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Basic Manuel for 56 Card Game
'Fifty Six' is a partnership game, and all partnership games require excellent memory. 'Fifty Six' can not only help in improving your memory power, but also a very interesting game to play. 'Fifty Six' is played among six players split into two teams.
56 needs only 48 cards selected from 2 packs.
These are the 24 cards selected from one pack. Similarly another 24 cards will be selected from the second pack making it 48 cards for the game.
That means there will be 2 cards each of
Clubs J, J, 9, 9, A, A, 10, 10, K, K, Q, Q
Diamond J, J, 9, 9, A, A,'10, 10, K, K, Q, Q
Hearts J, J, 9, 9, A, A, 10, 10, K, K, Q, Q
Spade J, J, 9, 9, A, A, 10, 10, K, K, Q, Q
Point (value) system for cards system
J is known as Jack 3 Point (Value)
9 is known as 9 2 Point (value)
A is known as Ace 1 Point (Value)
10 is known as 10 1 Point (Value)
K is known as King 0 Point
Q is known as Queen 0 Point
J is bigger than 9, 9 is bigger than A, A is bigger than 10
10 is bigger than King and King is bigger than Queen
'56' is played with double cards. For example there are two jacks of diamond. The player who plays the first jack has precedence over the player playing the 2nd jack in the same trick.
Ranking System in ‘56’
Even though Aces and '10's' have the same value = 1, Ace is a higher card than ‘10’.
Similarly K (Kings) and Q (Queens) have the same value (or no value perhaps) but K is higher than Q.
Compute the total points in a '56 ' game.
There are 2 Jacks in each suit meaning 8 Jacks (2 Jacks x 4suits) in all.
8 Jacks x 3 points make 24 points
There are 2 '9's of each suit meaning 8, ‘9's (2 ‘9's x 4 suits) in all
8 (‘9's) x 2 make 16 points
Similarly 8 Aces make 8 points and 8 Tens makes 8 points
Kings and Queens have 0 point value. Thus the total is 24+16+8+8=’56’
The total points in the cards being used in the game giving the game the name ‘56’.
'The Pack', suits', 'Cutting and shuffling', Dealing, 'Lead Suit', 'Following suit', 'Tricks', and "Trumps' are very common terms.
The game starts when one of the players shuffles and deals the cards.
Shuffling is decided by drawing cards from the deck then the person who draws the highest can choose the deal. Before deal the cards are cut by the player in the left side of the dealer.
‘56’ is a partnership game. ‘56’ is ideally played with 6 players split into two teams. So each team will have 3 members. '56’ each player receives 8 cards. The player deals 4 cards at a time starting with the player to the right of the dealer and continuing in anti-clockwise direction until all cards are finished.
‘Suits’ means Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs
The Two stages of the game
There are two stages in the game of '56'. First there is bidding, as is in an auction to determine which partnership will undertake a contract. In the next stage, the playing of the cards follows where one side tries to fulfill the agreed contract while the other side tries to defeat it
The Language of Bidding
Note that No’s stands for No-Trump
Remember that you are playing as a team
Before the play of each deal the contract must be determined. This is done through an auction. Having looked at the hands that were dealt, the members of each partnership would like the right to decide whether the deal is to be played in no-trump or a particular trump suit.
For this the partners should exchange information about their hands. They do this through the special language of bidding. The player to the right of the dealer starts the auction by making the first call. However it is important to note that the player to make the first call (bid) can decide to make the bid or can leave the chance to the next player by saying 'pass' or he can pass to the third player.
Once the opening bid is made the players make higher bids each time in anti- clock wise direction until 5 players in secession say 'pass' following a bid which now becomes the final contract. During the play the team, which won the bid, becomes the ofence and the opposite team becomes the defense.
A bid consists of two parts; a number indicating the points the bidder's team proposes to take by winning the tricks and a denomination indicating which suit or no-trump the contract is to be played in.
An example of a bid is Spade 32; 'Spade' is the Denomination part
‘32’ is the number part.
The highest bid to which the bidding can proceed is ‘56’ since ‘56’ is the total number of points available in the cards.
Remember at this point that the opening bid number cannot be less than 28.
