Callbreak Online | Play Callbreak Free | Arcadia

1. Goal: Win at least as many tricks as you bid, over five rounds, with spades as permanent trump.\n2. Deal: All 52 cards are dealt to four players, 13 each. Dealing, bidding and play run counterclockwise.\n3. Bid: Each player names one whole number from 1 to 13. There is no second round and no pass.\n4. Follow: Follow the led suit. If you can beat the highest card of that suit, you must, unless the trick has already been trumped.\n5. Trump: With none of the led suit, play a spade that beats every spade in the trick if you hold one; otherwise any card.\n6. Score: Make your bid to score it plus 0.1 per extra trick; miss it and the bid is subtracted. Highest total after five rounds wins.

Deal and direction. Use all 52 cards with aces high. Each of four players receives 13 cards. Dealing, bidding and play move counterclockwise. The player to the dealer's right bids first and leads the first trick. The dealer moves one seat counterclockwise after each round. There is no redeal rule.\n\nMake one bid. In turn, each player bids a whole number from 1 to 13. The bid is the minimum number of tricks that player aims to win. There is one bidding round, no pass and no second chance to change the bid.\n\nFollow suit and play higher. If you have the suit that was led, you must play it. If you can beat the highest card of that suit already in the trick, you must play a higher card. You may choose any of your cards that meet that requirement. If you cannot play higher, any card of the led suit is legal.\n\nFollowing after a trump. If a spade has already been played on a trick led in another suit, you still follow the led suit if you can. You no longer have to play a higher card of that led suit, because the spade is already winning. If spades were led, the normal requirement to play higher still applies.\n\nWhen you cannot follow. If you have none of the led suit, you must play a spade that beats every spade already in the trick, if you have one. If no spade has been played, any spade qualifies. If you cannot play a winning spade, you may play any card, including a lower spade or a card from another suit.\n\nWinning a trick. The highest spade wins the trick. If no spade is played, the highest card in the led suit wins. Other suits cannot win. The winner leads the next trick, and play continues until all 13 tricks are complete.\n\nScore a round. Meet or exceed your bid to score the bid plus 0.1 for each extra trick. Bid 3 and win 5 to score 3.2 points. Fall short and lose points equal to the full bid: bid 4 and win 3 to score -4.0. The engine stores these values as whole-number tenths so the total is exact.\n\nWin the match. A match is exactly five rounds. Add every round's points to each player's total. The highest total wins after round five; tied players at the highest total share the win. Other house rules exist, but this version has no additional rounds or tie-break rules.

• Build a realistic bid. Count likely high-card winners, consider the length of your spades and look for short side suits that may give you a chance to trump. A high card in a long suit is not a guaranteed trick, so leave room for uncertainty.\n\n- Read the compulsory plays. A player who follows low may have no higher card, but that inference changes when a spade is already winning. Watch the whole trick before drawing conclusions about what opponents still hold.\n\n- Keep useful spades. A low spade can win when no other trump has been played. Saving higher spades can help you win a later trick or meet the requirement to overtrump. Sometimes the rules force you to spend a card sooner than you would prefer.\n\n- Track bids and public cards. First aim to secure your own bid. After that, an extra trick is worth only 0.1, while preventing an opponent from meeting a bid can change the standings considerably. Use the visible bids, trick counts and played cards to judge the situation.