Updated Features

Saturday, July 24, 2021

Leaderboards by Game Mode

Inspired by customer complaints, we’ve split the leaderboards by game mode: Play, Join, Compete. You can now see where you and your friends stand in each mode. Badges are awarded for First, Top 10, and Top 10% in each mode, thereby increasing your chances for a badge.

Saturday, July 10, 2021

New First Dealer

Based on feedback, we’ve refined the “Keep Dealer Moving” update to avoid repeating the same first dealer across games. If “Play Again” would cause the first dealer to be repeated, the deal moves one additional seat clockwise instead.

Pitch Dealer May Pass

By request, we’ve added a “Dealer may pass” option to Pitch. This allows the dealer to pass when bidding even if no other player has bid. If the dealer passes the deal moves clockwise one seat and cards are redealt.

Friday, July 9, 2021

Single Bid Double Deck Pinochle

By customer request, we’ve added the Single bid option to double deck Pinochle. Create your next game using the “More/Games Rules” button and set the “Bid style” option to “Single.”

New Ad Look

Google is updating the look and behavior of the ads we show. Starting today, some players may see this new look. The biggest change is that you may have to manually dismiss some ads – either by clicking the X in the upper right corner of the ad or clicking a button within the ad such as “Close.”

Saturday, May 29, 2021

Keep Dealer Moving

We’ve made a change to “Play Again” so that the dealer of the first hand of the new game is one player clockwise from the dealer of the last hand of the previous game.

Hearts Passing

Hearts players can now set the passing option to “Around” or “Around Keep.” “Around” passing starts to the player’s left and rotates clockwise skipping the no-pass hand. “Around Keep” adds the no-pass hand.

Whist Fixed Deals

By request, we’ve changed Whist’s “Play # of Hands” game rule option to be 8, 12, and 16 instead of 4, 6, and 8.

Saturday, May 15, 2021

Hearts Love

We’ve added a collection of customer-requested rule options to Hearts:

• You can now choose to play with 5 or 6 players. If playing with 6, you can choose to play solo or in 3 teams of 2 players each or 2 teams of 3 each.
• Allow the player who leads to be the first player left of the dealer instead of the player holding the lowest club
• Allow points to be dumped on the first trick

When creating your next game, use the “More Games/Rules” button to access the Hearts Rules form and check out these new rule options.

Sunday, April 18, 2021

Euchre for Six

Based on customer feedback, Euchre can now be played by 6 players in either 2v2v2 or 3v3 partnerships. Our 6-player version uses a 32-card deck (7–Ace) and disables “Go Under.” If playing 3v3, we further disable “Call for Best.” Other rules remain the same. Use the “More Games/Rules” button to access the Euchre Rules form and set the new “Players” option.

Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Pitch for Six

By popular request, we’ve added a 6-player option (3 teams of 2) for 4-, 5-, 6- and 9-point Pitch. Now, 6-player is available in all Pitch variations. Use the “More Games/Rules” button to access the Pitch Rules form and set the new option.

Friday, April 2, 2021

Euchre for 12 Hands

Based on customer requests, we’ve added a 12 hands option for Euchre when choosing to play the game for a fixed number of hands.

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Play # of hands

We’ve added a game rules option that allows you to choose between playing to a game-over score or playing a fixed number of hands. To use the new option, create your game using the “More/Games Rules” button and, on the game rules form, set “Play” to “# of hands.” Choose either 4, 6, or 8 hands using the “Play # of hands” option.

When joining a game, check for the phrase “for n hands” in the rules summary. Don’t join the game if you prefer playing to a score.

This new feature is available in Spades, Euchre, Pitch, Hearts, Whist, 500, and Pinochle. Oh Hell and Bridge already have options to play a fixed number of hands.

Double Deck Pinochle to 300

Pinochle players may now choose 300 (3000 in Classic scoring) as the game over score when playing double deck. Use the “More/Games Rules” button to access the Pinochle Rules form and set the new option.

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Updated Chips Purchasing

Users who purchase Trickster Chips and do so in a browser or browser-based app will see a revamped checkout process. New features include the ability to use Apple Pay or Google Pay when enabled on your device.

