The rules above are enough for a full evening of play.
Even more expansions When your group wants more, add any of these.
Invitation bidsinvit
A bid that is higher than it had to be tells the other players which Tarok you hold.
This belongs to the traditional rules; some Hungarian groups play without it, as the main rules do. The lowest bid you could make is the next step up the ladder, or a stand where a stand is allowed (to stand is to hold the last bid instead of climbing). Bid one step above that lowest bid and you say: I hold the XIX. Bid two steps above it and you say: I hold the XVIII. An opening bid of Two is such a jump, because Three was open.
If another player ends up as the Declarer, they must call that card instead of the XX, so the player who jumped becomes the Partner. You may only jump if you hold the card, and you may not discard it. Holding the card, you may still make the lowest bid or pass instead. Only the first jump in a hand counts. After three passes, the fourth player’s bid is an ordinary bid. A player whose only honour is the Pagat may invite, but must then announce Pagat Ultimo (the Pagat wins the last trick) at their first turn in the round of announcements.
One pass is a message too: you bid Three, one player bids Two, the other two pass, and now you pass as well. That pass promises the XX together with the Skus or the XXI, and the Declarer must call the XX. Without those cards you may not pass there; stand on the Two instead. Invitation bids also have a page of their own.
After an all-pass, the traditional way
Under the traditional rule, an all-pass raises the stakes. The same Dealer deals again, and scores are doubled for one full round that begins with this redeal: four deals with four players, five with five.
A second all-pass inside a doubled round starts another doubled round at once, and each deal that falls in both rounds scores ×4. Some groups treat the second all-pass in one of two other ways.
- Never more than ×2: the second doubled round waits until the first one has finished, so no deal scores ×4.
- A full ×4 round: the second all-pass opens a whole round at ×4, and a third all-pass only lengthens it.
The trial Three, played differently
The trial Three is the one bid allowed without an honour (Skus, XXI or Pagat): when the first three players have passed, the fourth player may bid Three and hope that the talon brings one.
In the base rules, when the three talon cards bring no honour, each opponent adds 1 Victory Point. Some groups play it differently: no honour in the three talon cards means the hand is not played, nobody scores, and the cards are dealt again.
Raising your own Three
When the three other players pass, the player who bid Three may make it a Two or a One.
Some groups add this to the invitation bids above, where a jump to Two or One is not allowed without the promised card; in the base rules anyone may bid them freely. Say it before you touch the talon. A Two is worth 2 Victory Points and takes two talon cards; a One is worth 3 Victory Points and takes one talon card. From there it is the base Two or One.
Kontra beyond Subkontra
The base rules stop at Subkontra. Traditional groups allow two more steps, Hirskontra and Mordkontra.
Every step doubles one item only: the contract or a single announced bonus. The side that doubts the item starts, and the two sides then take turns. The example is a Two, worth 2 Victory Points.
| Step | Said by | The item pays | A Two pays (Victory Points) |
|---|---|---|---|
| no Kontra | nobody | ×1 | 2 |
| Kontra | the doubting side | ×2 | 4 |
| Rekontra | the owning side | ×4 | 8 |
| Subkontra | the doubting side | ×8 | 16 |
| Hirskontra | the owning side | ×16 | 32 |
| Mordkontra | the doubting side | ×32 | 64 |
Hirskontra and Mordkontra seldom come up in play. Settle before the first deal whether your group uses them.
A Victory Point target
Play to 20 Victory Points instead of counting rounds.
This is our own option, not a Hungarian custom, for groups that want Hungarian Tarokk to end like the other games. When a player reaches the target, finish the round in progress so everyone has dealt equally. One silent XXI-catch, a Skus that captures the other side’s XXI, pays 21 Victory Points.
Illustrated TarokkIllusztrált tarokk
This is the same game with six more bonuses.
They score only when they are announced; made silently they pay nothing. Announce one and fail, and each player of the other side adds its value. They can be doubled with a Kontra like any other announcement. The values in the table are Victory Points.
| Bonus | What it takes | Announced |
|---|---|---|
| Centrum | Your side wins the first five tricks, and the XX wins the fifth. | +10 |
| Small Bird kismadár |
Your side wins the first six tricks, and the XXI wins the sixth. | +10 |
| Large Bird nagymadár |
Your side wins the first seven tricks, and the Skus wins the seventh. | +10 |
| King Ultimo királyultimó |
A King that you name by its suit wins the last trick. | +15 |
| Pagat in the eighth trick pagátuhu |
The Pagat wins the eighth trick, the one before the last. | +20 |
| King in the eighth trick királyuhu |
A King that you name by its suit wins the eighth trick, the one before the last. | +20 |
The named card must itself win its trick, and its holder keeps it for that trick as long as the Color Rule and the Tarok Rule allow (see The Three Ground Rules in Core Concepts). For Centrum, Small Bird and Large Bird this duty ends once your side has lost a trick. A player who announces Pagat Ultimo, King Ultimo or one of the two eighth-trick bonuses, or says Kontra to one of them, must also declare eight or nine Taroks if they hold that many. High Tarokk (Magas tarokk) adds ten more bonuses on top of these six; its rules are on the page about the wider Hungarian family.
Throwing in a poor hand
A player dealt one of the five hands listed here may end the deal.
The moment is right after the discards, before anything is announced. The five hands: all four Kings; the XXI as your only Tarok; the Pagat as your only Tarok; the XXI and the Pagat as your only Taroks; no Tarok at all. A player who discarded a Tarok may no longer do it unless they have all four Kings. Nobody scores, and the deal goes on exactly as after an all-pass, a deal where all four players passed. Groups differ on the list; only the XXI as the only Tarok is accepted everywhere.
The Traditional Scoring
The values stay the same, but every hand is settled between the players. Winners score plus and losers score minus, so the four scores of a hand always add up to zero.
Add the contract and the bonuses into one net value in Victory Points. With a Partner, the settling goes in pairs: each loser pays that value to one winner. A Declarer without a Partner, because the called Tarok lay in a discard or in the Declarer‘s own hand, settles with all three opponents and so wins or loses the value three times.
Declared Taroks are settled at once, whatever the result. Each of the three other players, the holder’s own Partner included, pays 1 Victory Point for eight Taroks or 2 Victory Points for nine. The tables are on the Traditional Scoring Tables page.