Five Hundred: Settle the Argument

Five Hundred's disputes concentrate almost entirely around one card: the joker. It behaves differently depending on the bid in play, and a table that's only ever seen it as "always the top trump" gets genuinely surprised the first time a misère or no-trumps bid comes up.

Is the joker always the highest card in the game?

The official ruling: only when there's a named trump suit. In a trump contract, the joker is unconditionally the highest trump, above even the trump ace. In a no-trumps bid, though, there is no trump suit for it to belong to — so whoever plays the joker must announce, on the spot, which suit they're treating it as, and it becomes the top card of that announced suit for that trick only. Everyone else must then follow the announced suit if they can, exactly as if it had been physically that suit's card.

Where the confusion comes from: a player who's void in the announced suit is still bound by it — they can't claim to be void in "joker" and dodge the follow-suit requirement, because the announcement effectively makes the joker a member of that suit for the trick.

Does the joker even help in a misère bid?

The official ruling: no — in a misère (or open misère) contract, the goal flips to taking zero tricks, and the joker becomes the single lowest card in the entire deck rather than the highest. It cannot win a trick under any circumstance in a misère hand unless every other player happens to be void in the suit it's forced into, which would be an unusual accident rather than a strategy.

Why this trips people up specifically: the same physical card does the exact opposite job depending entirely on what was bid that hand — top of everything in a trump contract, bottom of everything in a misère. A player used to one context misjudging the joker in the other is the single most common Five Hundred argument.

Who actually plays a misère hand — the whole team, or just the bidder?

The official ruling: just the bidder, alone. In both misère and open misère, the bidder's partner sits out entirely, cards face down on the table, taking no part in the hand — the bidder plays solo against the other players. Open misère goes a step further and requires the bidder to lay their entire hand face-up on the table before the first card is even led.

Where it gets argued: whether the sitting-out partner is allowed to watch and react (visibly wince, tap the table, etc.) during the hand. Nothing in the rules explicitly forbids a partner from watching, but most tables treat any signaling — verbal or physical — during a partner's misère as against the spirit of the game, since misère is specifically designed as a solo contract.

What happens to the three cards I discard after picking up the kitty?

The official ruling: they're gone for the rest of the hand, permanently, and nobody else ever sees them — not the other players, and not even the bidder again once they've been set aside face down. This includes cards that came from the kitty itself; a bidder can legally pick up a strong kitty card and immediately discard it right back out, and it's simply lost to the hand either way.

Why this matters at the table: it means a bidder's discard choice is a real, consequential decision made with incomplete information about what the final hand needs — discarding a card that turns out to be exactly what was needed later in the hand is a real risk, not a rules dispute, but it's often mistaken for one by a frustrated bidder.

Is a player ever forced to bid if everyone else passes?

The official ruling: in the base game, no — if every player passes, the hand is simply thrown in and redealt by the next dealer, with no forced bid. Some tables adopt a "must bid something" house rule specifically to stop weak hands from being repeatedly thrown away, but that's an explicit, named variation on the base rule, not the default.

Can the bidder's partner ever take over play instead, or is the bidder locked in once bidding ends?

The official ruling: the bidder is locked in for every trump and no-trumps contract just as firmly as they are in misère — once bidding closes, the winning bidder names the contract, handles the kitty exchange alone, and leads or defends according to seating, but the partnership plays together normally through the tricks in every non-misère contract. It's only misère and open misère that isolate the bidder completely; ordinary trump and no-trumps bids are a full partnership effort from the kitty exchange onward, which is easy to forget after watching a misère hand played solo.

Quick reference: official vs. common confusion

• Joker is highest trump only when a trump suit is named: official rule.
• In no-trumps, the joker's holder announces which suit it plays as, and others must follow it: official rule.
• In misère, the joker becomes the lowest card and can't win a trick: official rule — the opposite of its trump-contract role.
• The bidder's partner sits out entirely during any misère contract: official rule.
• Kitty discards are gone permanently, including cards drawn from the kitty itself: official rule.

For how the bidding ladder and kitty actually work hand to hand, see the full Five Hundred rules and the scoring deep-dive for the full point table by trump suit and bid level.