Peanuts

We played many board and card games as I grew up. My favorite card game was called Peanuts. I have never met anyone outside of the Jasperson family who plays Peanuts. I believe the game came from Grandma Lavon and Grandpa Clint Jasperson. I remember playing it at the Jasperon family reunions at the little house in Afton with the extended family. 

NOTE: The game of Peanuts we play is not the same game as the one which is also called Nerts, Pounce, and Squeal. 

A couple of months ago, my sister Keri asked me if I had rules for Peanuts. I decided to write the following rules for the whole family to use as a reference. 

Peanuts Rules

Game Materials

• Two or more players
• One deck of standard playing cards (52 cards) - If you have more than five players, you can add a second deck of cards
• Piece of paper and pencil/pen for keeping score

Setup

Choose a scorekeeper and a dealer.

The scorekeeper writes each player’s name on the score sheet and draws a vertical line down the page under each player’s name as shown. During gameplay, the scorekeeper writes the player’s bid on the left side of the vertical line for each hand. After playing all tricks for a hand, players report the number of tricks taken, and the scorekeeper records a running total of the player’s score on the right side of the line as shown in the following example.

Player 1
 4 | 14
 2 | 14
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Shuffle the cards and deal 10 cards to each player. After each player has 10 cards, turn the top card of those remaining in the deck face up to establish the trump suit for the hand.

Game Play

1. Gameplay occurs in rounds called hands.
2. One player is selected as the dealer for the first hand. Thereafter, the deal rotates clockwise around the table to the next player for each hand.
3. The actions of one hand begin with cards dealt to each player and the selection of the trump suit for the hand.
4. After the cards are dealt, each player reviews the cards in their hand to choose how many tricks they will take as their “bid.”
5. Each hand has one trick for every card dealt in the hand. The first hand has 10 cards dealt. Therefore, the first hand has 10 tricks.
6. During a trick, each player places one card from their hand on the “board” (table playing space). Players take turns playing cards for the trick beginning with the player who leads and then continuing clockwise around the table. The trick ends when each player has played one card on the board for the trick.
7. A player cannot pick up a previously played card during the trick to play a different card. “The board is the play.”
8. The player to the left of the dealer leads the first trick for each hand. Thereafter, the player who takes or wins the most recently played trick leads the next trick.
9. Players lead the trick by playing one of the cards from their hand. Thereby establishing the suit for the trick.
10. Players must follow suit by playing a card of the same suit as the card led for the trick. If a player cannot follow suit (i.e., no cards of the same suit that was led), the player must play a card from the trump suit.
11. If a player has no cards of the suit that was led and no cards of the trump suit, the player can play a card from one of the other suits. This is called “sluffing a card.”
12. The card sequence (from lowest to highest) is 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king, ace.
13. If no trump cards are played during a hand, the player who played the highest card of the suit that was led takes or wins the trick.
14. If one or more cards from the trump suit are played in a trick, the player who played the highest trump card takes or wins the trick.
15. A sluff card can never take or win the trick.
16. When a player wins a trick, the player collects the cards into a stack and places them face down in front of them. If a player takes or wins more than one trick in a hand, the player should keep each trick in a separate stack for ease in counting the number of tricks taken or won at the end of the hand.
17. Players cannot look at cards from previously taken tricks at a later time to remember which cards have already been played during the hand.
18. The hand ends after the last trick of the hand is played.
19. After the hand ends, each player counts the number of tricks taken or won during the hand.
20. If a player has the exact same number of tricks taken or won as they bid at the beginning of the hand, the player makes their bid.
21. The scorekeeper updates the score for each player at the end of each hand.

Dealing Cards

Players select a dealer for the first hand. After the first hand is played, players take turns as the dealer for upcoming hands. The dealer role moves clockwise around the table.

The dealer chooses the approach for dealing. Dealing variations involve changing the number of cards given at one time to a player or changing the direction of dealing around the table (e.g., clockwise or counterclockwise). The dealer shuffles and deals the cards for the hand.

After dealing all cards for the hand, the dealer turns the top card of the remaining cards face up. The suit of the turned-up card becomes the trump suit for the hand.

For the first hand, the dealer deals 10 cards to each player. For each subsequent hand, the dealer deals one fewer card for the hand. Thus, the second hand includes 9 cards, the third hand includes 8 cards, the fourth hand includes 7 cards, and so on ending with 1 card for the tenth hand.

The dealer repeats the 1 card hand from the tenth hand for the eleventh hand. Thereafter, the dealer deals one more card for the hand. Thus, the twelfth hand has 2 cards, the thirteenth hand has 3 cards, and so on ending with 10 cards in the twentieth hand.

The game ends after 20 hands.

Placing Bids

Players place bids for the number of tricks they believe they can take for each hand. After all cards for the hand are dealt, players review the cards in their hands and determine how many tricks they will win.

The minimum bid for each hand is zero (0). The maximum bid for each hand is the number of cards in the hand.

Players take turns announcing their bids. The first person to announce their bid is the person sitting to the dealer's left. Thereafter, the bid announcement proceeds clockwise around the table.

