Schwarze Sau

Swiss trick-taking card game in which you can "lie" about following suit.

The game is played with 2 decks of regular cards, but only using 8-A or 7-A depending on number of players. Like some other Swiss card games, the descending rank of cards is A-10-K-Q etc. In this particular game J's are both Trump and their own suit, so that a lead of a Jack must be followed by another Jack. Jacks are ranked by their suits to determine which is highest. The Qs of spades are the Schwarze Sau's (= Black Sow), which are 150 points for the first and 250 for the second taken. All points are bad; best possible score is to stay at zero. If you can't follow suit then you can play anything you like. However, you can "Lie" and not follow suit if you prefer. Winner of the trick may challenge any one player who has not followed suit. If the challenge is successful, then the liar takes the trick and 50 points for lying. If unsuccessful, then the original winner of the trick takes the trick and 50 points for challenging incorrectly. Players are not allowed to lie when challenged; they must tell the truth. Trick-winner leads next hand. Winner of last trick gets 100 points.

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