Doubling and Redoubling
In the process of bidding you can choose to double or redouble a bid amount. As an example, if 1st team bids 40 Hearts and 2nd team is sure to beat that bid, then 2nd team can double. If 1st team thinks 2nd cannot beat then 1st team can redouble.
Normal rewards the punishments
Rewards Punishment
Level 28-39 1 Point 2 Points
Level 40-47 2 Points 3 Points
Level 48-55 3 Points 4 Points
Level 56 4 Points 5 Points
Doubles and Redoubles get 1 Extra point only
Once you get to know the cards with your partners and opponents and REMEMBER them, then you can use your skills to play well and win the game.
Basic Bidding Rules & Conventional Calls (Bidding)
Opening Bid
First bid is mandatory for the first player right of the dealer
If the first bidder has no suite to bid, he may open with "28 pass"
If no one responds to 28 pass bid, the trump will be 28 no-trump
If the second player doesn’t bid and the third player doesn’t have any suite to bid, he may bid “29 pass” so that the first and second bidders will have further chances
An opening bid of 28 no-trump indicates several jacks (Minimum 3), may not have a lengthy suite
Minimum a Jack and total four on the same suite is required to open that suite with 28 anytime in the bidding process
You may open a suite with a J and less than 4 of that suite by bidding "plus" of that suite
A lengthy suite with no J of the same suite may be opened by reversing the bid (example Spades 28 instead of 28 spades)
If you have two Jacks of a suite and minimum four of that suite, including the Jacks, you should open by incrementing two (29 Spades instead of 28 spades)
If you have two Jacks and a '9' of the same suite with minimum four of that suite you should open by incrementing three (30 Spades instead of 28 spades)
If you have two Jacks and two '9s' of the same suite with minimum five of that suite you may open by incrementing four (31 Spades instead of 28 spades)
And so on……
Bidding strategy is the same if you have any of the above and more than four of that suite
The first bidder may not open a four card suite with a J, if the rest of the cards are non-value cards with all other suites. In that case he may open with a "plus" (plus spades indicating weakness)
Responding to a bid
If you have a single J of the suite respond with “Plus one” (Plus one Spade)
If you have short suite of two or three with a J, respond to your partners bid with "plus" (plus Spade)
If you have short suite of two or three with a J, and one or two other Js and a missing suite respond to your partners bid by incrementing one (respond with 29 spades to a 28 spades bid)
If you have long suite of four or more with a J, respond to your partners bid incrementing by one
If you have just J & 9, respond to your partners bid with “Plus two” (plus two spades)
If you have short suite of two or three with J & 9, respond to your partners bid incrementing two (respond with 30 spades to a 28 spades bid)
If you have long suite of three or more with a J & 9, respond to your partners bid incrementing two
If you have long suite of three or more with a J, 9 & 9, respond to your partners bid incrementing three
And so on……
If you do not have the same suite of the bid respond to the bid with “nos” (29 nos) (caution: if you have a weak hand there may not be any value in bidding “nos”) unless you are the lead player or you prefer another suit that was bid by another partner. This is always an intelligent decision you want to make according to the situation.
If you want to say “nos” to a suite that was bid before the last, the bid will be “Plus 1 nos. (Example: Bidder-1 said 28 spades, bidder-2 said 29 clubs; bidder-3 has no spades. He can show that by “Plus 1 nos”)
If you want to say “nos” to two bids before, the bid will be “Plus 2 nos.” (Example: Bidder-1 said 28 spades, bidder-2 said 29 clubs, and Bidder- 3 has no spades and clubs. He can show that by “Plus 2 nos”)
Further Bids
If the original bidder continues bidding that means he is looking for further support to go ahead towards a complete 56 bid (goal of every game). Support by showing any other Js your may have.
Count the number of tricks you can take. Use the following rules of thumb: (Assumes average 7 points in each trick)
A 48 bid should win minimum 7 tricks to make 48
A 40 bid should win minimum 6 tricks to make 40
A 35 bid should win minimum 5 tricks to make 35
A 28 bid should win minimum 4 tricks to make 28
Never do the following
Never bid a suite without that suite present in your hand (for example don't bid spade if you don't have at least one spade - against rules)
Always wait for the other team's mandatory opening bid before your bid
Try not to bid when the other team is struggling to bid unless you are very sure of calling 48 or 56.
