapped until either one party has won or a party has resigned or play is abandoned for whatever reason. scoring then starts afresh.
SEATING ARRANGEMENT
partners face each other across play.
FIRST DEALER
shuffle the deck; each player draws a card; the player with the highest card deals first.
CUTTING THE DECK
shuffle the deck, then pass it to your left (‘across the heart’) to be cut. the person cutting the deck has to cut at least three cards; but they can also choose to not cut the deck but knock on it instead. this is considered a sign of trust; but don't take offence if the deck is cut, since that is the purpose of the exercise.
DEALING
then, deal three cards at a time, anti-clockwise, starting with the person to your right and serving yourself last, until each player has nine cards.
CHOOSING TRUMPS
in the first round of a game, the person with the rose seven chooses trumps, no matter who dealt; when the first round has been played, this person becomes the dealer and from then on in, the player to the right hand side of the dealer gets to choose trumps.
you choose trumps on the basis of your hand, hoping to score as many points as possible. bearing in mind that in the trump suit the under becomes the puur which beats every other card and the nine becomes the näll which is the second strongest card, you want to look out for these two first and then for the ace, king and ober or any other cards that may support them. a good trump hand should include at least four, preferably five trumps including the puur. only if you have six or more cards of a suit would you normally choose that suit as trumps without the puur.
instead of a trump, you can also choose to play obenabe or undenufe. in these cases there is no trump suit and all suits are equal. in obenabe the strongest card is the ace and you play from the ‘top down’, whereas in undenufe the strongest card is the six and you play from the ‘bottom up’. both these are considered riskier, as it is impossible to take control of the round once you have run out of bock cards. you should have a really top or bottom heavy hand to go for either of these, especially if you’re choosing trumps first hand.
when playing your first card, you may announce the trump you’ve chosen, but unless you specify otherwise, the first card you play will be considered to be from the trump suit. in most cases, the first card to play is the trump puur, but it doesn’t have to be.
if you want to play an obenabe or an undenufe make sure you announce this with your first card. (if you were to play a schilten ace, for example, and forgot to say obenabe then you would be stuck in schilte trumps.) similarly, if for any reason you want to play a card other than a trump first, you’ll have to announce what is actually trump at that time.
SCHIEBE
the beauty of the schieber and its chief characteristic is that you’re not alone: if your hand isn’t strong enough to choose a promising trump, you can schiebe (literally ‘push’) across to your partner who now makes the decision for you. by virtue of the fact that you schieb, you signal one of two things: either your hand is atrocious and you just can’t do anything with it, or you have a fairly decent hand, but no suit jumps out at you. schiebe is therefore not necessarily a cry for help or a proclamation of weakness. it is entirely possible to achieve a match with a combined hand that has been gschobe.
if you want to schieb, you say either ‘i schieb’ or ‘gschobe’ and your partner now decides on the basis of their hand what should be trump. they do not, however, play the first card, they simply tell you what they’ve chosen and you then play the first card. from there on in, the same rules apply as if you had chosen trump yourself.
WYYSE
the wyys is an important part of the game that can significantly influence the outcome. no real skill is required, you just need to know the rules (they sound more complicated than they are, so just bear with):
you can wyys (‘show’ or ‘declare’) any part of your hand that contains either a string of three or more consecutive cards in the same suit, or four cards of the same denomination across all four suits, or both. for example: a king, ober and under of the same suit would be a dreiblatt, while a king, ober, under and banner of the same suit would be fifty, and a king, ober, under, banner and nine would be a hundred. similarly four kings would be worth a hundred, as would be four ober, or indeed four of any card, except four nines which are worth 150, and four under, which are worth 200.
wyyse is not compulsory. although in most cases you would see no reason why you shouldn’t claim the extra points, very occasionally it may be to your advantage to keep your hand close to your chest, for example if you think you can win a match but fear declaring part of your hand would help your opponents scupper you. but for most of the time, you probably want to wyys.
you wyys in three stages: first the value, then the rank, then the suit; it’s important to stick firmly to this order as not doing so will land you in trouble:
1) you declare the value of your wyys as you put down the first card of your hand. as soon as the next player’s card is on the table, your window of opportunity has passed. declare only the value, for example dreiblatt, or fifty. (see table below)
2) once everybody has put down their first card and had a chance to signal their wyys, it may be necessary to establish whose wyys counts; if there is more than one wyys, everybody who is wyysing states which card they are wyysing from, always naming the highest value / most potent card (note that in an undenufe round, a seven is more potent, say, than a nine). so if you have a king, ober and under, you would wyys a dreiblatt from a king. (if you had the same three cards in an undenufe round you would say you wyys dreiblatt from the under). the wyys with the highest rank wins.
