Updated Features

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Public Club Directory

Club admins can now list their club in a new public directory. Trickster Cards’ users can view the directory and request membership in publicly listed clubs. Club admins then review and approve the requests.

To list your club, ensure the “Allow membership requests” club setting is Yes and then set “List in public directory” to Yes.

Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Club Messaging

We’ve added chat messaging between club admins and members. Club admins can post announcements to the entire club membership, engage in an admins-only chat, and send messages to specific members. Members can send messages to admins. Finally, admins and VIP members can post in a club-wide chat room.

See the new commands on the Club Details page and in the Chat panel.

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Bid Euchre Challenges

By request, we’ve added daily challenges for Bid Euchre. One regular challenge with level-based bidding and a rotating challenge with level & suit bidding.

New Spades Challenge

We’ve also added a new regular daily challenge for Spades. This one is a Joker-Joker-Deuce-Deuce variation often played in person. Min bid (board) is 4, 10-for-200, no Nils, no Blinds.

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Spades Lessons

We’re excited to welcome Professor T from the World Series of Spades to teach Spades lessons!

Our first lessons cover Spades basics, letting you play out each scenario directly in Trickster Cards. They’re a great, low-pressure way for you or a friend to learn how to play.

Find the lessons in the Spades section below the Play, Join, Practice, and Compete buttons.

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Score Only Bid

We’ve added a “Score only bid” Bid Euchre option. When enabled, you don’t receive extra points for tricks you take beyond your bid.

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

More Bid Euchre

Based on swift feedback, we’ve added more Bid Euchre rule options. The new options allow you to set bidding to auction-style (multi-round) and level & suit bidding (versus just level then suit). There’s also a new option for “Maker leads first.”

Thursday, August 29, 2024

Bid! Euchre

Today we add an often-requested feature: a Bid Euchre variation of Euchre. Bid Euchre differs from Euchre in two ways: bidding and scoring. See our Bid Euchre Basics help file for more info.

Create a Bid Euchre game in the Euchre section using the “More Games/Rules” button. Set “Variation” to “Bid Euchre” and adjust other rules as desired. Then use “Create” at the bottom of the form to start the game.

Friday, August 16, 2024

Thanks for Celebrating!

Thank you for celebrating our 10-year anniversary with us this past month. While the celebration is over, we hope to keep playing cards together for many years to come.

Thursday, August 8, 2024

Club Membership Requests

Turn on the new “Allow membership requests” club setting for a direct link you can post on your website, socials, etc.

The link opens your club’s details page, showing a “Request Membership” button to new players. Players who don’t yet have a Trickster Cards account will be prompted to sign-up.

Club admins can then review and approve pending requests to join the club.

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Confirm Cards Setting

We’ve added a setting to “Confirm Cards” when playing. Choose “Tap 2x” to require a second tap/click or “Popup” to ask you to confirm each card.

Thursday, July 25, 2024

Whist 1x for NT defense

In Bid Whist, normally when you have both the “2x for NT” and “Defensive scoring” rule options on, we credit double points for defense of an NT bid. With the new “1x for NT defense” option on, we don’t double the points.

Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Club Event Tags

You may now tag club events with words or short phrases. You can then filter by these tags when viewing standings or exporting results.

Friday, July 19, 2024

Oh Hell Scoring Additions

Based on feedback, we’ve added scoring options to Oh Hell which can encourage higher bidding (Bid² + 10) or more accurate bidding (Minus 5 × Tricks Off Bid).

Limit Event Start

We’ve added an “only organizers may start event” option to club events. When enabled, only an admin or organizer can start the event. When disabled, anyone can start once everyone is present or the grace period has expired.

Monday, July 15, 2024

We’re Turning 10!

From now through August 15th, receive a matching gift from us with each purchase.

Thursday, July 11, 2024

Club Standings

You can now display Club Standings by time range. The page defaults to events in the last year.

