World of Card Games

The site was down for about 15 minutes this morning for some maintenance. An update has been applied to the Euchre bots. Someone reported that the bots were excessively careful in "guarding the left". They didn't try to trump even when they had three trump cards including the left bower, a case which would assure that the left remained guarded. This problem should be fixed now.

The site was down for about 10 minutes this morning for some maintenance.

An update has been applied that tweaks the Euchre bots' tactics. I have a couple of pages that explain what was done.

First, the Euchre bots will now always lead trump if they are left of dealer and their 3rd seat partner declared trump. That page has some stats which indicate it is a successful tactic.

Second, the Euchre bots now have an improved algorithm for calling the up card when they are the dealer. If calling up will result in them having 3 trump cards, they will always call up. For example, if the up card is the 9 of clubs, and they have the 10 of clubs and the jack of spades, they will order the up card into their hand. That would give them 3 trump: the 9, 10, and left bower. If you visit that page to which I linked, you'll see some statistics that I ran which indicate this is a great tactic!

Finally, the Euchre bots will now always go alone when they have 5 trump cards. The logic goes like this: Suppose you have 5 trump cards. That's an excellent hand, and in the worst case you have the lowest 5 trump: 9, 10, queen, king, and ace. So let's look at this worst case. If your partner has the two bowers, then not going alone will help you get 2 points. However, going alone will ensure you get 4 points! Which is better? The 4 points, of course, so you should go alone. And what if your opponents have the left and right bower? Well, you'll only get 1 point, anyway, whether or not you go alone. There's exactly one case where your partner might help you get 2 points instead of 1 point. Suppose your partner has the right bower, and one of your opponents has the left bower. In that scenario, by going alone, you're going to get only 1 point instead of 2.

In the long run, the risk of getting only 1 point vs 2 is outweighed by the benefit of getting 4 points when going alone. Most of the time, your partner won't be able to help you, and it benefits the team to take the risk.

I hope you find that these changes in the Euchre bots make them a little better as a partner!

Should I order up?

Here's another post for the Euchre fans! Have you ever heard about the "reverse next" strategy? Recently, I've explored some statistics about how often "reverse next" can be used, and whether it works. Click that link to get the full scoop!

my partner, the dealer, is going to pass on this up card, a jack...

I'll call clubs with only the king and nine of clubs, using "reverse next" strategy. Will it work??

I've collected some statistics about the "consider" phase in Euchre, as played at World of Card Games. If you like Euchre, you might enjoy reading this! Click the link above to see more.

what are your chances of calling trump if you're the dealer?

[Edit: I added a second page of stats - check out part II.]

I've written a page which describes a tactic that can be used to stop a loner in Euchre. Anyone who plays Euchre may want to take a look at that. What do you think?

It can be so frustrating when your opponent "goes alone" - you may feel like you should just give up. But a lot of loners are not certain, by any means. You should always play your cards as if you are defending against a loner that can be foiled. The page I linked to above is one of my thoughts about how to do it. I've seen it work many times!

The site was updated this morning to fix a few bugs.

In Gin Rummy, there was a bug which caused your deadwood to be optimized incorrectly when your opponent declared "Gin". This had been reported to me a few times, but I was never able to reproduce the issue. Thanks to Alagon for reporting it and also sending in the hand history! With the hand history, I was able to reproduce the issue, and then I could fix it pretty quickly. (If you want to download a "replayer" for the previous hand, click the little floppy disk image that appears near your avatar after the hand finishes.)

Marie-Michele has reported a few bugs with the Euchre bots, including hand histories. Those hand histories make it possible for me to fix the problems. Most recently, the bot was seen to delay in playing the right bower to take a trick. This has been fixed. The Euchre bots are now a little bit smarter, and will be better teammates (or opponents!). Thank you, Marie-Michele!

Sorry for the disruption in games this morning! The site was updated to apply a few changes, mainly to the bots in Double Deck Pinochle and Euchre.

The Double Deck Pinochle bots should no longer give a meld bid twice (in some cases, they were doing this). Also, they should not be giving an ace-on-ace leadback in the trump suit anymore.