We continue to use Stripe for payment processing and we never see or store your credit card information.

Thursday, November 19, 2020

Faster Play Again

We’ve improved the “Play Again” experience by making it faster and not break video chat connections.

Go Under Lower

Euchre players using Jokers or larger decks (7-Ace or 8-Ace) can now add “Go Under” to their game rules. Use the “More Games/Rules” button to access the Euchre Rules form when creating a new game.

Tuesday, October 6, 2020

Disable Watching

Normally, join games can be watched by friends. You can now disable watching by setting “Allow watching” to No in the Limits section of the game rules form. Use the “More Games/Rules” button below the list of available rules to access the game rules form.

Games that can be watched are indicated by an eye icon in the lower left corner of their game tile (see example in “I Like to Watch,” below). Games that cannot be watched have an eye icon with a slash as shown below:

Saturday, October 3, 2020

I Like to Watch

Players may now choose to watch a Join mode game. Join game tiles now contain a “Watch” button:

Choose Watch if you wish to watch rather than play. Players who are watching are listed in the Current Game menu item (in the main menu). Each game can have up to 10 watchers.

Watchers can choose their point-of-view by clicking on the player name in the position they want to watch from and choosing “Watch Here.” Watchers can perform many of the actions playing players can including chat and adding friends. All options can be found in the Current Game menu item.

Players playing can switch to watching by choosing “Leave & Watch” from their player menu (click your player name). Watchers can switch to playing by clicking on a computer player name (laptop icon to left of the player name) can choosing “Play Here.” During the pregame state, watchers can become players by clicking on an empty seat where it says “Play Here.”

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Marriage Counseling

Based on very helpful feedback, we’ve fixed bugs with the handling of double, triple, and quadruple royal marriage in double deck pinochle.

Thursday, September 10, 2020

Double Deck Options

We’ve added 3 requested options to our double deck Pinochle game: Double royal marriage, Minimum 20/200 in meld, and Minimum 20/200 in tricks.

Use the “More Games/Rules” button to access these and other Pinochle options. Read more in our Pinochle Basics help file.

Friday, September 4, 2020

Double Deck Pinochle

By popular request, we’ve added double deck as an option for Pinochle. Use the “More Games/Rules” button to access the Pinochle Rules form and set the Variant option to Double Deck. We’ve reduced the other available options until we hear what you would like.

We don’t recommend double deck on phones due to the large number of cards in the hand.

Misère for Less

Aficionados of 500 have suggested lower values for both Misère (Nullo) and Open Misère (Open Nullo). Today’s update adds those lower values.

We also added an option where you can turn off the behavior which allows a 250-point Misère (Nullo) to be outbid by 8♠. See the new option “8♠ overbids Misère (Nullo).”

Tuesday, September 1, 2020

500 for 6

We’ve added 6-handed play to our 500 game. It’s available in 2 versions: 3 teams of 2 (2v2v2) and 2 teams of 3 (3v3). Use the “More Games/Rules” button to access the 500 Rules form and use the Players option.

Note: This is the first time we’ve supported 2 teams of 3 players. If you encounter partnership-related errors, please send feedback.

Friday, August 14, 2020

Misery After 8

500 players who like the option that limits bidding Misère/Nullo until a 7-level bid is made may like the related option that limits bidding Open Misère/Nullo until an 8-level bid is made. Use the “More Games/Rules” button and set “Open Misère/Nullo after 8” to Yes.

Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Card Suit Colors

In response to players’ requests for different colors for each suit, we’ve added colors to the Card Suits setting. You may now choose between 9 color schemes in addition to the 5 suit symbol schemes previously available. See Settings in the main menu and choose “Card Suits.”

Hearts −50 for 50x > 50

Based on customer feedback, we’ve added an option to the Hearts −50 for 50x rule to only subtract 50 when your score is a multiple of 50 greater than 50. Use the “More Game/Rules” button to access Hearts Rules to choose this new option.

Sunday, August 2, 2020

Hearts Pass Across

We’ve added “Pass Across” to the Hearts passing options. Does not apply in 3-player games.

