Announcements & bonuses: where glory is earned

Silent or out loud

Any bonus can be earned quietly. But whoever declares one plays for double: the promise is made before the first trick and the whole table knows what you are hunting. From then on there are no excuses: a declared and failed bonus is written in the minus. That makes announcements the currency of courage, the fastest road to respect, or to a radelc with a guilty conscience.

Trula and kings: a collector's discipline

Trula and kings are "collections": you must gather the three grandest trumps, or all four kings, in your own tricks. Sounds comfortable, until you realise the whole table counts along, and the last missing king is always, miraculously, in the most expensive trick.

Pagat ultimo: the royal discipline

The finest announcement in tarok: the lowest trump must survive to the end and take the last trick. Your opponents know it, of course, so they hound the pagat all game long: drawing trumps, cutting roads, laying traps. A declared ultimo is fifty points of pure adrenaline. And remember: a pagat that misses its ultimo has not just lost a bonus, it is left without its fairy tale.

Kontra: a tax on courage

Every announcement is an invitation: whoever doubts it says kontra and the value doubles; rekontra doubles it again. Games and individual announcements can both be doubled, which is why the experienced sometimes prefer to keep quiet and let the trula come silently. Ten certain points are worth more than twenty theoretical ones.

When to declare?

The old rule says: declare what you can defend even on a bad day. A trula with the škis and mond in hand is a serious thought; a pagat ultimo without long trumps is a letter to Santa. And when in doubt, play it silent. Glory can wait; the radelc cannot.

Tarok 124 knows every announcement too: the bots declare them, defend them and double them. The courage gym is open all day.