Signaling Partners in Klaverjassen

 One may even go as far as to argue that Klaverjassen isn’t a team game at all as there are really no clear ways of communicating strategy. Though true as this may seem, such arguments are unreal and have no cause for worth.

If one looks closely at the rules comprising and governing Klaverjassen as a whole, it is stated that signaling is permitted in the game. Again, one may argue that though better than nothing, signaling is still not a clear way to communicate strategy. Though true as this may seem, again, this argument is humbug and poppycock. For those who fail to grasp or even see the concept, the integral part of Klaverjassen being a team game revolves around the fact that people really need to rely and more importantly trust one another. Teams failing to understand the human enigma that is his or her partner only reinforce the former notion otherwise.

Putting arguments on whether or not klaverjassen is a team game aside, established guidelines on how to signal your partners do exists. Learning these guidelines by heart not only provides you with a medium on which to communicate with your partners but also give you more room for more efficient team plays. There are three such guidelines and the first is named opposite suit signaling. This guideline states that when you play a particular card of a particular colored suit, it means that you are strong in the opposite suit of the same color. This allows you to reserve your strong suits for the mid to late game tricks and at the same time eliminate any pesky single cards you might have.

The second established guideline is entitled lead signaling. This guideline states that when you choose a trump suit then begin the trick by leading with a trump card, you are stating that you have a weak trump suit.  This guideline alerts your partner whether or not it would be safe to take the lead during trumping or not. The third and final guideline is called same suit signaling. This guideline states that when you are discarding low ranking cards of a suit, you are stating that you have the ace. This allows your partner to know when not to lead the suit. A lot of variations can be made to these guidelines and depending on the team, players may even invent their own form of signaling for klaverjassen.