# The Rules to Horse

Horse is a [Bid Euchre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bid_Euchre) variant, having some similarities to [500](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/500_(card_game))

* similar to Euchre (Bauers if there is trump)
* deck has cards 9 and up, no jokers
* 24 cards with 4 players (i.e. 6 cards per player)

## Bidding
* bid for # of tricks (up to 6) you will win if you get to choose trump
* bid winner declares trump (or that there is no trump) after winning the bid
* special bid: "Horse"
	* 6 tricks with a trump (i.e. cannot be no-trump, which is just "6")
	* opponents can double
		* this means that *they* are bidding Horse
		* if the double stands, opponents become the bid winners
	* original bidding team can redouble
	* bidder asks partner for up to 6 cards from their hand
	* bidder chooses the best 6 cards as their new hand
	* bidder returns unused cards to their partner, whop puts the hand face down
	* bidder plays alone against the two opponents
	* bidder plays first

## Scoring
### Making your bid
* 1 point per trick won
* if "Horse" was bid, 2 points per trick = 12 points
* a bid of 6 (i.e. 6 no-trump) = 6 points
* if redoubled, score multiplied by 4 = 48 points

### Losing your bid
* opponents gain 1 point per trick they take
	* if this pushes their score over 50 they do _not_ win the game
	* only a positive score from making a bid wins the game
* bidder gets -1 point per trick bid
	* -2 point per trick if Horse was bid = -12
	* -4 point per trick if Horse was redoubled = -48

## Victory conditions
1. scoring 50 or more by winning a bid
	* scoring 50 or more by foiling a bid will not win
1. opponents go below -24

## Bidding Conventions
* If you have only 1 jack and bad cards: pass
* 2 jacks: bid 2 — if partner has a jack they should bid Horse
* A bid of 3 can be a defensive bid to simply prevent a 2 bid by opponents