Batak

Batak is a variant of popular trick-taking card game Spades.

Batak is a variant of popular trick-taking card game Spades.

Batak is also known by many other names, including Oh Hell!, Elevator (l'Ascenseur in France), Up and Down the River (in Australia and New Zealand) and 10 op en neer in the Netherlands. In Britain it is often known as Nomination Whist, a name which also sometimes refers to different games. Other names include Bust (in Australia and New Zealand), Boerenbridge (in the Netherlands), Kachuful (in India) and German Bridge (in Hong Kong).

A standard 52 card deck is used. The cards in each suit rank (from high to low) A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2.

13 cards are dealt to each player.

A player leads the first card. Each player must follow the suit led, if he can. If not, he should play the trump, or any suit if he has no trump. The player who has played the card with the highest value ( the trump card or the card of the suit led, if no trump was played) wins the trick. That player then leads to the next trick. Continue until all tricks have been played and won.

The game has two variants: Simple and Auction.

In the simple game the object is for each player to bid the number of tricks he thinks he can take in the hand, then to take at least that number of tricks.

In the auction game a player offering higher bid wins the auction. He has to take bid number of tricks or more. Other players have to win at least one trick.