Trick-taking aggression

Rachel drifted by, and she tends to get excited over the games. She a game-playing badger! She wants to know all about all the games. I finally managed to get her focused on Rage for a few seconds, and we decided to play. They say you can play it with 2 people, but you really need 3 to make it worth while. Selena was at the Campus Life table right next to us, so we sat her down and the learning began.

Rage is a trick-taking game, much like Spades or Hearts. But, unlike those games, you have a limited number of cards in your hand. The first round starts with 10 cards, then 9, then 8,.... all the way down to having only one card.

Also, there are a few special cards: there's a couple Jokers, a card that changes trump, a card that eliminates trump, a card that gives the trick-taker +5 points, and card that gives the trick taker -5 points. So, there's some interesting twists and turns as the game goes on.

After the cards are dealt and the initial trump is revealed, players bid on how many tricks each player thinks he/she can win. You have to get it exactly... if you get your bid exactly, you get 10 points, if you are over or under, you lose 5 points. You also get one point for any trick taken, whether or not you made your bid.

Here's how the game went:

cards in hand	RACHEL	SELENA	CHRIS
10	-2	-3	-1
9	12	-4	6
8	4	-4	-2
7	8	-4	13
6	12	12	12
5	11	-4	3
4	-5	-2	11
3	-5	11	-3
2	-3	-5	10
1	-5	10	11
TOTALS FOR THE GAME
	27	7	60

Rachel was winning for most of the time, but had some bad luck at the end...

Chris wins!