AUCTION BINOCLE.
In this variation, each of three or four players is for himself. The forty-eight cards are dealt out, four at a time, but no trump is turned. Beginning on the dealer’s left, each player in turn bids a certain number of points for the privilege of naming the trump suit and of having the lead for the first trick. There are no second bids. If all pass, the dealer must bid twenty.
As soon as the trump is named, every player at the table makes his own melds, which will be good if he wins a trick. The rules for play are the same as in the ordinary three and four hand.
If four play as partners, two against two, the eldest hand always leads for the first trick, no matter who the successful bidder may be.
The bidder always has the first count at the end of the hand, and it is usual to play this game so many deals, instead of so many points. At the end of six deals, for instance, the highest score is the winner.
Sometimes this game is played with a widow, three cards when three play, four when four play. Each player is allowed three bids, and the successful bidder turns the widow face up, so that all may see what it contained. He then takes the widow into his hand and discards what he pleases, face down, to reduce his hand to the same number of cards as the other players. The trump is not named until after this discard. The bidder has the first lead and also the first count. Six deals is a game.