Klaverjassen

How to play Klaverjassen

Klaverjassen is played by exactly four people. Partners sit opposite each other: you at the bottom, your partner at the top. Play goes clockwise, to the left. The game uses a 32 card deck: 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace in each of the four suits.

A single deal (in Dutch a spel) goes like this:

• Everyone receives eight cards. The player to the left of the dealer is voorhand, the first hand.
• A trump suit is chosen. In the default verplicht mode voorhand must choose a suit; in the gedraaid mode a suit is turned up and players say play or pass.
• The team of the player who chose trump becomes the playing team: in Dutch that team gaat.
• Voorhand leads the first trick. Everyone must follow the suit that was led if they can.
• If you cannot follow suit, the Rotterdam or Amsterdam trumping rule decides what you must play.
• The highest trump wins the trick; if no trump was played, the highest card of the led suit wins. The winner leads the next trick.
• After eight tricks the card points and the roem are counted, and the playing team must have more than half of everything, or it goes nat.

Klaverjassen card values and trump order

Klaverjassen uses the same card values as Belote. Trump cards follow a special order in which the Jack, the jas, is the highest card and the 9, called the nel, is second.

Card points in all eight tricks add up to 152. The team that wins the last trick earns 10 extra points, so every deal is worth 162 card points before roem.

• Trump order and points: Jack 20, 9 14, Ace 11, 10 10, King 4, Queen 3, 8 0, 7 0.
• Plain suit order and points: Ace 11, 10 10, King 4, Queen 3, Jack 2, 9 0, 8 0, 7 0.
• Last trick: 10 points for the team that takes it.

Choosing trump: verplicht or gedraaid

In verplicht spelen, the default, voorhand looks at the eight cards and must name any of the four suits as trump. There is no passing, so voorhand's team always plays.

In the gedraaid mode a card is turned up and its suit is offered as trump. Starting with voorhand, each player in turn says play or pass. The first player who says play makes their team the playing team. If all four pass, voorhand must play with the turned suit anyway. Either way, voorhand leads the first trick, even when someone else chose to play.

Following suit and trumping in klaverjassen

Following suit is always compulsory. If the led suit is in your hand, you must play it. When trump is led you must not only follow but also play a higher trump than the best one on the trick if you can. This is overtrumping, and it applies in every version of the game.

When you cannot follow suit and a trump is already on the trick, undertrumping (playing a lower trump) is never allowed unless you hold nothing but lower trumps. If you cannot overtrump, you play one of your other cards instead.

When you cannot follow a plain suit, the Rotterdam or Amsterdam rule applies. Legal cards are highlighted and the rest are dimmed.

Rotterdam vs Amsterdam rules: what is the difference?

Rotterdams klaverjassen is the default on our table and is the stricter version. If you cannot follow suit you must trump, and if a trump is already on the trick you must overtrump it. This holds even when your partner is winning the trick, so you sometimes have to trump your own partner's Ace.

Amsterdams klaverjassen relaxes that one point. When your partner is currently winning the trick you do not have to trump; you may throw any card, often a card with points to fatten the trick, which Dutch players call smeren. You may still trump if you want, but if you do you may not undertrump. When an opponent is winning, the Amsterdam player must trump and overtrump exactly like the Rotterdam player.

Our Learn article on [Klaverjassen rules: Rotterdam vs Amsterdam](/learn/klaverjassen-rules-rotterdam-vs-amsterdam) walks through worked examples.

Roem explained: what counts and how much

Roem is the Dutch word for bonus points from combinations, and in our game it is counted from the four cards in each trick. When a trick contains a combination, the roem goes to the team that wins that trick. Nothing needs to be announced.

Sequences use the natural order 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace, and all cards must be the same suit. Different roem in one trick adds up, so a trump King, Queen and Jack together count as a sequence of three plus stuk.

• Three in sequence in one suit: 20 roem.
• Four in sequence in one suit: 50 roem.
• Stuk, the King and Queen of trump in the same trick: 20 roem.
• Four cards of the same rank: 100 roem.
• Four Jacks: 200 roem.
• Pit, one team winning all eight tricks: 100 roem.

