MADRASSO



OBJECT OF MADRASSO: The object of Madrasso is to score 777 or more points after 10 deals.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 4 players. 

MATERIALS: An Italian deck of 40 cards, a way to keep score, and a flat surface.

TYPE OF GAME: Trick-Taking Card Game

AUDIENCE: Adult


OVERVIEW OF MADRASSO

Madrasso is a trick-taking card game for 4 players. Players form teams of two, sitting across from their partners.  The goal of the game is to score 777 or more points in 10 or more deals.

SETUP

The first dealer is chosen at random and passes to the right for each new deal. The dealer will shuffle the deck and deal each player a hand of 10 cards in batches.

The first batch is three cards to each player, then two cards to each player. The second of the two to the dealer is dealt faceup. Then another batch of three, then 2 cards are dealt to each player. all players should have 10 facedown cards, except the dealer who has 9 cards face down and 1 faceup card.

The faceup card determines the trump suit. This card is left face up in front of the dealer until the dealer plays it to a trick. The holder of the 7 of trumps may exchange for the faceup card if they wish to but must do this before they play their first card to the firsts trick.

Card Ranking and Values

The ranking is Ace (high), 3, King, Horse, Jack, 6, 7, 5, 4, and 2 (low). The trump suit ranks higher than the other suits. Certain cards also have values attached to them. In the above order, the values are 11 points, 10 points, 4, 3, and 2 points. all other cards have no value.

GAMEPLAY

The game starts with the Player to the right of the dealer. They may lead any card to the trick. Following players must follow suit if they can, but if they cannot, they may play any card. the trick is won by the highest trump, if applicable. If there are no trumps played to the trick, it is won by the highest card of the suit led. The winner of the trick collects it and leads to the next trick.

Players may not signal or converse about their hands. If a player misplays the round ends and the other team scores an additional 130 points.

The last trick that is won is also worth an additional 10 points.

SCORING AND WINNING

After the round ends, players will tally their scores. A team cannot win until after the 10 rounds of play, but scores should be kept so that after the 10th round a winner may be crowned.

The teams will tally their scores based on the cards won in tricks and the last trick won. Scores are kept cumulatively for each team. If after 10 rounds a team has 777 or more points, they are the winner. If neither team has scored this amount more rounds are played until this score is reached.

A player may declare they have the needed number of points after they win a trick during a round. if this is done the game ends and if the player was correct, they win, but if they were wrong the other team wins.

If both teams do not declare but find that they both have exceeded 777 points at the end of a round the team with the higher score wins the game.

A team may also win by winning all 10 tricks in a round, this is another win condition. Just winning all the score cards does not count, you must win all 10 tricks to win this way.

Amber Crook
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