Note: The first section of help covers playing 500 online, and assumes you understand the rules of 500 already. To read the rules of 500 click here. You can also view this help page in a new tab by clicking here.
The first thing you will see when you open the 500 website is this screen:
Here you are asked to enter your name; note that this will be visible to anyone else using the site, once you have joined or started a game. The website should remember your name if you have previously entered it. If you need to reconnect to a game (more on that later), be sure you are using the same name you used for that game. Enter your name in the white text box, and click
2.0 - Getting Into The Game
There are three ways to get into a game. You can start a new game, join an existing game, or reconnect to a game that you were previously playing in. If you already know the 3 other players you'll be playing with, only one of you should start a game, while the rest should then join that game.
2.1 - Starting a New Game
After registering, you will now see a table of active games. If no one has played in a while, there won't be any active games, so you'll see just one row in the table, like this:
You can click on any of the 4 white "Play Here" radial buttons; think of this as choosing which seat to take at a real card table. After selecting a "seat", the button for that row will now be enabled. Click it to begin a game. Note that it is still possible to start a new game when there are multiple rows in this table showing other active games.
2.2 - Joining a Game
If someone else has already started a game, you'll see a row in the table with their name, indicating which "seat" they've taken:
In this example, Shaun has started a game. If you want to play as Shaun's partner, select the "Play Here" button next to Shaun (in the "Team One" column). If you want to play against Shaun, pick a "Play Here" button in the "Team Two" column. As other players join the game, their names will appear in the table. Note: The "Age" column indicates the time since the game was last updated (9 seconds in this example).
2.3 - Reconnecting to a Game
It is also possible to re-join an existing game. This can be useful if you accidentally closed the browser, if your computer crashed, or if you encountered a bug in the site and need to refresh. When registering be sure to use the same name you used when initially joining the game. Any games that you can re-join will have a button; simply click it to reconnect to that game:
3.0 - Playing the Game
3.1 - Waiting for Players
Once you have joined or started a game, you'll now wait for other players to join. The status bar at the top of the screen will indicate how many more players still need to join. You will also see player names and cards (face down) appear as new players join the game. In this example we are looking at the game from Shaun's point of view (your cards and name will always appear at the bottom of the screen). We can see that Alice has joined the game on the opposing team, and we are waiting for two more players:
3.2 - Bidding
Once all players have joined the game, you'll see your cards face up, and the bidding will begin. The status bar at the top of the screen indicates which player is currently bidding. In this first screenshot, we are waiting for Bob to bid. Note that in general the spinning icon also indicates which player's turn it is to act.
Now let's look at a second screenshot where it is Shaun's turn to bid. A grid appears with all the possible bids:
In this example Bob went 'bye' (chose not to bid), and Alice bid "7 Spades". You can see their bids next to their names. Since each bid must be higher than the previous bid, all bids lower than or equal to 7 Spades have been crossed out in the grid, and their radial buttons are disabled. You can mouse over an option in the grid to see a tooltip indicating the point value of that bid (in this example we are viewing the point value of 7 Diamonds). Some of the special "No Tricks" bids are also disabled, as they are not currently valid bids. To go bye, simply click the button. To bid, select the white button next to the bid you wish to choose, then click the button. Note: In some web browsers (such as Chrome), the "No Trump" symbol ( ⃠ ) does not display correctly.
3.3 - Selecting Cards From the Kitty
If you win the bid, you will have a chance to improve your hand by selecting cards from the Kitty. To do this, select a card in your hand, then select a card in the Kitty (the 5 cards in the middle of the screen) that you wish to swap it with. You can also select a card from the Kitty first, and then select a card from your hand to swap. A blue outline shows the card you've selected first, which will be swapped when you select a second card from the other hand. This short video helps illustrate the process:
Once you are satisfied with your hand (the bottom 10 cards on the screen), click the button to discard the 5 cards in the middle of the screen, and begin playing the hand.
