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3. Game Types
After the shuffling and dealing, each player holds 12 cards. Playing correctly, the cards are held in such a way that no other player can see the cards that you hold.
Take your time and look carefully at your cards. When you first play Doppelkopf, you should hold your cards so that they are ordered by suit and according to their rank within a suit. The computer will take care of this automatically for you.
Typically, you play a Doppelkopf hand not alone, but with a partner. An exception to this is the Solo game in which you play by yourself against the other three players.
As we have already seen in Chapter 3, the goal of Doppelkopf is to capture the maximum number of card points. Normally, 121 card points is sufficient to win. There are also a few cases in which 120 card points is enough (See, "Call" Games).
3.1 The Normal Case -- A "Call" Game
This type of game is the one most commonly played. The trump cards have the following ranks:
There are 26 Trumps altogether and 22 cards in the three non-trump "side" suits. A special role is played by the Club Queens. They determine which players are partners and which are opponents. The two players holding Club Queens make up the, so called, Re-Team. ["Re" is pronounced, "Ray"]. The other two players are the Contra Team.
3.2 Marriage
From the name, you can figure that this game type has to do with seeking a "bride" or "groom" to form a "marriage." But what conditions must be met in order to announce such a happy event? It's very simple. One can announce a marriage when he or she holds both Club Queens in his or her hand. But be careful! If you hold both queens and forget to announce it, you are actually playing a secret Diamond Solo and your three opponents will know what's up as soon as you play the second Club Queen.
If you do announce a marriage, who is your partner? Your partner is the first of the other three players to win a trick. A trick must be won (and your partner determined) within the first three tricks, however. Otherwise, your "marriage" turns into a Diamond Solo and you must play alone against the other three.
The order of the trump and all of the other rules are the same as with a normal Call game.
Unless someone announces a marriage or a solo game, a normal Call game is played.
3.3 Solo Game Types
The Doppelkopf rules distinguish between "voluntary" and "required" Solo games. According to the official tournament rules, each player must play a Solo game within the first 24 games that are played. In order to minimize the disadvantages, players who have not yet played their Solo game have preference in the event that two or more players want to play solo in a particular hand.
The Solo player plays the role of the Re-Team by him- or herself. To win, he or she must reach 121 card points alone. Solo games do not permit the special additional points that are possible in some of the other games. There are a number of Solo game types that distinguish themselves according to how the cards are ordered and which are trump.
3.3.1 Queens Solo
Only the eight Queens are trump, i.e., the Heart 10 and the Jacks fall into their normal ordering within their respective suits. Diamonds now serve as a fourth side suit. In the side suits, the order of the cards is:
3.3.2 Jacks Solo
This is like the previous case except that only the Jacks are trump. The card order of the side suits is:
3.3.3 Suit Solo
The card order in this case is the same as in a normal game except that one can choose which suit (Clubs, Spades, Hearts, or Diamonds) will follow the Heart 10s, all of the Queens and all of the Jacks in the trump suit. If a Diamond Solo is played, the ordering is exactly the same as in the normal call game. Otherwise, Diamonds become a side suit and Clubs, Spades, or Hearts are elevated to trump status.
3.3.4 Vegetarian (Ace) Solo
This is a "no-Trump" Solo. The card order in all four suits is:
3.3.5 Other Solo Types,...
Some solos commonly played, but not officially allowed by the official rules are found in Appendix B.
In order to play a solo game, the player must announce "Reservation" during the bidding.
3.4 Determine the Game Type
After the cards are dealt, the bidding phase begins in which each player must announce whether they pass or want to reserve the right to play a non-standard game. Each player simply says, "Ready" or "Reservation." When several players say "Reservation" the following order of preference is used:
In order to determine who has preference, each player will be asked, one after the other in clockwise rotation, whether they are playing a required solo. If all answer, "No," then they are asked in turn about a voluntary Solo, etc.
In the event that this process does not select one player over another, the rule is that the player who first says "Yes" has preference. As soon as this happens, the others are not asked further.
If a non-standard game is played, the player with the reservation must announce what kind of game (marriage or solo) will be played. If all four players say "Ready," then the player to the dealer's left leads the first card and a normal Call game is played.
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