How to Play 7-Up

Play 7-Up next time you get together with friends.

Seven-Up, or 7-Up, is a trick-taking card game for two or three players. Four players may play in partnerships. The game uses a standard deck of 52 cards, with twos low and aces high. Each player begins the game with seven chips, and the object is to be first to get rid of all your chips. Whenever you score a point, put one of your chips into the center pot. According to Bicycle, "the game is an Americanized version of All-Fours, the classic English pub game."

Things You'll Need

• Deck of 52 playing cards

Instructions

Dealing the Cards

1. Shuffle the deck and spread it face down on the table. Each player draws a card, and the person with the highest ranked card is the first dealer and may choose his seat. If you are playing as partnerships, the two players with the highest cards will play against the two players with the lowest cards.

2. Deal cards to each player after shuffling and cutting them. Starting to the left of the dealer and going clockwise, three cards at a time are dealt to each player until each has a total of six cards.

3. Turn the next card face up. If that card is a jack, the dealer receives one point. The player to the dealer's left then "stands" or "begs." If she stands, the suit of the up-turned card becomes trump and play begins. If she begs, that means she wants another three cards dealt to each player and a new card turned face up as trump.

4. Deal three more cards to each player and turn up a new trump card. Alternatively, dealer may refuse the beg and tell the other player to "take it." In this case, the other player or team scores a point and play begins with the current up-turned card as trump. If three new cards are dealt to each player and a new trump card turned up, play then begins. If the new trump card is a jack, the dealer scores a point.

Playing the Game

1. Discard enough cards, face down, to leave six remaining cards in your hand. Play then begins with the player to the dealer's left playing a card face up. Play continues clockwise.

2. Play the suit which was led or a trump card. If you do not have any cards of the suit that was led, you do not have to play a trump and may play any card. You must play a trump if you have one when that is the lead suit.

3. Take the trick if you played the highest card of the lead suit and no trumps were played. If trumps were played, the player who played the highest ranking trump card takes the trick.

4. Score the hand. Score one point if you were dealt the highest trump, one point if you were dealt the lowest trump and one point if you won the trick which included the jack of trumps. Also, score one point if you took tricks with the highest number of scoring cards: tens are ten points, aces are four points, kings are three, queens are two and jacks are one point.

5. Win the game by getting rid of all your chips first. Put a chip into the center pot each time you score a point. If the winner cannot be identified until the hand ends and more than one player is out of chips, points are given in the following order: high trump, low trump, jack of trump, trick scoring cards.

Tips & Warnings

• If three new cards are dealt to each player and a new trump turned up after a beg, the new trump must be a different suit than the original up-turned card. Otherwise, the cards just dealt and the new face-up card are set aside, and the dealer immediately deals three additional cards to each player and turns up a new trump card. He continues to do this until a new suit is turned up as trump. If there are not enough remaining cards in the deck, all cards are reshuffled, and the dealer deals a new hand to each player.

• If three new cards are dealt to each player and a new trump turned up after a beg, any player may say "bunch." Any other player may respond by demanding that the hand be played. If no player does so, all cards are reshuffled, and the dealer deals a new hand to each player.

• Each player may begin the game with ten chips instead of seven.

• Points may be scored and tracked to a total of seven or ten, rather than using chips.

References

• Bicycle: Seven-Up (7Up)
• White Knuckle Playing Cards: Seven Up

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish