How to play Septica Clasica

Capture the tens and the aces. Each is worth a point, eight to a deal. Round points add up, and the first player to the match target wins.

Șeptica is played with a 32-card deck, 7 up to ace. Everyone holds 4 cards and draws back up from the stock after each trick, while it lasts.

1. The leader plays any card. That card's rank is what the trick can be cut with.

2. Everyone else plays one card, again with a free choice: there is no obligation to follow suit.

3. The trick goes to the last player who cut it, or stays with the leader if nobody did. The leader can battle on instead of letting it go.

4. The winner takes the trick. Cards stay on the table until they do, so everyone can see how it ended. Hands are topped back up to 4, and whoever took the trick leads the next.

The leader plays any card and everyone else follows with any card. There is no obligation to follow suit. The trick goes to the last player who cut it; if nobody cut, the leader keeps it. Nothing is swept away automatically: the pile waits on the table until its winner takes it.

A card cuts the trick when it matches the rank of the lead card, or when it is a 7. Sevens cut everything.

Suit never matters here. A card of the same suit but a different rank does nothing at all.

After a full circle, if the trick was cut away from the leader, the leader can battle on: play another cutting card, the lead rank or a 7, to take it back, or end it and let it go.

The pile keeps growing while you fight over it, so the points on the table tell you whether it is worth another 7.

Every captured 10 and ace scores 1 point. Eight points sit on the table in each deal, and the other cards are ammunition.

Captured points are public: everything was played face up, so the number beside each player is exactly what they took.

Deals keep coming until somebody reaches the match target: 8 on the short table, 21 on the long one. The highest total wins, so a deal where you took nothing really costs you.

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

Tap a card to pick it up, then use the button under your hand to play it, or tap it again to change your mind. The buttons only offer what the rules allow: Continue and End appear when the choice is yours, and Take appears when a trick is yours to collect.

You can also drag a card into the middle of the table to play it, or sideways in your hand to reorder it.

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 the stock order stay hidden, so it cannot cheat.

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