How to play Mu, a trick-taking partnership card game for 4-6 players.

Описание: This is an overview of the rules of Mu, a trick-taking partnership card game for 4-6 players. I start with a brief description of trick-taking games in general. Then I describe the unique Mu deck of cards, the basic rules, and how to play the two phases of each hand -- bidding for trump, then playing tricks. Finally I describe the scoring. Note this video is about rules and does not go into strategy, since Mu is a very deep game strategically and that would require a separate video. I've never made a video before, and I know the quality isn't great; but I love this game and teach it often, and since I couldn't find an instructional video anywhere I figured I'd just make one.

If you've already played a lot of trick-taking games and pick up new ones quickly, or you just don't want to watch a 48-minute video, watch the simpler 15-minute video I also uploaded with a brief overview of the rules of Mu:    • Quick overview of Mu, a trick-taking partn...  

Corrections and clarifications for this video (the latter will make more sense after you watch the video):

1. One big correction: Around 4 minutes into the video, when giving an overview of trick-taking games using a regular deck of cards, I say "Jack" about 10 times when I meant to say "Diamond". I showed the lead player putting down a Jack of Diamonds, and meant to describe how each other player then needs to play a "Diamond" to "follow suit", but I got the word "Jack" stuck in my head. The card play I show is correct, but I keep saying the wrong word.

2. A few little corrections: Once I point right at a "1" and call it a "zero". Once I mention how a suit in Mu goes from the high card of 9 all the way down to the low card of 1, forgetting that each color/suit also has a zero. And probably a few other little mistakes like this, that either you'll notice right away or won't even notice and it won't matter.

3. Clarification on partners: The Chief can NOT choose the Vice as his partner. That would create too powerful a team. The chief can choose any player other than the Vice for his partner.

4. Clarification on the "trump suit": All cards that are either major trump or minor trump combine to form one suit called the trump suit. This is very important to understand when "following suit." If a trump (either major or minor) is lead, then each other player must play a trump (major or minor) if he has one. If a major trump is lead, a minor can be played, and vice-versa. Very important point: If the major and/or minor trumps are a number, then cards with that number are in the trump suit and therefore lose their identity/membership in the suit of their color. For example, if blue is major trump and 5 is minor trump, then all blues and all 5s combined to create the trump suit. The green 5, for example, is NO longer part of the green suit, but rather is a member of the trump suit. Example 1: If a green 9 is lead, all other players must follow with a green if they have it. If your only green card is the green 5, then you can say that you have no green (because the green 5 is a member of the trump suit and not the green suit for this hand), and therefore you are free to play any card, including a trump card. If you choose to play the green 5, you are doing so to "trump in" and try to win this trick, not because it it is green. Example 2: If a green 9 is lead, and your only green cards are the green 8 and green 5, then you must play the green 8, because that is your only card of the green suit and you must follow suit if you can. You can not try to trump in with the green 5 because that is not a member of the green suit, but rather of the trump suit.

5. Clarification on the bidding process: When bidding for trump, each player can place in front of him a number of cards so that he has played at most one more card than any player (including himself). For example, when it is your turn and the other players have 0, 1, 2, and 4 cards played and you already have 2, then you can play 0, 1, 2, or 3 more cards, bringing your total to no more than 5, since the previous highest is 4. If your plan is to eventually play 6 cards, and no one else ever plays more than 4, then you have to wait for the bidding to come around to you again to play your 6th card (which is one more than 5, the highest of any player, which in this case is yourself); this is called "bidding yourself up."

6. One final note: The purpose of this video is to explain the rules of Mu and not to teach strategy. When demonstrating a few example tricks I actually make some strategically poor choices, but that has no affect on understanding the rules. I might make a separate video teaching strategy, if I get enough positive comments on this video with people asking me to do so.