3) finally, the winning wyys is always fully declared. so in order to note down a dreiblatt from a king, it is then necessary to specify which king the dreiblatt is from. revealing more of a wyys than is necessary to establish the winning wyys is not allowed, however. so, for example, once it is clear that dreiblatt from schilte king wins, you can’t say: my dreiblatt is from schälle nine, unless the winning wyys is from your partner, because:
the highest wyys not only wins its own points, it also allows your partner to write their wyys and it opens the door to any other wyys in your own or their hand. so you may find you have four kings and also an ace and an ober in the same suit as one of the kings. this means you can wyys 100 and then also throw in the 20 from your wyys down the line of the suit. if your partner also has a wyys they can also count that, as long as they have announced it while playing their first card. (they can’t suddenly come up with it retroactively; if they also have two or more wyys, it's enough for them to announce the highest one of these at stage 1 above.)
ties are resolved as follows:
- if there is a tie on value, the wyys from the highest or most potent card wins; so a dreiblatt from an ace beats a dreiblatt from a king, for example
- if after value there is a tie on rank, then trump wins; so a dreiblatt from trump king beats a dreiblatt from any other king, for example
- if there is still a tie then the first called wyys wins; so if two people have a dreiblatt from a king in an obenabe, then the first called wyys beats the second
the party who hasn’t won the wyys can’t write any of theirs for that round, so even if, in the example above, one of your opponents holds a wyys worth 50 in their hand, this is rendered invalid by your wyys worth 100.
the wyys is noted down immediately and, if relevant, is multiplied by the same factor as ordinary points; so while it counts only once for eichle and rose rounds, for schälle and schilte rounds it counts double, for obenabe rounds triple and for undenufe rounds triple or quadruple, as agreed.
wyys table:
a) consecutive cards in the same suit
3 cards: 20 points – ‘dreiblatt’
4 cards: 50 points – ’fifty'
5 cards: 100 points – ‘a hundred’
6 cards: 150 points – ‘a hundred and fifty’
7 cards: 200 points – ‘two hundred’
8 cards: 250 points – ‘two hundred and fifty’
9 cards: 300 points – ‘three hundred’
(your chances of having eight or nine consecutive cards in a deck that’s been shuffled are remarkably slim, but five or six do occur)
b) complete sets of four
all four of six, seven, eight, ten, ober, king or ace – 100 points
all four nines – 150 points (called ‘four näll’)
all four under – 200 points (called ‘four puure’)
STÖCK
the king and ober of trumps combined in one hand are called stöck and are worth net 20 points (as always multiplied in line with the suit that’s being played, so in eichle and rose that’s 20 points, in schälle and schilte it’s doubled to 40 points; in obenabe and undenufe the stöck don’t exist).
unlike the wyys which has to be declared with the first card, the stöck can be declared as late as the second of the two cards being played. once the second card has been played and covered, stöck can no longer be declared. like the wyys, the points are noted down immediately.
stöck may also be declared in combination with and at the time of a wyys or as early as you like at the end of a game if they can decide the winner: so if it’s crunch time, they can even be declared before the first card has been played.
