6 handed game with calling partners
A great option is the 6 handed game. 3 against 3. In this case, the nest will only contain 3 cards and each player has 9 cards.
If using the option to call your partner, then the highest bidder calls two partners. So they would say something like, "Red is trump and the Red 1 and Black 1 are my partners).
There is a rule as to how to handle the situation where one person has both cards that are called.
(1) The player with both cards identifies themselves right away and the bidder can call for another card. If the person that had the first two cards does not have the third card, nothing more is said and you don't know who the 3rd partner is until they play the card that was called (unless using the optional rule that the partner must identify themselves right away)
(2) If one player has both cards then that is your only partner. It will be 4 against 2. If using the rule that partners do not identify themselves until the called cards are played, you may not know it is 4 against 2 until the very end of the game. That is a lot of fun. :)
Note: when calling partners in this way, each hand will/may have different partners. Each player keeps their own score. The first player to 500 (or whatever) is the winner.
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