Spades Min Bid 2 & 3

In addition to an optional minimum bid of 4 in Spades, you can now choose a minimum bid of 2 or 3. Not available in Mirror, Suicide, and Whiz.

Friday, July 31, 2020

Pinochle Must Bid/Set to Win

Based on customer requests, we’ve added a “Must bid/set to win” rules option to Pinochle. With this option on, the winning team must either be the bidder(s) who made their bid or the opponents who set the bidder(s). What doesn’t happen is non-bidders winning when the bidder(s) made their bid.

Bridge Undo Bids Only

We’ve added the ability to limit undo to bids only. Set “Allow undo” to “Bids” in the Bridge Rules form. Join and Practice games only.

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Undo Bridge

We’ve added the much-requested undo feature to Join and Practice bridge games. Players may now undo their bids or card plays by choosing “Undo Last Bid/Card” either from the Current Game menu item or from their player menu (accessed by clicking on your player name). Players on devices larger than phones can use the button in the lower left corner.

Undo is a bridge rules option that is on by default in Join and Practice games. You can turn off undo by using the “More Games/Rules” button and setting “Allow undo” to “No” in the Bridge Rules form.

Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Oh Hell at the Same Time

We’ve added a bidding option to Oh Hell that allows players to bid at the same time (instead of in order around the table). See the new “Bid” option in Oh Hell Rules (access with the “More Games/Rules” button). When using same time bidding, “Play with hook” does not apply.

Friday, July 24, 2020

Oh Hell for 5, 6

We’ve extended Oh Hell to 5- and 6-player play. Use the “More Games/Rules” button to access the Oh Hell Rules form to set the number of players.

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Pinochle Must Trump

We’ve added new Pinochle rules option called “Must trump if void” which forces players to play trump (if possible) when void in a non-trump suit led. This rule further constrains the “Must head trick” options of “Trump Led” and “Never.” Since “Must head trick always” already required the play of trump, this new option doesn’t apply. Use the “More Games/Rules” button to customize your rules.

Monday, July 13, 2020

New Notification Options

When you create or join a “Join” or “Compete” game, the system notifies your friends who have requested to be notified (unless the game is created with the “must be invited” option). Today, we’ve added new settings for you to control this. On the Notifications page of Settings, you can now turn off notifying your friends when you create or join games.

Bridge Bot Bidding

Thanks to clear feedback from users, we continue to refine our bridge bot’s ability to bid and understand SAYC conventions.

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Current Game in Menu

We’ve added a new “Current Game” item to the menu that consolidates the options available in each of the players’ menus. If you’re not already familiar with the player menu (accessed by clicking a player name), we encourage you to check out this new menu choice.

Thursday, June 25, 2020

Hearts Shoot Alone

By customer request, we’ve added a “must shoot alone” option to partnership Hearts. When enabled, this option requires that one member of the team take all points to shoot. Use the “More Games/Rules” option to set this rule.

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Pinochle Review Deal

We’ve added the “review last deal” feature to Pinochle. When enabled, all dealt hands are displayed face-up along with the bids at the end of each deal. This is a game rules option that can be set in the Pinochle Rules form (use the “More Games/Rules” button when creating a game). This feature is available only in Join and Practice games.

Absorb the Bids

In Bridge, we now keep the bids of all players visible until the first card is played.

Monday, June 15, 2020

Pitch Shoot All Tricks

We’ve added an option to Pitch’s “Offer shoot bid” rule to say whether the Shoot bid means “All Points” or “All Tricks”. The rule summary text reads “with shoot all points” or “with shoot all tricks” when shooting is allowed.

To play with the new rule, use the Pitch Rules form — accessed with the “More Games/Rules” button — and set “Offer shoot bid” to “All Tricks.”

4- and 6-deal Rubber Bridge

We’ve improved the scoring of 4- and 6-deal rubber bridge to properly determine vulnerability and add game and unfinished rubber bonuses.

Play-mode Bridge

In “Play” mode games, time to play is automatically set based on the slowest player’s historical play speed. Bridge was an exception. Prompted by feedback, today we change bridge to work the same way. Play bridge games may now seem too fast to some players. Note that Join and Compete games have fixed time limits set by the player who creates the game; Join games can opt to have no time limits.