Wednesday, July 10, 2024

Video Chat Settings

You can now change which camera or microphone you want to use for our built-in chat.

After enabling video, click your player name and choose “Video Settings” to see a list of available devices. Pick what you want and we’ll remember your choices for next time.

Monday, July 8, 2024

Club-Level Partnerships

Club admins can now assign members to regular partnerships at the club level. These partnerships will be used by default for events created with “Same partners all rounds” unless changed for that specific event.

Confirm Event Start

Club event admins can now edit and confirm the final player list for an event before it starts. This enables admins to reserve seats for confirmed players who may not yet be present or exclude themselves from the event.

Friday, July 5, 2024

Group Event Results by Team

Club Events played with “Same partners all rounds” now group teams together under a single result instead of listing each partner separately.

Break Event Ties by Score

Club Event Results sorted by wins now break ties using the points for a player/team and results sorted by points break ties using wins.

Event Lobby Reservations

The lobby for a Club Event now shows temporarily reserved players using a clock icon (). These players will be included in the event if it starts before their reservation expires.

Thursday, June 13, 2024

Club Event Partnerships

We’ve made it easier to create Club events with fixed partnerships by extending “Same partners all rounds” to work with “Round Robin” and “Winners Move” seat assignments.

In particular, “Round Robin” events with “Same partners all rounds” will ensure each team plays every other team once before repeating.

Tuesday, June 4, 2024

New Bid Whist Rules

By request, we’ve added new house rules for Bid Whist. Limit games to 4, 5, or 6 hands, use positive scoring, or lose if set twice or 3x.

Set these rules in Club Events to keep rounds more in sync across tables. Or enable them in any game using “More Games/Rules.”

Tuesday, May 28, 2024

Clubs

We’re excited to make Clubs publicly available! Clubs let you play multi-round and multi-table events with like-minded players.

Want to join a club? You’ll first need a free Trickster Cards account. Then ask a club owner/admin to invite you to their community.

Want to start your own club? Become a VIP to create and manage as many clubs as you’d like.

Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Keep Join Games Moving

You can now remove players from untimed Join games who are idle (haven’t played for over a minute). When this happens you’ll get a prompt and see an hourglass next to their name.

Of course you can still choose to wait if you know they’re coming back.

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Bridge 2/1 Updates

The new bot in our 2/1 Preview now does a better job of respecting forcing bids and exploring slam.

Change “Bidding system” to “2/1” in your next Practice or Join game to try it out.

Tuesday, April 9, 2024

First Hand Bids Itself

Now you can play Spades where the first hand bids itself. This rule skips the first round of bidding, giving players 10 points for each trick/book they take unless they fail to make the min bid (board). Later hands are bid normally.

Try it out by going to “More Games/Rules” and enabling “1st hand bids itself” for your game.

Thursday, April 4, 2024

Clearer Notification Settings

We’ve simplified our notification settings by grouping them based on how you’re notified: when you’re online, on your device, or via email.

Check out the new experience in the main menu under Settings, Notifications.

Tuesday, April 2, 2024

Invite All Online Friends

Based on feedback, you can now click “Select Online Friends” to select all of your currently playing friends to invite to a game.

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Rule Differences Highlighted

Players with favorite rules will now see differences highlighted between available games’ rules and their favorites. This helps you choose games with rules you prefer.

You can turn off this highlighting by changing the setting labeled “Highlight Rule Differences” to No.

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

2/1 Bid Explanations

We’ve added bid explanations when playing with our new Bridge bot using the 2/1 Preview. Hover over or press-and-hold your legal bids (or tap other players’ bids) to see an explanation.

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

New Bridge Bot!

Our long-awaited new Bridge bot is available in preview. This new bot implements the 2-over-1 bidding system (with others planned for the future). Learn more at 2/1 Preview.

To use this new bot, create your next Bridge game using the “More Games/Rules” button and set bidding system to “2/1.” Available only in Join and Practice games.

