Your turn
The beloved trick-taking card game, against three AI opponents. Every trick, players follow the led suit and the highest card takes the pile — but here taking tricks is dangerous, because every heart is worth a penalty point and the Queen of Spades stings for thirteen. The whole game is the art of ducking: slipping low cards under, dumping your dangerous ones on someone else, and never getting caught holding the bag. Pull off the rare and ruthless shoot-the-moon — sweep all twenty-six points yourself — and the score flips onto everyone else instead. Lowest total when a player hits fifty loses; outlast the table to win.
You sit at the bottom of a table of four; the other three seats are AI. Each hand, the 52 cards are dealt out thirteen to each player. Whoever holds the two of clubs leads it to start the first trick.
Going clockwise, each player plays one card. You must follow the suit that was led if you have it; if you don't, you may play anything. When all four have played, the highest card of the suit that was led wins the trick, and that player leads the next one. Tap a card in your hand to play it — only the cards you're allowed to play are raised and bright.
The catch is that winning a trick is usually bad. Each heart in a trick you take is one penalty point, and the Queen of Spades alone is thirteen. So the skill is in 'ducking': playing just under the current high card to avoid winning, throwing your hearts and the Queen onto a trick someone else is going to take, and unloading dangerous cards before you get trapped with them.
You cannot lead a heart until a heart has been played on some earlier trick (this is called hearts being 'broken'), and no points may be played on the very first trick.
One bold play flips everything: if you manage to take ALL twenty-six points in a single hand — every heart and the Queen of Spades — you 'shoot the moon' and score zero, while everyone else takes twenty-six. After each hand, points are added to the running totals. As soon as a player reaches fifty, the match ends and the lowest total wins. Beat the table to extend your win streak.
Get rid of high spades early, especially if you don't hold the Queen. The Ace and King of spades are magnets for the Queen of Spades — if someone drops her on a spade trick and you're holding the Ace, you eat all thirteen. Throw your high spades away on early tricks before that trap can spring.
Void a suit to gain freedom. If you can empty your hand of an entire suit, then every time that suit is led you're free to dump a heart or the Queen of Spades onto someone else's winning trick. A short suit you can clear out fast is more useful than a comfortable middling one.
Low cards are gold; keep a few. The whole game is about not winning tricks, and a 2 or 3 almost never wins. Holding onto your smallest cards in each suit lets you slip safely under late in the hand, when everyone's high cards have been forced out.
Watch for the moon — yours and theirs. If an opponent has taken every point so far, they may be shooting; throw them a point to break it. And on the rare hand where you've scooped up early hearts, consider going for all twenty-six yourself — but only commit if you have the high cards to guarantee it, or you'll just hand yourself a disaster.