PLAY
once the first card by the player calling trump is down, play is underway and goes anti-clockwise round the table. you and your partner are playing together to win as many tricks and as many points as possible. ideally, you want to win all the tricks in a hand, as that will give you extra points for scoring a ‘match’.
the rules that apply are:
- in principle you must follow suit, but you can play a trump any time
- if trumps are leading you must follow suit
- trumps beat any other suit
- higher trumps beat lower trumps
- if you can’t follow suit, you can play any card you like; but you can’t ‘undertrump’:
- you can’t ‘undertrump’ means that if trumps isn’t the leading suit, and a trump has already been played, then you can only play a higher trump to win the trick, not a lower trump to dispose of your card, unless you have no choice because you only have trumps left in your hand
- once a card is on the table it can’t be retrieved
- whichever party wins the trick scoops it up and lays it face down on the table
- either you or your partner can collect the tricks you win; they will be added up together at the end of the round
- once the trick has been turned over it can no longer be examined
- the person whose card has won the trick plays the next card and play continues anti-clockwise
the round is over when all nine cards have been played; each team’s tricks are added up together and the points noted down.
the player who has called trump (or gschobe) now becomes the dealer.
END OF PLAY / BEDANKE
the first team to reach the agreed winning score expresses their thanks by saying either ‘we thank you’ or ‘cheers for the jass’ (or, swiss, ‘mir bedanked öis’) and thus wins the game. either partner can do this when they are sure that the winning score has been reached, even if it isn’t their turn. you cannot win the game without saying thank you. and if you make a mistake and say thank you before you are actually done, you forfeit the game, so make sure you are there before you call it.
if the score is close, the house rules kick in. unless otherwise agreed, the house rules are stöck – wyys – stich meaning that the order in which points are applied is
1 - the stöck (if obenabe or undenufe is being played this becomes irrelevant)
2 - any wyys (note the rules above: your wyys needs to beat any other wyys to count)
3 - the value of the tricks as they are being played
so it is possible for a party to express their thanks mid-hand, if they are sure they have reached the winning mark; or even before any card has been played, if the stöck are the deciding factor.
this also means that you may choose a trump suit simply because you hold in your hand the stöck, knowing that they count first towards your score, before anything else: if you were to be just a dozen points away from your winning post, then the stöck alone would get you past it, for example.
if you reach the winning score but forget to express your thanks and your opponents get there too and express their thanks before you, then they have won.
CONVENTIONS & TACTICS
a few pointers to help you along the way:
- always always count the trumps as they’re being played so you always know how many of them are left; it’s the most powerful tool in the kit and your partner will thank you for it
- if you have a strong hand and are calling trumps, flush out the trumps first, so your opponents can’t later ambush you
- as a rule of thumb, only call trumps first hand if you are fairly certain you can make at least four tricks; ordinarily, you’d expect to have at least either ‘de puur z’viert’ meaning the puur and three other trumps, or ’s’näll z’feuft’ or better still ‘s'näll z’säxst’, meaning the näll and at the very least four or ideally five other trumps to declare trumps first hand
- to call an obenabe or undenufe first hand, you should again have in hand four or five cards that guarantee you a trick, such as two or three aces or sixes respectively, in combination with two or three kings or sevens respectively
- unless you have a spectacular hand and can hope for a match, refrain from calling a floral trump first hand; meaning don’t call either rose or eichle first: these two suits only count once and it may well be that your partner has a similarly good hand or better in a more valuable suit; if they don’t, they can always then call a low value suit second hand
- which also tells you what to do if your partner schiebs to you and you have a duff hand: call a low value trump like rose or eichle, choosing whichever is the least worst option for you, to hedge your contract against heavy loss
- once you have gschobe and your partner has called trumps, either play your highest trump if you have more than one or, if you have no trumps, play the second highest card of your longest and strongest suit; if you have a generally duff hand, this will sound like meaningless advice, in which case just play a middling card
- if you have gschobe and your partner has called either obenabe or undenufe, play any ace or six you have respectively first; this will secure the first trick for your team and give your partner a chance to declare any wyys which may well tell you where to go after you’ve played all of your bock cards
- keep an eye out for what’s ‘gone’ – you may not be able to remember 36 cards, but you will be playing a much stronger game if you pay attention to the most important cards, namely trumps and aces
- a good tactic is to make a mental note of what’s bock in your hand; this is easier than trying to remember what’s gone as you can see the card in front of your eyes; so, for example, if you notice that the ace and the king of a suit to which you have the ober have gone, you know that the ober is now is a bock card
- if you have a particularly strong wyys in your hand, it may be worth going for a higher value suit as trump or even an obenabe or undenufe to get your wyys doubled, tripled or possibly even quadrupled. so if you hold four puure, for instance, and a sub-ideal hand with mainly low cards, you're probably still best off calling undenufe and risk losing a few tricks, because your wyys alone will be worth 600 or 800 points
- this is fairly advanced but useful: you can signal to your partner what suit they should play once they run out of trumps or böck, by ‘throwing away’ the complement suit on their lead. complement suits are metal to metal and flora to flora, so if, for example, schilte is trump, and your partner is still pulling trumps, but you've already run out and you want them to play eichle after the trumps have gone, because that's where you've got your ace, then you throw away rose. similarly, if your partner is leading on eichle in an obenabe round and you've run out of eichle, but you want them to play schälle next, because you have an ace and a king there, you throw away schilte.
