Players: 4-10
Age: 12+ (younger children can play on a team with adults)
Cards: Rook (with more than 5 players you need two decks)
This is the card game of choice in my dad’s family. As a child whenever we would get together at my grandparents house the adults would all put the kids to bed and stay up playing “Hello,” which is the nicer name for the game (we put the O at the end instead of at the beginning). They would play during the day too when they got a chance. Once I graduated I was actually allowed to play with the adults. It was a huge deal, since I was the oldest grandchild and only one allowed to play. My cousins were all jealous to say the least.
So here are the instructions for this fun family game. It may seem kind of complex at first put once you play it the premise is simple. Mastering the game does take time, since there is strategy involved.
1. The dealer passes out 10 cards to each player. The color of the next card he turns over in the deck is considered “trump.” “Trump” cards are the highest cards in the deck. For example a 1 of the trump color is higher than the 14 of a different color. So a 14 of trump is the highest card in the deck. If you play with the ROOK card, it is considered the lowest trump card (less than 1).
2. Before looking at his hand the dealer can choose to pass up to three cards any direction or keep his cards like in hearts. After receiving and giving away cards each player evaluates their hand to see how many “tricks” they think they can take. A player takes a “trick” by laying down the highest card in a round. If there are 10 cards then there are 10 tricks that can be taken. Since each time every person lays down one card. After everyone has laid down a card the person with the highest card takes the “trick”.
3. Once everyone has decided how many “tricks” they think they can take, based on how many trump and high cards they have in their hand, it is time to reveal the number. Everyone puts their fist on the table and pounds the table three times saying, “One, two, three.” When the number three is said everyone puts out how many fingers to show how many tricks they want to take. If the person doesn’t want any tricks then they keep their fist closed. If they happen to want more than five they can use two hands (this is rare). The number that each person has shown is written down under his or her name on a score sheet. If the number of tricks that people want to take is even to the number of cards in each hand then it is possible for every person to get the tricks that they want. Although it doesn’t always work out this way because of how the cards are played.
4. Play begins with the person who is sitting to the left of the dealer. They are considered to be in the lead. This position is important to consider when bidding because you decide what color is started with. (Note: You cannot start with trump the first round.) If you have a high number of a color you will probably want to bid that you will take at least one trick. Then you can start with your high number. All other players have to follow with the same color. If a player does not have the color that is played then they can play a different color or trump it. In each trick every player plays one card. Then the highest card takes the round. That person then leads by deciding what card is played next. (Hint: When you are in control it is easier to take tricks.)
5. After all 10 cards have been played the scores are tallied up. The scorekeeper asks each player if they made it. If the person got the number of tricks they wanted they say, “Yes.” If they did not they say, “No.” Then the scorekeeper adds a 1 in the 10’s column to the number that each person bid. If they made it the number is positive, if they didn’t it is negative. So if I said I would make 2 tricks and I did my score would be 12. If my sister said she would take 3 tricks and she did not then her score would be –13.
After playing a few rounds the score could look like this:
| Judy | Scott | Heather | Ryan |
| 14 | 12 | -15 | 10 |
| -13 | 12 | 11 | 13 |
| 11 | 13 | 12 | -13 |
6. For the next round the person who deals rotates to the left and the person who started before is now the dealer. The person to their left “leads” or starts the game. The dealer deals each player only 9 cards. The players determine and say how many tricks they will take and then the cards are played. Each round one less card is dealt all the way to one card.
7. After all 10 rounds have been played the scores are added up. The person with the highest score wins the game.