Trull games will now end prematurely

Recently, I wrote a blog post about the frequency of trull games happening in colour whist and wiezen, mainly as a reaction to emails I often get about their perceived frequent occurrence on Whisthub. While it is not true that the amount of trull games on Whisthub would be higher than in reality, it's obvious that most people really, really, don't like trull. As you might know, you can turn off trull in colour whist if you have a premium subscription, but obviously not everyone has a subscription.

While there's nothing I can do about the frequency of trull games, I recently received an email that pointed out that there is still something that can be done. As you might be aware, according to the rules of colour whist, you don't get any extra points for winning more tricks than the bare minimum in trull contracts, except when you win all tricks. This also means that from the moment the trull contract is made - or lost - then it doesn't make sense anymore to continue playing, with the exception when winning all tricks is still a possibility, in which case you can get more points.

Currently, this is not how it works on Whisthub. There are situations where the game is ended prematurely by the computer, but that only happens when, for example, one player has all the remaining trump cards, meaning it is mathematically sure they will win the remaining tricks. If this doesn't happen, then you're forced to play all 13 tricks in a trull game, even though the contract could've already been made by, say, the 9th trick.

This will change from now on. If the trull contract is made - or lost - and it is no longer possible to win all 13 tricks, then the game will end prematurely, each team receives their respective points, and the game will continue to the next round. Note that this only holds for colour whist! In wiezen, the rules for trull are different and there are points to be won for over- or undertricks, so for wiezen, nothing changes!

To illustrate the changes, have a look at the example below. It is your turn, and the opposite team only needs one more trick to win their contract. You only have the option to play J or 8. Try it out and see what happens!

As you can see, even though there are still three tricks to be played, the game now ends prematurely because there's nothing more to be won, pointswise, even though you would still win another trick with J if you had played 8.

So, even though this new approach won't do anything about the frequency, if a pesky trull game happens, then at least you can be sure it will be over as soon as possible and you can go on playing normal games again!