Estimation
Egypt’s game of exact calls. Win the auction to name trump, then everyone says how many tricks they’ll take, and the total can never come to thirteen. 4 players.
How to play Estimation
- 1Four players, each on their own, thirteen cards each. Aces are high.
- 2First comes the auction. Starting left of the dealer, each player either calls a number of tricks (4 to 13) with the trump they want, or passes and is out of the auction. A call must beat the one before it: more tricks, or the same number in a higher suit. Clubs are lowest, then diamonds, hearts, spades, and no trump is highest.
- 3On your first turn in the auction you may call Dash instead: a promise to take no tricks at all. No more than 2 players may call Dash in a deal. If everyone else passes or calls Dash and nobody has called, the last player in has to call.
- 4The best call wins. Its suit is trump (or there is none), and that player is the caller. Going round from the caller, everyone else who didn't call Dash says how many tricks they'll take, from none up to the caller's number. The last to speak can't make the total come to thirteen, so the deal is always over or under.
- 5The caller leads the first trick. Follow suit if you can; the highest trump wins, otherwise the highest card of the suit led. The winner leads next.
- 6Take exactly what you said to score 10 plus your tricks, and the caller scores 10 more for making their call. Miss and you lose one point for each trick you're off, and a caller who misses loses 10 more. A Dash scores 25 if you take nothing and loses 25 if you take a trick. If you're the only one at the deal who gets it exactly right, add 10.
- 7After 10 deals the highest total wins.
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