King (Rıfkı)
How to play King (Rıfkı)
King — known in Turkey as Rıfkı after its most feared card — is one of the country's best-loved card games and a star of the Barbu / Trex family of trick-avoidance games. It is every player for themselves, there is no trump, and instead of trying to win tricks you spend each deal trying not to take the wrong cards. You play against three bots — or head online to take on real people.
Play King online with friends
Choose Play online to be matched with other players in real time, or share a private invite link and gather three friends around the table. It plays right in your browser — no account and no app. The server deals every contract, tallies the penalties, and keeps all four seats in sync.
The basics
A 52-card deck, thirteen cards each. The player to the dealer's left leads; you must follow the led suit if you can, otherwise you may throw any card. The highest card of the led suit takes the trick — there is no trump to save you — and whoever takes it pays the penalty for that deal's contract.
The six contracts
Six negative contracts are played in turn, one deal each:
- No tricks — every trick you take costs 50.
- No hearts — every heart you take costs 30.
- No queens — every queen costs 100.
- No men — every Jack or King costs 60.
- Rıfkı — taking the King of Hearts costs a brutal 320.
- Last two — each of the final two tricks costs 180.
In the two hearts contracts you may not lead a heart until hearts have been "broken" (played on another suit), just as in the game of Hearts.
Scoring
Penalties are subtracted from your running score, so everyone's total drifts into the negative. After all six deals, the player with the highest score — the one who dodged the most damage — wins.
Strategy
Get rid of dangerous cards early: shed your high hearts, queens and especially the King of Hearts whenever you are safely not winning a trick. Keep low cards to duck under tricks you must follow. Count the suits — once you are void in a suit you can dump your worst cards on it. In the "no tricks" and "last two" deals, play your highest losing card to stay off lead and let someone else get stuck. Tap a card to play it; legal cards are highlighted. N starts a new game. (This is the classic penalty phase of King; the positive "koz" trump rounds are a future addition.)