Difference Between Amesterdams and Rotterdams Klaverjassen

 The popularity of the Klaverjas game allowed it to evolve in time. This has lead to an outstanding number of variations of the game which have been adopted by countries all over the world. Even in its place of origin, the Netherlands, Klaverjas has not remained unaltered. The most best known variations in its home country are represented by the ones that developed in two of the most important Dutch cities, namely Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

Essential rules

First of all, it's good to get familiar with the general rules of Klaverjassen in order to understand better the differences between the Amsterdam and Rotterdam variants of it.

The game is played in four, with a total of 32 cards from the Anglo-American deck. The cards used are Ace (Aas), King (Heer), Queen (Vrouw), Jack (Jas), 10, 9 (Nel), 8, and 7. Hands are dealt clockwise, in batches of 4-4 or 3-2-3. 

The card ranking is as follows:

Normal suit: Ace, 10, King, Queen, Jack, 9, 8, 7.

Trump suit: Jack, 9, Ace, 10, King, Queen, 8, 7.

Differences

The big differences between the Amsterdam and Rotterdam version of the Klaverjassen, can be seem when looking at the trick-play.

In the Amsterdam version of Klaverjas, undertrumping is not allowed unless the player referred to has in his hand only low trumps; otherwise he has to throw away a non-trump suit card.

• If a player is unable to follow suit and the card winning the trick up to that point has been already played by the rival team, he has to defeat this card with a trump.
• If the opposition is successful with a trump, the player has to play a higher trump himself.
• Also, a player who is not able to follow suit and whose teammate is not heading the trick should strive to head the trick if possible.

In the Rotterdam version of Klaverjas, a player, when unable to follow suit, has to trump.

• A player who plays a trump and whose teammate is heading the trick has to head the trick if he can.
• If a player has no trumps and no card of the suit led, he can play any card he wants.
• If unable to follow suit, he must play, if it is possible, a trump.