The rules of Toepen

Toepen is a Dutch card game for two to six players, played with 32 cards. It is about tricks, marks and bluffing: whoever wins the last trick of a round wins that round, and a toep makes a round worth more. Below are the rules as Toep plays them, online and against the computer. Where a Toepen table settles something by shouting, this page settles it in writing.

New to the game? Read In short first and then play a round of Leer toepen in the app or in the browser. Single words are explained in the glossary, and the rules you can choose for your own table are under variants and house rules.

In short

Everyone gets four cards and four tricks are played. Together that is a round.
Only whoever wins the fourth trick wins the round. Everyone else still in it takes marks.
On your turn you may toep: the round is then worth one mark more. The others choose whether to call or fold.
Whoever reaches the limit, 15 marks by default, is out. The last player at the table wins the game.

The cards

Toepen uses 32 cards: the 7, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king and ace of every suit. That is an ordinary deck without the 2 to 6. There are no trumps.

The order from low to high is unusual:

jack – queen – king – ace – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10

The ten is the highest card, the jack the lowest. Precisely because the jack is so low, a round won with a jack counts double: see the jack finish.

Dealing and tricks

Every round, each player still in the game gets four cards. Four tricks follow. In each trick, everyone still in the round puts one card on the table.

Whoever starts the trick names the suit led with their card. The highest card of that suit wins the trick, and whoever wins it starts the next one.

Following suit

If you hold a card of the suit led, you must play it. That is following suit. If you do not have the suit, you play any card, but that card cannot win the trick. Online, the table dims the cards you may not play.

Who wins the round

Only the fourth trick counts for the round. The player who wins the fourth trick wins the round and takes nothing. Everyone else still in the round takes as many marks as the round was worth: one, or more after a toep.

A card on the table keeps counting. Whoever plays a card and then drops out does not take it back, so that card can still win the trick. If the winner of a trick is no longer in the round, the next player clockwise who is still in starts instead. If it is the fourth trick, that player also gets the round, without a jack finish.

Who leads

In the first round a random player starts.
Within a round, the winner of the previous trick always starts.
From the second round, the first turn moves one seat on by default: the player to the left of whoever started the previous round. A table can also choose the player to the left of the previous round's winner.
In a dead man's round the dead man always starts.

Marks and the slate

Marks are the points of Toepen, and you want as few as possible. They are kept on a slate: one chalk stroke each, struck through per five. Online, a slate like that hangs under every chair with the number beside it.

You take marks by:

losing a round: as many as the round was worth;
folding after a toep: the amount from before that toep;
checking a genuine vuile was: one mark;
getting caught bluffing a vuile was: one mark;
sitting out a dead man's round: one mark.

One mark from the limit, at 14 by default, you are on the edge. At the limit you are out.

Toeping

On your turn, before you play a card, you may toep. You may do so in any trick, including the last. A toep raises the round's stake by one mark: a round that went for one now goes for two.

Call or fold

After a toep, everyone still in the round chooses in turn, clockwise from the toeper:

Call: you play on for the new amount.
Fold: you pay the amount from before the toep and are done with this round. A card you already played in this trick stays on the table and counts.

If nobody calls, the toeper wins the round outright, and everyone pays the old amount.

Toeping again

A round can be toeped more than once. Only whoever toeped last may not toep again straight away; anyone else may raise the stake again.

An example

The round goes for 1 and player 3 toeps. Player 4 folds and takes 1 mark; players 1 and 2 call. The round now goes for 2. A trick later, player 1 toeps. That is allowed, because player 1 was not the last to toep. Player 2 folds and takes 2 marks; player 3 calls. Whoever loses the round now takes 3.

The jack finish

Win the fourth trick with a jack, the lowest card in the game, and the marks of that round count double for everyone still in it. Anyone who folded earlier has already paid and does not pay double.

In the example above: if player 3 wins the last trick with a jack, player 1 takes not 3 but 6 marks.

A jack in the first three tricks does nothing special. It is the trick that decides the round that counts, and only if its winner was still in the round.

