Marjapussi
| Bondtolva, Huutopussi | |
| Origin | Finland |
|---|---|
| Type | Trick-taking |
| Players | 4 |
| Cards | 36 (24-36 in variants) |
| Deck | Anglo-American |
| Play | Clockwise |
| Card rank (highest to lowest) | A 10 K Q J 9 8 7 6 |
| Related games | |
| Bezique, Pinochle, Mariage | |
Marjapussi (Bag of Berries) is a traditional Finnish partnerships trick taking game. The speciality of Marjapussi is that the trump suit is determined in the middle of the play by declaring a marriage (a king and a queen of a same suit). To win a game, a partnership must get exactly twelve points. A very similar game evidently related to Sixty-six, but with a curious resonance of All Fours is played in Sweden under the name Bondtolva, Farmer's Dozen.
Later, Marjapussi evolved into Huutopussi (Auction Bag), which involves bidding. The exact winning condition was dropped, but the trump determining process remained. Actually, in Huutopussi the trump suit may even change in the middle of the play if players declare further marriages.
The details of rules in both Marjapussi and Huutopussi vary significantly, and the choice of the rulesets presented below is rather arbitrary. See Variants section about how the rules can vary.
Marjapussi is a trick taking game for four players in fixed partnerships. The partners sit opposite to each other. Marjapussi is played with a deck of 36 cards, remove the cards 2-5 from the standard deck. The order of cards is Ace (highest), ten, king, queen, jack, nine, eight, seven, six (lowest). That is, the order is otherwise normal except that a ten beats a king, a queen and a jack. All cards are dealt so that everyone gets 9 cards.
A hand always starts as a no trump game, but a suit can be declared trumps during a hand. The player to the dealer's left leads first, and if he has an ace, he must lead to the first trick with an ace. Later, the winner of the trick starts the next with any card he wants to.
Players must follow suit if possible. If a player who is not starting a new trick cannot follow suit and trumps have been declared, the player must play a trump. If the player cannot follow suit or play trumps, the player can play any card. If possible within the previous restrictions, the player must always beat the high card in the trick. The trick is won by the highest trump, or if there are no trumps in the trick, by the highest card of the suit led.
When a player has won a trick, he may declare trumps with a king and a queen of a same suit. He has three options:
After each trick, the winner of the trick is entitled to exactly one of the actions mentioned above. If trumps have been declared, players can declare little ones, other marriages in a similar fashion, but they affect only scoring, and do not change trumps. Each suit can be declared only once during a hand.
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Wikipedia