- in variations of the above, some people simply 'throw away' suits they are weak on to generally signal 'don't play this'. this makes things a little easier, especially if you are new to the game. so say schilten is trump and you've run out of trumps, and your weakest suit is rose, you can simply 'throw away' rose at the first possible opportunity to indicate that you don't have anything valuable in this suit. if you have a second worst suit, you can then throw that away at the second opportunity. on the other hand, you may want to go more sophisticated instead, in which case you can agree beforehand with your partner by which logic you throw away cards. for example, you could say: in trump rounds we throw away complementary suits as described above, but in undenufe and obenabe rounds we throw away shades, meaning that if i'm strong in rose, i'll be throwing away schälle (both are yellow, or bright shades) and vice versa, and if i'm strong in eichle i'll be throwing away schilte (both are dark shades) and vice versa. if i've just lost you now, don't worry: you may ignore this 'tip' for as long as you choose!...
NOTATION
if you want to be really authentic, order yourself a swiss jass scoring blackboard online: this has two Z shapes marked on it on which you write down your scores as follows:
the total possible score per round is 152 from card values plus 5 for the letschti (the final trick); making the ‘net’ score per round 157.
multipliers are then applied as follows:
rose & eichle (‘flora’) counts single, which makes for a maximum score of 157 per round
schälle & schilte (metal) count double, which makes for a maximum score of 314 per round
obenabe counts triple, which makes for a maximum score of 471 per round
undenufe counts quadruple, which makes for a maximum score of 628 per round
if agreed in advance, undenufe can be treated equal to obenabe and scored triple instead of quadruple.
also decide before the game what the winning score is going to be; most common are
1000 points (often played as simplified version with all suits being equal)
2500 points, or
3000 points
but any other winning score is fine, as long as you all agree on it before you start playing
if a party wins all tricks in one round, they are said to have won a ‘match’ and they score an additional 100 points. this is multiplied in the same way as ordinary points according to the mode of play outlined above; thus:
a single count match (rose or eichle) is always worth 257 points
a double count match (schälle or schilte) is always worth 514 points
a triple count match (obenabe / undenufe if agreed) is always worth 771 points
a quadruple count match (undenufe) is always worth 1028 points
CHOOSING PARTNERS
there is no rule that specifies how partners are chosen; some people always play in the same constellation, others swap and change, and in ad-hoc games often cards are drawn to decide who plays with whom, or partners are chosen according to known or assumed strength or experience, to get more or less balanced teams. once play is underway, however, partners cannot be swapped until either one party has won or a party has resigned or play is abandoned for whatever reason. scoring then starts afresh.
SEATING ARRANGEMENT
partners face each other across play.
FIRST DEALER
shuffle the deck; each player draws a card; the player with the highest card deals first.
CUTTING THE DECK
shuffle the deck, then pass it to your left (‘across the heart’) to be cut. the person cutting the deck has to cut at least three cards; but they can also choose to not cut the deck but knock on it instead. this is considered a sign of trust; but don't take offence if the deck is cut, since that is the purpose of the exercise.
DEALING
then, deal three cards at a time, anti-clockwise, starting with the person to your right and serving yourself last, until each player has nine cards.
