500 (Five-Hundred)

👥 2–6 players 📍 Indoor📍 Anywhere ⚡ Calm 🧩 Moderate ⏱ 30-60 minutes 🎂 Ages 6+

Quick Pitch

Five Hundred is Australia's national card game — a trick-taking game where you bid on how many tricks you'll win, name your own trump suit, and race to 500 points before your opponents.

Hook

Before each hand, players bid on how many tricks they'll take — anything from 6 to all 13 — and name a trump suit to go with it. Higher bids are worth more points, but if you miss your bid, you lose those points instead of gaining them. The trump system has a twist: the Jacks of the trump suit become the two highest cards (called bowers), and the scoring means a bold bid in spades is worth more than the same bid in clubs. It rewards confident, well-read bidding.

Equipment Needed

  • One deck sized to player count (remove low cards):
    • 2-3 players: 42 cards (A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5)
    • 4 players: 43 cards (add 4)
    • 5 players: 52 cards (standard)
    • 6 players: 60 cards (add joker)
  • Paper and pencil for score tracking

Setup

  1. Determine deck size based on player count
  2. Deal 10 cards to each player in specific distribution (varies by variant)
  3. Remaining cards form stock; top card determines proposed trump
  4. Establish player order

Rules

Objective

Bid accurately and win tricks to reach 500 points. Different trump suits and No Trump score different point values, creating strategic variety.

Bidding

  1. Bid order: Players bid in turn, starting to dealer's left
  2. Bid structure: Bids indicate trick count and trump suit/No Trump (6NT, 7♣, 8♦, 9♥, 10♠, etc.)
  3. Bid hierarchy: Clubs < Diamonds < Hearts < Spades < No Trump (all else equal)
  4. Passing: Players may pass and not bid again that hand
  5. High bid wins: Highest valid bid becomes contract; that player declares trump

Trump Rank

In trump suit:

  • Jack of trump (right bower): Highest
  • Jack of same color (left bower): Second highest
  • A, K, Q, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 in trump suit

In other suits:

  • A, K, Q, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 (Jack removed, as it's part of trump)

No Trump:

  • All cards in normal order: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5

Gameplay

  1. Lead: Player to dealer's left leads first trick
  2. Following suit: Players must follow suit if able
  3. Trump strength: If trump is led, trump must be played if held
  4. Trick winner: Highest card of suit led; highest trump if trump played
  5. Collecting tricks: Winner leads next trick

Scoring

Successful bid:

  • Clubs: 40 points per trick bid
  • Diamonds: 60 points per trick bid
  • Hearts: 80 points per trick bid
  • Spades: 100 points per trick bid
  • No Trump: 120 points per trick bid

Examples:

  • Bid 7♣ (7 clubs), make bid: 40 × 7 = 280 points
  • Bid 8♠ (8 spades), make bid: 100 × 8 = 800 points

Failed bid:

  • Bidder loses points equal to trick bid × suit value

Non-bidders:

  • Each trick won: 10 points (standard variant) or suit-dependent points (advanced variant)

Game ending: First player to accumulate 500+ points wins the match.

Expert Player

Tips

  1. Accurate bidding: Overestimating leads to penalty; conservative estimates are safer
  2. Jacks significance: Right and left bowers are critical trump cards; assess carefully
  3. Trump selection: Different suits score different values; balance difficulty with reward
  4. No Trump assessment: No Trump bids require strong hands (no trump advantage)
  5. Card counting: Track played cards to predict remaining distributions
  6. Trick management: Focus on tricks related to your bid
  7. Defensive play: Force bidders to use high cards; avoid winning weak tricks

Variations

  • Simple 500: All cards 7+ or 8+; simpler deck management
  • Partnership 500: Four players in two partnerships; modified scoring
  • Joker variant: Joker added as special card (highest trump or wild card)
  • Regional variants: Different Australian regions use house rules
Learn More — History & Origins

History & Origins

Five Hundred was developed in the early 20th century and became Australia's national card game through a combination of circumstance and design. The game draws its mechanics primarily from Euchre (which Irish, Scottish, and English immigrants brought to Australia) and from the American game of Five Hundred published by the United States Playing Card Company around 1900, which spread quickly through the Commonwealth. The Australian version retained and elaborated the bidding structure, added the suit-value scoring system (clubs worth 40 per trick, spades worth 100), and became the dominant parlor game across the country within a generation.

The game held this position in Australian social life for most of the 20th century, played in homes, RSL clubs, country halls, and anywhere Australians gathered socially. It became so embedded that "Five Hundred" was often the first card game Australian children learned after simple games like Snap and Go Fish.

Cultural Context

Five Hundred occupies a position in Australian culture somewhat comparable to what Whist and Bridge held in Britain: a game associated with sociable, intelligent card play, comfortable across class lines, and considered a mark of decent card-playing education. The game's regional variants — different rules in different Australian states, particularly around the joker's role and scoring of No Trump contracts — reflect decades of independent evolution in communities that played seriously and debated rules at length.

The game has declined somewhat since the mid-20th century, displaced partly by poker and other games as entertainment preferences shifted. But it remains actively played in clubs and family settings, and organized Five Hundred associations exist in most Australian states. For older generations of Australians, it's often the game they associate most strongly with family evenings, country visits, and the particular social rhythms of Australian mid-century life.

See Also