Which card are you allowed to play?
In brief
- If you have the suit that was led, you must play it.
- If trump is led, play a higher trump if you can, even over your partner.
- If you have no card of the suit led: if your partner is winning the trick, you can play any card; otherwise you must trump, higher than the opponent's trump if you can.
The app applies these rules for you: it only lets you play a permitted card. Each example below is calculated by the app's engine and checked a second time by the website.
Following suit
- West Ace of spades
North's hand: King of spades7 of spadesJack of hearts9 of clubs10 of diamonds
Permitted cards: King of spades7 of spades
West leads a spade. North has spades, so must play one, of their choice. They can neither trump nor discard.
Trump led: play higher
- North 8 of diamonds
- East 9 of clubs
South's hand: Queen of spades9 of diamonds7 of diamonds10 of hearts
Permitted cards: 9 of diamonds
Actual trick from a game in the app. North, South's partner, leads trump; East has no trump left and discards. South has two trumps: the 9 beats the 8, so South must play it, even though their partner is winning.
Trumping and overtrumping
- East Ace of clubs
South's hand: 8 of heartsQueen of heartsKing of spades9 of diamonds7 of spades
Permitted cards: 8 of heartsQueen of hearts
East, an opponent, leads a club with the Ace. South has no clubs but has trumps, so must trump, with the trump of their choice.
- North Ace of clubs
- East 7 of clubs
South's hand: 8 of heartsQueen of heartsKing of spades9 of diamonds
Permitted cards: 8 of heartsQueen of heartsKing of spades9 of diamonds
North, South's partner, leads the Ace of clubs. South has no clubs: they don't have to trump and can play any card.
- West Ace of diamonds
- North 8 of spades
East's hand: 7 of spades9 of spadesKing of hearts
Permitted cards: 9 of spades
West leads a diamond, North trumps with the 8 of trump. East, with no diamonds, must trump higher: only their 9 of trump beats the 8.
Undertrumping
- West Ace of diamonds
- North Jack of spades
East's hand: 7 of spades9 of spadesKing of heartsQueen of clubs
Permitted cards: 7 of spades9 of spades
This time North has trumped with the Jack, the highest trump. East can't beat it, but has trumps, so must play one.
- West Ace of diamonds
- North Jack of spades
East's hand: 7 of spades9 of spadesKing of heartsQueen of clubs
Permitted cards: 7 of spades9 of spadesKing of heartsQueen of clubs
In Coinche with the Official rules, the app lets you discard when you can't overtrump: East plays any card they like.
In no-trump
- South King of diamonds
West's hand: 7 of diamondsAce of spadesAce of clubs
Permitted cards: 7 of diamonds
With no trump, nobody trumps. West has a diamond, so must follow suit; with no diamonds, they could have played any card.
Who wins the trick
- South Ace of spades
- West 10 of spades
- North 7 of spades
East's hand: Jack of heartsKing of diamonds
Permitted cards: Jack of hearts
East plays the Jack of hearts. Winner: East. Trick value: 11 + 10 + 0 + 20 = 41 points.
South leads the Ace of spades, West follows with the 10, North with the 7. East has no more spades and the opponent South is winning the trick: East must trump. East's Jack of trumps wins the trick, which goes to East-West along with the points of its four cards.