Forty-eight doubled cards, and two queens of clubs who are secretly partners.
Four players, a doubled deck, and partners you have to work out as you go. Widely played across northern Germany.
48 cards — two copies each of nine, ten, jack, queen, king and ace in every suit. Twelve cards each.
Ace 11, ten 10, king 4, queen 3, jack 2, nine nothing. 240 points in total, and a side needs 121 to win.
In the normal game the trump suit is, from the top: the two tens of hearts, then all four queens, then all four jacks, then the rest of the diamonds from ace down to nine. That is 26 trumps. The remaining hearts, spades and clubs are the plain suits — and note that hearts has only six cards left in it, so it runs out fast.
Whoever holds the two queens of clubs are partners, and nobody announces it. You find out by watching who plays to help whom. A player who holds both queens of clubs plays a solo against the other three.
Before the play develops far, a side may announce that they will win, doubling the value, and further announcements promise to hold the opponents under 90, 60 or 30 points.
Follow suit if you can, remembering that queens, jacks, the heart tens and all diamonds are trumps and not members of their printed suits. Highest trump wins.
On a tie between two identical cards the first one played wins — except for the two heart tens, where the second one wins.