How to Play 500

Reviewed by Ashton Wu

Last Updated: April 8, 2024 Approved

In a game of 500, your goal is to work with your teammate to earn 500 points. You earn points by winning tricks, or rounds, of the card game. In each trick, every player plays 1 card, ideally of a high value that may win them the trick. By learning the ranking of the cards and referring to a score card when tallying up points, you'll be winning a game of 500 in no time.

Part 1

Part 1 of 4:

Setting up the Game

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A game of 500 will have 4 total players. Separate into 2 teams, with each teammate sitting across from one another.^{[1]
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Remove the lowest numbers of the deck, leaving you with 43 cards. In your deck, you will keep all of the Aces of each suit down to the 5 in both black suits and the 4 in both red suits. You will keep a Joker as well. This should leave you with 43 cards to play.^{[2]
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- This means you’ll remove the 2, 3, and 4 from both black suits and the 2 and 3 in both red suits.
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3
Deal a total of 10 cards to each player, leaving 3 cards in the middle. Go clockwise, dealing 3 cards to each player before putting 3 in the center of your playing table. Next deal 4 cards to each player going clockwise, and then 3 cards to each player.^{[3]
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- The exact way you deal the cards is open to interpretation⁠—some people just deal 10 cards to each player and put the last 3 cards in the middle, while others deal 3 cards to each player, put 1 in the middle, deal 4 cards to each player, put 1 in the middle, and so on.

Part 2

Part 2 of 4:

Placing the Bids

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1
Determine the trump suit. The trump suit will be the suit that will win over any other suits. To decide what you want the trump suit to be, look at your hand of cards to see which suit you have the most and highest cards in.
- For example, if you have several Hearts with high numbers, you might want the trump suit to be Hearts so you have a higher chance of winning more tricks.
- Ultimately, there will only be one trump suit⁠—the person who wins the bid will determine the trump suit⁠.
2
Decide how many tricks you think you can win. A trick is a full round of each player playing one card. How many tricks you think you’re able to win depends on how many cards of a suit you have⁠—the lowest number of tricks you can bid is 6, while the highest is 10.
- To win a trick, the card you played must have a higher value than the other 3 cards played by other players.
- If you don’t have a great hand and don’t think you can win at least 6 tricks, you can pass.
3
Understand the ranking of the cards. Once the trump suit is decided, the Joker will be the highest card of the trump suit. After the Joker, the Jack of the trump suit is second-highest, with the third-highest card being the Jack of the same color as the trump suit. The ranking continues down with the Ace of the trump suit, King, Queen, 10, 9, and so on. Cards that are not in the trump suit have a normal ranking of Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, and so on.^{[4]
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- For example, if the trump suit is Diamonds, the ranking would go Joker, Jack of Diamonds, Jack of Hearts, Ace of Diamonds, Kind of Diamonds, Queen of Diamonds, continuing down to a 4 of Diamonds.
4
Place your bid. Each player will go around saying their bid, such as “7 Spades” or “8 Diamonds.” If your hand isn’t strong enough to win enough tricks, this is when you say “pass.” Each bid has to be higher than the previous bid.^{[5]
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- You can also bid no trumps, meaning the Joker is the only trump card. You would only bid this if you are the player who has the Joker.
- While you can write down everyone's bids if you want to, it's not necessary as each bid will have to be higher than the last, making them easy to remember.
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Take the pot if you won the bid. If you were the person who said the highest bid, you take the 3 cards in the middle. After looking through your hand, discard the 3 least useful cards face down on the table. The suit that the winner bid is now the trump suit.^{[6]
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- The cards in the middle, known as the pot, are also called the kitty.
- Strategically, it's best to discard any cards of a very low value.

