Mago (Wizard)

In Mago, the winner isn’t the player who takes the most tricks, but the one who most accurately predicts how many there will be beforehand. Each round begins with a bid: How many tricks will you take? If you’re exactly right, you get 20 points plus ten for each trick. In addition, every trick over or under your bid costs ten points. That’s why even a weak hand counts—if you bid zero and take zero, you’ll often end up better off than someone who overbid. In the first round, everyone has exactly one card. You hold it so that everyone can see it—except you. With each round, one more card is added until the deck runs out. Wizards trump everything, including the trump card. Fools don’t trump anything. And whoever bids last must not let the numbers add up exactly: A bid where the total exactly matches the number of tricks in the round is forbidden. Someone has to be off by a trick. • Three to…