Kentucky Discard

A card game similar to blackbird or rook

Kentucky Discard is the official tournament version of the card game Rook (sometimes called Blackbird or Crows Nest).

Rook is a trick-taking game played with a specialized deck of cards. There are four players, each paired with a partner. There are 41 special cards numbered 5 thru 14. Cards are colored Black, Green, Red, and Yellow, and there is one special Bird card (called the rook card in rook).

In this free game, play with 12 different AI characters, each programmed with different skill levels and playing styes.

Each "5" card is worth 5 points. The "10" and "14" cards are worth 10 points. The Bird card is worth 20 points.

The other cards are not worth any points.

The deck gets dealt out to all players and five cards are placed into the center of the table called the nest.

After the deal, players bid on how many points they think their team will earn.

The high bidder gets to choose the trump color, pick-up the nest to improve their hand and then discard five unwanted cards.

The player to the left of the dealer goes first, and throws any card they want. The other players must then throw a card of the same color or the Bird card. If a player doesn't have any cards of the same color, they can play any card they want.

The highest card of the leading color wins the trick, unless a trump is played, in which case the highest trump wins. However, when the Bird card is played it always wins.

The player who takes the trick gets the points from any 5’s, 10’s, or 14’s collected, and 20 points for the Bird card if played. The player that takes the last trick in a round also captures the nest and gets any point cards in it.

Points collected by each team in the round get added to each team's total; however, if the high bidding team fails to make their bid, they forfeit any points collected and the full amount of their bid is subtracted from their score.

The first team to reach 300 points wins the game!

Please note: ROOK® is a registered trademark of Hasbro, Inc. This app is not affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro, Inc.