"Big Little" Official Rules

Setup

• For two or more players (ideally four)
• Requires a standard deck of cards: two through ace in four suits, with two joker cards
• If there is not an obvious difference between the joker cards, mark one as 'Big' and the other as 'Little'

Dealing

• Any player can be selected as the first dealer
• After each hand, the player to the dealer's left becomes the next dealer
• All deals are made face down
• For each hand, players receive one card only in the first hand, two cards in the second hand, three cards in the third hand, etc. until the maximum number of cards is dealt for a single hand. For example, with four players on the thirteenth hand, each player will receive thirteen cards
• Once the maximum number of cards has been dealt in a hand, in subsequent hands players receive one fewer card per hand. For a four player game, in the fourteenth hand players receive twelve cards; in the fifteenth hand, eleven cards
• The final hand of the game is when all players are back to a one-card hand
• After the dealer has dealt all cards for the current hand, he turns over the next card to reveal the trump suit. If a joker is revealed this way, it is ignored and the next card in the deck is revealed as the trump suit.
• The undealt cards and the visible trump suit card are left in the middle of the table during the hand

Bidding

• The player to the dealer's left opens the bidding
• Each player may bid between zero and the number of cards in their hand based on the number of 'tricks' they believe they will win with their current hand
• After all players have bid, the player who bid the highest number leads play. If more than one player bid the highest, then the player who made the high bid first leads play
• A player may change their bid until the next player announces their bid

Playing

• The player making the lead can play any card of any suit
• All players play a single card in a clockwise direction
• Players must follow the lead suit if they have any cards of that suit in their hand. Jokers are considered part of the trump suit. The Little joker is higher than the ace of the trump suit, and the Big joker is higher than the Little joker
• If a player does not have a card in the lead suit, they may play a card of any suit
• Card values are from two (the lowest card) to ace (the highest card) in each suit
• Once all players have played one card, the winner is determined and the trick is given to the winner. The winner places the trick in front of their position so other players can see the number of tricks they have won
  • If any cards were played from the trump suit, then the player who played the highest trump card wins the trick
  • If no cards were played from the trump suit, then the player who played the highest card from the lead suit wins the trick
• If the Big joker is played as the lead card, all players must play the higest card from the trump suit in their hand. If the Big joker is played, but not led, it is treated as a normal trump card (but cannot be beaten by any other card)

Scoring

• One player is designated as the scorekeeper
• After all tricks have been completed from the current hand, the hand is scored
• If a player wins as many tricks as they bid, the player receives ten points times their bid. For example: with a bid of four, the player wins four tricks receives forty points
• If a player wins more tricks than they bid, the player receives ten points for every trick they expected to win, plus one point for every trick they did not expect to win. For example: with a bid of four, the player wins six tricks and receives a score of forty-two. Each extra point a player receives for tricks won over their bid is called a 'sandbag'
• If a player wins fewer tricks than they bid, the player loses ten points for every trick they bid no matter how close they came to making their bid. For example: with a bid of four, the player wins three tricks receives negative forty points
• The goal of the bidder is accuracy: neither under- nor over-bidding
• After the end of a hand, if a player has received more than ten sandbags in total, their score is reduced by one hundred points
• A player may incur the sandbag penalty multiple times over the course of the entire game

Winning

• The player with the highest number of points after the final hand is declared the winner and may bask in the glory of victory