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Stickier Menu

Our menu is now harder to accidentally close on pages where you’re entering information. You can always close the menu by clicking the “X” in its upper-right corner.

Thursday, February 8, 2024

More Chat Presets

Based on feedback, we’ve expanded the list of available chat presets. You can now edit your presets list to choose from the expanded set and remove unused items.

To change your presets, use the Edit button at the bottom of the presets panel or go to Settings and select the item labeled “Chat Presets.”

Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Daily Challenge Results

Our new “Daily Challenges” button below Play, Join, Practice and Compete groups together today’s challenges while giving you quick access to check results throughout the day.

Check the count on the button to quickly see how many of today’s challenges you haven’t played yet, and check the “View Past Results” button in the Daily Challenges section to access your results from the past week.

Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Renege in Spades

Spades games with friends now have the option to allow reneging, meaning players may play any card from their hand at any time.

Two penalty options are available for players caught not following suit: “Set” where the hand ends and the offending team is set and “Bid+3” where the offending team must take three additional tricks to make their bid.

Find it under “More Games / Rules” in the Join section. “Bid+3” only available when playing without Nil.

Time in Your Time Zone

We now show times in your time zone when sending invitations and reminders. Check or change your time zone in Settings, Notifications.

Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Chat with Friends

With a VIP pass you can now chat with your friends when you’re not playing together—even if your friends aren’t VIPs. Learn More

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Board is 5

Based on feedback, we’ve expanded the “Min bid” rule in Spades games to include “5” as an option. Find it under “More Games / Rules” in the Play, Join, Practice, or Compete sections.

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

MiniBridge

We’ve added MiniBridge to simplify learning the game of Bridge. It avoids complex bidding conventions — instead using what was dealt to determine who chooses trump. Find it under “More Games / Rules” in the Play, Join, Practice, or Compete sections.

MiniBridge is fun to play in itself and a great way to improve your sense of hand strength and fit. See our MiniBridge Basics to learn more.

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

The Lonely Euchre Bot

Per feedback, the Euchre bot now bids alone more often when it has the cards to make it. This includes accounting for getting a good card from partner in call-for-best games.

The bot now also plays alone hands better by recognizing when certain high cards might be out of play.

Thursday, November 23, 2023

Buy as a Gift

Give the gift of Trickster Cards to your friends and family this holiday season by buying them a VIP Pass or Trickster Chips.

Choose “Buy as a gift” before purchasing to receive a shareable gift code once your purchase is complete. See About Gifts for details.

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

3-player Euchre

We’ve added the option for 3-player Euchre games. The rules are the same as 4-player except those that assume partners. There’s a new 10−A deck size option for 3-player.

Euchre No Alone

Used by some when playing with three players, we’ve added a new “No alone bids” option. This option disables “alone” bids and “alone”-related game options.

Wednesday, November 8, 2023

Supporting Good Sportsmanship

With today’s update, players who deliberately make bad bids/plays may have a harder time finding games with real people.

500 Bot End Game

The 500 bot now tries to bid only as high as needed to win the game. When doing so it takes into account whether its team is currently winning the auction, whether the opponents may still raise, and whether it can bid again if they do.

Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Log Your Deals

Curious about the cards you’ve been dealt? You can now turn on deal logging and we’ll log your deals plus help you analyze them.

Open the main menu, go to Statistics, then “Deal Statistics” and choose “Start Logging My Deals” to turn it on.

Analyze Your Deals

After turning on logging, play 100 deals with the same rules – about 10 to 20 games – then return to Deal Statistics to view information about your hands from the last 60 days.

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Play What’s Popular

We’ve refined the “Play” list to more accurately show which rules are popular right now. Choose rules with more bars filled-in to increase your chances of playing with more real people.

If you don’t see the rules you want, use the “More Games/Rules” button at the bottom of the list to customize them.

