How To Play 500 Bid, A Card Game We Played In Pennsylvania 30 Years Ago?

Hi Carol,
I am from Pennsylvania also. (Pittsburgh area) Here is a step by step Tutorial that I made for my meet-up group in North Carolina most of whom never heard of the game. Forgive the length and simplicity. Score table is at bottom.
500
Made Simple

The 500 Deck
Take a standard deck of playing cards throw out the twos, threes and black fours keep one Joker.

The 500 Deal
The dealer deals ten cards to each player, like this first 3 cards then 4 cards finally 3 cards. (I don’t know why.)

The Widow
There will be three cards remaining this is the widow. (EUCHRE PLAYERS do not turn a card over.) The widow goes in the middle of the table.

The 500 Hand
Each player arranges his cards in suits and rank A,K,Q,J… now the tricky part take any Jacks that you have and place them before the ace (highest rank)
This is because when a suit is trump the Jack of that suit is called the Right Bower and is (almost) the highest trump now the suit you want to be trump should be arranged J,A,K,Q,10… but wait there’s more. Do you have the Jack of the same color as the Jack of your trump suit? Good put it after the Right Bower because it is the (guess) Left Bower and ranks just under the Right Bower in the trump suit.  Now you have J (hearts), J (diamonds) Ace (hearts)… or in 500 lingo Right Bower, Left Bower, Ace, King…You know that any suit can be trump right? Not just hearts. GOOD. Still with me? Good.
How about that Joker? Do you have him? Put him right up there at the top of your trump suit. Now your potential trump suit (you hope) should be Joker, Right Bower, Left Bower, Ace, King, … Now you are ready to bid.

500 Bidding
The player to the left of the dealer bids first. She has 3 choices She can decide that her hand is not good enough to bid on and pass. She can decide that her hand is not good enough to bid on BUT she can help her partner in a certain suit so she inkles(that’s sort of legal cross-talk) example “I inkle spades” or she can bid that she and her partner can take between a minimum of seven and a max of ten tricks in the suit that she wants to be trump. “I bid seven spades.”
The next player must bid or inkle higher that the last So if the first player inkles clubs he can only inkle, diamonds, hearts or no trump (we’ll talk about no trump in a bit.) If the first player bids seven No Trump, he (second bidder) must bid eight or higher. Of course he can pass.
Only the first and second players can inkle. You figured that out, right?
What about that No Trump thing?? If you bid no trump “seven no trump” or sometimes “Seven no” you are saying there will not be a trump suit. So all suits are ranked A,K,Q,J,10…. But, Wait a minute there is a trump, just one. Who is that?  You ask. The Joker!!
If a player has the Joker and does not have the suit led. She can play it as trump (we’re talking no trump now.) and take the trick and the lead.  That can ruin a perfectly good no trump run.
So it is extremely foolhardy to bid no trump if you do not have the Joker. Likewise if you inkle no trump you are either telling your partner that you have the Joker or you have a lot of high cards if he has the Joker. If you insist on bidding no trump without the Joker you do so at your peril. There is only one round of bids if the are no legitimate bids (7 or higher) and the dealer passes the deal is passed to the next player. The highest bidder takes the widow. He throws out 3 cards (try to get rid of a suit) The winning bidder leads the first trick.

Playing the Hand

After the successful bidder has discarded three cards to replace the widow, she leads the first trick. I ain’t going to tell you how to play but momma taught me lead your highest trump. Now the strategy part. You the bidding team want to pull out all the trumps. It is helpful to try to count trumps (13 Red trumps, 12 Black trumps) so once you know that all trumps are accounted for you know your Aces in the non trump suits are golden. What if you bid no trump? Start with the Ace of you best and longest suit (you do have the Joker right?) When you run that suit either play another Ace or try to lead to your partner. What is you opponent take the trick and the lead? No worries you have the Joker (you do don’t you.) or your partner does. And you take back the lead when they play a suit that you are out of.

500 Scoring

So you took the number of tricks that you bid. You get the value of your bid from the scoring table. Oops you did not take as many tricks as you bid. You go back the value of your bid. If you are less than zero you are in  the hole. You didn’t make the bid but you took some tricks. You get 10 points for each trick.

