Binokel♠

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Players and cards

Select 3 active players and 48 cards: two copies of A–10–K–Q–J–9 in every suit, two reduced packs of 24. Nine substitutes for the traditional seven; Q maps to Ober and J to Unter. Use ordinary suits; trumps are chosen after bidding. Rank A–10–K–Q–J–9, values 11–10–4–3–2–0. The pack contains 240 points and last trick adds 10, total 250.

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Deal and opening

Choose dealer randomly; deal and play anticlockwise. Left neighbour cuts. Deal 15 each in packets of 3 over 5 circuits, setting 3 face-down Tapp cards aside after the first circuit. Forehand is dealer’s right, then middlehand and rearhand-dealer. There is no drawing stock; the 3 cards are only a talon.

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Bidding and exchange

Forehand must open 150. Forehand and middlehand alternate pass or raises of exactly 10 until one withdraws. Rearhand then passes or raises another 10 and competes against the survivor. Passes are final and jumps forbidden. Last bidder is soloist.

Expose all 3 Tapp cards, add them and bury any 3 face down, keeping 15. Burial card points belong to soloist but cannot form melds. Name trump. Immediate surrender loses the bid; each opponent scores 50 plus their melds without needing a trick.

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Complete meld table

Before the first lead, soloist first, show melds then restore cards to hand. A–10–K–Q–J family in one suit: trump 150, plain 100; double 1500 or 1000. K–Q pair: trump 40, plain 20; two separate pairs 80 or 40. Four A, K, Q, J, one per suit, score 100, 80, 60, 40; eight of that rank score 1000. Four tens and nines do not score.

Q♠+J♦ is Binokel, 40; both copies of both cards score 300. Trump 9 scores 10, both 20, substituting for Dissle. Reuse a card across types: families/pairs, fours, Binokel. Never reuse within a type: a family’s pair scores nothing extra; another pair needs separate K and Q.

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Playing a turn

Forehand leads, not necessarily soloist. Follow suit and beat the trick’s highest card if possible. Void in suit, trump and overtrump if possible. Only without suit and trump may you discard freely. Between identical copies, the earlier played wins. Winner leads next; keep individual captures separate. Play all 15 tricks, no drawing.

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Scoring

Each counts personal card points and melds, but melds require at least one personal trick. Soloist adds buried points. With a trick and a total at least the bid, soloist records that whole total; otherwise subtract twice the bid. Opponents with a personal trick score their own totals, not a shared defensive total; no trick means 0. No rounding.

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Ending the game

Play to 1500 after complete deals. If several qualify, soloist has priority; if only both opponents qualify, higher cumulative score wins, with another deal on equality that may also let the third player win.

A separate available Durch contract, announced after exchange, promises all 15 tricks without trumps; soloist leads and there are no melds. Success scores +1000; the first opposing trick ends play immediately for −1000. Opponents score nothing for this contract.

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History and selected variant

Binokel belongs to Swabia and Württemberg, related to Bézique and ancestral to American Pinochle. A common modern form removes low cards for 40; we deliberately use the documented 48-card alternative with nines replacing sevens. This is not Doppelkopf: a double pack does not import its special trumps. No precise inventor is established.

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Worked example

Spades trump. A leads A♥, B must follow the second A♥ if it is B’s only heart, and C plays 10♥. Identical aces favour A, who captures 32 points. At final scoring, a soloist bidding 200 has 90 in captures and burial plus trump family 150: 240, recorded +240 with a trick. A total of 190 would instead record −400.

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Common questions