Point Trick Card Games – What They're All About

Nov 7
15:57

2010

Jan Kaas

Jan Kaas

  • Share this article on Facebook
  • Share this article on Twitter
  • Share this article on Linkedin

Part of the large family of trick-taking card games fairly well known on the Internet, point trick games are diverse, accessible, and above all, entertaining.

mediaimage

Point trick games that stand out include online Klaverjassen and Schafkopf.

About point trick games

Games falling into this category include all those trick-taking games which use a scoring system to decide which player takes the trick (wins the round). This category is in contrast with plain-trick games in which the winner is decided not based on the score of his card but on the number of tricks he takes. 

Point trick games are further separated into positive and negative trick games. In the former the goal is to get more points than your adversaries while in the latter the aim is to avoid taking any points at all. A handful of trick-taking card games fit into neither of these two classifications. They use special rules that imply reaching a specific number of points which is settled before the start of the game. 

Special card combinations often enhance the scoring scheme of many games,Point Trick Card Games – What They're All About Articles boosting the value of certain cards if a player has them at the same time in his hand. Online Klaverjassen is one of these games that is well known for its interesting card combinations, one of which is “shooting the moon”.

The major groups of games that use point trick rules include: Trappola games which are played with a unique packet made of 36 cards and which is hundreds of years old; Tarot games which use a unique deck with cards that are considered trumps all the time; Ace-ten games which feature the Ace and the Ten as the highest cards and which generally use a scoring system similar to online Klaverjassen; and Marriage, Schafkopf, and Sedma games which are all derived from Ace-Ten games but which use many interesting elements of their own such as particular rules for trumps or special bonuses for certain card combinations; Manille games which have their own scoring scheme in which the Ten is the highest card in France and the Nine is the highest card in Spain.

Playing Klaverjassen online and other related games from the point-trick family with friends or other real people is more exciting than playing against a computer. Klaverjassen online is worth checking out for all those bored of Texas Hold'em or Hearts.