Play Escoba against the computer

Setting up a table of bots

Escoba here is for two to four players. Open a table and press "Add an opponent" once per bot: one bot is the classic game for two, two bots make a game of three where everyone plays alone, and three bots make two partnerships, with the second bot to sit down as your partner.

The one table rule is the length of the game: 21 or 30 points. Only the host can seat bots, and only before the first deal.

What a bot can see

Its own three cards and what is on the table, the same as you. Hands are kept on the server, so no bot — not even your partner — can see what you hold, and none of them knows what is left in the pack.

Bots take about a second over each play, so you can follow what they took and why the table changed.

How the bots play

When a bot can make fifteen, it picks the capture it values most: an escoba above everything, then the seven of coins, then coins, sevens, sixes and aces, and otherwise as many cards as possible. When it cannot, it lays down the card it would least mind somebody else taking.

What it does not do is add up the table it leaves behind. A bot will happily leave a table worth 9 or 12 without asking whether you can clear it, and it does not count which cards have gone.

How to beat them

Hold back a card that sweeps. Because the bots never protect the table, the card you are keeping will often find the table adding up to exactly what it needs a turn or two later. Most of your points against bots come from escobas.

Do the opposite yourself: whenever you have to leave a card, leave the table under 5 or over 14. The bots sweep when they can, but they do not plan for it.

Bots and people together

Invite friends with the code and let bots take the empty chairs. At four the seating decides the partnerships, first and third against second and fourth, so sit down in the order you want to play.

After each deal everyone presses "Ready for the next hand"; bots are ready at once. If somebody leaves mid-game a bot plays their seat, and if their connection drops it is held for twenty-five seconds and handed back when they return.