Pitch Bot Overbidding

Thanks to feedback, the Pitch bot no longer bids too high when holding the off-Jack. This had caused the bot to make some crazy bids in 10-Point Pitch.

Spades Bot vs Blind Nil

Per request, the Spades bot won’t bid Nil if someone bid Blind Nil. This helps both the bot and its partner prioritize setting the Blind Nil.

500 Bot & NT Bids

The 500 bot now counts tricks better when deciding to bid NT. It still won’t bid 6NT without the Joker, but now requires some strength to avoid ending up in a losing contract.

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

No More Waiting

We’ve removed the 1-minute wait between “Play” games when leaving a game early.

Completion Matching

“Play” mode games now match players to games by their 28-day completion rate in addition to rules, speed, and skill.

You can view your current “Play” mode matching criteria in the Statistics menu item.

Spades Bot & Nil Pass

Per request, the Spades bot now takes the number of cards it can pass into account when choosing whether or not to bid Nil.

Spades Bot in 3rd Seat

The Spades bot now forces the opponents to play high when it is second to last to play. This helps prevent the other team from getting a cheap trick.

500 Bot Avoids NT without Joker

In addition to bidding 6NT with the Joker, the 500 bot now avoids bidding NT without the Joker unless their partner already bid NT.

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

Choose Your Watermark

Pick between a few new watermarks for the center of your table while playing. Or upload your own watermarks as a.

Change your watermark by opening the main menu, going to “Settings”, then choosing “Watermark” at the end of the “Theme” section.

Thursday, September 28, 2023

Pinochle Shoot the Moon

Based on requests, we’ve added the ability for Pinochle players to “Shoot the Moon.” To enable this, set the rule option “Ask to shoot” to Yes.

When Ask to shoot is on, we ask the declarer if they want to shoot the moon after trump is chosen and passing is complete. If they choose to shoot, they must take all tricks or lose the game. If they do take all tricks, the game over score is added to their score, typically causing them to win.

Pinochle Mercy & Bidder Goes Out

Two other new Pinochle options are “Mercy rule” and “Bidder goes out.” Mercy rule allows the game to end when a player or team goes too far negative. Bidder goes out ensures that the bidding player or team wins if both teams go over the game over score.

Pitch Called Partner Response

Based on feedback, the Pitch bot has been updated when playing call your partner games. It will now lead back its lowest, most valuable point card, expecting that the player who called them will be able to take it.

500 6NT with Joker

The 500 bot now bids 6NT when holding the Joker based on requests for this common convention.

Thursday, September 14, 2023

Open Misère? Maybe Not

The 500 bot now defends better against open misère (and misère in general).

Wednesday, September 13, 2023

Rotating Challenges

In addition to the two daily challenges, we’ve added a new rotating challenge for most of our games. This challenge changes daily and cycles through a collection of unique and interesting rules.

Friday, September 8, 2023

Watch Replays of Challenges

Players with a VIP Pass can now view replays of challenges played by any player listed on the Challenge Results page. Click on a player name in the results and choose “Watch Replay.”

Friday, September 1, 2023

Pitch Bot Improvements

The bot now does a better job avoiding playing low point cards when opponents might take the trick. It also takes the trick with the lowest winning point card when playing last.

Finally, the bot treats more cards as “potentially low” until a lower card has been played in games where not all cards are in play.

Thursday, August 31, 2023

Bridge Bot Bidding Fixes

Based on your reports, we’ve been able to fix some incorrect bidding by our Bridge bot.

If you notice questionable behavior from the Bridge bot, please send us feedback immediately (while still in the game) with the category “Computer player (bot) feedback.” Our system will attach information about the game so that we can investigate further.

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Custom Practice Deals

You can now edit the deal in Practice games to help you work on specific hands.

Click your player name during a game, choose “Edit Deal”, then click cards to select/swap them. Once you have everything in the right place, choose “Use This Deal” to play your custom hand.

