§1 Introduction. Escalative scoring is a method of calculating scores of trick-taking card games. It can be applied directly to many plain-trick games, but adapting it to point-trick games is more complicated.

The gist is that the game is played out in tricks. The first trick counts 1 point for whoever wins it, the second trick 2 points, the third 3, and so forth. This escalation schedule helps maintain suspense as the game nears its end, which is when the highest-scoring tricks will be played. Early in the game, players might choose to hold back high-ranking cards that could win low-scoring tricks, in hopes that late in the game those cards could win high-scoring tricks.

Escalative scoring is in contrast to the usual practice of plain-trick games, where all tricks count the same.

To reduce mistakes in calculating the score, it is helpful to create simple tokens, each bearing a number from 1 to the number of tricks to be played. The numerals and words can be printed or handwritten on both sides of small pieces of ordinary cardboard. They might look like the examples illustrated below, which would be the correct collection for a game played in 10 tricks.

At the beginning of the game, all tokens are at the center of the table. Whenever a player wins a trick, he takes the lowest-numbered of the remaining tokens and moves it closely in front of himself. At the end of the game, each player adds the numbers on all his tokens. That sum will be his raw score; his final score might reflect bonuses or penalties determined later.

§2 Sample game. To show how this works, the rules of a simple plain-trick game are given here. Players will of course modify them as desired.

There are four players, using a pack of 28 cards extracted from a standard 52-card pack. From each of the suits (Clubs, Spades, Hearts, and Diamonds) are retained 7 cards, ranking (from high to low) Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten, Nine, Eight.

Choose a dealer by any agreed means. Shuffle, cut, and deal 7 cards to each player, exhausting the pack. The game will be played as 7 tricks. A player who wins them all will have a raw score of 28 points (= 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7); but such success will be unusual.

Before trick play begins, there is a session of bidding. Starting with the player at dealer's left, each player can either pass, or announce a bid from 1 to the maximum raw score, which is 28 in this example game. Each bid must be higher than the previous. A player who once passes must always pass thereafter. Bidding ends when 3 consecutive players have passed.

A special rule is that any player who holds an Ace must bid at least 1, unless some other player has already bid. This is because a bid of 1 by a player who holds an Ace is guaranteed to succeed if he declares its suit trump, and leads that card to the first trick. Otherwise, a player is always permitted to pass. This rule eliminates passed-out hands.

The high bidder announces his choice of trump suit, and leads to the first trick.

In every trick, the leader may play any card. Each of the other players must play a card of the same suit, if he has one; otherwise he may play any card. The trick is won by the highest trump card, if any; otherwise by the highest card of the suit led.

The player who wins the trick gathers the cards in a pile in front of himself, and also collects the lowest-numbered of the remaining tokens. Then he leads to the next trick.

After all the tricks are played, each player adds the numbers on his tokens, forming his raw score. If the high bidder's raw score is at least his bid, his final score becomes his raw score plus his bid. But if he took fewer, his final score becomes his raw score minus his bid, which turns out to be a negative number. For all other players, the final score equals their raw score.

§3 Variations. Here are some obvious possibilities:

• having other than 4 players;
• using other than 28 cards;
• dealing less than the whole pack.

When the entire pack is dealt, astute players, as the tricks are played, can form a clear picture of which players have which cards. When instead some cards are left undealt, this becomes more a matter of estimating probabilities. Either way, skill and experience with card games is rewarded.

The escalation schedule can be varied. Instead of 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 as above:

• numbers might be repeated: 1-1-2-2-3-3-4 (maximum bid 16);
• the minimum might be more than 1: 3-4-5-6-7-8-9 (max 42);
• numbers might be skipped: 1-2-3-5-7-8-9 (max 35).

§4 Point tricks. Here is a way to adapt escalativity to point-trick games. From the example of §2 above, assume the pack of 28 cards and the 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 escalation schedule. As an example, cards won in tricks will be worth points as follows:

The calculation:

• card points won in the first trick are multiplied by 1;
• card points won in the second trick are multiplied by 2;
• card points won in the third trick are multiplied by 3;
• and so forth.

Each player's raw score is the sum of the values of the tricks that he won. Here is an example of how cards might fall to tricks in a game:

For instance, if one player won tricks 2, 3, and 6, his raw score would be 14 + 15 + 54 = 83. This amount would then be subject to whatever bonuses or penalties might apply.

When point-trick scoring is used, there should be no rule limiting what the highest bid can be. This is because the theoretical maximum raw score might be complicated to calculate, and even if known, it will usually be so high that no player would attempt to reach it.