How to play Batak: rules and scoring

• 3–4 players
• 52-card deck

Goal: If you won the bid, take at least that many tricks; otherwise take your own tricks and make the bidder fail.

Setup

• With four players everyone gets 13 cards.
• With three, one card is removed and everyone gets 17.

How to play

1. Bidding comes first: players say how many tricks they will take.
2. The highest bidder wins the bid and picks trump.
3. The bidder leads.
4. You must follow suit and beat the trick if you can.
5. If you can’t follow suit, you must play trump.
6. The highest card takes the trick.

Scoring

• If the bidder takes at least their bid, they score the tricks they took.
• Otherwise they lose the value of their bid.
• Everyone else scores their tricks.
• With the side-fail rule, a defender who takes no tricks also loses the value of the bid.

Winning

• The first to reach the target (e.g. 51) wins.
• With partners, players sitting opposite each other combine their tricks.