Classic card games in the town square

Eight classic card games you can play in your browser against computer players, free, with no account and nothing to install. Press Watch a hand to see the Company play a hand of Hearts by itself, or pick a game below and take your seat.
The games
Hearts
You and three computer players, each playing alone. Pass three cards, keep clear of hearts and the Queen of Spades, or take all of them and shoot the moon. The match ends when someone reaches 100.
Spades
You and a computer partner against two computer opponents. Bid the tricks your side will take, with spades always trump, and watch your bags on the way to 500.
Euchre
Partners again, with the 24-card deck, five cards each, and the right and left bowers on top of trump. Order it up, pass, or go alone; first side to 10 points wins.
Cribbage
One on one with a single computer opponent. Lay away two cards to the crib, peg your way through the play, then count your hand; the board runs to 121.
Gin Rummy
One on one, ten cards each. Build sets and runs, knock with 10 or less in deadwood, or hold out for gin; game is 100 points.
Spite and Malice
One on one with two decks shuffled together and kings wild. The first to empty a pay-off pile of 20 cards onto the center stacks wins the game.
Golf
Six-card Golf against one to three computer players. Two rows of three, mostly face down; swap in low cards, pair up your columns, and keep the lowest total over 9 holes.
Kings in the Corner
Against one to three computer players. Build down in alternating colors on the piles around the stock, send each king to a corner, and be the first to play out your hand.
At every table
Each game shows its rule options before the first deal, set to the defaults most American players expect, and remembers what you choose. You pick the level of the computer players: Easy, Standard, or Expert, and in Spades and Euchre a separate level for your partner. Undo takes you back to your last decision in the hand, and Hint shows the play an Expert player would make.
Your game is saved after every move, so you can close the tab and come back to the same hand later. Card size, four-color suits, the speed of play, and Tap twice to play are all in Table settings. The keyboard works too: U for Undo, H for Hint, and number keys for bids.
When someone walks by
Every table has a boss key, a trick nearly as old as computer games. Press the ` key (left of 1) or the Intermission button, and office work fills the screen: a budget spreadsheet, a status report, an inbox, an operations dashboard, a project plan, or a code editor. Or choose a red curtain for a plain pause. Where the browser allows it, the address bar and tabs vanish too, and the tab takes a dull title. Escape twice also works but covers only the window. Press the key again, Escape twice, or the small control in a corner, and the hand is as you left it. Pick the screen and key in Table settings.
The Company
In the 1890s, people in Britain and the United States staged "living whist": fifty-two performers in costume marched out a hand of cards on a cloth laid on the floor. This site borrows that idea, and every card in its deck is a person, a member of a troupe called the Company, in fifteenth-century pageant dress. The four suits are four houses, from the court household in crimson velvet to the soldiers in black and silver, and the table is a town square where a played card walks to the middle and the winner of a trick steps forward. If you would rather have plain faces, the Classic deck is one tap away, and the Company page tells the history and introduces the whole cast.
Fair play
Every deal has a number, and the same number always produces the same cards, so you can replay a hand or share it with a friend. The computer players see only their own cards and what has been played, exactly as you do, and their level never changes with the score. How the shuffle works covers the details, along with what your browser keeps and how to back it up.
Today's deal
Each game also has a Today's deal: one shuffle for the date, the same for everyone who plays it that day. Your results go into the game's statistics, beside your longest winning streak.
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