Note: If you did not win the bid, your screen will look something like this while the bid winner is selecting cards from the Kitty:
3.4 - Play
The player who won the bid always has the lead for the first trick. To play a card, simply click the card you wish to play. Note that there is no "undo" option or confirmation step, so once you click a card it will be played! Of course you may only play a card when it is your turn to do so (when the spinning icon is directly above your cards). If you try to make an illegal play, you will see a pop-up message indicating the nature of the illegal play. Let's look at an example:
In this example, Bob tries to play the 4 of Spades. However, since Diamonds were led, Bob must play one of his Diamonds (if he had no Diamonds in his hand then the 4 of Spades would be a legal play). Bob dismisses the pop-up and plays the 6 of Diamonds. Alice plays the 7 of Diamonds, and Susan takes the trick with the Joker (note also that the number of tricks Susan has taken is updated). Susan plays the Ace of Hearts, but dear old Bob hasn't learned his lesson yet, and tries to make another illegal play, before playing the 6 of Hearts. Remember to dismiss the pop-up message before playing a card. Pop-ups appear differently in different browsers; click this button to practice seeing and dismissing a pop-up:
3.5 - Leading the Joker in No Trump
If playing No Trump and leading with the Joker, you must designate a suit for the Joker; all players must then follow suit if they are able to. This video demonstrates that process:
After playing the Joker, a grid with the 4 suits will appear in the center of the screen. Choose the white button for the suit you want to 'call', then click the button. You also have the option to cancel playing the card (the only time this is the case!). Note that once the Joker is played, it visually updates to match the suit you chose (instead of showing all 4 suits, in this example it only shows Diamonds)
3.6 - End of Hand
Once a hand is finished, the middle of the screen will indicate whether or not the team that won the bid "made it through" (took enough tricks to meet their bid). The change in score is also displayed here, and the running summary of the score is updated on the left side of the screen:
After this, another round of bidding starts, followed by another hand, etc, until the game is over. When a game completes, the winning team is displayed, and then a new game will automatically start. That's all there is to it!
4.0 - Options
There are not many options in the game at this time, but let's quickly go over what is available. The options appear on the right side of the screen and look like this:
4.1 - Card Style
The "Card Style" dropdown menu lets you change the appearance of the cards when they are face-down. There are 5 different styles to choose from; pick your favourite! You can change the style at any point during a game.
4.2 - Score Display
The "Score Display" dropdown has two options: Detailed or Simple. 'Detailed' shows the complete history of the score, including previous games. It indicates the change in score after each hand that has been played. 'Simple' shows only the current score.
5.0 - When Things Go Wrong...
Despite my best efforts, there are still some bugs in the game. When you encounter a bug, please consider clicking the button. Here you'll get a text box where you can enter a description of the bug. It helps to be as descriptive as possible, and indicate roughly when the bug occurred.
Afterwards, you can try refreshing the page in your web browser, and then reconnecting to the game, as this can solve some bugs. Note that if you send a bug report, you cannot send another until you refresh the page.
The game of 500 is a trick-taking card game somewhat similar to the game of Euchre, but is played with a larger hand and has more options when it comes to bidding. 500 is played with 4 players, in two teams of two (variants for 2 or 3 players do exist, but not in this online version). The object of 500 is to be the first team to score 500 points, hence the name. A player and their teammate (more commonly referred to as their 'partner') sit across from each other.
The deck is composed of 45 cards. All cards in a normal deck of 54 are used except the following: The 2's and 3's of each suit, and 1 Joker. Each player is dealt 10 cards, and 5 cards are dealt to the middle of the table, to what is called the 'Kitty'. Once players have their full hand, the bidding phase occurs. After bidding, the player that won the bid can swap any number of cards from the Kitty with cards from their hand, in order to improve their hand. They then discard the 5 Kitty cards from play. The player that won the bid then plays the first card, and play continues with the player to the left. When all players have played a card, the player with the highest card wins or 'takes' the trick (see 'Bowers, Card Rankings, and Determining the Trick Winner' below). This player has the 'lead' for the next trick, and play continues similarly for the remaining 9 tricks.
Bidding
A player bids by choosing a suit to be trump (the suit that will become the highest suit) and the number of tricks the player thinks they and their partner will be able to take if that suit is trump. Each bid has a point value associated with it; the higher the number of tricks being bid, the higher the point value. If the winning bidder and their partner 'make it through' (collectively take at least the number of tricks they bid, or more), they will gain the number of points associated with the bid. However, if they are not successful, their score will go down by the point value of the bid. Negative scores are allowed, but a team will 'go out the back door' (and lose the game) if their score reaches -500.
After the first player bids, the next player to the left must bid higher than the first bid, or choose to go 'bye' (meaning not to bid). Bidding goes around the table, each player required to bid higher than the current highest bid. Bidding ends when all but one player has gone 'bye'. After all players have bid once, bidding goes around the table again for anyone who wants to raise their bid (if they have not gone 'bye' yet, and if bidding is not over). If a player does not want to raise their bid, or has previously gone 'bye', that player must go 'bye'. The player with the highest bid is the winning bidder and takes the Kitty.
Note: If everyone goes 'bye' then the hand is 'played out' like a No Trump hand (another way to play is to simply end the hand and redeal by the player to the left of the current dealer, however in this online version the former approach occurs).
Possible Bids
Suit Bids
The bids that occur most often are those that make a particular suit trump. These bids are a number (from 6 to 10) and suit combination.