The Euchre bots were programmed to do a bit better when defending against a loner. They will lead with an ace if they have two of them. This helps to avoid having to decide which ace to discard later in the hand.

A minor change was made to the Hearts bots. This should make them play low-man Hearts a little better.

After this morning's update to the site, you can now play ranked Twenty-Nine!

ranked twenty-nine

There were a few other updates made, as well. In Double Deck Pinochle, the bots now use the "Jack leadback". Click that link to learn more about how it works. There's also a youtube video about the Jack leadback. The bots have had a few other strategy improvements as well. Thanks to those who sent me feedback over the last several weeks!

In addition, players at ranked tables are now allowed 3 minutes to get back to their table before getting penalized (previously it was 2 minutes).

In Euchre, the bots have had a couple of minor strategy improvements. Also, you are now given less time - 15 seconds - to choose the up card or a suit. This seems long enough even for beginners.

Finally, someone wrote to me with a question about meld bidding. This question made me think my original page on Double Deck Pinochle strategy was insufficient. So I've added a new page on meld bidding. Some players will have their own established meld bidding signals, and those may not agree with mine. In Pinochle, what matters is that the two teammates agree about the signals being made. It also helps to be able to read what your opponents are signalling. If you do not know your partner well, you may want to discuss signals with them after the game. There's a "chat" table button for this purpose. You can also send messages to a player (this only works if you have "liked" them).

I ran some experiments on the "next" strategy in Euchre. If you love Euchre, you may be interested. For an explanation of the "next" strategy, and the details of my experiment, click this link.

The bots have been updated to use the "next" strategy if it makes sense. Be on the lookout for it!

Euchre - think about using the "Next" strategy

You can now play ranked games of Euchre at World of Card Games! Euchre is a team game, so the rules are the same as for Spades. There's only one real difference: there are no "skill points" for Euchre.

Just a few quick remarks about ranked games. You can get to ranked Euchre games by clicking the Menu button (for Euchre). You will also see ranked tables in the "list of tables". You'll see 4 empty seats if the table is completely empty, otherwise you'll see an R for a registered player. If you want to sit opposite someone as their teammate, click the square that is one seat away from them (partners are given alternate seats in the list of tables).

The rules for ranked tables are:

1. They are for registered players only.
2. You must have completed at least 10 regular games before you can play a ranked one.
3. You cannot start a table with bots, but if someone drops out, then bots can be invited.
4. If you drop off the table by accident, you are given 3 minutes to return to the table before you are penalized with a loss. Note that the remaining players do not have to invite a bot, but are allowed to, to take your place.
5. You are given an Elo rating upon completion. The Elo rating is computed the same in Euchre as described for Spades.

Because ranked tables cannot start with bots, they can take a while to get started. The reward is worth the wait, since players take the game more seriously and are less likely to drop out, in my experience. So give it a try!

FYI - In the next week or two, an Elo ratings "decay" will be introduced. If a player has not played in a ranked game for 2 weeks, their Elo rating will be decremented. This will continue each week that the player is not active in ranked games, until the rating reaches 1500 again. All that's needed to keep the decay from occurring is to participate in a ranked game. [Edit June 26 2016: Instead of ratings decaying, the ratings just don't show up on the leaderboards when players do not participate for 2 weeks.]

Euchre ranked games available for registered players

If you're one of those players who hates the "Stick the Dealer" (STD) rule in Euchre at World of Card Games, you now have an option to avoid it.

Stick the Dealer option

Open your "Options" for Euchre. The new option is called "Stick the Dealer". By default, it is set to "Either". It is the least restrictive option. If you keep it this way, you'll be seated most quickly, at any Euchre table, no matter whether the rule is applied or not. If you are first to the table, the STD rule is applied.

If you really like the STD rule, you may want to click "Yes" for this option. This means you will be seated only at tables where the STD rule applies. If you are first to the table, the STD rule is applied.

If you strongly dislike the rule, click "No" for this option, and you'll be seated at tables where the rule is not applicable. If you are first to the table, the STD rule is not applied.

