Play Tarneeb against the computer

Setting up a table of bots

Tarneeb 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. Partners are first and third to sit down against second and fourth.

The table rules are the length of the game, 31 or 41, and whether the defence scores only when it beats the contract or its tricks either way. Only the host can seat bots, and only before the first hand.

What a bot can see

Its own thirteen cards, the bids, 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 bid and each card, so you can follow the auction and every trick.

How the bots bid and play

A bot counts its aces as a trick each, its kings as half, and one more for every card past three in its longest suit, then adds three for its partner. If that comes to the lowest bid still allowed, it bids exactly that; otherwise it passes. It never jumps.

When it wins the auction it names its longest suit. In the play it leads its lowest card, plays its lowest when its partner is winning, and otherwise wins with the cheapest card that does.

How to beat them

Because a bot only ever bids the minimum, the auction stays low. If you have a good hand, bid early: a bot will rarely push you up, and a low contract made with extra tricks is the best score in the game.

A bot never leads trumps to draw them, so when the bots are declaring, their trumps stay out for a long time. Cash your aces in their short suits early, before they can ruff them.

Bots and people together

Invite friends with the code and let bots take the empty chairs. The order you sit down in decides who partners whom, so sit down in the order you want to play.

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.