Hosse is sometimes called Double Euchre, because of it’s similarity to the game. It’s also similar to the game of spades.
Deck: The game uses a pinochle deck, which consists of 2 of each suit of the cards: 9, 10, J, Q, K, and Ace. The highest card is the Ace, except for the trump suit. The bidder picks the trump suit, and the jack of the trump suit is right bower, while the jack of the different suit, but the same color is the left bower, which are the two highest cards, followed by the Ace. For example, if the hearts is chosen as the trump suit, then the highest cards would be as follows: J♥, J♦, A♥, K♥, Q♥, 10♥, 9♥ (Two of each card).
Dealing: After shuffling, the person to the right of the dealer cuts the deck. Dealing then follows the rules of spades, except that the deck consists of only 48 cards (12 cards per player).
Bidding: Hosse is played with partners, like as is in spades. But, unlike spades, the highest bidder is the only one that counts. The minimum bid is a 6. Bidding starts to the person who was dealt the first card (to the left of the dealer). If no one else bids, the dealer must bid six. A trump can be selected, or there is also an option for no trump. No suit is generally harder.
Hosse is also another type of bid. You must play without your partner, and take all tricks to win.
Scoring: The bidding team must take as many suits as they bid, or they get deducted that many points. The team that did not bid gets the number of tricks they take as points as well, so if you bid 6 and take 6, both teams get 6 points. A hosse bid is worth 25 points.
Total points need to be 62 or more to win the whole match.
Other: There’s a lot to the game. I may cover more in detail later about giving and reading hints from your partner.
The only people I’ve found that know about the game are in my family, but I think it may have originated in Ohio.
I hope these instructions are detailed enough to understand.
(Other common spellings may be Hausse, Haussey, or Hossey, and may be the same game as Double Hassenpfeffer)