CHOOSING TRUMPS
in the first round of a game, the person with the rose seven chooses trumps, no matter who dealt; when the first round has been played, this person becomes the dealer and from then on in, the player to the right hand side of the dealer gets to choose trumps.
you choose trumps on the basis of your hand, hoping to score as many points as possible. bearing in mind that in the trump suit the under becomes the puur which beats every other card and the nine becomes the näll which is the second strongest card, you want to look out for these two first and then for the ace, king and ober or any other cards that may support them. a good trump hand should include at least four, preferably five trumps including the puur. only if you have six or more cards of a suit would you normally choose that suit as trumps without the puur.
instead of a trump, you can also choose to play obenabe or undenufe. in these cases there is no trump suit and all suits are equal. in obenabe the strongest card is the ace and you play from the ‘top down’, whereas in undenufe the strongest card is the six and you play from the ‘bottom up’. both these are considered riskier, as it is impossible to take control of the round once you have run out of bock cards. you should have a really top or bottom heavy hand to go for either of these, especially if you’re choosing trumps first hand.
when playing your first card, you may announce the trump you’ve chosen, but unless you specify otherwise, the first card you play will be considered to be from the trump suit. in most cases, the first card to play is the trump puur, but it doesn’t have to be.
if you want to play an obenabe or an undenufe make sure you announce this with your first card. (if you were to play a schilten ace, for example, and forgot to say obenabe then you would be stuck in schilte trumps.) similarly, if for any reason you want to play a card other than a trump first, you’ll have to announce what is actually trump at that time.
SCHIEBE
the beauty of the schieber and its chief characteristic is that you’re not alone: if your hand isn’t strong enough to choose a promising trump, you can schiebe (literally ‘push’) across to your partner who now makes the decision for you. by virtue of the fact that you schieb, you signal one of two things: either your hand is atrocious and you just can’t do anything with it, or you have a fairly decent hand, but no suit jumps out at you. schiebe is therefore not necessarily a cry for help or a proclamation of weakness. it is entirely possible to achieve a match with a combined hand that has been gschobe.
if you want to schieb, you say either ‘i schieb’ or ‘gschobe’ and your partner now decides on the basis of their hand what should be trump. they do not, however, play the first card, they simply tell you what they’ve chosen and you then play the first card. from there on in, the same rules apply as if you had chosen trump yourself.
WYYSE
the wyys is an important part of the game that can significantly influence the outcome. no real skill is required, you just need to know the rules (they sound more complicated than they are, so just bear with):
you can wyys (‘show’ or ‘declare’) any part of your hand that contains either a string of three or more consecutive cards in the same suit, or four cards of the same denomination across all four suits, or both. for example: a king, ober and under of the same suit would be a dreiblatt, while a king, ober, under and banner of the same suit would be fifty, and a king, ober, under, banner and nine would be a hundred. similarly four kings would be worth a hundred, as would be four ober, or indeed four of any card, except four nines which are worth 150, and four under, which are worth 200.
wyyse is not compulsory. although in most cases you would see no reason why you shouldn’t claim the extra points, very occasionally it may be to your advantage to keep your hand close to your chest, for example if you think you can win a match but fear declaring part of your hand would help your opponents scupper you. but for most of the time, you probably want to wyys.
you wyys in three stages: first the value, then the rank, then the suit; it’s important to stick firmly to this order as not doing so will land you in trouble:
1) you declare the value of your wyys as you put down the first card of your hand. as soon as the next player’s card is on the table, your window of opportunity has passed. declare only the value, for example dreiblatt, or fifty. (see table below)
2) once everybody has put down their first card and had a chance to signal their wyys, it may be necessary to establish whose wyys counts; if there is more than one wyys, everybody who is wyysing states which card they are wyysing from, always naming the highest value / most potent card (note that in an undenufe round, a seven is more potent, say, than a nine). so if you have a king, ober and under, you would wyys a dreiblatt from a king. (if you had the same three cards in an undenufe round you would say you wyys dreiblatt from the under). the wyys with the highest rank wins.
