Doppelkopf is a trick-taking game, somewhat comparable to Bridge or Euchre. The four players in a Doppelkopf game take turns playing a card. They chose a card on their hand and play it by putting it in the current trick. The player who ended up playing the highest card wins the entire trick, takes it, and puts it face-down onto their personal card stack.

The goal of the game is to win as many tricks as possible — and scoring as many card points as possible by doing so. Cards have a distinct value. Once all players have played all their cards on hand, the game ends and the next game starts after the score of the current game has been determined.

The Deck

There are 48 cards in a game of Doppelkopf. Each card is represented twice (hence the name “Doppelkopf”). Doppelkopf is played with the ranks Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10 and 9. Most of the time, Doppelkopf is played with French-suited cards. Some players prefer German-suited cards.

Each of the following cards exists twice in a Doppelkopf deck:

You can buy a deck of Doppelkopf cards wherever you buy playing cards. If you’re lucky, your local pub might have a deck waiting for you — just ask. In a pinch you can create a deck of Doppelkopf by merging two poker, skat or bridge decks.

Card values

Each card has a card value (also called “card points”, or “Augen” in German). This value is important as it helps us determine who won a game. The cards have the following values:

Card order

Cards don’t just have a value, they also have a rank to determine an order. The card order is important to understand which player wins a trick. Cards with a higher rank beat cards with a lower rank.

Trump order

Non-trump order

We will take a closer look at the exact card order and the purpose of trump and non-trump cards in the trumps chapter. For now it’s enough to be vaguely familiar with the card order.

Preparation

You play Doppelkopf with four players. Each Doppelkopf match consists of multiple games.

At the start of each game the dealer shuffles all cards and deals every player 12 cards. With each new game the next player (in clockwise order) becomes the new dealer.

Each player takes their dealt cards without showing them to the other players or dropping hints or comments about their cards.

Playing

Once all cards are dealt, the game starts. The player sitting to the left of the dealer leads to the first trick: They take one of their cards and put it into the trick in the middle of the table for all other players to see. In clockwise order the other players do the same. The card played first to the trick determines which cards the other players can (or must) play (more on that in the trumps chapter). Once all players played a card you determine who wins the trick. The player with the highest card (according to the order we looked at earlier) wins the trick, takes all cards on the table and puts them face-down on their personal card pile.

Once the first trick is finished the next trick is opened. The winner of the previous trick leads to the new trick. Once again players take turns. The player with the highest card wins the trick, puts all cards on their pile, rinse and repeat. Once all cards have been played (in a normal game after 12 tricks) the game ends and we evaluate who wins the game.

Scoring

Once all cards have been played it’s time to evaluate and score. Each player counts the card points of the cards they’ve won.

This is where the exciting part kicks in: In a normal game of Doppelkopf¹ you don’t play by yourself but with a partner. There are two so-called parties: Re and Kontra. The two players who have a Q ♣ queen of clubs in their hand² belong to the Re party. The other two players belong to the Kontra party. At the beginning of a game you don’t know your partner. You have to find them over the course of the 12 tricks you play.

At the end of each game, all cards and therefore both Q ♣ queens of clubs have been seen and the party affiliations revealed. Both Re players and both Kontra players combine their cards and sum their respective points. Both players of a party win or lose together.

There’s a total of 240 card points. The Re party wins if they score 121 points or more. Otherwise Kontra wins.

Once the winners have been determined, both players of the winning party get a point. The two players of the losing party get that point deducted. The scores for each player are written down on a scorecard. The next game starts with the next player in order shuffling and dealing.

You play as long as many games as you like — or until you’ve reached a pre-determined amount of games.

Summary

We saw a short and simplified overview of the basic rules of the game. We covered a few aspects important for your very first game. We only scratched the surface on some of them and will take a closer look in the following chapters — and then you’re ready for your first game.

To recap:

• There are four players
• Their goal is to win tricks and points
• The player who played the highest card wins a trick
• Players play in teams (“parties”): Re and Kontra
• Each party combines their points at the end of a game to determine which party wins the game