A running scorecard for both sides plus the thing every table ends up arguing about — the full Avondale bid value table, from six spades at 40 to ten no-trumps at 520, with misère where it belongs.
| Bid | Us | Running | Them | Running |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tricks | ♠ | ♣ | ♦ | ♥ | No trump |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 40 | 60 | 80 | 100 | 120 |
| 7 | 140 | 160 | 180 | 200 | 220 |
| 8 | 240 | 260 | 280 | 300 | 320 |
| 9 | 340 | 360 | 380 | 400 | 420 |
| 10 | 440 | 460 | 480 | 500 | 520 |
| Misère | 250 | Open misère | 500 | ||
500 is the bidding trick-taker descended from Euchre — bowers and all — and long the national card game of Australia, with a firm following in the American Midwest. Four players in two partnerships bid for the right to name trumps, and the whole scoring system hangs on one table: the Avondale schedule printed on this sheet.
A bid names a number of tricks and a suit — six spades is the floor at 40 points, ten no-trumps the ceiling at 520. Each extra trick adds 100; the suits step up 20 at a time in the order spades, clubs, diamonds, hearts, no-trumps. Every bid must exceed the value of the previous bid, not just the trick count — seven spades (140) outbids six no-trumps (120).
Win the bid and you take the three-card kitty into hand, discard three, and lead. Take at least as many tricks as you bid and your side scores the bid's value; fall short and you lose the full value — going "back" hundreds in one hand is very possible. The defending side scores 10 per trick it takes regardless.
Two refinements worth knowing: a side that wins all ten tricks scores a minimum of 250 even on a cheaper bid, and the standard rule is that you can only reach +500 and win on your own successful bid — defenders' tricks alone don't take a side out. Dropping to −500 loses outright: out the back door.
Misère is a contract to lose every trick, played with no trumps, worth 250 — conventionally only biddable once someone has bid at a seven level. Open misère is the same played with your hand face up, worth 500.
As in Euchre, the jack of trumps (right bower) and the jack of the same colour (left bower) are the second- and third-highest trumps — but 500 adds the joker above both as the highest card in the game. In no-trump contracts the joker is the only trump.
What deck does 500 use? For four players: 43 cards — strip the 2s, 3s and black 4s from a standard deck, keep the red 4s, add the joker. Ten tricks each hand plus the three-card kitty.
What is seven hearts worth? 200 — read it straight off the table: hearts base 100, plus 100 for the seventh trick.