How to play
Kozel

Kozel is a trick-taking card game for two, three or four players. You play a match: a series of separate games. After each game, players (or teams) receive penalty points — the worse a game went, the more they get.

The first to reach 12 penalty points loses the match and becomes the “goat”.

The game uses 36 cards: four suits, six to ace. In every suit, from lowest to highest:

6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · J · Q · K · 10 · A

The ten outranks the king and the queen. Each card is worth points:

The whole deck is worth 120 points. Players collect them in tricks.

A match can be played in two ways:

• In pairs, 2 × 2. Four players only. Partners sit opposite each other and share tricks and points.
• Every player for themselves. Two to four players. Everyone keeps their own tricks, points and penalty points.

There are also two hand sizes: the classic six-card game and the quick four-card game (described below). The core rules are the same in both.

Each player is dealt 6 cards (4 in the quick game); the rest of the deck stays on the table. Play passes clockwise.

Trump is the suit that beats all others. In the first game of a match trump is always diamonds. Nobody knows the bottom card of the deck: when it is drawn at the last draw it is shown to everyone, and its suit becomes trump. That suit stays trump in the following games.

A trump beats any non-trump card. A trump can only be beaten by a higher trump.

In the first game of a match the holder of the lowest diamond leads. They may announce it: “I have the lowest trump”.

In later games the player who took the last trick of the previous game leads. Within a game, the player who took the previous trick leads next.

The leader puts down 1 to 6 cards of one suit, face up. These are the round’s “top cards”: they have to be beaten, or answered with a discard.

Then, clockwise, every player answers the lead. The main rule: you must end up with as many cards in hand as the last player who beat (at first, the leader). If you have more cards, you must do one of two things:

• Beat — cover every top card with a higher card of the same suit, or with a trump. A trump is beaten only by a higher trump.
• Discard — put the needed number of cards face down (usually as many as there are top cards). They beat nothing and nobody sees them, but they go into the trick.

You can’t mix: either beat everything or discard everything.

A player with as many cards or fewer than the last player who beat discards nothing: they may beat or say “I pass”. If they can’t beat, their turn is skipped automatically.

Someone who has already discarded this round can’t beat any more, only discard when required. Someone who hasn’t may beat as many times as they like, whenever the round comes back to them. After every beat that player becomes the “last to beat”, and everyone equalises their hands again.

The leader may also beat when their turn comes. You may beat your partner’s cards too.

When everyone has answered and the turn comes back to the last player who beat, they choose:

• Beat again their top cards (if they can) — and everyone else beats or discards again;
• or say “Done” — the round is over.

All table cards — top, beaten and discarded — form the trick. The last player who beat takes it. If nobody beat anything, the leader takes it. If there is nothing left to beat with, the round ends by itself.

After the trick, before drawing, players holding more cards than the player with the fewest add cards of their choice to the trick (face down) until everyone has the same number. The player who took the trick adds nothing.

Then everyone draws from the deck up to a full hand, starting with the player who took the trick, clockwise. When the deck runs out, the last cards are dealt one at a time around the table, so hands may differ by one card.

A new round then begins, led by whoever took the trick.

If you hold four or more cards of one suit, you can claim the lead out of turn as long as you haven’t acted yet this round (neither beaten nor discarded). The table sees only a number — “I have 4” — not the suit.

If a lead has already been played, the leader takes their cards back and the round restarts with the claimant. You don’t have to lead the suit you claimed with.

A claim with more cards wins: five beats four, six beats five. On a tie, whoever sits closest clockwise from the leader wins.

A game ends when the deck and all hands are empty. Each team (or player) counts the points in their tricks and receives penalty points from this table:

Penalty points add up from game to game. The first to reach 12 loses the match.

If both teams score exactly 60 points each, that’s “eggs”. Nobody gets penalty points, but the next game is played with a ×2 multiplier: all penalty points in it are doubled. If that game also ends in eggs, the multiplier becomes ×4, and so on. After the first non-egg game the multiplier resets.

If anyone ends up holding all four aces or all four sixes at once (after the deal or a draw), the match ends immediately. That player, together with their partner, wins and everyone else takes 12 penalty points. If it happens to two players at once, aces outrank sixes.

In this variant everyone always holds 4 cards, and trump is diamonds in every game (the bottom card of the deck neither changes it nor is revealed).

A round goes around only once: after the lead, each player clockwise answers just once — beats all top cards (even already beaten ones) or discards. When the turn returns to the leader, the round ends by itself. There is no “beat again” and no “Done”. The last player who beat takes the trick; if nobody beat, the leader does. Equalising, drawing up to 4 and the “I have N” claim work as usual.

Two to four people play, each on their own. Penalty points use the same table, but from the player’s own points. Whoever reaches 12 is out and watches the rest; the last one remaining wins.

If several players reach 12 after the same game, the one with fewer penalty points wins; on a tie, whoever took the last trick. “Eggs” happen when exactly two are playing and both score 60. If someone holds four aces or four sixes, they win at once and everyone else is out.