Jass

About this board game

Jass is a point trick-taking game for 3–4 players, played in about 45 minutes. It uses a 36-card Jass deck featuring the suits bells, shields, acorns, and flowers.

The deck’s ranks are ace, king, ober, unter, banner, nine, eight, seven, and six. A regular French deck shortened to 36 cards can also be used: the queen becomes the ober, the jack becomes the unter, and the ten becomes the banner.

Jass stands apart from many other trick-taking games because the trump suit uses different card ranks and values from the other suits. This creates a changing hierarchy in which cards must be judged according to whether they belong to the trump suit or not.

Players may also play a trump card on a non-trump lead, even when they still hold cards in the suit that was led. However, once another player has played trump on that non-trump lead, you cannot play a lower trump unless it is the only card you can play.

Another defining feature is Weis, announced during the first trick. Weis recognizes sets of cards, such as a three-card run in one suit or four obers, with each combination worth a specified number of points.

• Use a 36-card Jass deck or a shortened French deck.
• Manage separate rank and value rules for trump and non-trump suits.
• Announce qualifying Weis combinations during the first trick.
• Score the best Weis after the trick, along with any other Weis held by that player and qualifying Weis held by their partner.

First released in 1796, Jass combines tactical trick play with timing, trump decisions, and valuable announced combinations.