For example, "6 Hearts" is a number and suit combination. In this example, the number 6 means the player and their partner will need to collectively take at least 6 tricks. In this example, "Hearts" means that Hearts will be trump - in other words Hearts will be the most powerful suit.
No Trump
Just as the name implies, in this type of bid none of the suits are trump. Like 'Suit Bids' above, the number of tricks that need to be taken is part of a No Trump bid (for example "8 No Trump"). In No Trump, the highest card is the Joker, and then the Aces, Kings, Queens etc.
No Tricks (aka Nello)
When a player bids No Tricks their goal is, unsurprisingly, to not take any tricks. Just as in No Trump, no suit is trump in a No Tricks round. When a player wins the bid with a No Tricks bid, their partner does not play; only their two opponents play, and will try to make the bid winner take at least 1 trick.
Spread (aka Spread Nello)
Spread is played almost the same as No Tricks: there is no trump and the goal is to not take any tricks. However, after someone has taken the first trick and that player leads their next card, the player that bid Spread must put their hand out onto the table for their opponents to see (and in this online version your hand becomes visible to everyone at this time as well).
Note: A player may only bid Spread if they or another player has previously bid No Tricks during the bidding phase of a hand.
Across The Corner
A player may only bid Across The Corner when one of their opponents has bid No Tricks. Across The Corner is a challenge with this opponent to see who can take the least tricks. Only the bidder and the opponent play, and neither of them are able to use the Kitty. Just like in No Tricks, no suit is trump. The player that takes fewer tricks earns 250 points for their team, the other team does not gain or lose any points. If both players take 5 tricks then neither team scores or loses any points. Across The Corner is the only bid where neither team can ever lose points.
Across The Table
A player may only bid Across The Table when their partner has bid No Tricks. The bidder swaps cards with the Kitty first, and after they're finished they give the discards to their partner. Once the partner finishes choosing cards from among these discards (effectively the Kitty), the bidder leads the first card. Across The Table is similar to No Tricks except everyone plays and neither the bidder nor their partner can take any tricks.
Bid Values
Bowers, Card Rankings, and Determining the Trick Winner
When a suit is made trump, the Jack of that suit becomes the 'Right Bower'. The Jack of the suit with the same colour as the suit that is trump becomes the 'Left Bower'. The Right Bower is the second highest card (only the Joker is higher), and the Left Bower is the third highest card. For example, if Hearts was trump, the Jack of Hearts would become the Right Bower and the second highest card, followed by the Jack of Diamonds, which would be the Left Bower. After the Left Bower, the Ace of Hearts would be highest, then King, Queen, 10 and so on. All other suits besides trump are equal: the Ace of Diamonds is not higher than the Ace of Spades, etc.
The winning card for an individual trick is determined as follows:
1. If the Joker is in play for the trick, the Joker always wins the trick (regardless of what suit is trump and what suit was led).
2. If at least one card in the trump suit is in play, the highest card in play of the trump suit (following the rankings described above) wins the trick.
3. If no card of the trump suit is in play (or if no suit is trump), the highest card matching the suit that was led wins the trick.
Examples
Below are some examples to help illustrate how the trick winner is determined; note that the cards played are not necessarily the most strategic choices! The red numbers indicate the order in which the cards were played. The blue border around a card indicates the winning card for the trick.
For these examples, Spades is trump. In the first trick, Susan leads with the King of Spades. Bob follows suit with the Left Bower (recall that because Spades is trump, the Jack of Clubs is considered a Spade). Alice plays the Right Bower, and Shaun plays the 6 of Spades. Alice takes the trick with the Right Bower (the highest trump card in play). Note that Shaun could have taken the trick with the Joker if he wanted to (and probably should have).
In the second trick, Alice leads with the 10 of Hearts. Shaun plays the Ace of Hearts, then Susan plays the 4 of Spades (a trump card). Bob plays the Jack of Hearts, which is not a bower in this case, so would be ranked below the Ace of Hearts. However since the 4 of Spades is the highest trump card in play, Susan takes the trick.
In the third trick, Susan plays the 4 of Diamonds. Bob does not have any Diamonds so he plays the Queen of Clubs (for some reason). Alice and Shaun follow suit with the 8 and 9 of Diamonds respectfully. Although the Queen is the highest ranked card in play, Bob did not follow suit and Clubs are not trump, therefore his card cannot be the trick winner. Shaun wins the trick with the highest card to follow the led suit.
