With two players you use the same 24-card deck as with three, but each player gets 10 cards, and two kitties of 2 cards each (Polish: musik) lie on the table. The winner of the bidding chooses one of them, puts 2 cards aside and plays 10 tricks. The rest — marriages, the duties when playing cards, scoring and playing to 1000 — is as in the rules for 3 players.
At a glance
- 2 players, each gets 10 cards.
- Two kitties of 2 cards each lie on the table.
- Bidding looks like the three-player game: from 100, raising by 10.
- The winner of the bidding takes one kitty; the other drops out of the deal.
- The declarer puts 2 cards aside and plays 10 tricks.
The deal: 10 cards each and two kitties
10 + 10 + 2 + 2 = 24 — the whole deck is in the deal, although 4 cards (the second kitty and the two put aside) never reach the tricks.
Bidding
The player who is not dealing has the forced 100. From there the players take turns raising by 10 or passing; a pass ends the bidding. Without a marriage in hand the most you may bid is 120, and with marriages up to 120 plus their value, just as with three players: for example, with diamonds and clubs marriages, up to 260 (see bidding and the kitty).
Choosing a kitty and putting cards aside
The winner of the bidding turns up one of the two kitties and takes it into their hand — they now hold 12 cards. The other kitty drops out of the deal. Then the declarer puts 2 cards aside face down and announces the contract — not lower than the bidding. The cards put aside and the kitty not chosen count for nobody.
The bomb
Play: 10 tricks
The duties are the same as with three players: follow suit, beat when you can, and with no card of the suit play a trump. The trump is set by a marriage, and you may not declare a marriage in the first trick. The declarer leads to the first trick.
Scoring
Scoring is as with three players: the declarer writes +contract or −contract, and the defender their own points rounded to tens (details: scoring). There is one exception, described by pagat.com: a player who plays for 120, takes all 10 tricks and did not declare a marriage has made the contract, even though the cards in their tricks are worth less than 120 — because 4 cards are out of play.
Example: Ann plays for 120, takes all the tricks, but the cards in them are worth 110. She writes +120.
How often a marriage turns up with two players
With 10 cards a marriage turns up more often than with three players. A 10-card hand has at least one marriage in 54.0% of deals, and after taking the kitty (12 cards) in 70.4%. More numbers: Thousand statistics.