Web site E-mail : [email protected] 56 Group E-mail: [email protected]
© Copyright 56 International
'Fifty Six' is a partnership game, and all partnership games require excellent memory. 'Fifty Six' can not only help in improving your memory power, but also a very interesting game to play. 'Fifty Six' is played among six players split into two teams.
56 needs only 48 cards selected from 2 packs.
These are the 24 cards selected from one pack. Similarly another 24 cards will be selected from the second pack making it 48 cards for the game.
That means there will be 2 cards each of
Clubs J, J, 9, 9, A, A, 10, 10, K, K, Q, Q
Diamond J, J, 9, 9, A, A,'10, 10, K, K, Q, Q
Hearts J, J, 9, 9, A, A, 10, 10, K, K, Q, Q
Spade J, J, 9, 9, A, A, 10, 10, K, K, Q, Q
Point (value) system for cards system
J is known as Jack 3 Point (Value)
9 is known as 9 2 Point (value)
A is known as Ace 1 Point (Value)
10 is known as 10 1 Point (Value)
K is known as King 0 Point
Q is known as Queen 0 Point
J is bigger than 9, 9 is bigger than A, A is bigger than 10
10 is bigger than King and King is bigger than Queen
'56' is played with double cards. For example there are two jacks of diamond. The player who plays the first jack has precedence over the player playing the 2nd jack in the same trick.
Ranking System in ‘56’
Even though Aces and '10's' have the same value = 1, Ace is a higher card than ‘10’.
Similarly K (Kings) and Q (Queens) have the same value (or no value perhaps) but K is higher than Q.
Compute the total points in a '56 ' game.
There are 2 Jacks in each suit meaning 8 Jacks (2 Jacks x 4suits) in all.
8 Jacks x 3 points make 24 points
There are 2 '9's of each suit meaning 8, ‘9's (2 ‘9's x 4 suits) in all
8 (‘9's) x 2 make 16 points
Similarly 8 Aces make 8 points and 8 Tens makes 8 points
Kings and Queens have 0 point value. Thus the total is 24+16+8+8=’56’
The total points in the cards being used in the game giving the game the name ‘56’.
'The Pack', suits', 'Cutting and shuffling', Dealing, 'Lead Suit', 'Following suit', 'Tricks', and "Trumps' are very common terms.
The game starts when one of the players shuffles and deals the cards.
Shuffling is decided by drawing cards from the deck then the person who draws the highest can choose the deal. Before deal the cards are cut by the player in the left side of the dealer.
‘56’ is a partnership game. ‘56’ is ideally played with 6 players split into two teams. So each team will have 3 members. '56’ each player receives 8 cards. The player deals 4 cards at a time starting with the player to the right of the dealer and continuing in anti-clockwise direction until all cards are finished.
‘Suits’ means Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs
The Two stages of the game
There are two stages in the game of '56'. First there is bidding, as is in an auction to determine which partnership will undertake a contract. In the next stage, the playing of the cards follows where one side tries to fulfill the agreed contract while the other side tries to defeat it
The Language of Bidding
Note that No’s stands for No-Trump
Remember that you are playing as a team
Before the play of each deal the contract must be determined. This is done through an auction. Having looked at the hands that were dealt, the members of each partnership would like the right to decide whether the deal is to be played in no-trump or a particular trump suit.
For this the partners should exchange information about their hands. They do this through the special language of bidding. The player to the right of the dealer starts the auction by making the first call. However it is important to note that the player to make the first call (bid) can decide to make the bid or can leave the chance to the next player by saying 'pass' or he can pass to the third player.
Once the opening bid is made the players make higher bids each time in anti- clock wise direction until 5 players in secession say 'pass' following a bid which now becomes the final contract. During the play the team, which won the bid, becomes the ofence and the opposite team becomes the defense.
A bid consists of two parts; a number indicating the points the bidder's team proposes to take by winning the tricks and a denomination indicating which suit or no-trump the contract is to be played in.
An example of a bid is Spade 32; 'Spade' is the Denomination part
‘32’ is the number part.
The highest bid to which the bidding can proceed is ‘56’ since ‘56’ is the total number of points available in the cards.
Remember at this point that the opening bid number cannot be less than 28.
Doubling and Redoubling
In the process of bidding you can choose to double or redouble a bid amount. As an example, if 1st team bids 40 Hearts and 2nd team is sure to beat that bid, then 2nd team can double. If 1st team thinks 2nd cannot beat then 1st team can redouble.
