How to Play Maverick

Maverick is a card game which awards players for taking tricks with cards in a suit determined after the deal. Winning tricks isn't always good though, because if you win a trick with cards in the trump suit you might lose points as well. Players play Maverick for a pre-determined number of hands, or until one partnership reaches 100 points. The partnership with the highest score wins.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Deck of playing cards
• Pen or pencil
• Pad of paper

Playing Maverick

1. Find three other people to play the game of Maverick against. Maverick is designed for exactly four players. Each player chooses a partner as the game of Maverick is played by two partnerships.

2. Take two joker cards from a standard deck of playing cards, and write "Big Joker" on one and "Small Joker" on the other. Shuffle these cards into a standard 52 card playing deck of cards for a total of 54 cards.

3. Deal 13 cards face down to each players. Players are allowed to look at their own face down cards.

4. Flip over the final two cards face up. The suit of the higher ranking card is the trump suit, and the suit of the lower ranking card is known as the adder. Rankings of cards are standard with the "Ace" being the highest in each suit. "The Big Joker" is the highest ranking trump and the "Small Joker" is the 2nd highest trump. If either of the two face up cards flipped after the deal are jokers, or the cards are the same suit then trump will be spades and the adder suit will be diamonds.

5. Require that each player chooses two cards from her hand to pass to the opponent on her left. These cards must be placed face down, and are not passed until each player has placed her two face down cards in front of her.

6. Direct the player to the left of the dealer to lead to the first trick. Each player must follow suit for the trick. If a player does not have a card in the suit led in his hand, he must play a card from the trump suit. If a player does not have a card in the suit that was led, and does not have one in the trump suit, he may play a card from any suit he wishes. The trick is won by either the highest card in the suit led, or the highest trump played to a trick.

7. Score each trick as they occur on the score sheet for the team that wins the trick. Tricks may score positive or negative points, based on the "Scoring the Tricks" section below.

8. Continue playing until all thirteen tricks have been played. Deal a new hand if no partnership is determined to be the winner. Play until one partnership either reaches 200 points, or a pre-determined number of hands have been played.

Scoring The Tricks

9. Keep a running score after every single trick is won in the game of Maverick. Keep in mind winning a trick might actually reduce a partnership's score.

10. Deduct four points from the team that won the trick if all four cards are from the trump suit. Only deduct one point from the team that wins the trick if there is between one to three trump cards in the trick and there are no cards from the adder suit in the trick.

11. Add one point to the score of the team that won the trick if the trick does not have any cards from the trump suit or the adder suit.

12. Add one point plus an additional one point for each card in the adder suit in that trick if a trick has cards from the adder suit played in it to the team's score that won the trick. This means a trick won that has both a trump card and an adder. He will not lose a point as in step 2, but instead gain a point.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are playing third to a trick and your partner looks like he is going to win the trick, it may be smart to add an adder suit card to the trick if you don't have the suit led nor a card in the trump suit.
• Players must follow the suit that is led, if they can not follow suit they must play a trump even if their partner is winning the trick.