How to play klaverjas
Klaverjas is played by four players in two teams. Each round one suit is trump, and you and your partner try to score more points than the other team. Here is how it works.
Updated
Players and cards
Klaverjas is a game for four players. Players sitting opposite each other form a team: your partner sits across from you, and the players on your left and right are your opponents.
It uses 32 cards: the ace, king, queen, jack, 10, 9, 8 and 7 of each suit. Everyone gets eight cards.
A round in short
- The cards are shuffled and dealt.
- Trump is decided, along with which team plays.
- You play eight tricks. In each trick everyone plays one card, clockwise.
- Points are counted. The playing team must score more than the opponents, or it goes wet (nat).
A full game is called a boom and lasts 16 rounds. The team with the most points after 16 rounds wins.
Choosing trump
There are several ways to decide trump. In the Klaverjas Club app a card is turned over: its suit is the proposed trump. In turn, each player says play or pass. Whoever plays commits their team to scoring more than the opponents. If everyone passes, a new card is drawn. If everyone passes again, the cards are reshuffled and dealt again.
Following suit and trumping
The player who leads may play any card. After that:
- Follow suit: if you have the suit that was led, you must play it.
- Trump: if you can't follow suit, you must play a trump if you have one.
- Overtrump: if a trump is already on the table, you must play a higher one if you can. If you can't, you play a lower trump (undertrump).
- When trump is led, you must also beat the highest trump on the table if you can.
- If you have no trump, you may play any card.
In Rotterdam you always have to trump when you can't follow suit. In Amsterdam you don't, if your partner is already winning the trick. Read more about Rotterdam and Amsterdam rules.
Who wins the trick?
If the trick contains trump, the highest trump wins. Otherwise the highest card of the suit that was led wins. The winner of a trick leads the next one.
| Order | High to low |
|---|---|
| Trump suit | jack, 9, ace, 10, king, queen, 8, 7 |
| Other suits | ace, 10, king, queen, jack, 9, 8, 7 |
So the jack of trumps is the strongest card in the game, with the nine of trumps right below it.
Points and roem
After the round you count the points of the cards in your tricks. There are 162 points to win in each round, plus bonus points for combinations, called roem. See scoring and roem.
FAQ
Questions
How many players do you need for klaverjas?
Four: two teams of two. In the app, computer players take the other three seats.
How long does a game take?
A game (boom) is 16 rounds. At a real table that usually takes an hour to an hour and a half; in the app it is quicker.
