Smear is a point-taking trump card game played with four players - two teams of two players, partners seated opposite each other. A starting player is randomly selected.
Deck consists of standard 52 cards + two distinguishable jokers (high and low jokers)
The highest bidder chooses the trump suit each round. Trump cards includes all cards of the chosen suit, the other matching-color jack (called the "jick"), and both jokers.
7 points can be earned after each round, split between the teams based on cards collected.
Teams can lose points by missing their bids
First to 21 points wins
Cards shuffled by dealer, then cut by player to their right
Cards dealt to players, 3 at a time, until each player has 9.
Starting with the player left of dealer and continuing clockwise, each player bids a number (min of 2?, max of 7). Each player may pass or bid a value higher than all previous bids.
After each player bids or passes, the player who bid the highest number announces a trump suit.
All players discard all non-trump cards. If a player has more than six, they choose which six to keep. They may never discard "point cards" however. This includes the 2 of trump, Jack of trump, Jick, either Joker, or the Ace of trump.
Note:
Players definitely can't throw away point cards, but we're not certain whether there's a hard rule about discarding other trump cards. That might just be good strategy.
After each player discards their cards into a pile, the dealer deals cards to each other player to bring their hand sizes up to six cards. The dealer takes all leftover undealt cards (aka "the pack"), then, then discards cards as needed to form a 6-card hand. (Again, all point cards MUST be kept, and other trump cards SHOULD be kept if possible.)
Note:
The *dealer* gets the pack, not necessarily the highest bidder!
At this point, each player should have 6 cards. Set aside all other cards - they won't be used during the round.
High bidder leads the first card. They may lead anything.
Continuing clockwise, each other player plays a card.
Note:
This is different from 500! In 500, players can only play trump when they can't follow suit
Whenever the 2 of trump was played, the team that played it immediately collects it. They tend to keep it face-up by them as a reminder to all players what the trump suit is.
Once each player has played a card, the player who played the strongest card collects the set (aside from the 2 of trump, if that was played)
Card strength is based on rank and trump status. Here are the cards from strongest to weakest:
Note:
Compared to 500, Jacks and Jokers are *MUCH* weaker in the game of smear.
Whoever played the strongest card chooses the next card to play. Other players play cards in response, in clockwise order. Play continues until all players have exhausted their hands.
There are 7 points that can be earned per round. The points may be split between the two teams, based on which cards they collected:
The "Game" point is based on the cumulative values of all cards collected by each team, based on the scale below. Suits are irrelevant for this (e.g. a trump jack is worth the same as a non-trump jack). Whichever team has the higher total value earns the "Game" point.
Once points are decided, increase each team's running score by the number of points they earned during the round. If the team with the high bid didn't earn at least that many points, then they were "set" and their score drops by their bid amount instead.
Note:
This is different than 500! In 500, the bidding team only earns points based on their bid (i.e. If you bid 7 diamonds but take 8 tricks, you still only get credit for 7 diamonds). In smear, as long as you don't miss your bid, you get credit for whatever you *earned*, even if it exceeds the amount that you bid.