Declare how many of five tricks you will take, alone against the table.
A short, sharp bidding game for three to six players. Five cards each and no partnerships — one player against everyone else.
Five cards each from a 52-card deck. Aces are high. The rest of the deck is set aside unused.
Going round once, each player either passes or bids the number of tricks they will take, from two to five. Each bid must beat the last.
Nap — a bid to take all five tricks. Wellington — all five, at double stakes, and only biddable over a nap. Blücher — all five at triple stakes, over a wellington. Misère — take no tricks at all, ranking between three and four.
The declarer leads the first card, and its suit is trump. This is the whole of the trump-choosing mechanism: there is no separate declaration.
Follow suit if you can, otherwise play anything. Highest trump wins, or the highest card of the suit led. Everyone else plays together against the declarer without discussion.
Settled in counters. A made bid of two, three or four pays that many units from each opponent; failing pays the same amount to each. Nap pays 10 if made and 5 if lost, which is the one asymmetry in the game and the reason a speculative nap is worth trying.
Wellington and Blücher pay double and triple, and lose double and triple.