Pişti

How to play Pişti

Pişti is one of Turkey's most-played card games — a fast, sociable game of "fishing" that turns up in every café and family kitchen. It looks simple: you lay a card on the pile, and if it matches you sweep the lot. But the timing of when to capture, when to build the pile, and when to spend a jack is where Pişti gets its bite. Here you play head-to-head against a bot.

The deal

A standard 52-card deck. You and the bot each get four cards, and four more are dealt face-up to the middle as the starting pile. When both hands are empty, four more are dealt to each — and so on, until the deck runs out.

Capturing

• On your turn, play any card onto the pile.
• If your card matches the rank of the card on top, you capture the whole pile.
• A Jack captures any pile, whatever is showing — jacks are the game's wild hooks.
• If your card neither matches nor is a jack, it just joins the pile, waiting to be caught.

The pişti

Capture a single card sitting alone on the table by matching its rank, and you score a pişti — a 10-point bonus. Land a jack on a lone jack and it's a double pişti, worth 20. Whoever makes the last capture of the deal sweeps any cards still on the table.

Scoring

When the deck is exhausted, count the catch: each Jack and Ace is worth 1, the 2♣ is 2, the 10♦ is 3, and holding the most cards is 3 — plus your pişti bonuses. The first player to 101 over successive deals wins (traditional Pişti plays to 151).

Strategy

Don't waste your jacks on a thin pile — a jack on one or two cards throws away points; save it to scoop a fat pile loaded with aces and tens. Watch what you leave behind: dropping a lone card hands your opponent an easy pişti, so try to play onto a card you can't be beaten on. The 10♦ and 2♣ are worth chasing, and so is the bare card majority. Cards your jack can always catch make the best safe discards. Tap a card to play it — capturing plays are highlighted. N starts a new game.