56 Card Game Online

How to get started with the site?

Your preferences, groups, opening or joining a table, bidding, asking the BOT and playing your first cards. Each picture is a real screen, and the numbered boxes match the notes below it. The other tours are on the How to page.

Start in the lobby

Start in the lobby 1
  1. Your preferences live behind the 👤 icon. Tap it to set the site up your way.

Your preferences

Your preferences 1, 8 2 3 4 5 6 7
  1. Three tabs: Game for how you play, Account for your name and password, Privacy for who may see your cards.
  2. Card fronts: pick the design you find easiest to read.
  3. Playing style: Click to play plays a card at the first tap. Click and confirm lifts it first and plays it on a second tap — safer on a phone.
  4. How a player's turn is shown: a blinking amber badge, or a ring moving round it — pick the one you notice best.
  5. Default bidding rules for the tables you create: International or Kerala. No default follows the group's choice.
  6. Bidding confirmation asks once more before a bid goes in.
  7. Sounds are off to start with. Switch on the ones you want: a card played, a bid, your turn.
  8. There is more on each tab — explore them at your own pace.

Groups

Groups 1 2, 3 4
  1. A group is who you play with. Everyone is in the Public Group.
  2. A private group is a closed room of your own: only its members see its tables and chat. Nobody else on the site even knows it is there.
  3. Tap a group's name to open or close its list of tables.
  4. Have a group to play with? Create it here. You can also create a group just for yourself: a private space to practise with BOTs, where nobody else can see or watch your games.

Creating a group

Creating a group 1
  1. Give it a name and choose how friends get in — by invite link, with or without an admin's nod — then send them the link.

Opening a table

Opening a table 1 2 3
  1. Start Public Match opens a table in the Public Group — anyone on the site can see and join it.
  2. New Table inside a private group opens a table only that group's members can see and join.
  3. A table that is waiting for players shows Open. Tap it to join.

Table settings

Table settings 1 2 3
  1. Choose the table's settings: how many players, how long, International or Kerala bidding, whether BOT help is allowed, how long a won trick stays on the table and how soon the next game starts.
  2. Tap the seat you want. Seat 1 deals the first game; BOTs play the rest.
  3. Then Create Match.

Before the match starts

Before the match starts 1 2 3
  1. Friends who open the table tap a BOT to take its seat.
  2. The player who opened the table presses Start match. BOTs fill any empty seat.
  3. The crown beside a badge marks the table's admin — you, since you opened it. The admin starts the match and can change its settings.

Bidding

Bidding 1 2 3 4 5
  1. The card-deck disc beside a badge marks the dealer. The deal moves on one seat each game.
  2. The chequered flag marks who opens the game: the player to the dealer's right, first to bid and first to lead. Bidding and play then go round the table anticlockwise.
  3. The blinking amber badge shows whose turn it is (or a ring, if you chose that). Here it is yours, so the bid keyboard is open.
  4. The tag beside each badge shows that player's latest call — a bid or Pass. The highest bid so far is the amber one.
  5. Bidding: tap a number and a suit, or Pass. Not sure what to bid? 💡 Suggest asks the BOT.

What does that bid mean?

What does that bid mean? 1 2
  1. Tap the 💡 on another player's bid, then meaning…
  2. …and the BOT explains what that bid says about their hand.

When a player is away

When a player is away 1 2 3
  1. An amber Zz on a badge's corner: that player is still connected but has not touched their screen for a few minutes. The blinking badge says it is their turn — the table waits for them.
  2. A grey unplugged plug means that player's connection is gone — the page was closed or the network dropped. Play waits here too.
  3. As the table's admin (the crown) you can tap the 🤖 on a player's badge to put a BOT in that seat and keep the game going. The player takes the seat back by tapping the BOT.

Playing a card

Playing a card 1 2 3 4 5
  1. The score box shows which game you are in and how the two teams stand.
  2. Tricks: the points each team has taken so far in this hand, in the team's colour. Match, below it, is the standing over the whole match.
  3. Which trick you are on, then the winning bid and its trump suit: 31 ♦ means diamonds are trumps for this game.
  4. Playing: the cards you may play are outlined and lifted; the others are greyed. Tap one to play it.
  5. The same 💡 suggests a card. That is all you need to get started — enjoy the game!

Ready to play? Create a free account or sign in. The full rules of the game are on the rules page, and the questions and answers cover the rest.