Five Hundred
How to Play Five Hundred
Five Hundred is a four-player trick-taking game for two teams. You deal 10 cards each from a short pack plus a joker, leave three in the widow, and bid the number of tricks your side will take with a named trump — or with no trump. Then you play 10 tricks. The team that won the bid scores the Avondale value if they make it, or go minus that value if they are set. The other team scores 10 for every trick they take. First to 500 wins.
This page is the kitchen-table American version: Avondale 1906 scoring as printed by the US Playing Card Co., four-hand, no nullo, no "6 is an inkle" Midwest house rule. After one real deal, sit at the open-hand Five Hundred table on CardPractice so the joker and the left bower stop feeling like a magic trick.
What you need for game night
- Four players. Partners sit across from each other, never side by side.
- A 43-card pack. From a standard deck, keep a joker, every red card ace through 4, and every black card ace through 5. Pull the twos, threes, and both black fours.
- Paper with two running totals. Game is 500.
Why 43, not 45? Four hands of 10 plus a 3-card widow is 43. Some American tables keep the black fours and use a 5-card widow (45 cards). v1 on CardPractice uses the 3-card widow. The 3-hand pack — black ace through 7, red ace through 6, plus joker — is a different deal for a different player count. Do not mix them.
Sit, pick a dealer, agree on the freeze
Partners sit across and play as a team. Cut for the first deal, or point at someone. After each hand, the deal moves clockwise.
Say these out loud before the first card:
- Avondale table. 6♠=40, 6♣=60, 6♦=80, 6♥=100, 6 NT=120, then +100 per extra trick. No extra for overtricks. No nullo. No inkle.
- One bidding round. Each player speaks once. Highest bid wins. If everyone passes, throw the hand in and the next dealer deals.
The deal and the widow
Shuffle. Deal clockwise until each player has 10 cards. Three cards remain face down. That leftover packet is the widow (some tables say kitty). Nobody looks at it until a bid is won.
10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 3 = 43. If you have cards left over, you built the wrong pack.
One round of bidding
Starting with the player to the dealer's left, each person gets one chance to speak. You may pass, or name a contract: 6 through 10 tricks in spades, clubs, diamonds, hearts, or no trump. A later bid must outrank the one on the table. Rank at the same trick count is ♠ < ♣ < ♦ < ♥ < NT. So 6 hearts beats 6 diamonds, and 7 spades beats any 6.
The player who names the highest bid becomes the bidder. Their side must take at least that many of the 10 tricks. The other side is trying to set them.
Avondale bid values
| Tricks | ♠ | ♣ | ♦ | ♥ | NT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 40 | 60 | 80 | 100 | 120 |
| 7 | 140 | 160 | 180 | 200 | 220 |
| 8 | 240 | 260 | 280 | 300 | 320 |
| 9 | 340 | 360 | 380 | 400 | 420 |
| 10 | 440 | 460 | 480 | 500 | 520 |
10 hearts is 500. 10 no trump is 520. Either one, made, wins the game from a zero score. That is why those rows exist. Overtricks do not add more points. Bid 6 hearts and take 8, and you still score 100.
Nullo (misère) is a real bid at some tables. It is not in this freeze. Neither is the Midwest house call that treats a 6-bid as an "inkle." If someone at the table wants those, stop and agree. Otherwise use this chart.
The widow, then 10 tricks
The winning bidder takes the three widow cards into their hand (13 cards) and discards any three face down. Those three are out of the hand. Everyone now has 10 again. The named strain is trump for the rest of the deal — or there is no trump.
The player to the left of the dealer leads the first trick. After that, the winner of a trick leads the next one. You play 10 tricks.
- You must follow suit if you have a card of the suit that was led.
- The left bower is trump for this hand, not its printed suit. If hearts are trump, the jack of diamonds is a heart for following suit.
- The joker is trump when there is a trump suit. It follows a trump lead. It does not follow an off-suit lead unless you are void.
- If you cannot follow, you may play any card, including trump.
- The highest trump in the trick wins. If nobody played trump, the highest card of the led suit wins.
Trump rank, with hearts as the example
When a suit is trump, the joker is the strongest card in the pack — the best bower. The jack of trump is next (right bower). The other jack of the same color hops into the trump suit as the left bower. Then ace, king, queen, and down the trump suit.
Hearts trump, high to low in trump:
| Rank | Card | What people say |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joker | Best bower |
| 2 | Jack of hearts | Right bower |
| 3 | Jack of diamonds | Left bower (it is a heart this hand) |
| 4 | Ace of hearts | |
| 5 | King of hearts | |
| 6 | Queen of hearts | |
| 7 | 10 of hearts | |
| 8 | 9 through 4 of hearts | Red fours stay in this pack |
Off-suit cards rank ace, king, queen, jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 (and 4 in red) and never beat trump. Same-color pairs are hearts with diamonds, and spades with clubs. If you already know euchre bowers, this is that idea with a joker parked on top.
No trump and the joker
In no trump there are no bowers. Jacks are just jacks. The joker is still the highest card in the pack. If you lead it, you name a suit; everyone else must follow that suit if they can. If you do not lead it, you may play it only when you cannot follow the led suit, and it wins the trick.
Scoring, in the amount you need tonight
Count tricks for each partnership. The bidder's side is trying to take at least the number they named.
| What happened | Who scores |
|---|---|
| Makers take at least the bid | Makers get the bid value |
| Makers take fewer than the bid (set) | Makers lose the bid value |
| Each trick the other side takes | Opponents get 10 per trick |
| A side reaches 500 | That side wins the game |
| 10♥ or 10 NT made from 0 | Game, immediately |
Example: you bid 7 hearts (200). Your side takes 8 tricks. You score 200. They took 2 tricks, so they score 20. If you had taken only 6, you would be set: minus 200, and they would still score 40 for their 4 tricks. Scores may go negative.
Walk through one first-night hand
You are South. Partner sits North. East dealt. You speak first.
Your ten cards:
- Joker
- Jack of hearts
- Ace of hearts
- King of hearts
- 9 of hearts
- Ace of clubs
- King of clubs
- 10 of spades
- 8 of spades
- 6 of diamonds
If hearts are trump you hold best bower, right bower, ace, and king — a 7-hearts picture even before the widow. 7♥ is 200. You bid 7 hearts. West passes, partner passes, East passes. You take the widow. Suppose it is the queen of hearts, the 4 of hearts, and a junk diamond. You now have six trump. Discard the two low spades and the diamond. Hearts are trump.
West, left of the dealer, leads. You will try to pull trump with the joker and the right bower, then cash hearts and the club ace. Take seven and you score 200, even if the eighth trick is gravy that does not pay extra. Take six and you are set for −200.
What you may say, and what you may not
You cannot tell your partner what you hold. The bid, the named trump, played cards, and score are public. After the hand, talk it through. On CardPractice you do not have to wait: practice with all four hands visible and pause on the trick that confused you.
Night-one strategy
- Count trump, including the joker and both bowers. That is the whole suit.
- A lonely off-suit ace is a trick. A lonely king is a maybe.
- Do not steal a trick your partner is already winning.
- Bid the strain you actually want to play. The table already ranks suits; you do not need an inkle to say 6.
- If you know euchre, the seat layout and follow-suit feel will transfer. The 10-card hand, the widow, and this score pad are new. Start at the Five Hundred hub.
You know enough to deal. Keep this page for one more night, then the open-hand practice table. Seeing partner's cards is not cheating here. It is the point.