rookgame

From the table

Strategy, tournament stories, and family game nights — articles from the rookgame.com archive, going back to 2010.

  • Re-Deal: I Wish it Wasn’t So Hard to Get

    The other day we were having a great session of rook.  The first time my original group of 4 people had played in over 2 years.  You know…life happens.   At any rate, it wasn’t the most competitive of sessions as we were too busy catching up on how everyone was doing.  What’s new in life,…

  • Long term rook battles

    One of the things that makes rook so fun is challenging the same opponents over and over again until after many nights of repeat play, one team takes the overall championship.  Last year, my wife and I took on a challenge to battle two of our good friends in rook with the first team getting…

  • Review of 57 Cards: Deck of Plastic Rook “like” Cards

    Over the years, we have played many, many hours of rook.  So many hours that we have seen our fair share of rook decks come and go.  In early years, the rook decks were fairly sturdy and would last for many months of playing.  In more recent years, the rook decks found themselves to be…

  • 16 Person Round-robin Rook Tournament: Instructional Guide

    Due to a request, I have decided to create a post for how a set partner rook tournament would go with 16 people.  With round-robin, you have two stages of the tournament.  The round-robin portion which basically produces two tournament brackets to complete the tournament. Initial Notes 16 People 8 Teams Broken up into two…

  • Taking a Rook Hiatus: Why Some Players Think Rook Has No Strategy

    It has been almost six months since we played our last competitive match of rook.  Wow, since I learned to play 5 years ago, I never thought it would occur.   There are simply so many people that play rook and consistently great fun each time we play.  However, sometimes all it takes is one or…

  • Rook Turned 105 in 2011

    Yeah, it’s not the big century mark, but this rook game website was not quite around in 2006, so we thought we would give a happy birthday shout out to rook this year.  105 years ago the greatest card game known to man was born.  The card game rook born to give non-gamblers a way…

  • Playing Rook 6 to 8 Hours a Day: Too Much?

    So, I happened to be speaking to a friend of mine about playing rook.  We were talking simply about things like who they play with and where they play, you know, small talk in the rook game world.   No strategy talk or anything.   Then, I asked them about how often they play.   I was amazed…

  • Two color powerhouse

    It’s rare, but every once in a while you get those rook hands that you would be willing to bid so high with. What do you do if you opponent has bid 170 though? Do you bid higher? Well, looking at the above rook hand, you obviously want to take the bid.  You are going…

  • Rook Strategy: Playing Against Different Opponents

    It seems as though the rook game keeps growing and growing.  People I would never have expected to play the game I find out randomly play.  Not only do they play, but they play well!  The more and more people I find that play the game, the more I realize, I there are a number…

  • Rook Strategy: Poor Trump Distribution

    There are times when you make a bid and you know you do not have the strongest of hands, but you are hoping that your partner has some help for you.  Maybe some extra 1s or a bunch of your trump color.  With these possibilities in mind, you set out to win a round that…