Note that Euchre tables where STD is applied are shown with the notation 'std' in the list of tables. In the screenshot below, the ranked Euchre table has STD applied, while the unranked one (which is for Registered Players Only - 'reg only') does not:

STD applies at all ranked Euchre games

If you are seated at a Euchre table, and you want to know whether the STD rule is enforced, just click the "table info" link in the lower left corner. It will show you all the options that apply to the game:

Euchre table info shows Stick the Dealer option

There were a few other updates this morning.

The Euchre bots have been tinkered with, so they should play a little better now. If you see them make a particularly bad move, you can always send me the hand history so I can look into the problem.

The Pinochle bots had a problem with their meld bids, and this should now be fixed as well.

In Hearts, the rule for who gets points when shooting the moon has been modified. Now, points are deducted from the shooter's score, unless adding points to the other players' scores keeps (or puts) the shooter in first place.

There's also a new "welcome" banner that can be clicked to find out more about ranked tables. You can play ranked Hearts games already. Rankings will come to other games in the next few months.

This morning, the server was down for a brief time in order to apply some updates.

Registered players can now chat after their game has finished at World of Card Games! After the game finishes, you will now see three buttons: "Home", "Chat", and "Play ..." (see screenshot below).

Click Chat button to chat with the Registered players after your game

Clicking the "Home" button takes you back to the main home page, where you can decide what new game you want to play. Clicking the "Play ..." button takes you directly to a new game of the same type that you just finished (for example, Hearts or Spades).

Clicking the "Chat" button takes you to a "chat" table where only the registered players from the game you just finished are invited. This gives you time to discuss the game in as much detail as you like, should you care to do so. The "Chat" button goes away after 30 seconds, so be sure to use it as soon as possible if you are interested in a chat with your group of players. Caveat: No one is obliged to go to the chat table, so you may find that no one joins you there.

If any who played with you goes to the chat table after your game is finished, this chat table will show up in the list of tables. Here's a screenshot of how to recognize it:

"chat" table shows up in the list of tables

Another new feature is the ability to save your "hand history" in Spades. The hand history is already familiar to those who play Euchre. Registered players can download the history of their previous hand, and replay it in the browser to review all the cards played, one step at a time. In Euchre, this feature can be a nice tool to discuss strategy. It is also very useful to report bugs in the bots to me. I'm hoping Spades players will find it useful as well. Sometimes, people report problems with the bots, but it's too time-consuming for me to figure out just what happened. With this new feature, if the bots make a boneheaded mistake, you can grab the hand history and send it to me with a description of what went wrong. I will be more likely to fix a problem when I know exactly what happened, and can reproduce the issue.

To download the hand history, click the old-fashioned "floppy disk" icon that appears next to your avatar after a hand has finished. You can see what it looks like in the screenshot here.

Click the floppy disk icon to download the hand history in Spades

Hm, I can't believe I just called a floppy disk "old-fashioned"! :)

Another important change: at ranked tables, the Elo ratings now reward the first-place player only. Elo ratings in Hearts was discussed in the previous blog post. I did not receive a lot of feedback, one way or the other, about this... but most players appear to like the idea, so I've made the change. I will continue to keep track of any feedback on the issue. Please post to Facebook or Twitter or here on the blog if you have comments. (FYI: anonymous posts are not treated very seriously; anyone can post anonymously multiple times, so I don't consider them to be so useful.)

Some Euchre players may be interested to know where they stand in their win/loss statistics at World of Card Games. If you don't want to know, stop reading now! ☺

In September of 2015, I computed the win ratio for Euchre players who had completed at least 100 games. I used the numbers that produce the "Absolute win/loss ratio" shown under your "stats" link. Below you will see the distribution of players by win percents. There's one player who has managed to attain a win ratio of > 70%. There are 15 with win ratios between 60-70%... most players come in around 40-50%, which I still think is really very good (especially because that's where my stats stand!).

distribution of players by win percent

Personally, I don't care about my statistics at all. Well, maybe a tiny bit, because I do look at them once in a blue moon. But when I'm playing, it is just for fun. This is what matters to me most.

There is some speculation about just how good you can get with your statistics; how much of Euchre is a matter of luck, and how much is skill. Some people think the best you can do is somewhere around 66%... and these statistics support that idea.