Winning

The game is played until one team reaches a score of 500 (obvious no?) but you can’t win by default simply accumulating points you must win by bidding out.

Some proposed group rules.

A team that attempts to prevent their opponents from bidding out and winning the game and is set three times consecutively forfeits the game.

Miserere or Nello Bids that is a bid in which a player declares that he will take no tricks.  Will not be permitted.

A team that attains a score of negative 500, forfeits the game.

This is the Bidding/Scoring Table
500 Scoring Table
7 8 9 10
Spades 140 240 340 440
Clubs 160 260 360 460
Diamonds 180 280 380 480
Hearts 200 300 400 500
No Trump 220 320 420 520
Grand Slam 250

Note on Grand Slam, Making a Grand Slam means that you probably underbid your hand because if you had bid 8 clubs or higher you would have received at least 260 points. Not to worry you will underbid a lot at first and you never know what will happen when the hand is played.
Hope that helps. I never cared for Nello.
Ron

I also played 500 bid with my family in PA over 25 years ago now.  I miss playing as well.  I can tell you a few things I remember. An "inkle" was when you had one of the bowers, which would be a Jack of any suit.  You would say 6 Hearts for example if you had the right bower, the jack of hearts.  That would let your partner know, in case partner was dealt some high hearts and possible the left bower, which would be the Jack of diamonds.  If you were dealt the right bower and High hearts such as Ace, King, etc.  You would make an actual bid of 7 hearts.  If your partner had the left bower and additional hearts he may raise your bid to 8 hearts. Now, depending on what the other partners bid, or inkled, and you have a good hand you can raise higher to 9 or max to 10.  Remeber also there is a widow, dealt along with each hand that has 5 cards in it.  It may contain the joker which is the boss, it takes any trick, if you put in the higest bid at the table you get the widow, keep 5 cards and discard 5.  You  must make the bid by taking at least 7 tricks if you bid 7, 8 tricks if you bid 8, etc.  If not, you are then set and you go in the hole, and your opponents score the number of tricks they took.  

To deal you first take out all (2s)dueces and (3s)treys out of the deck, you leave one joker in. You then deal 10 cards to each player in this manner 3, 3, and 4, and 3,2 to the widow.  So each palyer gets 10 cards and 5 to the widow.  Possible bids, for each suit, 7, 8, 9, 10 (taking all tricks), or you can play 7,8,9 or 10 NO Trump, taking the tricks with the highest cards and a great run in one of the suits.  

Unfortunately, I don't remember the scoring exactly yet, but I am trying to find an old score sheet that my favorite Uncle would design everytime we played,  I kept a few of them for memories, plus I am researching the scoring on line tonight, maybe I will find the answer and remember.  I hope this has helped you to remember the game a little more, I am looking for people in TX who might want to play.  Good Luck, this is a great partner game and makes for a fun and challenging evening with family and friends.  Oh also,  since your from PA, GO STEELERS!

Bid scoring is as follows All spade bids end in 40 - 7 spades 140, 8 spades 240, 9 spades 340, 10 spades 440 All club bids end in 60 - 7 clubs 160, 8 clubs 260, 9 clubs 360, 10 spades 460 All diamond bids end in 80 - 7 diamonds 180 repeat above pattern and all heart bids end in 00 7 hearts 200 repeat above pattern No trump bids end in 20 7 No Trump is 220 repeat above pattern

Not sure on Nello and and double nello scoring?

I'm also from Western Pennsylvania and now living in Madison, WI. I just taught this game to two friends and we've been playing it alot.  I love this game and really missed playing it.

I don't know why so many people say they hate Nello.  I Love Playing It!!  You should try it again.  When we play your partner would give you his/her lowest card then you would discard 6 cards and then your partner doesn't play.  We would score it 250 points.

I don't know why you would take out 2 black 4's.  We just take out the 2's & 3's.  5 in the Widow. 

Question:  Playing 500 bid and you bid a suit, and your partner bids, and the opposite player cannot follow the suit, can he play the joker anytime, even if he has the suit being asked?