Your first tarok evening: a beginner's guide

Before you sit down

Tarok is played with 54 cards: 22 trumps (trumps I to XXI and the škis) and four suits of eight. With four players everyone gets 12 cards and six go to the talon. The goal is simple: promise a game in the bidding, then win it, with allies or alone.

Five things you must know

1 · Trumps rule. A tarok beats any suit card. If you cannot follow suit, you must play a trump; that is called cutting. An empty suit is wealth, not weakness.

2 · Follow suit. If the led suit is in your hand, you must play it. Only when it runs out do trumping and discarding begin.

3 · Count the trumps. There are twenty-two. Whoever knows how many are still out knows when their X is a hero and when it is food for the XXI.

4 · Card values: kings and the trula (škis, mond, pagat) are worth five points each, queens four, cavaliers three, jacks two. Everything else is platelci: noise without weight. To win an ordinary game you need more than half of all the points.

5 · Guard the mond like your own eye. Only the škis beats it, and losing it is punished. Do not send it into a trick until the škis is played, or is yours.

Mistakes every rookie makes

Hoarding trumps to the end. Trumps are not a savings account; they are tools. Hoard them too long and you will be feeding them to other people's tricks.

Playing every game. "Pass" is not a disgrace; it is tactics. A weak hand does not get better by being declared louder.

Careless discards. Throw away the empty cards first, never queens and kings: five points are not for gifting.

Kontra out of anger. A kontra is arithmetic, not emotion. You double your own loss too.

Table manners

Do not commentate while the hand is running. Do not coach a partner mid-trick: after the game they will thank you, during it they will resent you. What lands on the table, stands. And most importantly: the winner buys quietly, the loser pays loudly.

Where to practise without stage fright

You learn easiest where mistakes cost nothing: in Tarok 124 you play against bots that never sigh, never rush you and hold no grudges. When you can calmly declare an enka against the bots, you are ready for a real table, and for your first radelc.