MANILLEN



OBJECT OF MANILLEN: The objective of Manillen is to be the first team to score 101 points to win.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 4 players

MATERIALS: A modified deck of 52 cards, a way to keep score, and a flat surface.

TYPE OF GAME: Trick-Taking Card Game

AUDIENCE: Adult


OVERVIEW OF MANILLEN

Manillen is a trick-taking card game for 4 players. The goal of the game is to achieve 101 points to win before your opponents.

This game is a partner game. Teammates will sit opposite of each other.

SETUP

To modify the deck, remove all cards 6 and lower in rank. This leaves you with a 32-card deck.

The first dealer is chosen randomly and passes to the left for each new deal. The deck is shuffled and the player to the dealer’s right may cut the deck.

The dealer then deals each player a hand of 8 cards in batches of 3-2-3.

The dealer’s partner should not look at their cards until the dealer has chosen a trump suit.

After the hands are dealt the dealer may look at their cards and call the trump suit. They may call one of the four suits or no-trumps, which doubles the score. In some games, players allow the dealer to call no trumps before looking at their hand to quadruple the score.

If an opponent wishes to they can say, “I go along” to double the score, and if the dealer’s team believes they will still win they can call, “I go against” to double the score again.

Card Ranking and Values

The ranking for this game is 10(Also called Manille) (high), Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 9, 8, and 7 (low).

The cards have values associated with them for scoring. 10s are worth 5 points, aces are worth 4 points, Kings are worth 3 points, Queens are worth 2 points and Jacks are worth 1 point. All other points do not have a point value.

GAMEPLAY

The game starts with the player to the left of the dealer. They may lead any card they wish to the trick. The following players must follow suit if possible, and if their opponent is winning, they must, if possible, beat them. If you are unable to follow suit, you may (or must if an opponent is winning) play a trump. If you do not have/are not required to trump you may play any card of any suit. You may not undertrump though. A player may not play a lower-ranked trump to a trick if they have any other card to play.

The trick is won by the highest trump played, if applicable. If the trick has no trumps, it is won by the highest-ranking card of the suit of the originally led card. The trick is collected into a score pile and the winner leads to the next trick.

SCORING

Once all tricks have been played and won the points are scored. Players will tally the total value of all their won cards. The team that scores more than 30 points will score the difference between their score and 30.

If both teams score 30 there are no points earned this round, but points are doubled for the next round.

If a team takes all the tricks their score is doubled as well.

END OF GAME

The game ends when a team reaches or exceeds 101 points. They are the winners.

This game can be played tournament style meaning each game of 101 won is called a boam (aka tree). Tournaments are best of 3 usually.

Amber Crook
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