How to play Ristikontra
The rules of Ristikontra, and a game played out one move at a time.
The rules are below. The object is points, not tricks, so suits never matter: 61 of a deal's 120 win a game point, and seven game points win the match. If you would rather watch than read, press play. We deal one hand on the real table and stop on the moves that teach something.
Press play and we deal a short game of Ristikontra on the real table. It stops on every move and says what just happened and what you could do next.
Four players, two teams
Ristikontra is a trick-taking game for exactly four players, two teams of two with partners sitting opposite. One standard pack, no jokers. The dealer gives six cards each, one at a time, and the other 28 sit face down in the middle as the stock. Your hand is yours alone. The other hands stay hidden, and so does the stock.
The seat after the dealer starts the first trick, and the deal moves on one seat every hand. Play goes clockwise, to the left. There is no trump and no suit to follow. Only the rank of a card matters, and you are allowed to play any card in your hand.
Your turn: play and draw, or play in the dark
You must do one of two things. Play any card from your hand, then draw the top of the stock straight away, so you are back to six. Or play in the dark: flip the top card of the stock face up, and that card is your play, known to everyone. You cannot swap it for one from your hand, and you do not draw. The draw and the dark play both need cards left in the stock.
Each play uses one stock card, four to a trick, so the stock of 28 runs out exactly after trick seven. The last six tricks are played from the hand alone, with no drawing and no dark play. Thirteen tricks in all.
In our opinion the dark play is for tricks that are not worth a real card.
Who wins a trick, with an example
You win a trick by playing the last card of the same rank as the card led. If nobody else matches it, the leader wins. The winner puts the four cards in their side's pile and leads next. Nothing is settled until the fourth card. Whoever is winning so far can still lose the trick, because a later card of the led rank steals it.
Here is an example. A player leads a 7, the next seat plays an ace, the third a 3, the fourth a 9. Nobody else matched the 7, so the leader takes the trick and the ace's eleven points with it. Had the fourth card been another 7, that 7 would have won, and the trick would have gone to the other side.
The one ban
A player may not lead the same rank to a fourth trick in a row. Say the last three tricks were all led with kings and you hold a king and a 9: the king is refused, so you lead the 9. If the only card you have left is the barred rank, the ban is waived. A dark lead is not offered while a rank is barred, since the flipped card could be that rank.
How to score, and how the match is won
The card values: an ace is worth 11, a ten 10, a king 4, a queen 3 and a jack 2. Nothing else has any value. That is 120 points a deal, and only the points in your pile count, never the number of tricks. A side with 61 or more wins the deal and takes a game point. All 120 wins two game points.
If each side has 60, nobody scores and one game point is held for the next deal that has a winner. A second tie holds a second point, and the winner takes them all. The first side to seven game points wins the match.
Where these rules come from
We follow the base game on John McLeod's rules page. He also describes Ristiklappi, a northern form with five cards each, where a side that took a queen early must win a king trick late, and the Finnish Wikipedia entry lists that rule as an optional extra. We do not deal it.
How to play Ristikontra online, in English
Ristikontra needs four. Play with three friends opens a table and gives you three links to send, which is how to play Ristikontra online. For fewer than four, the other games at this table seat two or three.
The rules are here in English, on the page, with no PDF to download. Searching in Finnish? Korttipeli means card game. Looking for a YouTube video? There is none here. Press play and step through a real deal instead.