Players may consider the following when making their bid:

• The trump suit
• The number of high cards in their hand
• Any suits with few or no cards in their hand
• The total number of tricks claimed by other bidders before them
• The total number of cards in the hand
• Etc.

Players should not announce their intended bid out of turn as that might influence other bidders.

The total of all bids does not have to equal the total number of tricks for the hand. It is possible to have either more tricks called for during bidding than tricks available or fewer tricks called for than tricks available.

Bidding Process for One-Trick Hands

The bidding for one-trick hands is different from the bidding for other hands. Each game has two, one-trick hands.

After the dealer deals one card to each player for a one-trick hand, players DO NOT LOOK at the card in their hand. Instead, the players hold their card face out on their forehead so that all other players can see their card but the players cannot see their own card.

Players decide if they will bid zero or one for the hand but they base their decision on the cards of the other players instead of their own card. Players do not announce their bids to the scorekeeper.

After players have chosen their bid but not announced it, each player uses one hand to continue holding their card on their forehead. Players use their other hand to tap their closed fists on the table four times in unison while counting out loud, “one,” “two,” “three,” and “show.”

On the fourth count, players “show” their bid using their hands while saying “show.” Players who want to bid one trick, extend their index finger while keeping their other fingers curled into a fist on the fourth count. Players who want to bid zero, keep all fingers closed in their fists on the fourth count.

After players show their bid in unison as described, players report their bid to the scorekeeper for recording.

Leading the Trick

The player sitting to the dealer’s left leads the first trick of each hand. This player also announces their bid first. To lead, players choose one card from their hand to play on the table playing area (called the board).

The suit of the led card becomes the suit for the trick. All subsequent players must 1) follow suit, 2) play a trump card, or 3) sluff an off-suit card.

A number of strategies exist for choosing what card to lead. Players may consider one or more of the following when choosing which card to lead.

• High cards vs. low cards
• Trump suit
• Suits that have not already been led for the current hand
• The number of tricks already taken
• The number of tricks remaining in the hand
• The number of tricks in their bid
• Etc.

The player who takes (wins) the first trick leads the second trick. The player who wins the second trick leads the third trick. The player to lead the next trick (any trick after the first trick) is always the player who won the most recently played trick.

When the number of tricks per hand is low, it might be hard to get out of the lead!

Playing the Trick

After the first card of the trick is led, players take turns proceeding clockwise around the table. The player to the left of the player who led plays second. Then, the next player to the left until each player in the game has played one card on the trick.

Players should not play a card on the trick out of turn as that could influence what another player chooses to play.

After a card is played on the board, the card cannot be picked up or changed by the player. The board is the play.

On their turn, players can play any card in their hand on the trick as long as they follow three rules.

1. A player must first follow suit by playing a card in the suit that was led.
2. If the player does not have any cards in the suit that was led, the player must “trump” by playing a card from the trump suit.
3. If the player cannot play a card under rule #1 or rule #2, the player can sluff a card from either of the other suits.

Rules #1 and #2 are called the “follow suit or trump” rules.

Players are not required to play the highest suit or trump card from their hands on their turns. Players should play high cards if they think they can win the trick and they still need to take tricks to make their bid. Players should play low cards or sluff if they do not want to take the trick or they have already made their bid.

Taking the Trick

After each player has played one card on the trick, the player who played the highest card wins the trick. The card sequence (from lowest to highest) is 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king, ace.

The rules for determining who played the highest card are as follows:

1. If any cards from the trump suit were played on the hand, the player who played the highest trump wins the trick.
2. If no cards from the trump suit were played, the player who played the highest card from the led suit wins the trick.
3. If no player follows suit, the player who led the trick wins the trick as per rule #2.
4. A sluff card can never win the trick.

The player who takes the trick gathers all cards from the trick into a stack that is placed face down in front of them. Each player makes a separate stack of cards for each trick taken during the hand. This allows the players to easily count how many tricks they won during the hand and determine if they made their bid.

Players cannot pick up and look through the cards from a previously taken trick to review which cards have been played earlier in the hand.

Playing and Scoring the Hand

A hand ends when all tricks from the hand have been played. After the hand ends, players count the number of tricks won and report the count to the scorekeeper.

If the player made their bid, their score for the hand is 10 points plus the number of tricks they won. For example Player 1 bids four (4) tricks for the first hand. At the end of the hand, the player has taken four tricks. They made their bid. Therefore, they score 14 points for the hand (10 + 4 = 14).

If a player does not make their bid, they score zero (0) points for the hand.

The scorekeeper adds the points earned for each hand to the points earned from the previous hands to keep a running, cumulative score for each player.

Play for One-Trick Hands

After the scorekeeper records the bid for the one-trick hands, all players remove their cards from their foreheads and play them to the board. The rules for leading, playing, and taking the trick are followed for one-trick hands (as outlined above).

Game Variations

Alternate Scoring

For players who do not like the all-or-nothing approach to scoring each hand, each player scores the number of tricks they took during the hand. If a player makes their bid, they receive a 10-point bonus for the hand.

The difference is that each player earns at least some points for the hand unless they do not take any tricks and bid more than zero.

Shorter Game

If you want a shorter game, choose the number of hands you will play in advance.