Who wins a trick in Jass?

What decides who wins a Jass trick?

The winner of a Jass trick is the strongest card in the suit that controls the trick. A trump controls the trick whenever a trump has been played; without a trump, the led suit controls it. The contract then supplies the rank order used to compare the cards.

Start with the card that was led. If no trump appears, remove every card from another plain suit from the winning comparison. Only cards in the led suit can win a non-trumped trick. In the ordinary high-down order, used for plain suits and Obenabe, the ace stands above the king, Ober, Under and the lower cards. The ten is below the Under, so a ten does not defeat an Under in that order.

A trump changes the controlling suit. Any trump beats every card from a plain suit, even an ace of the led suit. Once a trump appears, compare the trumps with the trump ladder rather than with the ordinary order of the suits printed on the cards. The strongest trump takes the trick.

The trump ladder contains two named cards that often cause mistakes. The Under of trumps is the Puur, meaning the trump Under, and the nine of trumps is the Nell, meaning the trump nine. The Puur is above the Nell, and the Nell is above the ace in the trump order. The complete order table gives the position of every remaining trump.

The contract also matters when no trump controls the trick. Obenabe, meaning high-down, uses the familiar high-card direction. Undenufe, meaning low-up, reverses the ladder, so the six stands above the seven and the ace falls to the bottom. These contract variants must not be mixed: a card can win under Obenabe and lose under Undenufe.

Rank and card points answer different questions. Rank decides who takes the trick. Card points decide how much the captured cards contribute to the score. The card values table gives the point distribution for trump contracts, Obenabe and Undenufe, but a card worth more points does not automatically win.

Every contract puts exactly 152 card points in the pack. That total does not alter the winner of an individual trick. The tool therefore settles the ranking question by applying the led suit, the presence of a trump and the active contract's order.

Does a trumped trick always go to the trump?

A trick containing a trump goes to the strongest trump that was played. No card from a plain suit can defeat a trump, including the ace of the led suit. The led suit matters for the cards played before the trump appears, but the trump suit controls the result once a trump is present.

Consider a plain-suit ace led into a trick. A player who plays a trump takes control, even if that trump would look low in the ordinary printed sequence of its suit. The comparison has changed from the plain-suit ladder to the trump ladder. The ace remains a card of the led suit, while the trump now belongs to the controlling suit.

Compare all trumps in the trick with one another. The trump Under, the Puur, is strongest. The trump nine, the Nell, follows the Puur. The trump ace follows the Nell, and the remaining trump cards follow the exact order shown in the strength table. A plain-suit king, ace or ten cannot enter that comparison once a trump has appeared.

A worked comparison makes the rule clear. If a trick contains a plain-suit ace and a trump seven, the trump seven wins because every trump outranks every plain-suit card. If the same trick also contains the trump nine, the Nell wins because the Nell stands above the trump seven. If the Puur is present as well, the Puur wins the trump comparison.

Card points can make the winning card look surprising. The trump Puur is worth 20 card points, and the trump Nell is worth 14. Those values do not cause the cards to win. The Puur and Nell win because of their positions in the trump rank order; the card-values table records their contribution after the trick has been captured.

The tool applies the trump comparison to the cards entered and identifies the winning trump. The result does not establish whether every play was legal. A player may have had to follow the led suit, or may have had a permitted option under the relevant contract rules. Read the rules on following suit for that separate question.

Regional Jass practice can differ in the obligations attached to a missing suit. The ranking principle remains clear: when a trump is present, the strongest trump takes the trick. The contract page explains the named contract variants, while the strength table settles the card order within the selected variant.

Why does the six win an Undenufe trick?

The six is the highest card in every suit during an Undenufe trick without a trump. It defeats the seven, eight, nine, ten, Under, Ober, king and ace of the same suit. Undenufe uses a complete inverted ladder rather than a special exception for one card.

Undenufe means low-up. The name describes the direction of strength: the low end of the suit rises to the top, while the ace falls to the bottom. The full order is six, seven, eight, nine, ten, Under, Ober, king and ace. Use that order for every suit when Undenufe controls the comparison.

Suppose a suit is led and the trick contains its six. The six wins unless a trump is present under a rule set that includes trumps. A seven cannot beat the six. Neither can an eight, nine, ten, Under, Ober, king or ace of that suit. The same ladder applies to every suit, so the suit symbol changes but the direction does not.

The result can seem wrong to a player who carries the ordinary ace-high order into Undenufe. That order belongs to plain suits in the usual high-down arrangement and to Obenabe. It does not apply to Undenufe. The contract changes the strength ladder before the cards are compared.