3) finally, the winning wyys is always fully declared. so in order to note down a dreiblatt from a king, it is then necessary to specify which king the dreiblatt is from. revealing more of a wyys than is necessary to establish the winning wyys is not allowed, however. so, for example, once it is clear that dreiblatt from schilte king wins, you can’t say: my dreiblatt is from schälle nine, unless the winning wyys is from your partner, because:
the highest wyys not only wins its own points, it also allows your partner to write their wyys and it opens the door to any other wyys in your own or their hand. so you may find you have four kings and also an ace and an ober in the same suit as one of the kings. this means you can wyys 100 and then also throw in the 20 from your wyys down the line of the suit. if your partner also has a wyys they can also count that, as long as they have announced it while playing their first card. (they can’t suddenly come up with it retroactively; if they also have two or more wyys, it's enough for them to announce the highest one of these at stage 1 above.)
ties are resolved as follows:
- if there is a tie on value, the wyys from the highest or most potent card wins; so a dreiblatt from an ace beats a dreiblatt from a king, for example
- if after value there is a tie on rank, then trump wins; so a dreiblatt from trump king beats a dreiblatt from any other king, for example
- if there is still a tie then the first called wyys wins; so if two people have a dreiblatt from a king in an obenabe, then the first called wyys beats the second
the party who hasn’t won the wyys can’t write any of theirs for that round, so even if, in the example above, one of your opponents holds a wyys worth 50 in their hand, this is rendered invalid by your wyys worth 100.
the wyys is noted down immediately and, if relevant, is multiplied by the same factor as ordinary points; so while it counts only once for eichle and rose rounds, for schälle and schilte rounds it counts double, for obenabe rounds triple and for undenufe rounds triple or quadruple, as agreed.
wyys table:
a) consecutive cards in the same suit
3 cards: 20 points – ‘dreiblatt’
4 cards: 50 points – ’fifty'
5 cards: 100 points – ‘a hundred’
6 cards: 150 points – ‘a hundred and fifty’
7 cards: 200 points – ‘two hundred’
8 cards: 250 points – ‘two hundred and fifty’
9 cards: 300 points – ‘three hundred’
(your chances of having eight or nine consecutive cards in a deck that’s been shuffled are remarkably slim, but five or six do occur)
b) complete sets of four
all four of six, seven, eight, ten, ober, king or ace – 100 points
all four nines – 150 points (called ‘four näll’)
all four under – 200 points (called ‘four puure’)
STÖCK
the king and ober of trumps combined in one hand are called stöck and are worth net 20 points (as always multiplied in line with the suit that’s being played, so in eichle and rose that’s 20 points, in schälle and schilte it’s doubled to 40 points; in obenabe and undenufe the stöck don’t exist).
unlike the wyys which has to be declared with the first card, the stöck can be declared as late as the second of the two cards being played. once the second card has been played and covered, stöck can no longer be declared. like the wyys, the points are noted down immediately.
stöck may also be declared in combination with and at the time of a wyys or as early as you like at the end of a game if they can decide the winner: so if it’s crunch time, they can even be declared before the first card has been played.
PLAY
once the first card by the player calling trump is down, play is underway and goes anti-clockwise round the table. you and your partner are playing together to win as many tricks and as many points as possible. ideally, you want to win all the tricks in a hand, as that will give you extra points for scoring a ‘match’.
the rules that apply are:
- in principle you must follow suit, but you can play a trump any time
- if trumps are leading you must follow suit
- trumps beat any other suit
- higher trumps beat lower trumps
- if you can’t follow suit, you can play any card you like; but you can’t ‘undertrump’:
- you can’t ‘undertrump’ means that if trumps isn’t the leading suit, and a trump has already been played, then you can only play a higher trump to win the trick, not a lower trump to dispose of your card, unless you have no choice because you only have trumps left in your hand
- once a card is on the table it can’t be retrieved
- whichever party wins the trick scoops it up and lays it face down on the table
- either you or your partner can collect the tricks you win; they will be added up together at the end of the round
- once the trick has been turned over it can no longer be examined
- the person whose card has won the trick plays the next card and play continues anti-clockwise
the round is over when all nine cards have been played; each team’s tricks are added up together and the points noted down.
the player who has called trump (or gschobe) now becomes the dealer.
