How to Play Julepe
Description
A Spanish trick-taking game where you must win at least two of the five tricks or pay a penalty to the pot. Fold before the deal if you're not confident — but fold too often and you'll never catch up.
Objective
Win at least two of the five tricks in the hand — fall short and you owe extra into the pot.
Setup
Three to six players, using a 40-card Spanish-style deck.
Everyone antes into the pot. Deal five cards to each player, then turn up the next card to set trump.
Rules
Each player chooses to play the hand or sit it out.
Before play starts, anyone playing can discard and draw replacement cards to improve their hand.
Whoever leads plays any card; if a non-trump card is led, everyone else must follow that suit if they can, and if they can't, they must play trump instead.
Highest trump wins the trick — if no trump was played, highest card of the suit led wins.
Winning
Players who took at least two tricks are safe.
Anyone who took fewer than two tricks pays an extra penalty into the pot.
Whoever wins the most tricks (or the whole pot, depending on house rules) takes the round.