Klaverjassen rules: Rotterdam vs Amsterdam

01Klaverjassen in one minute

Klaverjassen (or klaverjas) is a trick-taking game for four players in two fixed partnerships. Partners sit opposite each other and play goes clockwise, to the left. The deck has 32 cards, 7 up to Ace in each suit, and everyone gets eight.

One player chooses a trump suit and their team becomes the playing team. The playing team must then collect more than half of all the points in the deal, or it goes nat and loses everything. Points come from the cards you win in tricks and from roem, bonus combinations that appear inside a trick.

These are the rules our free Klaverjassen game uses, with both the Rotterdam and the Amsterdam trumping rule available as a setting. If you would rather learn by playing, the table highlights every legal card for you.

02Card order and points

Klaverjassen shares its card values with Belote. In the trump suit the Jack (the jas) is the top card and the 9 (the nel) is second. In the other three suits the Ace is highest and the Jack falls to fifth.

• Trump: Jack 20, 9 14, Ace 11, 10 10, King 4, Queen 3, 8 0, 7 0.
• Plain suits: Ace 11, 10 10, King 4, Queen 3, Jack 2, 9 0, 8 0, 7 0.
• Last trick: 10 extra points.
• Total card points per deal: 162.

03Choosing trump and who leads

The player to the dealer's left is voorhand. In the common verplicht (compulsory) style, voorhand must choose any suit as trump; passing is not allowed. In the gedraaid (turned) style, a card is turned up and its suit is offered as trump: starting with voorhand, each player says play or pass, and if all four pass, voorhand must play the turned suit.

Whoever chooses trump makes their team the playing team. In both styles voorhand leads the first trick, and the winner of each trick leads the next.

04The rules both cities agree on

Most of the play rules are the same everywhere. Rotterdam and Amsterdam players both accept these:

• You must follow the suit that was led if you can.
• When trump is led, you must play a higher trump than the best trump on the trick if you can (overtrump).
• If you cannot follow suit and an opponent is winning the trick, you must trump, and if a trump is already on the trick you must overtrump it if you can.
• When you cannot follow suit and a trump is already on the trick, undertrumping is not allowed unless you hold nothing but lower trumps. If you cannot overtrump, you play one of your other cards.
• The highest trump wins the trick. With no trump in it, the highest card of the led suit wins.

05Rotterdam rules: always trump, always overtrump

In Rotterdams klaverjassen the duty to trump does not care who is winning. If you cannot follow suit, you must trump, and if a trump is already on the trick you must overtrump it, even when the trump that is winning belongs to your partner.

The idea is simple and strict: nobody can hold back trumps, so every hand is played in the open. The cost is that you sometimes spend a high trump on a trick your team was winning anyway. Rotterdam is the default on our table.

06Amsterdam rules: your partner's trick is safe

Amsterdams klaverjassen changes exactly one thing. If you cannot follow suit and your partner is currently winning the trick, you do not have to trump. You may throw any card you like, often a 10 or an Ace to add points to your partner's trick, which Dutch players call smeren.

You may still choose to trump, but if you do, the undertrumping ban applies: you may not play a trump lower than one already on the trick unless you hold nothing but lower trumps. As soon as an opponent is winning the trick, the Amsterdam player is under the same duty as the Rotterdam player: trump, and overtrump if possible.

07Worked example 1: your partner wins with an Ace

Hearts are trump. Your left-hand opponent leads the 10 of clubs, your partner plays the Ace of clubs and your right-hand opponent follows with the 7 of clubs. Your partner is winning. You have no clubs; you hold the 9 of hearts, the 8 of hearts, the King of spades and the 10 of diamonds.

Rotterdam: you cannot follow suit, so you must trump. No trump is on the trick yet, so either heart is legal. The sensible play is the 8 of hearts, which keeps your 9 for later. The trick is worth 10 + 11 + 0 + 0 = 21 points to your team.

Amsterdam: your partner is winning, so you may play anything. Throwing the 10 of diamonds keeps both trumps in your hand and makes the trick worth 10 + 11 + 0 + 10 = 31 points. That is the classic smeren move, and the reason many players love the Amsterdam rule.

08Worked example 2: an opponent has trumped

Hearts are trump. Your left-hand opponent leads the King of clubs, your partner plays the 8 of clubs, and your right-hand opponent, who has no clubs, trumps with the Queen of hearts. Now an opponent is winning. You have no clubs; you hold the 9 of hearts, the 8 of hearts, the King of spades and the 10 of diamonds.

