How to Play Troika

Troika is a fun trick-taking game for four people which appears to have originated in Canada and is still widely played there. The game goes by a number of other names, such as Three-Spot and others, including one name which is currently in the center of a copyright battle.

Troika is designed to be played by four players, playing in two partnerships. The game uses a special 32 card deck. This deck consists of all cards from a standard deck in the rank of Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, and 8. In addition, the following individual cards are also included in this deck from a standard deck; Seven of Clubs, seven of Diamonds, three of Spades and five of Hearts. The ranking of the cards in the deck is as follows (from high to low), for each suit:

In the suit of Spades
In the suit of Clubs
In the suit of Hearts
In the suit of Diamonds

This ranking for each of these suits will remain within that suit whether that suit is or is not the trump suit for the hand.

Determination of partnerships can be performed using a variety of methods, with drawing for high cards a common such method. In this case, each player would draw a card from the shuffled Troika deck. The two players drawing the highest cards would play as partners against the players drawing the two lowest cards. To determine the first dealer, the cards are usually dealt out from the shuffled pack until a player receives the first Jack. That player becomes the first dealer. Thereafter, the deal rotates in a clockwise direction after each hand. Each player should sit directly across the table from his partner during play.

One the players are seated and the first dealer determined, the dealer should thoroughly shuffle the deck and pass it to the player at his immediate right to cut. After the cut, the dealer then begins dealing in a clockwise direction around the table, one face-down card at a time to each player starting with the player to his immediate left. Each player will receive a hand consisting of eight total cards. If any player receives a hand which contains no court cards, no Aces and does not contain either the three or five may elect (but is not obligated to) to call a misdeal. In this case, all the players throw in the cards, which are shuffled and a new hand dealt.

After all the cards have been dealt, each player picks up his cards and the bidding begins, starting with the player to the immediate left of the dealer. Each player has exactly one opportunity to pass or bid. A bid must consist of a legal bid, which consists of a number between 6 and 12, inclusive. A bid must be higher than any previous bid to be considered a legal bid. If a player intends to play the hand using no trump suit, he must state this as well (ending his bid with a statement of "No"), although if he intends to use a trump suit he does not need to state that he intends to use a trump suit. A bid indicating no use of a trump suit is considered to be a higher bid than a bid of the same number that did not include the "No" call, but is lower than any bid of a higher number. However, the dealer, is only required to make a bid equal to the current high bid to be considered the high bidder. If the first three players pass, the dealer, who is the last bidder, must make the minimum bid. A bid is the estimate of a minimum number of points the player with the aid of his partner expects to earn during the play of the hand (see scoring below).

After the bidding round is complete, the player who made the highest bid (or the dealer, having equaled the highest bidder) then states the trump suit for the hand (or No Trump if he stated "No" in his bid). He simply states the suit to be used (or No Trump).

In addition to selecting the trump suit to use for the hand, the high bidder also has the privilege of playing the first card to the first trick. After the first card is played to a trick, each remaining player, in clockwise rotation around the table, must play one card from his hand to the trick as well. If he has a card of the same suit as originally led to the suit, he must play it. If he has no cards of the suit led to the trick, he may play any other card from his hand, including a card of the trump suit. The highest card played of the trump suit to a trick wins the trick. If the trick contains no cards of the trump suit, the highest card of the suit originally led to the trick wins the trick. The cards from this trick, should be set aside, out of play, to be scored for the team that won the trick. The winner of each trick leads the first card to the next trick.

The hand continues in this manner until all eight tricks have been played and won. After this the hand is scored to determine if the high bidder managed to capture at least as many points as bid. The points that can be scored during a hand are as follows:

Scoring Opportunity	Point Value
Each Trick won	1 Point
Winning the five of Hearts in a trick	5 Points
Winning the three of Spades in a trick	-3 Points

Possible point values for each hand in Troika

If the high bidder's team was able to score at least as many points as bid, that team is entitled to add to their current accumulated game score a number of points equal to the number of points won during the hand. However, if the team earned fewer points than their high bid during the hand, they must subtract from their current, accumulated score the value of their bid. However, if the hand was played using No Trump suit, these scores are doubled.

If the opposing partnership has a current, total game score of less than 45, they add to that current score a number of points equal to the total number of points they earned during the hand. If the opponents won the trick containing the 3 of Hearts, they could even lose points on the hand if they won fewer than 3 tricks. In the event the opposing team has a current accumulated game score of 45 or above, they do not earn any points for the hand, however if they captured the three of Hearts and captured fewer than 3 tricks they may need to subtract points from their current, total score.

Once, at the end of a hand, a team has accumulated a total of 52 game points or more, they are declared the winner of the game.

Variations and Optional Rules

No Trump Increase: A popular variant is the requirement to increase the necessary score to win in the event of a successful No Trump bid hand. Thus, in this variant, if a team makes a No Trump high bid and manages to earn the bid during the hand, the score required to win the game is increased by 10 to a total of 62. If the score is already at 62, no further increases occur for additional successful No Trump bids.

Saskatchewan Troika: A version of this game which is commonly played in Saskatchewan uses a slightly larger deck.

In this version, the seven of Spades and the seven of hearts is introduced to the deck used for the game, creating a deck of 34 cards. Each player is still dealt eight cards, however a two card face-down kitty is also dealt to the center of the table.

The high bidder for the hand takes the two card kitty into his hand and discards any other two cards from his hand. He may discard any cards except the five of Hearts or the three of Diamonds.

The minimum bid for this variation is usually increased to a bid of 7. In addition, in this variant an additional bid type is allowed. In addition to the regular bids and the "No" (No Trump) bids, a player may also make a bid of "Low No Trump". This bid is considered one higher than a "No" bid of the same number but lower than a bid of the next highest actual rank. If a "No Low" bid is the winning bid for the hand, the ranking of the actual cards in the deck is greatly changed, with the following ranking of the cards (high to low):

In the suit of Spades
In the suit of Clubs
In the suit of Hearts
In the suit of Diamonds

As with a normal "No" trump bid, a team's score for a "No Low" trump bid is doubled, either adding or subtracting the number from that players score as appropriate. In all other aspects this version of the game is played identically to the standard game of Troika as described above.