The Game of Memphis Clubs <♣>

Memphis Clubs is a variation on Spades that was inveneted in the mid 1990s by William Shroyer.

Like Spades, Hearts, or Bridge, Clubs is a trick-taking game. It is slightly simpler than Spades.

Rules:

Clubs is played with four people, no more no less.

To begin a round, the dealer deals each player 13 cards.

The person left of the dealer gets to call the trump. She decides, based on her hand, which suit she would like to be trump. The left of the deal could pass on calling trumps once, in which case two left of the deal has the opportunity, and so forth. Only if everyone else declines calling trumps is the left of the dealer stuck with it

The player who called trump is automatically bid 5. The player to her left is given a bid of 4. The player across is bid 3. The player to the right is bid 1. Notice that the bids add up to 13.

The goal is to take as many tricks as possible. Points are awarded to each player at the end of the round. Points = (tricks taken) - (player's bid).

The rules for taking tricks are the same as in spades, with the exception that the trump suit is different for each hand.

The first card played is the 2♣.