Registered players can now "replay" a hand of Euchre at World of Card Games!

At the end of each hand, you will see the image of a floppy disk appear next to your avatar. It looks like this:

replay Euchre hand history

When you click on that icon, a file will be downloaded to your computer. The file contains a link to the replayer at World of Card Games. When you paste that link into your browser address bar, you will be taken to the Euchre replayer at World of Card Games. With the click of a button, you are taken through every step of the hand, with all the cards shown.

Here's a sample link so you can try it: a case where I got lucky and our opponents were "euchred".

I've made this change along with a few bug fixes today. I hope the Euchre players will enjoy this new feature!

winning a trophy is hard work!

A few weeks ago, I created a Spades league at World of Card Games, at the request of one player. It turned out to be a fairly popular idea! We've had a few bumps in the road in getting our tournaments started, but overall I think it's been a fun experience for most of the people involved.

Running the league requires a certain amount of administrative work. Currently, I am the sole administrator and tournament director. I'm working on some tools to make it easier for others to run tournaments. That will help to make it possible for tourneys to run more frequently... And that could mean more room for tournaments or leagues in card games other than Spades.

I've had a vote (from Benno - you may have met this player on the site) to run Euchre tournaments at World of Card Games. Is anyone else interested? How about other games, for example Hearts?

I should make it clear that if people are interested in running tournaments in other games, or even forming other leagues, it's not just something that's up to me. You can start a league and run tournaments completely independent of me. There are a few sites that I know of that can be used to create leagues: Case's Ladder, MyLeague (which is a division of Case's Ladder), and Eliters. There may be more. It will take a little bit of internet savvy and some cooperation with other players, but you can totally do it if you are committed to it. I'm willing to provide support if you need it, too.

Possibly the most frequent complaint that I get at World of Card Games is about people quitting games. I've been collecting some statistics to see how the site is affected by habitual quitters. Here are the results!

The charts below are histograms that show the number of players divided up according to their quitting patterns. Players who rarely quit - between 0 and 10% of their games - are "bucketed" in the first column. Players who quit a lot - 90%-100% of their games - are bucketed in the last column. The rest are divided into buckets between those percentiles.

Private tables are ignored in these statistics, as are tables with only a single human player. Quitting from such tables is not a major problem. On the other hand, if you enter a game and then quickly leave, you are getting counted as a quitter for the purpose of these statistics. So the charts may make things look a little (or a lot?) worse than they are.



Euchre is a fairly quick game - you are usually done in 10 minutes. Quitters are not as big a problem, here.
One noticeable thing is that the games that take longer tend to be affected more by quitting. I do wonder how big a factor this is in quitting.

dealer cannot discard the up-card

In Euchre, after the cards are dealt, a card is placed face-up in the middle of the table. Each player in turn gets a chance to "order up" this card, making its suit the trump suit. If it is ordered up, the dealer must take the card, and then discard a card.

At World of Card Games, the dealer is not allowed to discard the ordered up card.

A player at the site recently pointed out to me a scenario in which it would be useful to be able to discard the up-card, even though it's a trump card:

Let’s say I dealt and turned up the 9 of Clubs.  You order it up.  I’m holding Ace King of Hearts and Diamonds and the Ace of Spades.  You will most likely lead the Jack of Clubs so I would like to bury the 9 and save the hand I’m dealt.

I did a little searching, and I found a post in a Yahoo Group which describes a similar scenario. I will reproduce it here for posterity:

I caused a little disagreement while playing in a game of Euchre in a Internet League I play in the other day. I was dealer, holding the Right, Left, Ace, Queen, and 10 of Hearts dealt me, with the 9 of Hearts as the upcard. The three other players passed, where upon I picked the 9 of Hearts up, but then discarded it, keeping the five highter trump cards I was originally dealt. Making a sweep with the five trump cards I held, one of the opponents asked at the end of the hand, "Say, where is the 9 of Hearts you picked up?", to wit I stated that I had discarded it, which brought a chorus of protests form both opposing players, stating that I could not discard the upcard that I had picked up! I have been playing Euchre for 40 years, have seen this done several times over the years, and noone had ever said anything to the contrary about the dealer not being able to discard the upcard if it is order up into their hand, or the dealer pickes it up themselves. I have checked several books on Euchre and searched the Internet sites I know of, but have found nothing said about this situation in any rules anywhere so far. So what is the rule on this - can or cannot the Dealer discard the upcard if it is order up in their hand, or they pick it up themselves, making the upcard suit the trump suit?

