Farmer's Hand

Before bidding begins, if a player’s 5-card hand has at least three cards that are 9s or 10s, that player may swap instead of playing the hand as dealt. There are other versions of this rule floating around (one requires no face cards at all instead of counting 9s/10s), but the three-or-more version is the one implemented here.

A swap trades that player’s 3 lowest printed-rank cards for the 3 face-down cards in the kitty. The up-card is not involved; it’s untouched either way. Lowest is by plain rank (9 lower than 10, lower than jack, and so on); if there’s a tie, the tiebreak goes by suit rather than picking one arbitrarily.

Swapping comes with a cost: a player who swaps is not allowed to call trump in the first round of bidding, that turn is automatically passed for them. The idea is that a farmer’s hand (three or more 9s/10s) is weak enough to justify the swap, but a player shouldn’t get to fix their hand and still have a shot at calling trump with it that same deal.

The player isn’t required to swap. Declining is always an option, the hand is then played as dealt, and the player keeps their normal turn in bidding.

Only one player at a time is offered the choice, scanning from the dealer’s left. If a swap or decline happens, the scan continues to the next player, so more than one player could get offered a swap in the same deal if more than one qualifies. Each seat is only offered once.

If Ace-No-Face is also active and a hand qualifies for both (for example, an ace plus three 9s), Ace-No-Face takes priority and that player is offered a redeal, not a swap.

Worked example

A player is dealt 9♣ 9♠ 10♦ K♥ A♠, three of the five cards are 9s/10s, so they qualify. Their three lowest by rank are 9♣, 9♠, 10♦ (K and A stay). If they swap, those three go face down into the kitty and they draw the three cards that were sitting there, keeping K♥ and A♠. Their turn in round one of bidding is then automatically passed.