Before you begin
Four players play individually with a 52-card French-suited pack and no jokers. Each hand begins with thirteen cards dealt to every player. The dealer changes with each hand and is identified by the D marker.
A complete match contains thirteen hands, each with a different objective. You may exclude hands in the settings. The player with the highest total score wins; a tie remains a tie.
How a trick works
A round of four cards, one from each player, forms a trick. The first trick begins with the player to the dealer’s right; the player who wins a trick leads the next one.
- If you hold the suit that was led, you must follow it but may choose any rank.
- If you cannot follow suit, you may play another suit, subject to the options active for that hand.
- Without trumps, the highest card of the led suit wins: ace, king, queen, jack, then ten down to two.
- A card of another suit cannot win, even when it is an ace.
The game prevents illegal plays and explains the relevant rule directly at the table.
The thirteen hands and scoring
| Hand | Objective | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Kings and jacks | Avoid taking kings and jacks. | −2 each |
| Queens | Leave the queens to your opponents. | −3 each |
| Eight of diamonds | Avoid the eight of diamonds. | −8 |
| King of hearts | Avoid the king of hearts. | −8 |
| Hearts | Avoid taking hearts. | −1 each |
| Last two | Avoid the twelfth and thirteenth tricks. | −4 each |
| Fewest tricks | Take as few tricks as possible. | −1 per trick |
| Domino | Be the first to empty your hand. | −1 per card left |
| Declarations I–IV | Take tricks with a chosen trump suit. | +1 per trick |
| Most tricks | Take as many tricks as possible, without trumps. | +2 per trick |
Declarations and the trump suit
In each of the four Declarations, a special suit is chosen as trump. Every card in that suit beats cards in the other suits. If several trumps are played, the highest trump wins.
You must still follow the suit led when you can. Only when you cannot follow suit may you choose another suit, including trump, subject to the active options.
Selling a declaration
When auctions are enabled, the dealer may choose trumps immediately or offer the declaration for a price of one to thirteen tricks. Opponents answer once in turn. The first may accept the price; later players must raise an accepted offer. The buyer chooses trumps. At the end of the hand, the agreed price is added to the seller and subtracted from the buyer, regardless of the number of tricks taken. If everyone passes, the dealer chooses.
Domino: building the suits
Each seven starts a row. Consecutive cards of the same suit are added: down from seven to ace, which follows two, and up from seven to king. One card is played per turn. You may pass only when you have no legal play.
The hand ends as soon as one player empties their hand. Every other player loses one point per remaining card, and the winner receives the total of those points.
Configurable options
- Force the king of hearts or eight of diamonds to be discarded when you cannot follow suit.
- Prevent the penalty suit from being led until it has been broken.
- Force trump when you cannot follow the suit led.
- Prevent trump from being led until it has been broken.
- Require the seven of diamonds to open Domino.
- Redeal Domino when a player holds at least four aces and kings combined.
“Your King” clearly shows which options are active.
VoiceOver and assisted controls
With VoiceOver, assisted controls are enabled automatically. Cards announce rank, suit and whether they can be played; selection and confirmation are separate. After a trick, you can review all four cards, the winner, the reason and the points before collecting.
The same controls can be enabled manually. Domino announces the open ends of each row and offers “Pass turn” when no legal move exists. With VoiceOver, assisted controls or the assisted interface for very large text, ads are not shown.
Sources and rule choices
King has many local variants. This table uses thirteen individual hands, the scores above and explicit options; it does not reproduce one federation’s rules in full.
- Ludoteca Labyrinth · Genoa — scoring, following suit, penalty cards and declaration sales.
- King Championship · Lucca — individual play, order, card ranks and hand objectives.
- Wikipedia · King — comparison of sequences and variants.
- Pagat · John McLeod — international King families and variants.
Sources consulted on 9 October 2026.