Rules.md

Schnarps Rules

Setup

• The game starts with exactly 5 players. We will allow this to change in later iterations, but for now it must be 5.

Objectives and Scoring

1. Each player starts with 16 points
2. The first player to get down to 0 points wins
3. A players who reaches 32 points is eliminated from the game
4. Player scores go down by the number of tricks they win
5. When a player is below 5 points, sitting is +1 point

Punted

• Players are "punted" and go up by 5 points if:
  1. The player is "IN" and does not win a single trick or
  2. The player is the high bidder and does not win the number of tricks bid

Bidding Round

1. Starts with the player to the left of the dealer
2. Must bid higher than the current bid or pass
3. Player with the highest bid decides the trump suit

In/Out Round

1. Occurs after the bidding round
2. Everyone must play if the trump suit is spades or the high bid is 1
3. Starts with the player to the left of the high bidder
4. Each player decides if they are in or out of the round
5. A player who sat the previous two rounds is auto and must play

Spades

• If spades is the trump suit:
  1. Everyone must play
  2. If a player wins all 5 tricks, they go to 0 points and win the game by spading out

Card Play

1. Starts with the first "In" player left of the dealer
2. The suit of the first card played is the lead suit
3. If a player has the lead suit they must play a card of that suit, otherwise they can play any card
4. The trick is won by:
   1. The player who played the highest card of the trump suit
   2. If no trump cards were played, the player who played the highest lead suit wins the trick
5. The trick winner is the first to play the next trick