I played more 500 with the extended playing deck. My brother and I were keen players and developed a number of variations, particularly suited for two or three

I played more 500 with the extended playing deck. My brother and I were keen players and developed a number of variations, particularly suited for two or three players. One of the more fun ones was having a compulsory bid; no minimum number of tricks, but you were not allowed to bid in a way that would cause all the bids to add up to 10. You then had to make your bid exactly, so it added that element of strategically throwing tricks like you have in Hearts to force someone to go over. Standard 500 scoring if you made your bid, and -10 points for every card you were high or low.