How to play Cruce

Win the auction, name the trump and bring in the card points you promised. Kings and queens of a suit, a cruce, pay on top of the cards you take. Bid too high and your side loses exactly what it bid; the first side to the match target wins.

Cruce is played with 24 cards, the nine, ten, jack, queen, king and ace of each suit, by three or four players.

At four, partners sit opposite: the two facing each other play together for the whole match and always hold the same score. At three, everybody plays for themselves.

The deal comes in two halves. Half the hand goes out first, three cards each at four players and four each at three, the auction is held on that alone, and the rest is dealt once the contract is won. Nothing is left over: all 24 cards end up in hands, and there is no stock.

Starting to the dealer's left and ending with the dealer, each seat speaks once. You either pass or name a number from one up to six, and each bid has to be higher than the one before it. There is no second round.

A bid is a promise measured in thirty-threes: bid one and your side has to bring home 33 raw points, bid two and it is 66, bid three and it is 99. You are bidding on half a hand.

If everybody passes, the hand is dead: the cards go back, the deal moves one seat on and nothing is scored.

The seat that won the auction takes the rest of its cards and then names the trump suit. It is announced before a single card is played, so the whole table leads to the first trick knowing what cuts.

Some tables do it the other way about: the winner of the auction simply leads, and whatever suit that first card is becomes the trump. Leading the king of the suit you are making trump is then worth 40 rather than 20.

1. The seat that won the auction leads the first trick. After that, whoever took the last one leads.

2. Follow the led suit if you hold it.

3. If you are void in it, you must play a trump if you hold one.

4. Holding neither, play anything.

Any trump beats any card that is not one: a trump nine, worth nothing at all, takes a plain ace. Otherwise the highest card of the led suit takes the trick, and the order is ace, ten, king, queen, jack, nine. The ten sitting above the king is the one thing to keep straight on your first evening.

Some tables also agree that you must beat the card currently winning whenever you can; the standard table does not.

Hold the king and the queen of a suit and lead one of them, and you have shown a cruce: 20 points for a plain suit, and 40 if that suit is the trump.

It counts the moment you lead. The table announces it for you and there is nothing to press. The card you led is played on as an ordinary card and can be beaten like any other.

One cruce per suit per hand, and it is showing the pair that pays: you have to still be holding the other half when you lead the first.

Each side counts the cards it took. That is 120 in the pack, and the crosses are added to whichever side showed them.

That total is then cut into bands of 33: 33 to 65 is one, 66 to 98 is two, 99 to 131 is three, and so on. Every side scores its own band.

The side that took the contract scores its band only if it reached what it bid. If it fell short it is set: it loses exactly the number it bid, and the other side still scores its band.

Hands keep coming, the deal moving one seat on each time, until a side's total reaches the match target. The highest total wins, and at four players it is the pair that wins rather than a seat.

Open the scores at the top of the table whenever you like.

When it is your turn to bid, the numbers you may say appear under your hand. After the auction the winner picks the trump from four suit buttons.

In play, tap a card and then the button under your hand, or drag it into the middle of the table. Cards you may not play do not respond. A cruce shows itself as you lead it.

The card points each side has taken, and the crosses shown so far, sit beside the names for the whole hand.

A practice match runs entirely on your device against bots, with no connection needed. A bot sees only what any opponent could see: your hand, and your partner's, stay hidden, so it cannot cheat.

Online, a bot steps in for a player who has gone quiet, so the table keeps moving.