Wednesday, August 9, 2023

Bid Tips in 500

We’ve added bid tips in 500 that show the points of a bid. These tips appear when you hover over the bid or press and hold on the bid button. Misère and Nullo bids include the points in their button.

You can turn these off in Settings by setting “Show Bid Tips” to “No.”

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Retry a Challenge

We’ve added a “Retry” button on the Challenge Results page so you can practice the hands again. Retrying a challenge does not change your results.

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Pitch Called Partner Leads

We learned some Pitch players play call-your-partner with the called partner leading the first trick instead of the highest bidder. So we added it as a “First lead” option under “More Games / Rules”.

Monday, July 17, 2023

Privacy Policy Update

We’ve updated our Privacy Policy to clarify we only save files that you explicitly upload (e.g. if you choose an image to use as a custom card back/face).

Wednesday, July 12, 2023

Sales Tax in More States

Due to changes in regulations regarding the collection of sales tax on internet sales, we now add sales tax on Trickster Chips and VIP Pass purchases in more US states.

Thursday, June 15, 2023

Bid Whist without a Kitty

Thanks to some feedback, we’ve added an option to play Bid Whist without a kitty, dealing all 13 cards instead of 12. To try it out, go to “More Games / Rules” when setting up a Bid Whist game and set the new “Kitty” option to “No”.

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Privacy Policy Update

We’ve updated our Privacy Policy to include a list of the Cookies and Storage items we use along with an explanation of why we use them.

Tuesday, May 9, 2023

Bot Boost

Based on feedback, we’ve improved how our bots handle a few special situations in 500, Euchre, and Pitch.

For 500, the bot defends better against Misère bids. This includes playing high in 3rd seat if the Misère bidder is already under the trick.

For Euchre, the bot “protects the left” on defense, avoiding trumping in if doing so would leave the off-Jack vulnerable. On offense, the bot now leads the off-Jack to their partner instead of a low trump.

For Pitch, the bot defends the first trick of “call your partner” games better by playing a low card instead of trying to win the trick.

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Harder Games

By customer request, we’ve added a rule option called “Hide player points” that hides the hand score displayed after each player’s name. This makes it harder to know when a player has taken enough points/tricks to make their bid.

Faster Euchre

Euchre has a new game option “Autoplay forced cards.” When “yes,” the computer automatically plays when there is only one legal card to play. This is like the user setting “Autoplay forced cards” but applies to all players in the game.

High Bid Leads Spades

A new “High bidder leads” option has been added to Spades. When “yes,” the high bidder (or first of multiple high bidders) leads the first trick.

Thursday, April 20, 2023

More Bridge Defense

Based on feedback, we’ve continued to refine the defensive play of the Bridge bots. Most notably this update fixes some issues with the bot not always playing as high as necessary when playing 3rd to the trick.

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Continue Challenge

Challenges have been enhanced so you can leave mid-game and continue where you left off by choosing the challenge again. Challenges started but not finished are indicated by “in-progress” after the game name.

Thursday, April 13, 2023

You vs Bot

We’ve enhanced the Daily Challenges results page to include a “You vs Bot” section along with a list of your friends who’ve played the challenge.

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

New Challenges Menu Item

We’ve added a new menu item, Challenges, that lets you view the results of challenges you’ve played and find challenges created by your friends and our new Daily Challenges.

Beat the Bot in a Daily Challenge!

Each day we create two Daily Challenges for each of our games. Each challenge has different rules and are created by having a bot play with and/or against other bots.

To see if you can do better than our bot (and other real players), choose a challenge from the list of Daily Challenges, finish the game, and choose “Results” from the final scorecard.

Friday, March 24, 2023

Better Bridge Defense

With advice from experts, we’ve continued enhancing the defensive play of our Bridge bots (computer players). Changes include better leads after the first trick, smarter discards when they can’t follow suit, and pushing the declaring team to play high to win the trick.

Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Better Bridge Bot Opening Leads

We’re kicking off a series of updates to our Bridge bots to make them better players and partners. This first update improves opening leads on defense. Keep an eye out for further improvements to both play of the hand and bidding behavior in future updates.

Export Hand to PBN

In Bridge Practice and Join games you can now export the current hand to PBN. This includes the current deal, auction, and played cards. We’ve been using this to easily create test cases for our bots as we continue to work on improvements.

Thursday, November 10, 2022

Large Cards

Have trouble telling which card is which? Try flipping the new “Suit and Rank Size” setting to “Large” to help. Find it in “Card Suits” under the Settings menu item alongside options to change the shape and color of suits.

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

More Boards

Based on feedback, we’re now splitting leaderboards by team vs. solo and number of players. For games with many options, you will now see sections such as 2v2, 3v3, 3-player, 4-player, etc. We made this change because a 2-team game has a different expected win percentage than, for example, a 3-player game.

The Leaderboards menu item now contains a drop-down menu at the top to select the game you’re viewing. Below the game, select the leaderboard play mode: Play, Join, or Compete.

Thursday, October 27, 2022

Watch Replays

A new feature of the VIP Pass is the ability to watch face-up recordings of games you have completed in the last 28 days. To try it, choose “Watch Replays” from the menu and click or tap a game.

Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Qualify for Compete

Starting today, players who have never played a “Compete” mode game must qualify before doing so. To enter your first “Compete” mode game, your account must be more than 24 hours old, and you must have completed 7 games in the “Play,” “Join,” or “Practice” mode sections.

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Why Block?

Our “Block” feature now asks for a reason. With this change, blocking not only helps you but also helps improve Trickster Cards for everyone else. Behind the scenes, we use block and report data to help us monitor and take action against players who spoil the game for others.

To block someone from playing games with you in the future, click on their player name during a game and choose “Block.”

Tuesday, September 27, 2022

New Zealand 500

We’ve added a “Bid after pass” option that allows players to continue bidding after passing when a player’s bid is changed. This new option in conjunction with existing options, allows a 500 game with rules popular in New Zealand.

Joker as Best Card in 500

By request we’ve also added a “Joker low in Misère” option which makes the Joker the lowest card (and non-trump) when playing a Misère/Nullo contract. Basically, the Joker effectively loses any trick to which it is played.

Thursday, September 15, 2022

Become a

Enhance your Trickster Cards experience with our new VIP Pass! Buy 1, 3, or 12 months of access to these premium features:

• Ad-free access to all games
• Receive 2,500 each month
• Wait for a player in Play games
• Friends join your games ad-free
• Exclusive status icon

Anything else you’d like as a VIP? Let us know!

Tuesday, August 30, 2022

Spades Allowed Bids

We’ve added two new Spades rules options. One lets you set when you can bid Nil: anytime, losing by 50, or losing by 100. Another requires that the total of the bids not equal the number of tricks available. See the updated Spades Rules form.

Clear Statistics

Players who wish to clear their historical play statistics can now do so either for a specific game or for all games. See the new “Clear” links and “Clear All Statistics” button in the Statistics menu item. Leaderboard data is not affected.

Thursday, August 25, 2022

500 for 3

We’ve added a 3-player variant of 500. Our game uses a 33-card deck (7–Ace plus Joker). Ten cards are dealt per player and there’s a 3-card kitty.

Use the “More Games/Rules” button to access the 500 Rules form and choose this option.

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Call Trump Easier/Harder

Based on feedback, we’ve added a “call trump” option to Euchre. This option lets you decide whether you can call trump anytime, with any trump in your hand (today’s rule), or with only “natural” trump in your hand (“natural” trump does not include the off-Jack).

See the new “Call trump” option on the Euchre Rules form (accessed with the “More Games/Rules” button).

Thursday, August 18, 2022

Cornish Euchre

As requested by a player in Cornwall, we’ve added three new options to Euchre: 1) dealer bids first; 2) defend alone anytime, and 3) dealer bids blind when the Joker is the up card.

