How to deal a 500 game

Just as Aussies stole the pavlova, we have also stolen the card game 500 and made it our own. While it is considered to be the national game of Australia, it actually originated from the US with the United States Playing Card Company holding copyright up until the 1960s.

In case you’ve been busy advocating for the pavlova to be an Aussie dessert and missed learning about 500 and even how to deal it, we have all the rules to the game here. Unfortunately, it isn’t available to play at reputable web casinos just yet, but with so many catering to Aussies, it could soon be hitting iGaming catalogues.

Rules of 500

The main aim of 500 is to reach a total point score of 500, which is done similar to Euchre (a game said to be responsible for introducing the Joker in a deck of cards) in that the Joker trumps all.

If you know how to play Euchre, then you will pick this game up quite quickly. However, there are rule additions which makes 500 a game on its own.

These include;

• Every player is dealt 10 cards rather than the five in Euchre
• The trump suit is picked by whoever is willing to deal for the largest number of tricks
• The size of the deck correlates with the number of players so that all cards are dealt to players except for three which can be accessed by the highest bidder

There are a number of elements which need to be factored in when playing 500. Additionally, there are a number of variants which can see alternative rules in play, though we are specifically talking about the Aussie version here.

• Players
  In Australian 500 there are generally four players, which play in pairs and sit opposite to one another. In other variations the numbers of players can vary, however for the Aussie version it is usually four. Regardless, be sure to follow the rules that fit with the number of players.
• Cards
  How many cards there are depends on the number of players, but for four players a deck of 43 cards is used and sees all twos and threes removed from all suits, and fours removed from the black suits. Therefore, there are cards from four to Ace in the red suits, and five to Ace in the black suits, as well as a Joker. The Joker is known as the bird in the Australian variant, as the Joker in the original Australian deck of cards is represented by aKookaburra, rather than a Jester in international decks.
• Card ranks
  The Joker beats all cards, while next in line winning all is the Jack of the trump suit. A trump suit can be bid on and the highest bidder in terms of tricks and suits (or No Trumps depending on the bid, which we explain below) will kick the game off and if there is a trump suit it works, for example, by trumping another player’s card of a different suit that has been placed down already. You win as you had the trump suit. We will go into more detail about bidding for the trump suit below.

The next card ranking is the Jack of the same colour as the trump suit played, then when there are No Trumps left (or No Trumps in the beginning) the cards rank in the usual order of Ace to four or five, with the exception of the Jack. The suits ranking is outlined below.

How to play 500

So now we have detailed the elements of the game we are going to detail how to play. There are three parts to the game and include dealing, bidding, and of course playing.

Dealing in 500
The initial first dealer is picked at random and they are required to shuffle and deal 10 cards to every player. The three leftover are to be placed in the middle of the table and these are known as the kitty. Dealers generally deal three to each player, then one card to the kitty, then four more to every player, then another to the kitty, and then three more to every player, and finally one to the kitty.

Bidding in 500
The first bidder is the player which is to the left of the dealer, and this continues in a clockwise formation, where each player can choose to bid or to pass. The bid will indicate what you think you can take in terms of tricks.

Players can bid;

• The trump suit and the number of tricks (minimum of six, maximum of 10), e.g. nine Hearts, meaning that you and your partner will aim to win at least nine tricks with Hearts as trumps
• A minimum of six No Trumps, winning without the need of a trump suit
• A Misere which is stating that you think you will lose all tricks, without your partner (your partner stops playing)
• An Open Misere which, after the first trick, sees your hand placed face up on the table following the same bid as a Misere

Players can also pass, and if all players pass then the cards are discarded and a new games starts up. If just one player passes they cannot bid again in the round.

Every player bids or passes, but if they do continue to bid they have to be higher, as in bid that they will have more tricks or have the equal number of tricks in a higher suit. The following is the suit order from highest to lowest;

No Trumps, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, Spades

The highest you can therefore bid is 10 No Trumps, while the lowest is six Spades, and bidding continues until everyone has passed bar one, who ends up being the highest bidder and enters the contract, which is the leader of trick, as we continue below.

Additionally, from the list above, there are two special bids that also have value in an auction.