The non-dealer has passed. You are the dealer, and the choice is now yours: your 15 cards are III, VI, IX, XII, XV, XVIII, 7♣, 8♣, 9♣, 10♣, 2♥, 3♥, 4♥, 7♠, 3♦.
Do you play, or pass and let the hand fall to Trischaken?
Show answer
Answer
Pass. Six Taroks sounds respectable, but not one is the Skus, the Moon, or the Pagat, and there isn’t a single King, Queen, Cavalier or Jack anywhere in the hand: fifteen cards, zero printed pips between them. Even a fantasy run where every one of these Taroks won its trick clean caps your own hand at 15 ÷ 3 = 5 Card Points; the rest would have to arrive as pips you don’t yet control. And control is exactly what’s missing: the top of the Tarok ladder, the Skus, the XXI, the XX and more, is still unaccounted for, so six modest Taroks can be overtrumped whenever it matters most, unlike a hand that already owns the game’s biggest hammers. A card in every suit also means Trischaken won’t force-feed you fat tricks the moment you’re void: this hand can follow along and keep its capture pile as thin as its own pip count. Pass, and let the fewest-points contract reward a hand built to give nothing away.