About Printable 500 Rules
Free printable Five Hundred (500) rules — 43-card deck, two-partnership bidding 6 to 10 tricks, joker and bowers, Misère and Open Misère, scoring to 500.
How to use
- Choose your print style. Full color uses a deep card-table green accent with red-and-black suit symbols and a highlighted joker — great as a reference card to keep on the table. Ink-saver (black & white) switches to a grayscale layout for a cheap classroom or family-night handout.
- Choose whether to show diagrams. Diagrams on (the default) includes the 43-card deck strip, partnership seating with the kitty in the centre, the deal pattern (3+1 / 4+1 / 3+1), the full trump-rank-with-bowers stack, and the colored bid-value grid. Switch to text only for the most compact, fewest-pages version.
- Read the preview to confirm the layout — rules flow from the objective and 43-card deck through bidding, the joker and bowers, the kitty exchange, Misère and Open Misère, the Avondale scoring schedule, and common variants like the American 45-card deck.
- Click Print Rules to send it to your printer or save it as a PDF. The illustrated guide prints cleanly across two letter / A4 pages; choose text only for a tighter summary.
Frequently asked questions
What deck do you use for Five Hundred?
The standard Australian / Pagat Five Hundred deck has 43 cards: hearts and diamonds A-4 (11 each), spades and clubs A-5 (10 each), plus one joker. To assemble from a regular 52-card pack, remove the 2s and 3s from every suit AND remove the black 4s (clubs and spades), then add one joker. The American 'Avondale' version uses a 45-card deck (52 minus the 2s and 3s plus one joker, keeping all four 4s) — the scoring schedule is the same.
How does the trump ranking work — what are the bowers?
In any trump contract the order from high to low is: Joker (the Bird / Kookaburra) → Right Bower (the Jack of the trump suit) → Left Bower (the other Jack of the same color — treated AS a trump card) → Ace, King, Queen, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, then 4 if the trump is red. Because the Left Bower lives in trump for the hand, a player out of its printed suit cannot be forced to play it when that printed suit is led.
What is Misère vs Open Misère?
Misère is a bid worth 250 points where the contractor tries to LOSE every trick with no trump suit; it may only be bid AFTER someone has already bid at least 7 tricks. Open Misère is worth 500 points — same goal as Misère but the contractor lays their hand face-up after the opening lead has been played. Open Misère ranks BETWEEN 10 Diamonds and 10 Hearts in the bidding ladder, so a 10 Hearts (500) or 10 No Trumps (520) bid can still overcall it.
How do you score Five Hundred?
Suit bids score per the Avondale schedule. 6 tricks: ♠40, ♣60, ♦80, ♥100, NT 120. Each step up in tricks adds 100 across the row, so 10 tricks NT = 520. Misère = 250. Open Misère = 500. A failed contract loses the bid value as a negative score. Defenders score 10 points per trick they take in every contract except Misère. Winning all 10 tricks (slam) pays at least 250 even if the bid was worth less.
What is 'going out backwards'?
A partnership that drops to -500 or worse loses the game IMMEDIATELY, even mid-deal. It is a built-in penalty for partnerships that keep accepting bad contracts. Also note: a side cannot win by being awarded opponent trick-points alone — only winning your own contract on the deal that crosses +500 wins the game.
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