← On a small screen, scroll the diagram horizontally. →
01 /
Dutch café partnerships
Klaverjas, also Klaverjassen, is a Dutch partnership tradition played at home, in cafés and in clubs. It belongs to the Jass family but has its own duties to follow suit, trump and overtrump. City names often identify rule families rather than separate inventions with certain dates. This guide uses Amsterdam play with free choice of trump and a fixed match length. Rotterdam trump obligations, Utrecht compulsory selection and Kraken doubling are separate agreements, not extra rules automatically added here. The precise early history is less secure than its established Dutch social tradition.
02 /
Deal all thirty-two cards
Use 32 cards, 7 through A of each suit, for 4 players in opposite pairs A/C against B/D. Choose first dealer randomly. Deal clockwise in batches 3, 2, 3, giving 8 each; no stock, kitty or indicator remains. Dealer rotates left each hand. Play 16 hands, so each person deals 4 times. Forehand, the player left of dealer, may choose any trump suit or pass. Continue clockwise until someone chooses. If all 4 pass, forehand must choose. No bids, no no-trump hand, no second selection round. Regardless of who selected, forehand leads the first trick.
03 /
Two rank orders and point tables
Trump ranks J 9 A 10 K Q 8 7, worth 20, 14, 11, 10, 4, 3, 0, 0. Other suits rank A 10 K Q J 9 8 7, worth 11, 10, 4, 3, 2, 0, 0, 0. All card values total 152; last trick adds 10, making 162 before bonuses. Thus trump jack beats trump ace, but non-trump ace beats non-trump jack. Suit-following depends on suit, not point value. Keep captures separated by partnership, since the trump-making pair must ultimately beat the other pair’s total including claimed bonuses.
04 /
Amsterdam: follow, then inspect the winner
Always follow the suit led if able. When trump is led, play a higher trump than the current highest if possible, even over your partner; if none is higher, play a lower trump if held. Without trumps, discard anything. When a non-trump suit is led and you are void: if an opponent is winning, beat them with trump if possible, overtrumping a prior trump if able. If you cannot beat the existing trump, discard a non-trump. Undertrumping is forbidden unless your entire hand consists of lower trumps. If partner is winning, you may discard or trump, but the same undertrump restriction applies. A partner winning does not excuse failure to follow suit.
05 /
Eight tricks, no mid-hand drawing
Each player contributes one card clockwise. Highest trump wins, or if none was played, highest of the led suit using the non-trump order. Winner leads next. Continue until all 8 tricks are taken; there is no drawing between tricks. Claim any qualifying combination before gathering the trick and note it for the capturing pair. Signals conveyed by legal card choices are traditional, but agree and disclose their system before play; no spoken hints or secret gestures. For a first match it is simplest to use no signalling convention. Rotterdam’s mandatory trump even when partner is winning is not the Amsterdam rule.
06 /
Roem belongs to a captured trick
Only cards in the same captured trick form roem here, not combinations retained in a hand. For sequences use A K Q J 10 9 8 7 in every suit, including trump. A suited sequence of 3 gives 20, of 4 gives 50. Captured K Q of trump gives 20 (stuk); if included in a sequence of 3 or 4, the combined bonus is 40 or 70, not another duplicate award. Four A, K, Q or 10 give 100; four J give 200; other four-of-a-kind ranks give nothing. The capturing pair must claim roem for it to count. Winning all 8 tricks adds 100 (pit), in addition to the already included last-trick 10.
07 /
More than half includes bonuses
Add each pair’s card points, last-trick points and claimed roem. Trump makers must have strictly more than defenders; equal totals also fail (nat). On success, each pair records its own total. On failure, makers score 0 and defenders record all 162 base points plus both pairs’ claimed roem. With no bonus, makers need 82, but that is not a universal threshold once bonuses appear. After 16 deals, higher cumulative score wins; equal leaders share here. No automatic spade multiplier or challenge doubling is used. Keep one score row per deal so failed contracts and bonus transfers can be checked.
08 /
Saving trump can be legal
Hearts trump: A leads A♣, B follows 7♣. Partner C has no clubs but holds Q♥ and 7♦. Since A is winning, C may discard 7♦ and save Q♥. D follows K♣; A wins 11 + 0 + 0 + 4 = 15. If opponent B had instead trumped with 8♥, C would have to overtrump with Q♥. Separate scoring example: makers capture 82 base points, defenders 80 plus claimed roem 20. Totals 82 against 100 mean nat: makers record 0 and defenders 182. Counting only the base majority would incorrectly award the hand. Follow-suit duties still override both examples whenever the player has clubs.
← On a small screen, scroll the diagram horizontally. →
Common questions
Can I trump while holding the led suit?+
No. Following suit is compulsory. This differs from some other Jass games.
Are 82 points always enough?+
No. Makers need strictly more than defenders after claimed roem is included.
Does roem come from my hand?+
In this Amsterdam profile it comes from one captured trick. Hand declarations belong to variants such as Kraken.