What Is Ninety-Nine?
Ninety-Nine is a brilliantly original trick-taking game for exactly three players. What makes it unique is the bidding system — you do not say a number. Instead, you secretly encode your bid by setting aside three cards from your hand. The rank of the cards you set aside determines your bid: a 9 = 3 tricks, a 6 = 2 tricks, a 3 = 1 trick, any other card = 0 tricks. You must win exactly your bid to score. Every player bids simultaneously and secretly, creating a fascinating puzzle where everyone is trying to hit an exact target no one else knows.
What You Need
- One standard deck of 52 playing cards
- Exactly three players
- Score pad
The Bid Encoding System
- Set aside a 9: Adds 3 to your bid
- Set aside a 6: Adds 2 to your bid
- Set aside a 3: Adds 1 to your bid
- Set aside any other card: Adds 0 to your bid
By choosing which three cards you set aside, you encode a bid from 0 to 9 tricks. Example: setting aside a 9, a 6, and a King = bid of 3+2+0 = 5 tricks. Setting aside three cards that are all non-scoring ranks = bid of 0.
Setting Up Each Round
- Deal 12 cards to each player — all 36 remaining cards after the deal form no stock, all cards are in play.
- Simultaneously, each player secretly selects exactly three cards from their hand and places them face-down in front of them. These are the bid cards.
- When everyone is ready, all players reveal their three bid cards at the same time. Everyone calculates each player’s bid.
- The nine revealed bid cards are shuffled together to form a face-down kitty — these cards may come into play depending on trump determination rules.
- Each player now holds nine cards for trick play.
Determining Trump
A common method: total all three players’ bids. Match that number to a suit (1–13 = Clubs, 14–26 = Diamonds, 27–39 = Hearts, 40+ = Spades or No Trump). The suit category of the total is trump. This means players can influence the trump suit through their bid choices.
How to Play
- The player to the left of the dealer leads the first card.
- Going clockwise, players must follow suit if they have a card of the led suit.
- If you cannot follow suit, play any card including trump.
- The highest trump wins if any trump was played. If not, the highest card of the led suit wins.
- The winner of each trick leads the next. Play all 12 tricks.
Scoring
- Hit your exact bid: Score 1 point — or a bonus based on difficulty (bid 0 = 2 points, bid all 9 = 3 points in some versions).
- Miss by any amount: Score 0 points.
Winning
Play nine rounds. Highest score wins.
Tips for New Players
- Count your certain winners — Aces, high trumps — before encoding your bid. Be conservative. Missing by one is the same as missing by five.
- The three cards you set aside for your bid are gone from your playing hand — don’t bid away cards you desperately need.
- Bid 0 if your hand is weak — winning zero tricks is achievable with careful play and scores a clean point.