Nat and pit in klaverjassen

The playing team must score more than half of all the points in the deal, counting card points and roem from both teams. If it does, both teams keep what they earned. If it does not, the playing team goes nat (wet). The opponents then score all 162 card points plus all the roem made by both teams, and the playing team scores nothing for that deal.

Exactly half is not enough. With no roem the total is 162, so the playing team needs at least 82. Roem raises the bar: if the opponents collected 50 roem, the total becomes 212 and the playing team needs 107 or more.

Pit happens when one team wins all eight tricks, and it earns 100 extra roem. A pit by the defending side always means the playing team went nat.

Klaverjassen scoring over 16 rounds

A full match on our table is 16 deals, so every player deals four times and each seat is voorhand four times. If you are short on time, choose the short match of 8 deals in the settings. There is no target score: after the last deal the team with the highest total wins.

After each deal a scoring screen shows the breakdown: card points, the last trick, roem from each trick, stuk, pit and whether the playing team went nat. A round history and score sheet keep the running totals, just like the wij and zij columns on a paper klaverjas sheet.

How to play klaverjassen with friends online

Tap Invite friends to open a room. You get a six character room code and a share link, with a WhatsApp button and a copy button. Friends open it in a browser on their own phone or computer, with no app or account needed.

Computers fill every empty seat, so two or three friends are enough. The host can move people between seats to set up the teams. If someone's connection drops, the computer plays their cards until they reconnect. Rooms have emoji and text chat and optional voice chat, and quick match seats you with strangers, filling gaps with computers after a short wait.

Klaverjassen tegen de computer: Easy, Normal and Hard

Easy makes real mistakes, Normal plays solid, sensible cards. Hard tracks every card played, works out which suits and trumps each player can no longer hold, and simulates many possible deals of the hidden cards before every play.

A match against the computer is saved automatically, so you can close the tab and resume later. Your statistics record games played, games won and your current and best winning streak.

Klaverjassen strategy tips for beginners

Good klaverjassen is about counting, partnership and avoiding nat. These habits win deals:

• Before choosing trump, count your cards in each suit. Four trumps including the Jack is a comfortable hand.
• As the playing team, draw trumps early when you hold the Jack and 9, so the opponents cannot cut your Aces.
• Watch for roem in every trick. Do not complete a sequence in a trick the opponents are going to win.
• Hold the King and Queen of trump apart when the opponents could win the trick; together they give stuk to whoever takes it.
• In Amsterdam rules, throw a 10 or an Ace on a trick your partner is sure to win.
• On defence, aim to push the playing team below half. Every 10 points and every roem you take brings nat closer.

History of klaverjassen: the Netherlands, Flanders, Belote and Jass

Klaverjassen is one of the best loved card games in the Netherlands and in Flanders, the Dutch speaking north of Belgium. It is played at kitchen tables, in cafés and in clubs. The name is usually explained as klaver, the Dutch word for clubs, plus jas, the name of the trump Jack.

The game belongs to the Jass family, a group of games in which the Jack and the 9 of trumps are the top cards. Jass is the national card game of Switzerland, and the word is thought to have a Dutch origin. In France the same family produced Belote, which spread widely in the twentieth century. Klaverjassen and Belote share the 32 card deck and the 162 point total; they differ in who chooses trump, how bonuses are counted and how strict the trumping rules are.

If you already know one of them, the others come quickly. Try our [Belote rules guide](/learn/how-to-play-belote-rules-bidding-scoring) or the [Schieber Jass guide for beginners](/learn/schieber-jass-for-beginners) to compare.

In het Nederlands: klaverjassen kort uitgelegd

Op deze pagina kun je gratis klaverjassen online spelen in je browser, zonder inschrijven en zonder iets te downloaden. Speel tegen de computer op drie niveaus, of stuur een link en speel klaverjassen met vrienden op hun eigen telefoon. Je kiest zelf tussen Rotterdams en Amsterdams klaverjassen en tussen verplicht spelen of gedraaid. Roem, stuk, pit en nat worden automatisch geteld, en na elk spel zie je precies hoe de punten zijn opgebouwd.