How to Play Rook

Getting Set Up

Decide how many points you want to play to. The maximum number of points that can be won by a team each round is 200. For a shorter game, set a limit of around 500 points. For a longer game, go with a limit of 1,000 points or more. For example, if you decide on a limit of 1,000 points, you’ll have to play at least 5 rounds before a team wins. If you play until 500 points, you could finish the game in 3 rounds.

Split into 2 teams with 2 players on each team. You need 4 players to play Rook. Sit so that each person is sitting across from their teammate. If you have more than 4 people, make teams of more than 2 and rotate which players sit out each round. If you have less than 4 people, play a different card game like Pig or Blackjack.

Shuffle and deal out all the cards. Once the cards are shuffled, 1 person should deal out the cards to each player, 1 by 1, starting with the person to their left. The dealer should continue dealing out the cards until there’s only 1 card left. Place the last card face down in the middle of the table. Remember that you need a special 57-card Rook deck in order to play. A Rook deck has more cards than a regular deck, and it contains a special Rook card. If you only have a regular card deck, play a different card game like Hearts instead.

Bidding and Passing

Assess the cards in your hand. Ask yourself how many points you think you can win with the cards you were dealt. The more high cards you have, the better chance you have of winning points later on. If you have all low cards, you probably won't win very many points. For example, if 10 out of your 14 cards are high cards (a 10 or higher), then you could assume you will probably win a lot of points this round. If all the cards in your hand are a 5 or lower, you don't stand the best chance of winning a lot of points.

Go around and bid on how many points you think your team will get. The person to the left of the dealer bids first. The minimum bid is 70. Once the first player bids, the player to the left of them can pass or increase the bid by 5. The bid then goes to the next player, who can pass on the bid as it stands or increase it by 5. Bidding continues until all players have passed except for 1, or if the maximum bid limit of 200 is reached. The player with the highest bid wins. If your team ends up winning less points than what you bid, you lose those points, so be careful not to bid too high unless you’re confident you have a lot of points in your hand. If all or most of your cards are the same suit, you should try to win the bid, even if your cards are low. If you win the bid, you can make the trump suit the same as the suit you have a lot of in your hand. Since the trump suit beats everything, you'll have a good chance of winning a lot of points.

Have the winner of the bid decide which suit is trump. The trump suit beats all other suits during the game. The special Rook card (the card with the bird on it) is always the trump suit, regardless of the suit chosen by the bid winner. For example, the winner of the bid could declare that yellow (1 of the 4 suits) is the trump suit. If you win the bid, choose a suit you have a lot of in your hand. Since the trump suit beats all other suits, you’ll have an advantage over the other team because you have a lot of that suit.

Let the winner of the bid swap 1 of their cards with the face-down card. They can take the face-down card and place 1 of the cards from their hand face down on the table. If the winner of the bid doesn’t like the card they picked up, they can swap it back. If the face-down card you pick up is a high number or the same suit as the trump suit, you should probably keep it. If it's a low card that's not in the trump suit, you may want to put it back.

Pass 3 cards from your hand to the right, face down. Every player gets to pass 3 cards. When the player to your left passes you their 3 cards, pick them up and organize them in your hand. Pass your worse cards to the other player, like low cards and cards that aren't in the trump suit.

Playing the Trick

Have the player to the left of the dealer play the first card. They can play any card they want. They should lay the card face up in the center of the table where everyone else can see it. The suit they play will be the leading suit for the trick.

Have the player to the left of the first player play a card. The second player must follow suit by playing a card in the same suit as the first card played. If the second player doesn’t have a card in the leading suit, they can play a card in the trump suit. If they don’t have a card in the leading suit or trump suit, they can play any card in their hand. For example, if the first player played a yellow 9, the second player would need to play a yellow card in their hand. If they didn’t have a yellow card, but they had a blue card and blue is the trump suit, they could play a blue card. If they didn’t have a yellow or blue card, they could play a card in one of the other suits.

Continue play to the left until everyone has played a card. Once everyone has played, determine who wins the trick. The winner of the trick is whoever played the highest card in the leading suit. The exception is if someone played a card in the trump suit. Trump cards always win. If multiple trump cards were played, whoever played the highest trump card wins the trick. 14 is the highest card and ace is the lowest. The winner of the trick collects all the cards in the middle and wins all the points played. Keep the tricks you win next to you so you can count them at the end of the game.

Let the winner of the trick lead the next trick. The winner of the previous trick plays any card in their hand. Play then continues to the left. Continue playing tricks until all of the cards in everyone’s hands have been played.

Winning the Game

Count each team’s points after all the tricks have been played. Each player should add up the points they won throughout the game and then combine their score with their teammates score. The team with the highest score wins that round. Different cards have different point values: 5’s are worth 5 points. Kings, 10’s, and 14’s are worth 10 points. Aces are worth 15 points. The Rook card is worth 20 points. Whoever wins the last trick of the round gets a 20 point bonus.

Compare the winning team’s score to their bid from the beginning. If the winning team’s score is the same or higher than what they bid at the beginning of the game, they add their score to their total number of points. If their score is lower than what they bid, they subtract their score from their total number of points. The losing team adds their score to their point total no matter what. For example, if the winning team bid 140, and they scored 150, they would add 150 to their total points. If the winning team bid 160, and they scored 120, they would subtract 120 from their total points.

Continue playing rounds until 1 team reaches the winning point limit. If you decided the first team to reach 1,000 points wins, play until 1 team reaches 1,000 points. It’s the first team to reach or exceed the point limit that wins.