Scoring and End Of Game
After a hand is finished, the team that won the bid will receive the point value associated with the winning bid, if they successfully took at least the number of tricks required by the bid (or took 0 tricks, when applicable). For a bid requiring 6 to 9 tricks, the team that won the bid will also receive an additional 50 points if they managed to take all 10 tricks (referred to as a 'sweep'). If the team that won the bid was not successful in taking at least the number of tricks required (or took at least one trick in a No Tricks type of bid), the point value associated with their bid will be subtracted from their score (negative scores are allowed).
The team that did not win the bid will receive 10 points for every trick they took in a suit bid or No Trump bid. In a No Tricks type of bid, the team that did not win the bid will receive 10 points for every trick they made the opposing team take. Note that this does not apply in 'Across The Corner', which is scored as described above.
The game ends when a team reaches 500 or more points after a hand, however that team must also have won the bid for that hand. It is therefore possible for a team to have more than 500 points but not yet win the game. The game also ends if a team's score reaches or goes below -500 points, where they are said to have 'gone out the back door' and lose the game.
General Rules
1. Bidding, dealing, and play move in a clockwise direction; the first bidder is always to the left of the dealer.
2. A bid lower than the current highest bid is illegal. A player must either bid higher or go 'bye'. The only exception is "Across The Corner", which can be bid when the current highest bid is No Tricks (despite both bids having the same point value of 250).
3. Once a player goes 'bye' they forfeit the ability to bid in that hand. In subsequent rounds of bidding in that hand, players that went 'bye' automatically go 'bye' again.
4. The Kitty is used to improve the bid winner's hand by exchanging with it any cards they feel makes their hand better. However 5 cards must be in the Kitty when the bid winner is finished exchanging cards; these cards are discarded from play (or sent to the bid winner's partner in the case of Across The Table).
5. The winner of the bid always leads in the first trick of the hand.
6. Players must follow the suit that was led (first card played in a trick) at all times. Only when a player has run out of the suit that was led may they play a card from a different suit.
7. 'Table Talk' is giving hints or suggestions on how your partner should bid or play, and is quite frowned upon.
Special Rules Regarding the Joker
1. In a hand where a specific suit is trump, the Joker is treated as the highest card of that suit. All normal rules regarding following suit apply to the Joker as well.
2. In any 'No Tricks' type of hand, a player must play the Joker if they cannot follow suit.
3. In any 'No Tricks' type of hand, a player cannot lead with the Joker unless it is the final trick of the hand.
4. In a 'No Trump' hand, if a player leads with the Joker they must designate which suit the Joker is representing. All players must then follow that suit if they are able to.
5. In a 'No Trump' hand, a player who is not leading may play the Joker at any time, regardless of which suit was led and whether or not the player can follow suit (conceptually the Joker's suit is designated as the led suit at this time).
Tips For Beginners
1. Remember that you are partners with the person across from you! When you are about to play a card, look to see if the card your partner has played is guaranteed to take the trick already. If so, you can safely throw away one of your low-valued cards instead of attempting to take the trick.
2. While bidding, if someone bids what you were going to bid before you had the chance, for example 6 Hearts, it is likely unwise to raise them and bid 7 Hearts, since they must have a good hand for Hearts as well. One strategy you could attempt is to bid something else to entice them to raise their bid. With a higher bid your opponents need to get more tricks, and it will be easier to make them 'go back' using the trump cards in your hand. This technique is called 'sitting in the bush'. It is of course a bit risky; you may end up winning the bid when you didn't want to!
3. Remember that you do not need all low cards (4s, 5s, and 6s) to bid No Tricks and be successful. What is usually important is having only 2 or 3 suits that have some low cards and some high cards. When your opponents play a suit you don't have any of, you can 'throw off' one of your high cards.
4. Similar to the point above, in No Trump you do not need to have all high cards (Aces, Kings, and Queens) to be successful. Instead have at least one good 'run' of cards (Ace, King, Queen, etc.) that are all of the same suit, for example, Spades. This way, you can play your high spades first to get rid of your opponent's Spades. Once your opponents have no spades left, even the 4 of Spades can take a trick because your opponents will not be following suit. Thus, they will only be able to take the lead from you if they have the Joker (a very powerful card in No Trump!).
5. Like many card games, it is a good idea to pay attention to what cards have already been played. If, for example, you can remember that the Ace of a suit has been played, and you have the King of said suit, you know that your King is now the highest card of that suit (assuming the suit isn't trump; otherwise the Joker and Bowers are higher if they have yet to be played).
6. If your partner bids, for example, 6 Clubs, and you also have a decent number of clubs, or perhaps a Bower, why not raise your partner's bid to 7 Clubs? Just be prepared to take some of the blame if you weren't of much help, and you did not get enough tricks ;)
also indicates which player's turn it is to act.
