Rung rules: Court Piece, stacking and the ace rule

Which Rung rules does this game use?

Rung, also called Rang, Court Piece or Coat Piece, is a four-player partnership card game. Regional scoring rules vary. This implementation uses stacked points and a consecutive-trick ace rule; the instructions below describe this game, rather than every Court Piece variant.

You sit South and partner North. West and East form the other team. A standard 52-card deck is dealt equally. Play against three bots on this device, or invite friends into an online room.

Deal, trump and legal cards

Each player receives five cards. The player to the dealer’s left chooses trump after seeing those cards, then the remaining cards are dealt so everyone has thirteen. The trump caller leads the first trick.

Play one card when it is your turn. You must follow the led suit if you have it. If you cannot follow suit, you may play a trump or discard another suit. Normally the highest trump wins; with no trump, the highest card of the led suit wins. The winner leads next.

A worked stack of three points

The first trick always puts one point into the stack. It does not start a consecutive-trick streak. Suppose South wins that first trick, West wins the second, and West wins the third. The stack grows from one to two points, then West claims all three for the East–West partnership.

“Same player” matters: West followed by East does not make the consecutive pair, although both belong to one team. After a payout, the consecutive-trick marker resets. The last trick always pays out the remaining stack.

When does an ace count as low?

While a player is marked as the previous qualifying trick winner, their ace cannot win the next trick. It still belongs to its printed suit, so follow-suit rules still apply. After the special first trick, or immediately after a stack payout, that marker is cleared; do not assume every previous winner’s ace is demoted.

For example, after West wins an ordinary non-paying trick, West’s ace of hearts loses to another player’s king of hearts in a hearts-only trick. The ace exception does not permit playing off-suit when you still hold hearts.

Winning and inviting friends

Choose a target of 5, 7 or 9 points. A team reaching the target wins immediately. Otherwise the higher score after thirteen tricks wins, with equal scores a draw. One deal decides the match.

Choose Play with friends, create a room, and send its private invitation link to up to three friends. Empty seats use bots. The online game is intended for friends you trust: clients receive all hands and it is not cheat-proof. Games are not resumable after leaving.

If a connection attempt fails, use Retry, Play with bots or Back to menu. A full, expired or already-started room requires a suitable new invitation. See loading and storage help.