Play Hokm against the computer

Setting up a table of bots

Hokm here is for exactly four players, in two partnerships sitting opposite. Open a table and press "Add an opponent" three times for a full table of bots, or fewer to play with friends. Seats are in the order people sit down: first and third against second and fourth.

The table rules are the length of the game, 5 or 7 points, and whether a kot counts double. Only the host can seat bots, and only before the first hand.

What a bot can see

Its own cards and the tricks on the table. Hands are kept on the server, so no bot — not even your partner — can see what you hold.

Bots take about a second over each card, so you can follow every trick.

How the bots play

As hakem, a bot names the suit it holds most of among its five cards, with high cards as the tie-break. In the play it leads its lowest card, plays its lowest card when its partner is winning, and otherwise wins the trick with the cheapest card that does — or plays its lowest if nothing wins.

It never leads trumps to draw them, and it does not count the cards that have gone.

How to beat them

Since a bot hakem never draws trumps, its side keeps trumps in every hand for a long time. Lead your strong side suits early and cash the aces before the bots run out of them.

And because bots always lead low, the first trick of a suit is often cheap to win. Keep your high cards for the tricks that decide the seventh.

Bots and people together

Invite friends with the code and let bots take the empty chairs — two friends against two bots, or you and a friend as partners. The order you sit down in decides who partners whom.

After each hand 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.