The table shows the cards ranked from highest to lowest and their card point value once taken.

Dealer is determined by any method acceptable to all players. In the 4 player version, the dealer does not receive any cards but is considered the teammate of the player who calls trump (further explained below) for the purposes of scoring. Dealing is NOT "dealer's choice" and is done in clockwise fashion by giving 4 cards to each "active" player in turn followed by a second set of 4 cards to each player. The person to the left of the dealer (first player to receive cards) plays alone against the other two players. This player is responsible for calling trump for that hand and must only pick up the first four cards dealt to determine what suit to call trump. He or she may not pick up the remaining 4 cards until trump is called. The other players may pickup their cards as soon as they get them since they have no responsibilities at this point

During the dealing of cards, the solo player, i.e. the player to the dealers left (see above) picks up ONLY his or her first four cards. Based on those cards the solo player then gets to choose which suit will be trump for that hand. After trump is called, the solo player then picks up the remainder of his or her cards

If the solo player believes they can achieve victory or at least get a trick and/or score 33 hand points (see scoring below) they can choose to play and must announce "play the {suit chosen as trump}". The opposing players (who are teammates for this hand) can then either say "play" or if one has a particularly strong hand and believes they will win that person can say "contra" ("counter") meaning that they are doubling the game points that will be awarded at the end of this hand. If the solo player believes they will win they can reply "re-contra" which doubles the game points again for a total of 4 times the points awarded. The opposing player can then announce "sup-contra" (pronounced "supe" as in "super") doubling game points yet again for a total multiplier of 8.

If the solo player has an incredibly strong hand from the beginning, rather than say "play the {trump suit}" they can announce "Schanpsen" which causes the multiplier to become a factor of 8 right from beginning. However, to win this hand the solo player must reach 66 without the opposing players ever taking a trick. If the opposing players manage to win even a single trick, the hand is over and the solo player loses.

If the solo player believes they can win every single trick in the hand they can announce "durch marsch" (pronounced "doorsh marsh", German for "march through", i.e. I am going to march right through your ranks and you won't be able to stop me) which causes the multiplier to be set at 16, effectively making that hand the last hand of that game. See "Winning" as to why.

If the solo player has chosen trump poorly and/or has all low value cards and thus believes that there is little to no chance for a victory, they can "go running" (comparable to "folding" in poker) and the other players score 3 game points (see scoring below). This may be a better alternative than saying "play" and then having the opposing players announce "contra" which could lead to the other players scoring 4 or even 6 game points.

The solo player leads to the first trick. A trick is taken by the highest card of the suit led that is in the trick, unless the trick contains a card from the trump suit, in which case it is taken by the highest trump card in the trick. The lead suit must be followed and each player must play to win, even if that means the opposing players (those playing as a team) end up "stinging" their own teammate. If a player cannot follow suit, he or she must use a trump if they have one. A player may not lead with trump unless trump has already been played due to any player's previous inability to follow suit or if the player leading the trick has only trump remaining in their hand. The trick is taken by the winner, who scores the value of the cards in the trick, as shown on the table above. The winner of the trick leads the next trick. The two players opposing the solo player combine their tricks for scoring.

On his turn when he has the lead, a player may marry a Queen-King couple of the same suit by playing one and simultaneously showing the other. Regular marriages are worth 20 card points and trump marriages are worth 40. A marriage or meld is usually announced in some way to the other player, often by saying the number of points made. The points do not count towards the player's total until he has taken at least one trick.

Each card won in tricks counts as the number of points as shown in the table above. Points from declared marriages only count if that player (or team) has at least one trick. At the end of the hand, if neither team has acquired 66 points, which is possible because there are only 120 card points and marriages are not always achieved in every hand, the team that takes the last trick wins the hand. The number of game points awarded are determined by how well the losing side did during that hand:

• One game point if the opponent has 33 or more card/marriage points.
• Two game points if the opponent won at least one trick and has 0–32 card points.
• Three game points if the opponent won no tricks at all.

The first person to get 15 game points is the winner.

• Caveat: Because the game is played to 15, if a solo player announces "durch marsch" resulting in a multiplier of 16 and the opposing team manages to get a trick, even after the solo player reaches 33 points, the solo player loses the entire game because the opposing team gets one game point multiplied by 16.