Amerikaner♠

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Cards and dealing

Use 52 cards without jokers. Suits rank A K Q J 10 down to 2. Choose the first dealer by lot, then move the deal left each hand. Dealer shuffles, the player on the right cuts, and cards are dealt singly clockwise until everyone has twelve. Put the remaining four face down as the kitty.

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Bid or withdraw

The player left of dealer starts. Bid a number of tricks you undertake to win with a helper, or pass. The minimum is six, each number must exceed the previous bid, and twelve is the highest numeric bid. Amerikaner outranks every number and promises all twelve tricks alone.

Passing removes you from this auction. Continue until everyone except the highest bidder has passed; if everyone passes initially, redeal. The winner picks up the unseen kitty and discards any four cards face down, leaving twelve. Those discards take no further part.

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Choose trump and recruit a helper

For a numeric contract, the bidder leads first. That card’s suit becomes trump. At the same time, call a card of that suit not held in the bidder’s hand. Its owner must play it to this first trick and becomes the bidder’s partner for this deal. Do not call your own card or a discarded card: a live helper is required. For the rare case where no callable card exists, agree to redeal; this is our explicit completeness convention, since the main source does not address that edge case.

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Play twelve tricks

Follow the led suit whenever possible. If unable to follow, play anything; overtaking is not compulsory. The highest trump wins, otherwise the highest card of the led suit. Whoever wins leads next. For an Amerikaner bid there is no helper and no trump suit: the bidder leads any card and must personally win every trick.

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Keep separate running scores

When bidder and helper together make at least the bid, each earns the number bid. Failure costs each that number. Overtricks do not increase this award. Each defender separately scores one point per trick personally won, whether the contract succeeds or fails.

An Amerikaner earns its bidder +52 or −52. If it fails, the other players score their own tricks normally. Finish the deal; once someone reaches 52 or more, the highest total wins. The source does not give an equal-total tiebreaker, so this guide explicitly uses a shared victory.

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A contract in practice

You bid seven, lead 4♥ and call A♥. Its holder must play it and joins your side. Together you win eight tricks: you each score +7. Defenders with three and one tricks score +3 and +1 individually. Taking only six together would instead cost you and your helper seven points each.

← On a small screen, scroll the diagram horizontally. →

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Name and variations

The Norwegian name means American, but the name alone does not establish an American origin. A related Icelandic game is called Kani. Other versions remove the kitty, count it as an extra trick, add jokers or change partner payments. Keep those variants separate from this twelve-trick introduction.

Common questions