Third Trick
Every hand turns on the third trick.
What it is
North American euchre for four: you, your partner across the table, and two opponents, all but you played by the computer. Twenty-four cards, the 9 up to the ace in each suit, five to each player dealt in threes and twos, and one turned up. Order it up or pass, name trump, and take at least three of the five tricks, or be euchred.
Trump runs right bower, left bower, ace, king, queen, 10, 9. When trump is named, the left bower moves into trump in your hand and wears a gold badge, so the rule that catches every newcomer is right in front of you. Three or four tricks score 1, all five score 2, and all five alone score 4; a side that is euchred gives the other side 2. A game runs to 10, or to 5 or 7 if you’d rather.
Stick the dealer and the Canadian loner are on. In the second round of naming trump the dealer can’t pass, and if the dealer’s partner orders it up, they go alone. Going alone, the lone player’s partner sits out and the player on their left leads. The rules are one tap away, and they change between games only.
The computers decide from their own cards, the bidding and the cards already played, and nothing else: they can’t see your cards, and your partner plays to win. Your partner always plays its best, while the opponents get sharper when you win a game and gentler when you lose one. Each hand is shuffled once.
How to play
- Sit downTap anywhere
- Name trumpOrder it up, Pass, or a suit
- Play a cardTap it
- Rules and settingsThe gear, bottom right
You sit at the bottom, and your partner sits across the table. When it’s your turn to name trump, tap Order it up or Pass; the dealer’s button says Pick it up. To play alone, tick Go alone first. If the turned card goes down, tap a suit to name it, or Pass. As the dealer, tap the card to throw away. Cards you can’t play are dimmed, and a tap on one shakes it and lights the suit you have to follow. Put the phone down mid-hand and it waits for you.
On a desktop, click just as by touch. Or use the keys: Enter sits down. When naming trump, 1 orders it up and 2 passes; when naming a suit, 1 to 4 name spades, hearts, clubs and diamonds, and 5 passes. A ticks Go alone. The arrow keys pick a card and Enter plays it. R opens the rules and settings, where Tab switches tabs, the arrows turn pages, 1 to 4 change the settings and Escape closes.
What isn’t settled yet
Only the side that names trump can go alone. Defenders can’t.
No joker, no no-trump and no farmer’s hand, and no bid, three-handed or two-handed euchre.
One person at a time. Every hand is hidden, so two people can’t share the screen.
You can’t pick the computer’s strength: the opponents step up after you win and down after you lose, and your partner always plays its best. Nothing suggests a play either: the rules are there, but there are no hints.
Held sideways on a phone, the cards are small.
Build Log
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Build 4
The computer players decide from their own cards, the bidding and the cards already played, and nothing else: that view is all they are handed. To prove it, every decision they made over 250 games was asked again with the hidden cards dealt afresh at random, 74,382 decisions in all, and not one answer changed. A separate referee also replayed 36,177 hands and found every card legal and every point scored correctly.
Credits and licences
No third-party engine — it draws to a plain canvas. The typefaces it does use are embedded under the SIL Open Font Licence, with the copyright notice retained in the shipped file. Cover drawn from the game’s own card code.
Third Trick is original work by Launchway Games.