How to Play ROOK! With Actual Gameplay

How to play your new favorite game! This is a fun 4 player card game where players play in teams, 2 on 2. The game comes with instructions but they could be rather confusing. In this video we will be using the Kentucky Discard rules. To begin with, take out all the 1s, 2s, 3s, and 4s out of the deck. They will not be used. This will leave you with numbers from 5 to 14 and one Rook card. There are only 3 numbers that can score points. Then theres the Rook card that beats any number or color, its worth 20 points. The 14s are worth 10 points, the 5s are worth 5 points, and the 10s are also worth 10 points. The deck does not have duplicate cards so there is only one of each card. To win, a team must get 300 points. The maximum amount of points that can be earned in one round is 120. Make sure to shuffle well. You will also need a piece of paper and something to write with to keep score. In this example we have Player 1 and 2 vs Player 3 and 4. And we left some room for recording Bids and Trumps. To begin the game, deal out 9 cards to each player and the remaining 5 cards will be the Nest. The Nest stays face down for now. Each player gets a deck and teammates sit across from each other. For the first round we will lay down every players hand face up to help with the explanation. Before the start of each round, each player gets an opportunity to bid for the privilege of selecting the Trump color and take the cards in the Nest. The minimum starting bid is 70 and each consecutive bid needs to be at least 5 higher. The max bid is 120. When a player makes a bid he is essentially claiming that his team will earn that much points in that round. If his team fails to get those points, that bid amount is subtred from his teams total score and they get no points for that round. So in our first round, the dealer (Player 1) does the first bid. Player 1 bid 70, then going clockwise, Player 3 bids 75, Player 2 bids 80, Player 4 bids 85, and at this point Player 1,3, and 2 decide to PASS. Player 4 wins the bid! The Nest is flipped over for all to see and then added to Player 4s deck. He then needs to discard 5 cards back into the Nest face down. The new Nest can be set aside and the player who wins the last Trick will also receive the cards in the Nest. Player 4 now picks the Trump color which will be the color that is more powerful and beats any card of a different color. After the Trump is selected, the Player to his left gets to start first or “lead”. Player 1 leads with a yellow 6. The rest of the players must now follow suit, meaning they must play a yellow if they have it. Player 4 does not have any yellows so he can play any card. The person with the highest value yellow wins the “Trick”, unless a Trump color is put down or the Rook is played. The person who wins the trick gets to lead the next one. Since you are playing in teams, if you believe your teammate has played the highest card for that Trick, put down a card that is worth points if possible. In this next Trick, Player 3 leads with a green 14 but since Player 4 has no greens he plays a Trump color card and wins that Trick. And the Rook card is an ultimate Trump that beats any card. This was the last Trick for this round so Player 4 also gets the cards in the Nest. Now tally up the combined scores of Player 1 and 2 and Player 3 and 4. Remember that only 5s, 10s, and 14s are worth points. So in round one Players 3 and 4 got a total of 110 points and the other team got 10 points. Now shuffle the cards and start a new round. The Player who won the last Trick in the previous round gets to bid first. In this round we will take off the training wheels. Each Players hand will ually be in his hand and not on the table face up. This time Player 3 won the bid with 85. He gets the nest then discards 5 cards for the new Nest and picks Green for Trump. The Player to his left leads with a red 13 and wins that Trick. During this Trick Player 2 leads with a black 13, Player 4 trumps with a green 14, and player 3 who knows that his teammate will win this trick puts down a 10. To keep this short and sweet we fast-forward to the last round. Here is what the scorecard looks like. As you can see, in round 4, the team on the left bid 95 but was only able to get 90 points. So all they scored for that round was a -95. So now you know the drill. Shuffle, deal, bid, pick trump, play. One last thing. When the Rook card is played first, all other players must put down a trump color if they have it. Also if you have the Rook card but no trump cards, you MUST play the Rook if someone leads with the Trump color. Also, if you know that no one else has the Trump color and your whole hand consists of only Trump cards, you can end the round at once and collect the remaining