Part 3

Part 3 of 4:

Playing Each Trick

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1
Place down a card with the bid winner going first. If you won the pot, you are the first player to play a card. You can lead with any card you’d like, placing it in the center face up so everyone can see it.
- While you can play any card you'd like, it's best to play cards of a higher value so you have a better chance of winning the trick.
After the winner plays the first card, the person to their left goes next, setting down a card of that same suit. Continue going clockwise until all 4 players have played a card.
3
Play the suit that was led if you have cards of that suit. If it’s your turn and you have a card of the lead suit (the suit that was set down by the first player), you have to play that card. Even if you have a trump card that would possibly win you the trick, you have to play the same suit if possible.
- For example, if the lead suit is Hearts, you would have to play any Hearts cards in your hand before other suits.
- If you have multiple cards of the lead suit, play a card with a higher value of the cards already played, if possible.
4
Set down a card of your choice if you don’t have cards of that suit. If it’s your turn and you don’t have a card of the lead suit, you can play any other card you wish, including cards of the trump suit. If you don't have a trump card or a card that follows suit, the card you play will be treated as a discard option because a lead or trump card will always win out over a card of another suit.
- If the lead suit was Spades and you didn’t have any Spades in your hand, you could play another card of your choice.
- If you don't have a trump card or card of the lead suit, play a card with a low value to get rid of it.
5
Decide who won the trick by seeing who played the highest card. After each player has placed their card down, look to see who won. If 1 person played a trump card, they won, and if multiple people played trump cards, the highest trump card wins. If no trump cards were played, the highest card of the lead suit wins.^{[7]
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- Remember that the Joker, Jack of the trump suit, and Jack of the same color as the trump suit are all worth more than an Ace of the trump suit.
- Suits that are not the trump suit have a normal range where Ace is the highest and a 4 or 5 is the lowest, depending on the color of the suit.
- The winner takes the cards and places them face down in front of them to keep track of how many tricks they’ve won.
6
Continue playing your cards with the winner leading the next trick. The person who won the previous trick is the person who sets down the lead card of the next trick. Continue going clockwise with each player setting down a card of the same suit if possible. After everyone has laid down 1 card again, see who won this next trick.^{[8]
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- This is how each round will go, with the winner leading the trick and everyone trying to play a high card that will win the trick.
- Play your cards until the team who won the bid wins the number of tricks they bid, or it’s not possible for the bid winner to reach their bid.

Part 4

Part 4 of 4:

Scoring and Winning the Game

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You can find a score card online, such as this one: https://500rules.com/score-card/. The score card tells you how many points are awarded for each different suit and their coinciding bid number.
2
Add or subtract points depending on your bid. If you won the bid and won the number of tricks you bid, then you would use the score card to add that specific number to your score. If you won the bid but didn’t win the right number of tricks, you would subtract the score card’s number from your total score.^{[9]
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- For example, if your bid was 6 Spades and you won all 6 tricks with Spades, you would add 40 points to your score, according to the score card.
- If you bid 8 Diamonds and didn’t win all those tricks, you would need to subtract 280 points from your score according to the score card.
- Keep a piece of paper and pencil next to you to keep track of the scoring, if necessary.
3
Win the game by being the first team to earn 500 points. Continue playing hands and adding up the scores until a team earns 500 points, or a team has negative 500 points or less (meaning they’ve lost). The first team to earn 500 points wins!
- For each new hand, rotate the dealer to the left.

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How do I determine a bid in 500?

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How many tricks do you think you'll win? If you think you could win 6 tricks, call 6 no-trumps. If 7, go 7 no-trumps, and so on. If you have heaps of hearts, for example, call 6 hearts instead, allowing the hearts to be the trump cards and the jacks of hearts and diamonds to be bowers. The bowers are powerful in trumps, and the joker and aces are powerful in no-trumps. NEVER make a bid of 10 without the joker, because you will not win the bid if you or your partner doesn't have it. The higher you bid, the more points you gain if you win and vice versa.

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Do I have to beat the card played if I have a higher card of suit?

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No. Sometimes the best strategy may be to hold the higher card for later. However, remember that you have to follow the suit played.

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In no trumps do you have to follow suit before you can play a joker?

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Yes, you must follow suit first. The person who bid no trump may lead the joker and call a suit to pull high trump out so his/her cards in a suit will be high.

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The second-highest ranking card, the Jack of trumps, is called the Right Bower while the third-highest ranking card, the same color suit as the Jack of trumps, is the Left Bower.

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