Jackdaw
Original · trick-taking with a sealed bid, for three
Bid what you will take. Take exactly what you bid.
Ready to play now.
A demonstration of Jackdaw, played by the computer against itself.
Jackdaw — playing itself
Ways to play
Alone, against the computer
Your own pace, no arranging anything. Take a move back whenever you like.
Play alone3 opponents, weakest first
- Any CardBids at random and plays any legal card. Its bids land 19% of the time — about what chance gives you — and The Hoarder outscores it 259–96.
- The HoarderBids the winners it can see in its own hand — the top trump, the tops of long suits — and then plays low always and never looks at the bid again. Its bids land 40% of the time. 259–96 over Any Card, and 150–224 against The Maker.
- The MakerThe same bid, and it plays to MAKE it: taking when it is behind its own count, ducking when it is at it, and reading the trick as it stands so a card already beaten on the table is never offered as a way of taking. Its bids land 54% of the time — the number this whole game is about — and it outscores The Hoarder 224–150 and Any Card 288–83.
Together, in the same room
3 players. One device goes round the table, or everybody plays off the same screen.
Play in the same roomOnline, at a table
A room code, joinable from anywhere. Pause tonight and pick it up next week from your device.
Play online
About
Four hands of growing size — three cards, four, five, six — from a deck of four suits × six ranks. The card after each deal is turned for trump, in the open. Before a card is played, every jackdaw seals a bid of how many tricks they will take; the bids stay sealed until the hand is over. The play is plain trick-taking: follow suit, highest of the suit led takes it, trump beats everything. And the score is all or nothing — EXACTLY your bid earns ten plus the bid; anything else earns nothing. Highest total after four hands takes the perch.
How it feels
- A bid you have to live with
- Trump spent like money
- The reveal, every hand
What the design is for
The sealed bid
Bids land together and stay sealed until the hand is over — the view never says another’s. Every trick is a double question: is this trick mine to take, and did I SAY it was? And the end of each hand is a reveal, which is the beat the whole game is built around.
Exact or nothing
Ten plus the bid for exact; nought for anything else, however many tricks you piled up. Two bid and three taken is a hoard worth nothing — the jackdaw wants what it said it wanted, and the scoring makes modesty and audacity pay the same.
Trump in the open
The card after each deal is turned face up: the whole table knows the strong suit before a bid is sealed. No bidding for trump, no guessing — the information is shared and the disagreement is about everything else.
Four hands, growing
Three, four, five, six cards — the hands grow and the bids grow with them, from a modest ‘one’ to the long call worth sixteen. Every hand is shuffled and dealt fresh: what you learned about a rival’s hand dies with the hand, and the only carry-over is the score.
Taught hand by hand
Five steps: the seal, the follow, the trump you play when you are void, the all-or-nothing score — and then four hands to yourself. Each step poses the position it is talking about and accepts one move: the one it asks for.
- Best at
- 3
- Kind
- Cards
- Table
- Competitive
- Studio
- Board.game Originals
The opponents
Any Card
Bids at random and plays any legal card. Its bids land 19% of the time — about what chance gives you — and The Hoarder outscores it 259–96.
The Hoarder
Bids the winners it can see in its own hand — the top trump, the tops of long suits — and then plays low always and never looks at the bid again. Its bids land 40% of the time. 259–96 over Any Card, and 150–224 against The Maker.
The Maker
The same bid, and it plays to MAKE it: taking when it is behind its own count, ducking when it is at it, and reading the trick as it stands so a card already beaten on the table is never offered as a way of taking. Its bids land 54% of the time — the number this whole game is about — and it outscores The Hoarder 224–150 and Any Card 288–83.
Achievements
0 of 4 earned
The Perch
Win a match of Jackdaw.
Every Hand Exact
Score all four bids exactly — fifty-eight points.
Nought, Sealed and Taken
Bid nought in a hand and take exactly nought.
The Long Bid
Call three tricks or more in a hand, and take exactly that many.
Key art
Key art — Board.game art system
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