END OF PLAY / BEDANKE
the first team to reach the agreed winning score expresses their thanks by saying either ‘we thank you’ or ‘cheers for the jass’ (or, swiss, ‘mir bedanked öis’) and thus wins the game. either partner can do this when they are sure that the winning score has been reached, even if it isn’t their turn. you cannot win the game without saying thank you. and if you make a mistake and say thank you before you are actually done, you forfeit the game, so make sure you are there before you call it.
if the score is close, the house rules kick in. unless otherwise agreed, the house rules are stöck – wyys – stich meaning that the order in which points are applied is
1 - the stöck (if obenabe or undenufe is being played this becomes irrelevant)
2 - any wyys (note the rules above: your wyys needs to beat any other wyys to count)
3 - the value of the tricks as they are being played
so it is possible for a party to express their thanks mid-hand, if they are sure they have reached the winning mark; or even before any card has been played, if the stöck are the deciding factor.
this also means that you may choose a trump suit simply because you hold in your hand the stöck, knowing that they count first towards your score, before anything else: if you were to be just a dozen points away from your winning post, then the stöck alone would get you past it, for example.
if you reach the winning score but forget to express your thanks and your opponents get there too and express their thanks before you, then they have won.
CONVENTIONS & TACTICS
a few pointers to help you along the way:
- always always count the trumps as they’re being played so you always know how many of them are left; it’s the most powerful tool in the kit and your partner will thank you for it
- if you have a strong hand and are calling trumps, flush out the trumps first, so your opponents can’t later ambush you
- as a rule of thumb, only call trumps first hand if you are fairly certain you can make at least four tricks; ordinarily, you’d expect to have at least either ‘de puur z’viert’ meaning the puur and three other trumps, or ’s’näll z’feuft’ or better still ‘s'näll z’säxst’, meaning the näll and at the very least four or ideally five other trumps to declare trumps first hand
- to call an obenabe or undenufe first hand, you should again have in hand four or five cards that guarantee you a trick, such as two or three aces or sixes respectively, in combination with two or three kings or sevens respectively
- unless you have a spectacular hand and can hope for a match, refrain from calling a floral trump first hand; meaning don’t call either rose or eichle first: these two suits only count once and it may well be that your partner has a similarly good hand or better in a more valuable suit; if they don’t, they can always then call a low value suit second hand
- which also tells you what to do if your partner schiebs to you and you have a duff hand: call a low value trump like rose or eichle, choosing whichever is the least worst option for you, to hedge your contract against heavy loss
- once you have gschobe and your partner has called trumps, either play your highest trump if you have more than one or, if you have no trumps, play the second highest card of your longest and strongest suit; if you have a generally duff hand, this will sound like meaningless advice, in which case just play a middling card
- if you have gschobe and your partner has called either obenabe or undenufe, play any ace or six you have respectively first; this will secure the first trick for your team and give your partner a chance to declare any wyys which may well tell you where to go after you’ve played all of your bock cards
- keep an eye out for what’s ‘gone’ – you may not be able to remember 36 cards, but you will be playing a much stronger game if you pay attention to the most important cards, namely trumps and aces
- a good tactic is to make a mental note of what’s bock in your hand; this is easier than trying to remember what’s gone as you can see the card in front of your eyes; so, for example, if you notice that the ace and the king of a suit to which you have the ober have gone, you know that the ober is now is a bock card
- if you have a particularly strong wyys in your hand, it may be worth going for a higher value suit as trump or even an obenabe or undenufe to get your wyys doubled, tripled or possibly even quadrupled. so if you hold four puure, for instance, and a sub-ideal hand with mainly low cards, you're probably still best off calling undenufe and risk losing a few tricks, because your wyys alone will be worth 600 or 800 points
- this is fairly advanced but useful: you can signal to your partner what suit they should play once they run out of trumps or böck, by ‘throwing away’ the complement suit on their lead. complement suits are metal to metal and flora to flora, so if, for example, schilte is trump, and your partner is still pulling trumps, but you've already run out and you want them to play eichle after the trumps have gone, because that's where you've got your ace, then you throw away rose. similarly, if your partner is leading on eichle in an obenabe round and you've run out of eichle, but you want them to play schälle next, because you have an ace and a king there, you throw away schilte.
