Auction 45s Rules
The 5 and the Jack of trumps, and a bid you have to make good on
Auction 45s is not playable yet Coming Soon
There's no table for it, no engine behind it, and nothing in the lobby's create-a-room menu for it. It's a name on the "Games" list and nothing more, for now.
These are the rules as commonly played — not this table's rules yet
Auction 45s is played all up and down the Atlantic coast, and about as many ways as there are kitchens to play it in. What's below is the game the way it's usually taught — it is not a description of anything this site deals, because this site doesn't deal it at all yet.
Auction 45s is the same family of game as 120s, and Shannon has already overruled a published source on 120s more than once because his own family plays a hand a little differently. So before a single card of this game gets dealt on NewfieCards, the house rules NewfieCards will use are still Shannon's to settle — treat everything on this page as a starting point, not a promise of how it will play here.
Objective
Bid for the right to name trumps, then try to take enough tricks to make your bid good. The first side to 120 points wins.
Players and the Deal
- Commonly played by four or six players in partnerships — the pair sitting opposite each other is a side — and just as commonly played "cut-throat", every player for themselves.
- A standard 52-card deck. Five cards are dealt to each player, in a batch of three and then two.
- The rest of the deck stays face down as a four-card kitty, which the winning bidder alone gets to look at and use.
Bidding
Starting on the dealer's left, each player bids in turn or passes. A bid has to beat the one before it, and the usual steps are 15, 20, 25 and 30 — thirty being a bid to take every trick. The dealer, bidding last, may simply hold the current high bid rather than raise over it.
Whoever wins the bidding names the trump suit and plays the hand trying to take at least that many points in tricks. Fail, and that many points come off the bidding side's score instead.
Trump Ranking
The trump suit ranks differently from every other suit, and the two red suits rank differently from the two black suits once you get past the top three:
| Rank (highest first) | Trumps Hearts or Diamonds | Trumps Clubs or Spades |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 5 of trumps | |
| 2nd | Jack of trumps | |
| 3rd | Ace of Hearts (always ranks here, whatever the trump suit) | |
| 4th | Ace of trumps | Ace of trumps |
| 5th | King, Queen, then 10 down to 2 | King, Queen, then 2 up to 10 |
That last row is the one that catches people out: in a black trump suit the numeral cards run the opposite way round from a red one, low to high instead of high to low.
Reneging
Ordinarily, if trumps are led, or if the Ace of Hearts is led, everyone holding a trump has to play one. Two cards are allowed to duck that duty: the 5 of trumps can renege against any other trump card, and the Jack of trumps can renege against anything except the 5.
Scoring
Five tricks are played each hand, worth 5 points each, and the trick that captures the highest trump in play is worth an extra 5 — 30 points on the table in total. The bidding side takes what they won if they made their bid, and loses the bid amount if they didn't; the other side simply banks whatever tricks came their way.
Winning
First side to 120 wins. Some tables play a rule that once a side passes 100, only the winning bidder's side can add to its score that hand — a side sitting comfortably above 100 without bidding can't simply coast home on tricks won. That, like everything above, is Shannon's to decide for this table when the time comes.
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