Wizard

Wizard is scored on a promise. Before a hand is played, every player says how many tricks they will win. Winning that number exactly is worth 20 points, plus 10 for each trick. Missing it — by one, or by five, in either direction — costs 10 points per trick of error and nothing else.

So a bid of 3 that lands on 3 scores 50. The same bid landing on 2 scores −10, and so does landing on 4. There is no partial credit and no reward for winning more tricks than you said. A player who bids 0 and takes 0 scores 20, which is why zero is a real bid rather than a surrender.

That single rule is what makes Wizard unlike almost every other trick-taking game: for most of a hand, half the table is trying not to win tricks.

Round one deals one card to each player. Round two deals two. It keeps climbing until the 60-card deck runs out, so the number of rounds is 60 divided by the number of players — 20 rounds at three players, 15 at four, 12 at five, 10 at six.

The early hands are close to a coin flip; you are bidding on one card. The late hands are where the game is decided, and where the arithmetic gets tiring enough that a scorekeeper earns its place.

The deck is a standard 52 plus four Wizards and four Jesters. A Wizard beats everything, including trump — the first one played wins the trick outright. A Jester loses to everything; if a whole trick is Jesters, the first one played takes it.

After the deal, the next card off the deck sets trump. If that card is a Wizard, the dealer chooses trump. If it is a Jester, or the deck is empty on the final hand, the hand is played with no trump at all.

A Wizard led means everyone may play anything — there is no suit to follow. A Jester led means the next card played sets the suit instead.

The most argued-about rule in Wizard, and an optional one. Under the hook, the total of everyone's bids may not equal the number of tricks in the hand — so the last player to bid is forbidden the one number that would make it add up.

The point is that somebody must fail. Without it, a table can quietly agree its way to a hand where everyone makes their bid and nobody gains ground.

Two things the rule does not do: a bid of zero is always allowed, hook or no hook, and the restriction falls only on the last bidder. Casetta Cards enforces it for you and says which number is unavailable — which is usually the end of the argument.

Does bidding zero and taking zero score anything? Yes — 20 points. It is a made bid like any other.

What if I win more tricks than I bid? You lose 10 per extra trick. Overshooting is punished exactly as hard as falling short.

Can the dealer bid whatever they like? Only if the hook is off. With it on, the dealer bids last and cannot make the total equal the number of tricks — except by bidding zero, which is always legal.

Who deals next? The deal moves one seat to the left every hand, so everyone bids last the same number of times.

What happens on a tie? The highest score wins; a tie is a tie, and most tables play one more hand.

Wizard's scoring is simple per player and tedious per table: twenty hands, six players, a running total each, and a bid restriction to check every hand. Casetta Cards does all of it — one phone keeps score for everyone, or each player joins on their own and enters their own bid. It checks that the hand adds up, enforces the hook, tracks who deals, and remembers every game you have played. It is free and there is nothing to install.