- in variations of the above, some people simply 'throw away' suits they are weak on to generally signal 'don't play this'. this makes things a little easier, especially if you are new to the game. so say schilten is trump and you've run out of trumps, and your weakest suit is rose, you can simply 'throw away' rose at the first possible opportunity to indicate that you don't have anything valuable in this suit. if you have a second worst suit, you can then throw that away at the second opportunity. on the other hand, you may want to go more sophisticated instead, in which case you can agree beforehand with your partner by which logic you throw away cards. for example, you could say: in trump rounds we throw away complementary suits as described above, but in undenufe and obenabe rounds we throw away shades, meaning that if i'm strong in rose, i'll be throwing away schälle (both are yellow, or bright shades) and vice versa, and if i'm strong in eichle i'll be throwing away schilte (both are dark shades) and vice versa. if i've just lost you now, don't worry: you may ignore this 'tip' for as long as you choose!...
NOTATION
if you want to be really authentic, order yourself a swiss jass scoring blackboard online: this has two Z shapes marked on it on which you write down your scores as follows:
in the above example, each party writes their own scores, which is why the positions of the hundreds and twenties on the Z shape mirror each other and why the 7 in the top half is upside down. if one person were doing all the scoring, then it would make sense for just one orientation to be in place.
the advantage of this method is that each stroke on the hundreds line, each X on the fifties line and each sheaf on the twenties line represents 100 points, which makes it easy to keep track, with little erasing of numbers (only the singles on the side) to do.
if you don’t have a proper blackboard, you can write out two Z shapes on a piece of paper, and if that’s too much hassle, you can also just emulate the positions like this:
hundreds
fifties singles as numbers
twenties
and if you still don’t like the this, then there’s nothing to stop you from simply creating a running table of numerical values.
GENERALLY
jass is the kind of game that people get extraordinarily earnest about, and once you start playing you will see why: it’s a brilliant game of strategy, psychology, tactics, skill and luck, and in switzerland it’s a mortar that holds together lifelong friendships.
which is why people get extraordinarily upset if you commit any of the seven cardinal sins, so:
- don’t talk during the hand: once the wyysing is done you concentrate on the game; discuss how it went and what you might have done differently between hands
- don’t check what’s gone: once a trick has been turned over it’s out of reach; you either remember it or you don’t
- don’t ask what’s gone and what’s trump: once play is underway you just have to pay attention
- don’t withdraw your card: once played, your card stays on the table; if it’s the wrong one, better luck next time
- don’t play ahead: you may know what’s coming or you may be excited about the card in your hand, but show your opponent the courtesy of letting them play their card first
- don’t show your hand and don’t comment on it either
- don’t signal, cheat, whisper or bluff: this is jass, a straight up game played amongst equals and friends who respect each other; do them the honour of playing it right
and that’s about it. most important though
- enjoy, it may be the best four-people card game ever invented…
the advantage of this method is that each stroke on the hundreds line, each X on the fifties line and each sheaf on the twenties line represents 100 points, which makes it easy to keep track, with little erasing of numbers (only the singles on the side) to do.
if you don’t have a proper blackboard, you can write out two Z shapes on a piece of paper, and if that’s too much hassle, you can also just emulate the positions like this:
hundreds
fifties singles as numbers
twenties
and if you still don’t like the this, then there’s nothing to stop you from simply creating a running table of numerical values.
GENERALLY
jass is the kind of game that people get extraordinarily earnest about, and once you start playing you will see why: it’s a brilliant game of strategy, psychology, tactics, skill and luck, and in switzerland it’s a mortar that holds together lifelong friendships.
which is why people get extraordinarily upset if you commit any of the seven cardinal sins, so:
- don’t talk during the hand: once the wyysing is done you concentrate on the game; discuss how it went and what you might have done differently between hands
- don’t check what’s gone: once a trick has been turned over it’s out of reach; you either remember it or you don’t
- don’t ask what’s gone and what’s trump: once play is underway you just have to pay attention
- don’t withdraw your card: once played, your card stays on the table; if it’s the wrong one, better luck next time
- don’t play ahead: you may know what’s coming or you may be excited about the card in your hand, but show your opponent the courtesy of letting them play their card first
- don’t show your hand and don’t comment on it either
- don’t signal, cheat, whisper or bluff: this is jass, a straight up game played amongst equals and friends who respect each other; do them the honour of playing it right
and that’s about it. most important though
- enjoy, it may be the best four-people card game ever invented…