Rotterdam and Amsterdam alike: you must overtrump if you can. The 9 of hearts beats the Queen, so it is your only legal card. The 8 of hearts would be an undertrump, and the spade and diamond are not allowed because you are able to overtrump.

Change the hand: you hold the 8 of hearts, the King of spades and the 10 of diamonds, but no 9. You cannot beat the Queen of hearts, and because you have other cards, undertrumping with the 8 is not allowed. You play the King of spades or the 10 of diamonds; with the opponents winning, the King costs fewer points. Only if your hand were nothing but low hearts, say the 8 and the 7, would you have to undertrump.

09Worked example 3: your partner has trumped

Hearts are trump. Your left-hand opponent leads the Ace of spades. Your partner has no spades and trumps with the King of hearts, and your right-hand opponent plays the 8 of spades. Your partner is winning with a trump. You have no spades; you hold the Ace of hearts, the 7 of hearts, the 10 of clubs and the Queen of diamonds.

Rotterdam: you must trump and overtrump, even over your partner. The Ace of hearts beats the King, so you must play it. The 7 would be an undertrump, which is not allowed while you hold other cards. Your team still wins the trick, but your Ace of trumps is gone.

Amsterdam: your partner is winning, so you are free. The 10 of clubs adds 10 points to the trick and keeps your Ace of hearts for later. You could also play the Ace of hearts if you wanted, but never the 7 of hearts, because that would be an undertrump.

10Which rule should you play?

Neither is more correct; they are two local traditions. Rotterdam suits players who like strict, predictable rules and makes hands where you are short in a suit risky, because a void can force your trumps out. Amsterdam rewards partnership play: you can feed points to your partner and save trumps for the tricks that matter.

If you play with a group, agree on the rule before the first deal. In our game you set it once in the options and every player at the table, human or computer, plays by it. The legal cards are highlighted, so even a newcomer to the other rule cannot make an illegal play.

11Roem: bonus points inside the trick

Roem is counted from the four cards lying in each trick and goes to the team that wins that trick, no matter who played the cards. Sequences use the natural order 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace and must be in one suit. Several kinds of roem in the same trick add up.

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

12Nat: the more-than-half rule

At the end of the deal, add up everything: both teams' card points (always 162) plus all roem made by both teams. The playing team must have more than half of that total. If it does, each team scores what it won. If it does not, the playing team goes nat: the opponents score 162 plus all the roem of both teams, and the playing team scores nothing for the deal. Exactly half is not enough.

13Worked scoring example: made, nat and pit

A made deal. Your team chose hearts. You win 98 card points, including the last trick. One of your tricks held the 8, 9 and 10 of spades (20 roem) and another held the King and Queen of hearts (stuk, 20 roem), so your team has 40 roem. The opponents won 64 card points and one trick with three in sequence, 20 roem. The total is 162 + 40 + 20 = 222, and half of that is 111. Your team has 98 + 40 = 138, which is more than 111. You score 138 and the opponents score 64 + 20 = 84.

A nat deal. Your team chose trump again. This time you win 76 card points and 20 roem, 96 in all. The opponents win 86 card points and a four card sequence worth 50 roem, 136 in all. The total is 162 + 20 + 50 = 232, and half is 116. Your 96 is not more than 116, so your team is nat. The opponents score 162 + 20 + 50 = 232, and your team scores 0.

A pit. If your team wins all eight tricks, you take all 162 card points, any roem in your tricks and 100 for pit. With 20 roem that is 162 + 20 + 100 = 282, and the opponents score 0.

A match is 16 deals, so each player deals four times, or 8 deals in the short version. The team with the higher total at the end wins. The scoring screen in our game shows this breakdown after every deal, so you can check the sums yourself.

14How klaverjassen compares with Belote and Jass

If these rules feel familiar, you may know Belote, the French member of the same family. Belote uses the same 32 cards and card values and the same 162 total, but it is played counter-clockwise, trump is taken from a turned card or bid for, and bonuses are declared from the hand rather than found in the tricks. Belote's trumping rule is close to the Amsterdam rule: you may play anything when your partner is winning.

Swiss Jass, especially the Schieber, is another cousin, with 36 cards and a team that can push the trump choice to its partner. Our Schieber Jass guide for beginners explains it.

15Play now: try both rules in a few minutes

The fastest way to feel the difference is to play a few deals with each rule. Play Klaverjassen online free against the computer on Easy, Normal or Hard, or tap Invite friends and send the room link to your klaverjas group. It runs in the browser on any phone or computer, with no download and no sign-up, and the computer fills any empty seat.