The six's card-point value is separate from its rank. In Undenufe, the six is worth 11 card points. Other cards receive the values shown in the card-values table, including 10 points for the ten and 8 points for the eight. The six wins because it is first in the Undenufe order, not because a general Jass rule makes the lowest card worth the most.

Undenufe must not be confused with a trump contract. Undenufe is a no-trump contract in the comparison described here, so the inverted ladder applies to the led suit. A trump contract uses the special trump order instead, with the Puur above the Nell. The contracts page gives the named contract structure, and the strength table settles the individual trick.

Regional tables may use different terminology for contract choices, but Obenabe and Undenufe are the named variants used here. The rank direction remains the practical point: Obenabe places the ace at the top of the plain-suit ladder, while Undenufe places the six at the top. Entering the correct contract prevents the tool from applying the wrong order.

What happens if somebody cannot follow suit?

A player who cannot follow the led suit does not change the ranking method used to find the winner. A trump controls the trick if one has been played; otherwise the led suit controls it. An off-suit plain card cannot win a non-trumped trick merely because its printed rank is high.

The result and the legality of a play are separate matters. The result asks which entered card is strongest under the selected contract. Legality asks whether the player was allowed, or required, to play that card from the hand available at the time.

In a trick with no trump, compare only the cards in the led suit. An off-suit discard sits outside the winning comparison. For example, a plain-suit ace from a suit that was not led cannot beat a led-suit ten in a non-trumped trick. The led-suit ten wins because the other ace does not belong to the controlling suit.

If a trump appears, compare the trumps instead. An off-suit plain card still cannot win, but a trump can take the trick even when the player could not follow the led suit. The exact obligation to follow, trump or discard depends on the applicable Jass rules. Regional practice can differ, so do not treat one table's procedure as universal.

The contract variants named Obenabe and Undenufe also require the correct rank ladder when the trick contains no trump. Obenabe uses the high-down order. Undenufe uses the inverted order, with the six highest. A player can therefore play legally yet fail to win because another card occupies a stronger position in that contract's ladder.

A winning card can also have been played illegally. The tool can identify the strongest card among the entries without knowing the player's complete hand or the table's procedural rule. Do not infer permission from the winner. Check the follow-suit rule separately, then use the tool to confirm the ranking result.

For obligations, exceptions and the meaning of a missing suit, read following suit. If the disagreement concerns a mistaken comparison rather than an illegal play, common beginner mistakes covers the errors that most often produce the wrong winner. The distinction keeps a correct card comparison from becoming an incorrect ruling about the play.

How should the Jass trick tool settle an argument?

Enter the selected contract and every card in the trick, then read the indicated winner as a ranking result. Check the led suit, check for a trump, and apply the contract's rank ladder. That sequence keeps suit control, trump control and card strength distinct.

For a non-trumped trick, identify the led suit and exclude cards from every other plain suit. In Obenabe, compare the remaining cards with the high-down order: ace, king, Ober, Under, ten, nine, eight, seven and six. In Undenufe, compare them with the inverted order: six, seven, eight, nine, ten, Under, Ober, king and ace.

For a trumped trick, stop comparing the led card with the ordinary plain-suit order. Identify every trump in the trick and compare those cards with the trump ladder. The Puur is above the Nell, the Nell is above the trump ace, and the rest of the trumps follow the displayed order. A plain-suit ace cannot beat any of them.

A worked example can be recorded in a compact form. Write down the contract, the led suit, whether a trump appeared and the strongest rank in the controlling suit. Under Undenufe, a led-suit six wins a non-trumped comparison. Under a trump contract, a trump seven beats a plain-suit ace, while a trump Nell beats that trump seven.

Check scoring only after deciding the winner. A trump contract assigns 62 card points to the trump suit and 30 card points to each plain suit. Obenabe assigns 38 card points to each suit, and Undenufe also assigns 38 card points to each suit. Every contract contains exactly 152 card points, but the point total does not decide which player captured the trick.

The scoring table also explains why rank and value must remain separate. In a trump suit, the Puur is worth 20 card points and the Nell 14. In a plain suit during a trump contract, the Under is worth 2 card points. In Obenabe and Undenufe, the six, ten and eight have the values shown for those contracts. A low-value card can win, and a high-value card can lose.

If the disagreement concerns a card from a suit that was not led, pause before treating the result as a ruling on legality. The tool can correctly identify the strongest entered card while leaving the duty to follow suit unresolved. Use the follow-suit rules for permission and the tool for the winner.

A reliable explanation therefore names the contract, led suit, trump status and winning rank. That record accounts for a trumped trick going to the strongest trump, an Undenufe trick going to the six when no trump controls it, and an off-suit card failing to win a non-trumped trick. It also prevents card points from being mistaken for trick strength.