Friday, June 12, 2020

Pinochle Misdeal

By customer request, we’ve added an “allow misdeal” option to Pinochle. With this option, players who are dealt 5 or more 9s can choose to call a misdeal when it’s their first turn to bid. Use the Pinochle Rules form — accessed with the “More Games/Rules” button — to turn on the “Allow misdeal” option.

Thursday, June 11, 2020

Straight-line Dummy

Apparently, some players liked the straight-line dummy display. We’ve added a “Use Straight-line Dummy” setting to enable this (see Settings in the menu).

Pitch Bid/Set to Win

Based on customer feedback, we’ve added a “must bid/set to win” option. Using the Pitch Rules form — accessed with the “More Games/Rules” button — set the “Must bid to win” option to “Bid/Set.”

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Small Screen Dummy

The way we display the dummy in Bridge depends on screen height. This change makes it so we use the columnar dummy format in Safari on iPads and other small screens.

TIP: When playing in a browser on a laptop, you can increase the screen area for the game by going into full screen mode. Press F11 or use the browser’s menu and icon to the right of the + for Zoom. In Safari on iPad, click the AA icon on the left side of the address bar and choose “Hide Toolbar.”

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Two Pinochles

Some players prefer to score 2 Pinochles as simply 2 single Pinochles instead of the higher-value Double Pinochle. We’ve added a Pinochle rules option for “No Double Pinochle” which does that.

Friday, June 5, 2020

Bridge Review

We’ve added the much-requested feature to review hands between deals. This is a game rules option that can be set in the Bridge Rules form (use the “More Games/Rules” button when creating a game). When set, the phrase “review last deal” appears in the rules summary. This feature is available in Join and Practice Bridge games.

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Bridge: Show Declaring Partner’s Hand

Thanks to everyone who wrote in to let us know how useful this feature has been for you. Based on your feedback we’ve restored showing you your partner’s hand when you’re the Dummy.

Bridge: When Bot Partner is Declarer

Based on player feedback, we now let you choose who plays the hand when you’re the dummy to a computer (bot) partner. You can either play both hands or let the bot play them. When you choose to play the hands, we rotate the table so that you play from the declarer’s point-of-view. This choice can be remembered and later updated using the new “When Bot Partner is Declarer” setting (see Settings in the menu).

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Waiting for Godot

Based on player feedback, we’ve made it so Join games cannot be started when a player is not ready (clock icon displayed to the left of their player name). Players who remain not ready are automatically removed after 30 seconds.

Rubber Bridge Deals

You may now specify a fixed number of deals for Rubber Bridge. Using the “More Games/Rules” form you may limit the number of deals to 4 or 6. Setting “No Limit” ends the deals after a team wins 2 games.

Defenders’ Score

Bridge defenders’ tricks taken are now displayed combined on the first defender to take a trick.

Sunday, April 19, 2020

High on Right in Bridge

Bridge players can now choose to sort their cards with high values on the right (the default for our other games). Find it under “Sort Cards in Hand” in Settings.

Saturday, April 18, 2020

New Pinochle Meld Types

Based on customer feedback, we’ve added new optional meld types: Double Royal Marriage for 300, Run with Extra King or Queen for 190, and Run with Extra Marriage for 230 (point values divided by 10 for modern scoring). You can enable these new meld types using the “More Games/Rules” form.

Thursday, April 16, 2020

Confirm Bidding

At the request of many players, we’ve added a “Confirm Bid” option. It’s a new setting at the bottom of the Features section of Settings (see Settings in the menu). The options are Never, Always, and Auto. Auto means that bids will be confirmed in Bridge games on phones, tablets, and other touch screens.

The bid confirmation looks like:

You may turn off bid confirmation by checking the “Don’t ask again” checkbox.

Chicago Partscores Option

There is a new Chicago Bridge option (see the More Games/Rules form) labeled “Partscores.” You choose to score partscores with a 50-point bonus (duplicate style) or let them carry forward to make games (rubber style). The default is the 50-point bonus.

We’ve also fixed the scoring bugs with Chicago.

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