Five Hundred
How to Play Five Hundred with 5 Players
House name is 5-hand Five Hundred. Five people, everyone for themselves. Same 43-card American pack as four-hand. Deal 8 each, leave a 3-card widow, play 8 tricks. The bidder plays alone vs four. First person to 500 wins.
This is not partnership 4-hand (10 each, partners across, bid 6–10). This is not 3-hand Five Hundred (33-card pack, 10 each, bidder vs two). Not euchre. Not Bid Euchre. Not Sheepshead. Pick it from tonight with 5 players.
What you need
- Five players. Nobody has a standing partner. 5 is this game.
- The same 43-card American pack as 4-hand: joker, every red card ace through 4, every black card ace through 5. Pull the twos, threes, and both black fours.
- Paper with a column per person. Game is 500. Going past 500 is fine.
8 × 5 + 3 = 43. If you have cards left over, you dealt 10 like 4-hand. Throw it in.
Deal eight, bid 6 through 8, take the widow
Shuffle. Deal clockwise until each player has 8. Three cards stay face down as the widow. Left of the dealer speaks first. One round. Bid 6 through 8 in spades, clubs, diamonds, hearts, or no trump, or pass. Only 8 tricks exist, so no 9 or 10 bids tonight. Rank at the same trick count: ♠ < ♣ < ♦ < ♥ < NT. Highest bid wins. If everyone passes, throw in, next dealer deals.
The winning bidder takes the three widow cards and discards any three face down. Now everyone has 8 again. Named strain is trump — or no trump. Then they play 8 tricks alone. The other four are trying to set them. Left of the dealer leads.
Play, bowers, no trump
Follow suit. Joker is best bower, then right, then left, then A K Q … same as 4-hand. Left bower is trump, not its printed suit. No trump: no bowers; joker still highest; if you lead it you name a suit.
Trump rank matches the four-hand how-to. That page is the partnership game — 10 cards, partners across. Use it for bowers. Do not deal 10 tonight.
Scoring — Avondale, three changes from 4-hand
- Bidder plays alone. Only the bidder's column can take the bid value. The other four each score 10 per trick they personally take — not a partnership total.
- Made: bidder gets the Avondale value (overtricks do not add). Set: bidder minus the bid value. Scores may go negative.
- First person to 500 wins. 8♥=300, 8 NT=320 — not instant game from 0. 10♥ is 4-hand only.
| Tricks | ♠ | ♣ | ♦ | ♥ | NT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 40 | 60 | 80 | 100 | 120 |
| 7 | 140 | 160 | 180 | 200 | 220 |
| 8 | 240 | 260 | 280 | 300 | 320 |
Nullo is not in this freeze. Say so before you deal.
Walk through one first-night hand
Five people. You bid 7 hearts (200). You take the widow, discard 3, play 8 tricks. You take 7. You score 200. East took 1 (+10). The other three took nothing that hand. Overtricks would not have added — 7 made is 200 whether you take 7 or 8. If you take only 6, you are set: minus 200, and East still has +10.
What this is not
- Not 4-hand: no partners, 8 cards not 10, bid 6–8 not 6–10. Four-hand partnership how-to — not a 5-hand table.
- Not 3-hand: not the 33-card pack. 3-hand Five Hundred for three people.
- Not euchre. Not Bid Euchre. Not Sheepshead.