How to Play the Card Game Frog
The game of Frog is not unlike most trick-taking games played today, except the bidding is limited to three different bids—Frog, Chico and Grand. Each bid changes the way the game will be played, not drastically, and mostly in regards to the bidder, but still a change is made. Once the bid is settled and trump is called, play moves along by following suit, taking tricks and tabulating points. The winning bidder will need to take over 60 points to win any chips from the other players, which can be a little hard since the rest of the table is playing against him. Frog is fairly straightforward once you get a handle on how to bid your hand and becomes more and more enjoyable as you play. Here are helpful guidelines for playing this entertaining game.
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Instructions
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1
Reduce the size of your deck by removing the five through the two of each suit. For the game of Frog, you’ll be using a deck of 36 cards—A, 10, K, Q, J, nine, eight, seven and six in ranking order.
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2
Deal out the deck, starting with four cards to each player, then three cards and finally another three, bringing each hand to a total of 10 cards per player. Three of the remaining cards are set aside and used as the blind. The final card will not be used in the game.
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3
Bid your hand, starting with the person to the left of the dealer. You have different bids, not including pass, available to you—Frog, Chico and Grand. Frog is the lowest bid and has the bidder picking up the blind, discarding three cards from his hand and makes hearts trump. Chico is the next highest bid and allows the bidder to call trump. Grand is the highest bid and makes hearts trump. Neither Chico nor Grand has the bidder picking up the blind. The winning bidder (the player who bids the highest) will play solo; the other two players will form a partnership for this hand.
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4
Lay a card from your hand, starting with the person to the left of the dealer. You must follow suit when possible. Highest card takes the trick. If you are unable to follow suit, you must play trump, even if a prior player has already trumped the trick with a higher card than your own. For both scenarios, the winner of the trick will lead the next card.
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5
Win the round of Frog by racking up more than 60 points in tricks (see Tips section for point value of cards). The bidder will receive one chip from each player for every point over 60 when bid was Frog, two chips from each player for every point over 60 when bid was Chico and three chips from each player for every point over 60 when bid was Grand. If the bidder was unable to hit 60 points, he would pay out to each player the same amount he would have earned from each based on his bid.
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Continue to play the game of Frog for a set number of rounds. The player with the most chips at the end of the game is considered the winner.
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Tips & Warnings
To determine the order of play for a game of Frog, simply deal out the cards face up until one player is dealt a jack. This player will act as the first dealer. Subsequent deals will move to the left around the table in a clockwise direction.
Passing a bid means bidding passes to the next player.
Know the point value of the cards: Aces: 11, Tens: 10, Kings: 4, Queens: 3 and Jacks: 2.
