Section 3: Setup & Deal
Seating and first dealer
Choose partners by agreement or by drawing cards. Partners sit opposite one another. Select the first dealer at random; thereafter, the deal passes clockwise after every hand, including a hand thrown in because everyone passed.
Shuffle and cut
The dealer shuffles the complete deck. The player to the dealer's right may cut, after which the dealer distributes the cards clockwise. No player may inspect the cut or undealt cards.
The deal
Deal every card so that each player receives twelve. A convenient procedure is to deal three cards at a time in four rounds, although packets of another agreed size are acceptable if used consistently. There is no widow, kitty, stock, or undealt card in this four-player format.
If a card is exposed during the deal, a player receives the wrong number of cards, or the deck is discovered to be incomplete before bidding ends, gather the cards and redeal with the same dealer. If the problem is discovered later, stop the hand and use the correction policy agreed by the table; for casual play, a redeal is usually fairest unless the result can be repaired without revealing hidden information.
Auction
The player to the dealer's left bids first, and bidding continues clockwise. The minimum opening bid is 20. On a turn, a player must either bid a whole number higher than the current bid or pass. A bid normally rises by at least one point.
- A player who passes may not reenter the auction during that hand.
- Bidding continues until three players have passed.
- The last active bidder becomes declarer and the final bid becomes the contract.
- If the first three players pass, the dealer must bid 20 under this rule set. This avoids a thrown-in hand and is often called “stick the dealer.”
Declaring trump
After winning the auction, the declarer names clubs, diamonds, hearts, or spades as trump. The choice is final once announced. Players then arrange and display their meld.
Displaying meld
All players lay their scoring combinations face up, grouped clearly enough to verify. Teammates add their meld values together. After every player has had a reasonable opportunity to check the display, each player returns the cards to hand. The player to the dealer's left leads the first trick.