Rules for playing Treasure Hunt (game variant of Wizard)
1. Game preparation and game description
This game is always played by three players and requires two packs of 32 cards each. The objective of this game is to attain in each round a number of tricks predicted in advance and to guess the "golden card" in the last round. The game consists of 10 rounds. In the first round, each player gets one card, in the second round, each player gets two cards, and so on. In the tenth round each player finally gets ten cards. From the first pack of cards, each player gets four cards of different suits (e.g. all Sevens, Eights and Nines). These cards form the "suit cards" and must be placed on the table face up by each player so everybody can see them. The rest of this pack of cards may be set aside.
2. Course of the game
Once the first dealer is determined, the second pack of cards is shuffled and one card dealt to each player. Another card is placed face up and determines the trump suit for this round. Afterwards, the player sitting to the left of the dealer predicts how many tricks he will probably reach in this round. After that, his left neighbor has to predict the number of tricks and finally the dealer himself. Once all predictions have been registered, the players start with the trick taking (more about this in chapter four). At the end it is checked if the predicted tricks are equal to the actual tricks and the players get points accordingly (more about this in chapter five). The player having attained the highest score at the end of a round is the dealer for the following round. If two players have attained the highest score, the player with the lowest score is the new dealer. If all players have attained the same score, the previous dealer is the new dealer again. After that, the second round is started and each player gets two cards. Now, the players predict a number of tricks again, make their tricks and compare their predicted tricks with their actual tricks to get their corres- ponding points. After that, the third round is started with three cards, and so on.
3. Final round
Before dealing the cards for the tenth round, each player predicts a card suit and a card value for the "golden card". Once all predictions have been registered, the top card ("golden card") is placed face down in the middle of the table. Then, the rest of the cards are dealt to the players one at a time. The last card determines the trump suit. The rest of the course of the game remains the same. At the end, the dealer turns the "golden card" face up. If the predicted card suit or card value is equal to the "golden card", the players receive bonus points (see chapter five). After that, each player's points are totalled. The player with the highest plus points or the least minus points is the winner.
4. Trick taking
Card suits (1st ranking): trump suit, played suit, other suits (descending order)
Card values (2nd ranking): Ace, Ten, King, Queen, Jack, Nine, Eight, Seven (descending order)
Now, the player sitting to the left of the dealer starts to play his first card. In turn, each player must lay out that suit which has been played. The player with the highest value of a suit may take all three cards and play the next card. A player who cannot lay out the played suit must turn the corresponding card of his four "suit cards" face down (not ear- lier!). After that, he must play a trump suit. If the trump suit has already been played, any other suit can be laid out. The same applies if a player has neither the played suit nor the trump suit. In this case, two "suit cards" must be turned face down before a card is laid out.
If a player forgets to turn a "suit card" or it is turned after he has already laid out a card, he gets 10 penalty points. If a player plays or lays out a suit that he has already turned, he gets 25 penalty points. In both cases, the error must be noticed before the next card is played. A player, who uncovers turned cards, gets 50 penalty points.
5. Points calculation
If at the end of a round the tricks actually achieved are at least as high as the predicted tricks, the predicted tricks are multiplied by the number of the current round and registered as plus points. However, for each trick predicted that is greater or less than actually achieved, the player gets one minus point which is also multiplied by the number of the current round. Now, these minus points are deducted from the plus points. E.g., a player who predicts in the eighth round to make five tricks, but actually makes seven tricks, gets (5 x 8 =) 40 plus points and (-2 x 8 =) 16 minus points. Thus, he has attained (40 - 16 =) 24 plus points in this round. If he makes exactly five tricks, he would not get any minus points and would have 40 plus points. However, if he makes only two tricks, he would get (-3 x 8 =) 24 minus points in this round. If in the final round the card suit predicted is equal to the "golden card", the player gets 20 addi- tional plus points. If the card value predicted is equal, the player gets 40 additional plus points. However, if both pre- dictions are equal to the "golden card", the player gets 160 additional plus points in total.
6. Score List
| Treasure Hunt Score List |