What it is
A classic card game you have to call exactly — then break
Jester’s Bid is built on the trick-taking family of Whist, Spades and Oh Hell: follow suit, trumps win, and before the hand you say how many tricks you will take. Then it builds a run around it, with a joker shop between tables and bosses who change the rules.
Exactly, not most
Winning tricks is not the point; winning the number you bid is. Hit it and your score multiplies; take one too many or one too few and you keep only half. The dealer can never make the bids add up, so somebody always misses.
Rivals who read the table
The AI tracks every card played and which suits each player has run out of, and plays out the rest of the hand in its head before it moves. The strongest rivals also read your bid, and learn how you play over a run.
They never peek
A rival is never shown your hand. It knows only what a player at a real table would know: its own cards, the bids and the cards on the table — plus anything a boss rule reveals, which the game always tells you about.
Sixty jokers to break it with
Jokers add chips, add mult or multiply it — and some rewrite the rules outright: choose the trump suit yourself, bid after everyone else, or let a seven take a trick a trump would have won.
Bosses that change the rules
Tables four and eight belong to a boss: no trumps at all, rivals who see which suits you lack, a bid made blind, a miss that scores nothing, or a thief who takes one of your jokers after every hand.
One daily run, the same for everyone
A new run each day: the same deals, shops and rivals for every player, on the hardest rivals, with one attempt. Finish it to post your result on the day’s leaderboard, and copy a line to share how far you got.
How a hand goes
Deal, bid, follow suit — and count
-
Eight cards each
You and three rivals are dealt eight cards. The next card is turned face up and sets the trump suit. Aces are high.
-
Bid your tricks
Starting left of the dealer, everyone says how many of the eight tricks they will win. The dealer may not bid the number that makes the bids add up to eight.
-
Follow suit
The leader plays any card; everyone else must follow the suit led if they can. If they can’t, they may play anything — including a trump.
-
Win the trick
The highest trump wins; with no trump in it, the highest card of the suit led. Every trick you win adds the ranks of its four cards to your chips.
-
Score chips × mult
An exact bid adds one mult per trick you called — a correct bid of zero scores thirty chips and three mult — and your jokers pile on top. Miss, and the hand keeps half. Three hands make a table; reach its target to move on.
♠K
♥Q
♣J
♦10
♥7
♣4
♦2
♠
The dealer’s forbidden bid is struck through. The estimate under your hand appears with Beginner rivals only; Intermediate and Expert leave the counting to you.
The rivals
Six regulars, each with a way of playing
Every table seats three of them, drawn for the run. They play to make their own bids, but their scores never count: they are obstacles, not opponents for the win — and some of them would rather see you miss.
The Banker
Bids low and safe, and rarely overreaches.
Cautious
The Duchess
Bids high and plays her trumps early.
Bold
The Spoiler
Plays to make everyone else miss their bids — you first.
Spiteful
The Counter
Tracks every card, and is strongest late in a hand.
Precise
The Rookie
Makes the mistakes a person would. Always at the first two tables.
Learning
The Twins
Two seats facing each other, careful not to take each other’s tricks.
A pairHover over a rival, or tap one, to see the face it makes when its bid goes wrong. At the table they look smug after a good trick, too.
And five bosses
Two of them wait in every run, at tables four and eight, each with a rule of its own.
No trump suit at this table.
Rivals see which suits you were dealt none of.
A missed bid scores zero instead of half.
You bid before seeing your cards.
After each hand, the rival who won the most tricks steals one of your jokers for the rest of the table.
The shop
Sixty jokers, and a deck you can rebuild
Clearing a table pays gold — more for every exact bid and for beating the target well — to spend between tables on three jokers, two card packs and a voucher. You can hold five jokers; their order is the order they score in.
+12 chips for every trump in a trick you win.Chips
+2 mult for every heart in a trick you win.Mult
+0.5 mult for every exact bid earlier this run.Mult
An exact bid multiplies mult by 2.Multiplier
An exact bid of zero multiplies mult by 3.Multiplier
You choose the trump suit after seeing your hand.Rules
You bid after everyone else.Rules
Once per hand, your 7 takes a trick a trump would have won.Rules
Each hand, shows you one card from every rival’s hand.Information
Jokers come in five kinds — chips, mult, multiplier, rules and information — each with its own colour. Card packs gild, glass, make wild or heavy, re-suit or trim the cards in your deck, and vouchers add a joker slot, a bigger shop or cheaper rerolls. You start with thirty jokers in your pool; the others join it the first time a shop shows them.
Ways to play
A run, a daily, and three kinds of rival
The run
Eight tables of three hands, each target half again the last, with bosses at four and eight. Saved after every card, so you can stop at any point and pick it up later.
The daily run
The same seed for everyone, against Expert rivals, with the Classic deck and every joker, one attempt a day. A leaderboard, a streak, and a result line to share.
Three tiers
Beginner rivals play by rules of thumb and show what a hand like yours usually takes. Intermediate rivals read voids and played cards. Expert rivals also read your bids and learn you over a run, and open once you win on Intermediate.
A few minutes’ lesson
A scripted first table of three short hands teaches following suit, an exact bid, trumps and a bid of zero, with a joker to try. It can be replayed from the menu.
Winning unlocks four more decks — Short, Red, Royal and Jester — and eight stakes for when a run gets easy, and sixteen achievements unlock card backs and table cloths. Progress adds variety and challenge, never power. Larger text, reduced motion, a four-colour deck and separate sound and music volumes are in Settings.
What it will cost
Free on phones, with one unlock
No coins for sale, no energy, no loot boxes. Gold is earned only by clearing tables, and cosmetics only by playing.
Free on Android and iOS
The whole game
- Every table, rival, boss, joker, tier and stake, with the Classic deck
- The daily run with its leaderboard, the tutorial and every achievement
- Miss a table? A short video replays its last hand — once per run
- One free shop reroll per shop, after a short video
- An advertisement when a run ends — never during a hand
Premium unlock
4.99 USD, once
- No advertisements at all
- The hand replay and the free reroll, without a video
- Play every deck you earn, not just Classic
- Your full daily history, not just today’s
Jester’s Bid is still in development; the details above describe the game as it is being built and may change before release. Its chips, gold and stakes are points and run settings: nothing is wagered, and there is no real-money gambling anywhere in it. See the privacy policy for exactly what the game collects and keeps.
Contact
Get in touch
YellowGames — Jester’s Bid is made by one person, and that person reads the mail.
Questions, press, or a rival you are sure saw your cards — all the same address. For a run, say which day or which seed it was.