Progressive 500 rotation charts for 8–24 players
Enter your player count and rounds, add names if you like, and print a complete progressive 500 night: a round-by-round table rotation chart, a 500 tally card for every player with Bid, Tricks Won, and Score fields, and a master score sheet. This builds a pre-assigned, printed rotation decided in advance — not a live "winner moves up a table" system — so everyone knows their whole night's seating before the first hand is dealt. Free, no account, and it runs entirely in your browser — nothing you type leaves this page.
Set up your night
Player names (optional)
Names print on the chart and cards. Leave any player blank to use their number instead.
Table rotation chart
Event: ______________________ Date: ____________
500 tally cards
One card per player — cut them apart and hand them out. Players carry their card from table to table and record each hand's winning bid, tricks won, and score. A very long name or a great many rounds can occasionally push a card onto a labeled "part 2" continuation card instead of shrinking to fit.
Master score sheet
For the organizer: collect each player's score after every round and total them at the end of the night.
“—” marks that player’s sit-out round.
American 500 bid & scoring quick reference
These are traditional American 500 conventions — a single round of bidding (no re-bidding), bids of 6–10 tricks in a suit or no trumps, and the undealt cards called the “widow.” Winning your bid scores the table value below; taking more tricks than you bid earns nothing extra, and failing your bid loses the same number of points. Defenders — the partnership that didn’t win the bid — score points per trick they take, win or lose. A Nullo bid (betting you’ll take zero tricks) scores if made; Open Nullo (cards go face-up after the first trick) scores . Traditional/standard values — house rules vary:
Bid value by suit and tricks bid (American 500)
Nullo bids
American 500, not Australian: Australian 500 keeps bidding open until three players in a row pass (rather than one fixed round), calls the undealt cards the “kitty” instead of the “widow,” and calls the no-tricks bid “Misère” instead of “Nullo,” with its own point values. This reference sticks to American conventions throughout and doesn’t blend the two.
Rotation charts for every player count
Any count from 8 to 24. Static score-sheet booklets come in fixed player counts — this generator builds a fresh progressive 500 rotation chart for exactly your group: 8 players, 9, 12, 16, 21, or 24, and every count in between. Counts that aren't a multiple of four get fair, clearly printed sit-outs instead of a broken table.
Tally cards built for 500, not a generic score sheet. Every 500 tally card carries a Bid field, a Tricks Won field, and a Score field — the specific things a 500 table needs to record that a euchre, pinochle, or canasta tally card doesn't.
A pre-assigned printed schedule, not a live movement system. Real progressive card nights use two different conventions: a rotation decided and printed in advance (what this generator builds), or a live "winner moves up a table" system decided hand by hand at the tables themselves. This tool only does the first — everyone can see their whole night's table and partner assignments on one printed chart before play starts.
Progressive 500, quickly
How does a progressive 500 rotation chart work?
Every player gets a number. Each round, the chart shows which table each player sits at and who their partner is for that hand — partners change every round, and no two players partner twice while a repeat-free chart can be found (any repeat that can't be avoided is marked with an asterisk and counted in the summary above the chart). Between hands, everyone just checks the chart for their next seat.
What happens with 9, 10, or 21 players — counts that aren't a multiple of four?
Full tables of four always play a hand, and the remaining one, two, or three players sit out just that round. The chart rotates sit-outs so they end up spread as evenly as possible over the night: nobody sits out more than one round more than anyone else, and every sit-out is printed on the chart and on that player's tally card.
Is this a live "winner moves up" system, or a fixed schedule decided in advance?
This generator builds a fixed, printed rotation: every table and partner assignment for the whole night is decided and shown on the chart before the first hand is dealt. It is not a live system where a winning partnership moves up to a better table based on results — that is a different, outcome-dependent format some progressive card nights also use, and this tool doesn't attempt it, since it can't be known in advance which table anyone will "win" their way up to.
How do bid, tricks won, and score work at each table?
Each hand, players bid a number of tricks (6–10) in a suit or no trumps, or a Nullo (no tricks); the highest bidder names trump and plays the hand. Making the bid scores the table value for that suit and trick count; failing it loses the same amount, and the defending partnership scores a fixed amount per trick they take either way. None of this is computed for you — the winning bid, tricks actually won, and resulting score are a live decision at the table, so the tally card gives each a blank field to fill in by hand as the hand is scored. See the American 500 quick reference above for the traditional/standard point values.
How many rounds should we schedule for a 500 night?
Five to eight rounds fills a typical evening for most groups — a 500 hand runs a little longer than a straight trick-taking hand because of the bidding, so plan rounds accordingly for your group's pace. If you schedule more rounds than your player count can cover without repeat partners, the generator tells you and marks the repeats.
Is this the same as regular partnership 500, euchre, pinochle, or canasta?
This is the progressive/tournament format: a fixed chart that moves everyone to a new table and partner each round, the same style used for progressive euchre, pinochle, and canasta nights, rather than a single table playing one long game with the same partner all evening. It covers 500's own bid, tricks-won, and score fields — not euchre's trump-and-tricks fields, pinochle's bid-and-meld fields, or canasta's meld-and-bonus fields, which have their own dedicated generators.
More for your game night
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