Try these in your next Euchre game by using the “More Games/Rules” button and setting the game rule options the way you like.

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

Show Bids During Play

Bridge players can now choose to view the bid history during play of the hand. Click on your player name and choose “Show Bid History” from your player menu. The bids will be shown until the end of the hand or you choose “Hide Bid History” from your player menu.

Wednesday, August 3, 2022

New Bot Names

We occasionally update the names used for our bots (computer players). Today, we update the list with the US Census Bureau’s top 2,000 baby names (1,000 each male and female) from 1956.

Friends’ Game Letter Key

We’ve added a key for the game letters shown after friends’ names in the Friends menu item.

Thursday, July 14, 2022

Invite-Only Compete

By request, we’ve added the “Must be invited” option to Compete games. This allows you to limit your Compete game to just those friends you invite. Use the “More Games/Rules” button and set “Must be invited” to Yes when creating your next Compete game.

Friends’ Games Played

Based on feedback, the Friends menu item now indicates the card games your friends like to play. For example, you will see a B icon for a player who plays Bridge.

The Invite Friends menu item now organizes friends into two parts: those who play the game you’re inviting them to and those who don’t.

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Customize Oh Hell

The Oh Hell “More Games/Rules…” form has been reorganized to offer a “Custom Deal Pattern” choice in its “Deal pattern” option. Choose that and you’ll see a new section where you can specify the first hand’s number of cards, the last hand’s number of cards, and the switch point.

To try these new options, use the “More Games/Rules” button when creating your next game.

Saturday, June 18, 2022

Score More in Oh Hell

Based on customer requests, we’ve added new scoring options to Oh Hell. With the “Trick points” option you can control whether 1, 2, or 3 points per trick are added for a successful bid. The “Failed bids score” option lets you give no points when players miss their bid.

To try these new options, use the “More Games/Rules” button when creating your next game.

Monday, May 23, 2022

Show Off Your Score, Too

All players can now share their scorecard with others by using the “Share” button on the final scorecard of any style game – Play, Join, Compete, or Practice. Practice mode players can challenge others to play the same game.

The “Share” button replaces the “Challenge” button previously available only in Practice games.

Saturday, May 7, 2022

Bids are Blind

Spades players may now choose to offer blind bids other than Nil. Use the “More Games/Rules” button to view the Spades Rules form and the new “Blind bids” and “Min blind bid” options.

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Watch Face Up

“Join” games can now be set to allow watchers to watch the game with cards face-up. Create your next game using the “More Games/Rules” button and set “Allow watching” to “Face Up.”

Play Face Up

“Join” and “Practice” games can now be played with all hands face-up. Set the game rule option “Show all hands” to “Yes.” Suggestions and the bots’ play does not change when playing face-up.

Friday, April 22, 2022

Don’t Give Up

Players who don’t want the new Pinochle “throw in” option can turn it off. When creating your next game, use the “More Games/Rules” button and set “Ask throw in” to No.

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Give Up in Pinochle

We’ve added the ability for the Pinochle declarer to “throw in” if they don’t think they can make their bid. If you want to play out the hand, just lead a card.

Saturday, April 16, 2022

Euchre Misdeal

We’ve added an “allow misdeal” rule option to Euchre. This option allows you to let players with “Ace, No Face” and/or “No Ace, No Face” to call a misdeal. Use the “More Games/Rules” button when creating your next game and try this option.

Show Off Your Score

The Challenge feature (see Bragging Rights, below) has been enhanced to display a scorecard that you can copy and share. Choose “Challenge” on the final scorecard of a Practice game.

Tuesday, April 12, 2022

Colorful Trump

By customer request, we’ve added more colors you can use to highlight the trump cards. See the new “Trump Highlight” option in the Theme section of Settings (in the main menu).

Play and Stay

To improve the overall experience in “Play” mode games, we encourage all players to stay and finish the games they join. If you leave a “Play” game too quickly without finishing, you must wait before joining a new “Play” game.

