The rules above are the friendly core, enough for a full evening of play. When your table wants more, start with these favorites, and explore more expansions online. [POINTER 31]
[STICKY-INFO: A Slovenian tarok proverb blesses this whole page: “toliko pravil, kolikor je miz”, as many rules as there are tables. Whatever your table agrees on is part of the tradition, not a break from it.]
- Radli. The little wheels: every Dodge Round, every Beggar-or-higher, every valat draws a circle under every name. Win a contract with an open circle and your score doubles (and one circle closes); lose and it doubles too (circle stays). An uncancelled circle at session’s end is minus 20, each. It is the engine that keeps every player invested in every hand; beloved, and pure bookkeeping, which is why it waits here.
- Kontra ladder. The ladder runs kontra ×2, rekontra ×4, subkontra ×8, mordkontra ×16, each announcement doubled separately. As everywhere in this book: switch it on when your table is ready.
- Open Beggar (odprti berač). After the first trick your hand lies face-up. It is worth 18. The defenders may look, but not talk.
- No-Trump Valat (barvni valat). The no-trump Valat asks you to win all twelve tricks with the Taroks playing as a plain suit, and it is worth 25. It is usually reached by upgrading a won solo exchange, not bid outright.
- Grand Valat (valat brez). You win every trick, with no talon and full trumps, for 100, the largest number in the book. The announced-Valat bonus is its softer cousin.
- The knock. Instead of cutting, the player opposite may knock the deck: it is then dealt in four packets of twelve, and players choose their packets in seat order. Players swear by it for luck, for ritual, and occasionally for real advantage.
- Compulsory Dodge Round. When a player’s total hits exactly zero, or someone is dealt no Taroks at all, tradition orders a Dodge Round with the low bids barred. It is a famously cruel institution; agree on it up front.
- The quick session. Play to 100 instead of 200 (or agree a closing time), and call the Skus round the same way. The full 200 is the traditional evening; shorten the runway, not the ritual.
- The Traditional Scoring. The chapter already scores the authentic Slovenian way; Traditional here means the native scale (everything times five) and the money game, where the evening settles by distance from the table average. The full tables are at the back of this book ([PAGE ch-11-traditional-scoring]).