Introduction ------------ Back Alley, also known as Back Alley Bridge or sometimes as Back Street Bridge originated in the American military, probably during World War II. The practice of varying the number of cards dealt on each hand and of determining the trump suit at random is slightly reminiscent, but the objective in this game is always to win tricks, not to take the exact number of tricks you guess you would take. The first version of Back Alley described here, which seems to be the more prevalent, may have originated in the 1960's during the Vietnam war. It is a partnership game, normally played with two jokers, known as bloopers, and the game itself is sometimes called Blooper. It has a fairly strong similarity to Spades, in that the guesses of tricks taken of the partners are added together. Players ------- Partner Back Alley is played with four players, two teams of two, and non-partner Back Alley which is played with three players. Cards ----- There are 54 cards in the deck, as it's a standard 52 card pack with two distinguishable jokers, big and little. The jokers are known as bloopers or blookers. The cards in each non-trump suit rank from high to low A-K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2. The big blooper is the highest trump and the little blooper is second highest, so the order of trumps is BB-LB-A-K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2. Deal ---- 1 card each in the first hand, then one card more each successive hand up to thirteen cards each. Then a second hand with thirteen cards dealt to each player and lowering again to a final deal of 1 each, so that there are 26 deals in a complete game. Turn to deal passes clockwise. So a complete game consists of 26 deals. After the four hands have been dealt the next card is turned up and its suit is trumps for the hand. If the turn up is a joker (blooper) there are you keep flipping until you get a non joker, if you are playing the partnership way and you deal 13 cards to each player and you get both jokers as the last two cards, you play a no trump hand. Non-partner Back Alley is played like partner Back Alley except you start with two cards and it’s a total of 24 deals. Re-deal ------ When a hand of 7 or more cards are dealt, and a player who has no aces, no face cards and no trumps, this player has a renig had and this is where everyone gets a new hand. Trick Guessing --------------- Starting to dealer's left, each player in turn has to guess how many tricks they will take. The possible values are 'pass' stating you guess you won't take any tricks, a positive whole number, or 'board' which means you are guessing you will take all the tricks. There is no requirement for each trick guess to be higher than the previous one. If both members of a team guess a number, those numbers are added and the team's aim is to win at least that many tricks. A pass counts as zero. So if the members of a team guesses 1 and 4 they try to win at least 5 tricks between them. If they guess a pass and 3 they try to win at least 3 tricks. If both pass they have no minimum target, though any tricks they do win won't benefit them at all. The maximum number guess allowed is the number of cards dealt. A player who guesses 'board' commits his or her team to try to win all the tricks. Play ---- The highest guesser leads to the first trick. If more than one player guess the same number the earliest of those guesser leads. Players must follow suit. If unable to follow suit you may play any card. The trick is won by the highest trump in it, or if it contains no trumps, by the highest card of the suit led. The winner of a trick leads to the next. It is illegal to lead a trump unless either trumps have been 'broken' - i.e. someone has already played a trump to a previous trick, or all you have left is trump. Scoring ------- A team which wins at least as many tricks as they guess scores 5 points per trick guess, plus 1 point for each trick won in excess of the guess. If they win fewer tricks than they guess, they lose 5 points for each trick guess. A team which guess board scores 10 points per trick if they succeed in winning all the tricks; if they fail they lose the same amount (e.g. 50 points in a five card hand). Tiebreaker ---------- If both teams are tied at the end of the game a tiebreaker is played in which 13 cards are dealt to each player, and a hand is played except in this case there is no guessing and the first team to win 7 or more tricks wins the game. In non-partner/singles Back Alley if there are two players tied, play is just like partner Back Alley between the two players, if three players are tied the same thing occurs between the three players, where each player is trying to win the most tricks, if two player are tied with each winning 6 tricks and the other player winning 1. Then a second tiebreaker is played between the two players tied and in this situation each player is trying to win 7 or more tricks