Saturday, April 9, 2022

Faster Melds

We’ve added a Pinochle game rule option to control the speed of the meld display. Players creating Join, Practice, and Compete games can choose from five settings ranging from Very Fast to Very Slow. To try it, create your next Pinochle game using the "More Games/Rules" button and set the "Meld display speed" rule option.

Wednesday, April 6, 2022

Lead Trump in Oh Hell

We’ve added the popular “Lead trump” option to Oh Hell. This option allows you to specify that trump cannot be led on the first trick or until trump has been broken. Use the “More Games/Rules” button and try this on your next game.

Saturday, April 2, 2022

Dealer Display Before Start

We now show who will be the dealer of the first hand when you are waiting for the game to start. This allows you to position yourself relative to the dealer.

Bragging Rights

We’ve added a feature to Practice games so you can challenge your friends to replay the same game. On the final scorecard, choose “Challenge” and then share a link with friends. They will get to play the same cards from the same seat as you. See who plays it best.

Tuesday, March 29, 2022

No First Blood

By customer request, we’ve added a “Lead trump” option to Euchre. This option allows you to specify that trump cannot be led on the first trick or until trump has been broken. The default behavior is that trump can be led anytime.

Failed Nil Nada

Also by request, we’ve added a “No Bags/No Help” option to Spades’ “Failed Nil” option. When chosen, the overtricks from a failed Nil are neither added to the failed Nil bidder’s score nor added to the team score.

Saturday, March 19, 2022

Work Harder for One

For those who think taking 3 tricks in Euchre is too easy, you can now make it so you have to take 4 tricks to make your bid for 1 point. Use the “More Games/Rules” button and set “Take 4 for 1 pt” to Yes.

Alone for Less

Euchre players can now choose to score just 2 for an “alone” bid when taking all 5 tricks. Set “Alone worth 2 pts” to Yes.

Spades Like Hearts

We’ve added a new Spades option “Low ♣ first trick” that requires players to play their lowest club on the first trick. The player holding the low club leads first.

Play It Safe

The new Spades option “No ♠ first trick” makes it so a spade cannot be led or dumped on the first trick.

Friday, March 11, 2022

Spades Pass More

Based on customer requests, we’ve increased the number of cards that can be passed on Nil/Blind Nil to four.

Double-deck Kitty

Double-deck Pinochle players can now choose to play with a kitty. Create your next game using the “More Games/Rules” button and set “Kitty” to Yes.

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Love Your Rules

We’ve added the ability to mark rules as favorites. Favorite rules appear at the top of the list in each game section. To make a rule a favorite, simply click or tap the open-heart icon in the upper right corner of the rule tile. Favorites are indicated by a solid heart, as shown below.

Example of a favorite rule

You can also mark favorites on the game rules form next to the rules summary at the top. Use the “More Games/Rules” button to access.

Friday, February 25, 2022

Leaderboards Account for Ties

Based on customer feedback, starting tomorrow the leaderboard categories % Games Won and # Games Won will count ties as half a win. We round up halves so that 3 ties count as 2 wins.

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Trickster Bots Now Open Source

Based on players’ interest in enhancing our bots, we have made our Trickster bots open source. Programmers with experience in C# are invited to visit our GitHub repository TricksterCards/TricksterBots.

Saturday, January 15, 2022

Bidder Goes Out in 500

We’ve added a “Bidder goes out” game rule option to 500. When set to yes, the bidder team wins if both teams go over 500.

To try this option in your next 500 game, use the “More Games/Rules” button and set “Bidder goes out” to Yes. Ensure the other options are as you want them and create the game using the “Create” button at the bottom of the form.

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Upload Decks for Bridge

Based on customer requests, we’ve added the ability to upload decks for use in Bridge Join and Practice games. See the new help topic Uploading Decks to learn about this new feature.

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