Klaverjassen and Hartenjagen: Popular Variants

The following are some of the best known variants of these games.

Klaverjassen

·         Kob, Kabababrious, Kalabriasz, Kolobiosh, Clubby, Bella, Club, Indiana Clobber, and Klawerjas.

·         A popular variant played by many people nowadays is Kraken or Wilde Boom (wild tree).

æ     Rules:

ª     Once the trump maker has picked trumps his opponents can challenge him and call “ik kraak”. Opponents are more likely to challenge when they believe that the player who picks trumps will get less than half the points. “Ik kraak” doubles the final scores.

ª     When a challenge occurs, the team who makes the trump can call “herkraken” and challenge back, multiplying the points by 4. If the opponents call “superkraken” and challenge again, the overall points get multiplied by 8.

ª     Kraken permits one more card combination than klaverjassen does: five or more cards of a suit are worth 100 points.

ª     Also, in the beginning of the game, if a player has “stuk” (the king and queen of trumps), he can claim a 20 point bonus.

æ     The rest of the rules emulate those of klaverjassen.

Hartenjagen

·         Kitty (in which only 12 cards are dealt to each player)

·         Partnership Hearts (a version of Hartenjagen that puts emphasis on team play)

·         Huse Hearts for Two (a fun version of Hartenjagen for two players that involves a dummy hand)

·         Turbo Hearts (an American version of Gong Zhu

·         Cancellation Hearts (an unusual variant of Hartenjagen played by up to 10 players with two 52 card packs shuffled together. Cards are dealt as far as they go; leftover cards are used to form a face-down kitty which is taken by the winner of the first trick.

·         Black Maria or Dirty Lady (a British variant for 3 players in which the 2 of clubs is taken out from the pack. 17 cards are dealt to each player. Cards pass in the same direction, usually to the right. There is no restriction on leading hearts.

æ     Popular scoring schemes of this variant include:

ª     1 for hearts; 7 for the jack of spades; 10 for the king of spades; 13 for the queen of spades.

ª     1 for hearts; 13 for the queen of spades.