Normal rewards the punishments
Rewards Punishment
Level 28-39 1 Point 2 Points
Level 40-47 2 Points 3 Points
Level 48-55 3 Points 4 Points
Level 56 4 Points 5 Points
Doubles and Redoubles get 1 Extra point only
Once you get to know the cards with your partners and opponents and REMEMBER them, then you can use your skills to play well and win the game.
Basic Bidding Rules & Conventional Calls (Bidding)
Opening Bid
First bid is mandatory for the first player right of the dealer
If the first bidder has no suite to bid, he may open with "28 pass"
If no one responds to 28 pass bid, the trump will be 28 no-trump
If the second player doesn’t bid and the third player doesn’t have any suite to bid, he may bid “29 pass” so that the first and second bidders will have further chances
An opening bid of 28 no-trump indicates several jacks (Minimum 3), may not have a lengthy suite
Minimum a Jack and total four on the same suite is required to open that suite with 28 anytime in the bidding process
You may open a suite with a J and less than 4 of that suite by bidding "plus" of that suite
A lengthy suite with no J of the same suite may be opened by reversing the bid (example Spades 28 instead of 28 spades)
If you have two Jacks of a suite and minimum four of that suite, including the Jacks, you should open by incrementing two (29 Spades instead of 28 spades)
If you have two Jacks and a '9' of the same suite with minimum four of that suite you should open by incrementing three (30 Spades instead of 28 spades)
If you have two Jacks and two '9s' of the same suite with minimum five of that suite you may open by incrementing four (31 Spades instead of 28 spades)
And so on……
Bidding strategy is the same if you have any of the above and more than four of that suite
The first bidder may not open a four card suite with a J, if the rest of the cards are non-value cards with all other suites. In that case he may open with a "plus" (plus spades indicating weakness)
Responding to a bid
If you have a single J of the suite respond with “Plus one” (Plus one Spade)
If you have short suite of two or three with a J, respond to your partners bid with "plus" (plus Spade)
If you have short suite of two or three with a J, and one or two other Js and a missing suite respond to your partners bid by incrementing one (respond with 29 spades to a 28 spades bid)
If you have long suite of four or more with a J, respond to your partners bid incrementing by one
If you have just J & 9, respond to your partners bid with “Plus two” (plus two spades)
If you have short suite of two or three with J & 9, respond to your partners bid incrementing two (respond with 30 spades to a 28 spades bid)
If you have long suite of three or more with a J & 9, respond to your partners bid incrementing two
If you have long suite of three or more with a J, 9 & 9, respond to your partners bid incrementing three
And so on……
If you do not have the same suite of the bid respond to the bid with “nos” (29 nos) (caution: if you have a weak hand there may not be any value in bidding “nos”) unless you are the lead player or you prefer another suit that was bid by another partner. This is always an intelligent decision you want to make according to the situation.
If you want to say “nos” to a suite that was bid before the last, the bid will be “Plus 1 nos. (Example: Bidder-1 said 28 spades, bidder-2 said 29 clubs; bidder-3 has no spades. He can show that by “Plus 1 nos”)
If you want to say “nos” to two bids before, the bid will be “Plus 2 nos.” (Example: Bidder-1 said 28 spades, bidder-2 said 29 clubs, and Bidder- 3 has no spades and clubs. He can show that by “Plus 2 nos”)
Further Bids
If the original bidder continues bidding that means he is looking for further support to go ahead towards a complete 56 bid (goal of every game). Support by showing any other Js your may have.
Count the number of tricks you can take. Use the following rules of thumb: (Assumes average 7 points in each trick)
A 48 bid should win minimum 7 tricks to make 48
A 40 bid should win minimum 6 tricks to make 40
A 35 bid should win minimum 5 tricks to make 35
A 28 bid should win minimum 4 tricks to make 28
Never do the following
Never bid a suite without that suite present in your hand (for example don't bid spade if you don't have at least one spade - against rules)
Always wait for the other team's mandatory opening bid before your bid
Try not to bid when the other team is struggling to bid unless you are very sure of calling 48 or 56.
Web site E-mail : [email protected] 56 Group E-mail: [email protected]
© Copyright 56 International