(Note that in the above scenario, the problem could have been avoided if the dealer had discarded the 10 of Hearts, which was effectively equivalent to the 9 of Hearts.)

I looked around to see if I could find any definitive rule on this.

The rules at Pagat do not specify that the up card may not be discarded.

The Hoyle site seems to indicate that you should not discard the up card, but maybe I'm reading it too strictly - "As soon as a player accepts the turned-up card as trumps, the dealer discards a card. The discard is placed cross- wise under the undealt cards. The turned-up card belongs to the dealer in place of the discard."

Natty Bumppo's page very clearly states that there's nothing wrong with discarding the up card.

Based on my little bit of research, I'm inclined to think I should change the rule at World of Card Games so that the up card is allowed to be discarded. Please let me know in the comments how you feel about this.

The server was out for a few minutes this morning while it got a bug fix update.

Sometimes a blank table would appear when clicking into the Hearts game. This bug has been fixed. Please let me know if you see anything like this again!

Also, the robot strategy in Euchre has been tweaked. Previously, if a robot went alone, it had the habit of leading with a low trump card. That's a bad strategy, since the low card would be more likely to get trumped on the first round. This has been fixed.

Thanks to everyone for reporting bugs, and flaws in the robot strategy. There's still a lot of work to do, but improvements will come over time. Meantime, enjoy the games!

A few changes were applied to World of Card Games this morning. Seven new avatars have been added! There's a snowboarder, a skier, and more... Check them out by clicking on the "Avatar" link in the upper left corner.


In addition, the "Options" panel has been made a bit larger and is now contained within its own dialog. Previously, it was confined to the space reserved for each game panel. You can see the old "Options" panel in my post about the "no robots" option. Here's a screenshot of the new "Options" panel:
I hope this makes it easier to change options for those with small screen sizes. Please let me know if you have any trouble with the new dialog.

Finally, a bug fix was applied to Euchre. Several players noticed that robots never "go alone," and pointed that out to me. This has now been fixed.

Thanks to everyone who sends me feedback! I'll keep working to fine-tune the site so that it's easier to use for everyone.

At World of Card Games, we follow the "Stick the Dealer" variation of Euchre. It goes like this: After the cards are dealt, a card is turned up, and each player in turn is allowed to accept this card as the trump suit. If no one chooses it, then each player in turn is allowed to name an alternate trump suit. It can happen that no one has a strong hand, so they don't want to risk naming the trump suit, and being required to take three tricks to score a point. In that case, no one names a trump suit, and the dealer is "stuck" with naming it. This can work out fine if the dealer has a strong hand, but it can be annoying, otherwise.



Today, a player wrote me that when he had played Euchre in the past, they had the custom of "throwing in a hand and passing the deal when all the players pass twice around the table." This is sometimes called a "misdeal."

This appears to be a common way of playing Euchre. However, it does make the game last a little longer. Each time there's a misdeal, no points are scored, and you have to go through the whole deal-and-choose procedure again before any cards can be played.

I'm curious to hear from Euchre players what they'd prefer. At this point, I wouldn't want to change any rules to the games, since I'm more focused on bug-fixing and adding a few new features. But for the future, I'd consider adding more variations to the rules, or even changing them if the majority prefer a specific variation.

Finally, variations in the rules of each game fragment the players onto different tables - 4 different players can be sitting at 2 different tables, waiting for a game to start, but without the variations they'd all be sitting at one table actually playing a game! That's another reason I'd rather not add more variations, now. If and when the site gets more players, more variations won't be such a problem.

[Edit Dec 8 2015: There is now an Option to turn off the "Stick the Dealer" rule.]