Klaberjass is a two player trick taking game of Germanic origin which is also very popular in the Jewish community. This game also is known by quite a few other names, such as Bella, Klob, Kalabrias, Clob and Clobby. The game uses one 32 card Skat deck (which includes the cards from rank seven to Ace in each suit). The ranking of the cards is different for the designated trump suits than the other suits. For the trump suit, the ranking is as follows (from highest to lowest); Jack, 9, Ace, 10, King, Queen, 8, 7. In the three non-trump suits (each of the suits not designated as the trump suit for the hand), the ranking of the cards is as follows (from highest to lowest); Ace, 10, King, Queen, Jack, 9, 8, 7.
Determination of the first dealer can be performed in a variety of ways, with draw for low card a common method. Each player draw a card from the shuffled deck and the player drawing the lowest card is set as the first dealer. Thereafter the role of dealer alternates amongst the two players.
After the first dealer has been determined, the dealer thoroughly shuffles the cards and offers it to his opponent to cut. After the cut, the dealer then begins dealing the cards in batches of three, starting with his opponent. After each player has a total of six cards, the dealer then places the remainder of the deck in the center of the table, turning up the top card of the stock and placing it face-up partially under the stock. The players then pick up and examine their hand in preparation for the bidding.
The opponent of the dealer has the first opportunity to bid. This player may then make one of three calls:
- Take: This indicates that the player accepts the suit of the turned-up card as the trump suit for the hand. This immediately ends the bidding, setting this player as the Maker for the hand using that suit as trump for the hand.
- Schmeiss: A schmeiss call indicates that the player is requesting that the hand be abandoned. Thus, on a call of schmeiss, the opponent can either accept or reject the schmeiss. If the opponent accepts the schmeiss, the cards are thrown in and a new hand is dealt by the next dealer. However, if the schmeiss is rejected by the opponent, the suit of the turned-up card is immediately set as the trump suit for the hand and the player who called "schmeiss" is considered the Maker for the hand.
- Pass: If the player declares "Pass", he indicates he does not prefer to use the trump card as the trump suit, but does not necessarily want to abandon the hand. If the first bidder passes, the option to bid moves to the dealer. If the dealer also passes on his turn, the game advances to a second round of bidding.
If both players pass on the first round of bidding, a second round of bidding occurs, again starting with the dealer's opponent. This player again has three options:
- Name a Trump Suit: The player may name a trump suit of his choice (which must be different than the suit originally turned-up for determination of the trump suit).
- Schmeiss: The player is suggesting that the hand be abandoned. The opponent then has the option to either accept or reject the schmeiss. If he accepts the schmeiss, the cards are thrown in and the hand abandoned. However, if the player rejects the schmeiss, the player who called the schmeiss must name a trump suit and he becomes the Maker for the hand. The suit named as trump suit cannot be the same suit as originally turned up to determine the trump suit on this hand.
- Pass: The player may Pass, which indicates he prefers not to make a bid. In this case, the opportunity to bid then moves to the dealer.
Once a trump suit has been determined during the bidding, the player who accepted or named the trump suit becomes the Maker for the hand and strives to score more points than his opponent during the hand, while his opponent attempts to prevent him from doing so.
After a trump suit has been determined, leaving the face-up trump card on the table, the dealer deals each player one more packet of three cards, starting with his opponent. He also removes the bottom card from the remaining stock, exposes it such that both players can see it's face and then sets it aside.
If original turned up trump card was accepted as the trump suit for the hand and either player has the seven of the trump suit, he may immediately show it and exchange it for that top trump card, replacing it with the seven and adding it into his hand.
Before play of the actual hand begins, a melding phase takes place. Only the player who has the highest scoring single meld can score for melds during the hand, so each player, starting with the non-dealer will declare the point value of his highest meld.
Melds consist of sequence of three or more cards. A meld of
three sequential cards of the same suit has a point value of 20 points
and a sequence of four or more cards has a point value of 50. The
procedures of declaring the melds may seem somewhat elaborate, but the reason for this is to allow the players to communicate the melds they have for determination of the player who will score for them, while, at the same time, prevent unnecessary information from being provided about the specific cards found in that player's hand.
This meld declaration phase begins with the non-dealer who would indicate the specific point value for the highest meld found in his hand. Thus, he might declare a "20 meld", or a "50 meld". If he has no such meld, he would simply state "No melds". After the non-dealer makes his declaration, the dealer would then have an opportunity to respond. If the non-dealer had declared a meld and the dealer does not have an equal or higher meld, he would declare "Good", indicating his acknowledgement that the dealer has the highest meld and would therefore be entitled to score for that and any other melds he has in hand. If the dealer has a meld of higher point value than the non-dealer he would simply state "No good" and the dealer would be entitled to score for all melds in his hand. If the dealer had a meld of the same point value as declared by the non-dealer, he would instead request more information of the non-dealer by stating "How high?". The non-dealer would then respond by naming the rank of the highest card in that meld. The dealer would then respond to this declaration with either "Good", indicating the non-dealer does, in fact, have the highest meld, "No good" if the dealer's meld contains a higher highest card or "Equal" if both of the melds contain the same rank of highest card. In the case of "Good" or "No Good" the appropriate player would score. In the case of this second respond of "Same", the player's both state the suit of the meld. If one of the melds is in the trump suit, that meld is considered the higher such meld. But if neither meld is of the trump suit, the non-dealer is entitled to score for melds during the hand. If the non-dealer had initially stated "No melds", if the dealer has any melds, he may declare the point value of such melds and score for those melds. Thus, as noted, only the player with the highest value or highest ranked meld is entitled to score the for meld, as well as any other legal melds also found in his hand. Note that the ordering of the cards, in regards to forming of these sequence melds is somewhat different than the normal rank of the cards in play of the hand. For purposes of sequence melds, the ranking of the cards are as follows (from high to low); Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7. The player who is entitled to score for melds during the hand must show the melds after his first play to the first trick of the hand.
After the melding phase, play of the hand begins. The play consists of a series of tricks, with each player contributing one card to the trick. The dealer's opponent leads the first card to the first trick. He may play any card of choice from his hand to start the first trick. His opponent than contributes a card from his own hand to the trick. If he has a card of the suit originally led to the trick he must play it. If he does not have such a card he must play a trump card if he has one. If he also does not have a trump card, he may play any card from his hand. If a trump suit is led to the trick, the opponent must play a higher card of the trump suit if he has one.
The trick is won by the player of the highest trump card to the trick. If the trick contains no cards of the trump suit, the trick is won by the player of the highest card of the suit originally led to the trick. The winner of each trick sets the cards won in the trick aside, out of play, and leads the first card to start the next trick.
If a player has both the King and Queen of the trump suit he may declare "Bella" and add 20 points to his current score for the hand. A player is not obligated to make this declaration and score the points, however, if he does so, he must make the declaration after playing the second of the two cards which form the "Bella" to a trick. In addition to the "Bella" the winner of the last trick of the hand earns a 10 point bonus for his score for the hand.
After all nine tricks have been played and won, the players then examine the cards they managed to win and tricks to determine the points won during the hand. The following chart shows the value of each card in the deck.
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The first player to earn a total of 500 or more game points at the conclusion of any hand is declared the game winner.