Vuile was

A hand of nothing but low cards wins no tricks. That is why you may swap such a hand at the start of the round. That is called calling vuile was, literally "dirty laundry".

A genuine vuile was is:

four low cards: jack, queen, king and ace, in any suits; or
if the table allows it: three low cards and a 7.

Before the first card of a round there is a short moment, online about ten seconds, in which anyone may call vuile was. Whoever calls puts their cards down face down.

Check or believe

After a call, everyone else decides in turn, clockwise from the caller: check or believe. Saying nothing is believing. One call is handled at a time, and a check does not end the round: the players after the checker still decide for themselves.

What it costs

Nobody checks: the caller takes four new cards. Whether the hand was genuine is never shown. A bluff that nobody checked stays the bluffer's secret.
Checked and genuine: every checker takes 1 mark and the caller takes four new cards. Only the checkers see the cards.
Checked and a bluff: the bluffer takes 1 mark, however high the round goes, and plays the round with open cards, visible to everyone.

Then the moment opens again for the whole table. Anyone may call again, including the player who just took new cards. Whoever was caught bluffing may not call again.

A fresh deal

With many players, one vuile was can follow another. After five calls in a row that brought new cards, the whole round is dealt again, with no marks for anyone. A table can make that happen after two, three or four calls already.

In a dead man's round and in a super toep you may not bluff. A genuine vuile was may still be called there.

The small players ranking

This is a rule a table can switch on or off; in Dutch it is the kleine spelers klassement. Every time you fold after a toep, a counter goes up. When it reaches the table's threshold, twice by default, you may not refuse the next toep: you must call.

The counter only returns to zero when you call a toep yourself. It runs for the whole game, across rounds. Sitting out a dead man's round does not count as folding.

The dead man's round

In Dutch the dodemansronde, also called "op skerp staan" or "op pelt staan". A table can switch this rule on or off; by default it is on.

If you are one mark from the limit, the next round is your dead man's round:

The dead man starts.
Before the round begins, everyone else looks at their cards and chooses: play, where losing costs 2 marks, or sit out for 1 certain mark.
Nobody may toep.
A vuile was may only be called if it is genuine.
If the dead man wins with a jack, everyone who played takes 4 marks: 2 for the dead man's round, doubled by the jack. Whoever sat out still pays 1.
If the dead man wins, the next round is an ordinary round again. If the dead man loses, they reach the limit and are out.

Every player gets one dead man's round per game. Come back to the edge later and you simply play on, and then you cannot sit anything out either: that one mark would put you out of the game. If you go from below the edge to over the limit in one go, for example through a toep or a jack finish, you skip the dead man's round and are out at once.

If two players reach the edge in the same round, they share one dead man's round. Both must play, chance decides who starts, and the others may still sit out for 1 mark.

Out

Whoever reaches the limit is dealt no more cards and takes no further part. You may stay to watch how the game ends, or leave the table.

Two players left

With two players left, a table rule decides how the game ends, before any dead man's round still due:

Normal: the rounds go on until one of the two reaches the limit.
Super toep: one deciding round.
Ask, the default: both players get the question. Only if both say yes does a super toep follow; otherwise play goes on as normal. Not answering means no.

The super toep

In a super toep both players get eight cards and eight tricks are played. Whoever wins the last trick wins the game. Nobody may toep. A vuile was here is seven low cards, or six with a 7, and may only be called if it is genuine. A super toep replaces a dead man's round that would still come.

Thinking time

Online, every turn has a clock: playing a card, calling or folding, playing or sitting out. At a public table that is 20 seconds; at a private table the host chooses between 10 and 60. If the clock runs out, you forfeit the game: your marks stop counting and the others play on.

The vuile was moment, a check turn and the super toep question are not turns but windows. Silence is a valid answer there: no vuile was, believe, or no. Nobody loses anything by it.

Against the computer in the app your own clock does not run: the table waits for you. Public tables do have a limit: whoever forfeits or walks out there three times within seven days may not join public tables for a week.