Trick Taking

Trick Taking 8,4/10 6220 votes
For all three difficulty levels the cards are dealt completely at random to you and to the computer players. Computer players are not given any special advantage and they do not know what cards are in your hand or in any of the other players' hands. The difference between the easy, standard, and pro players is their memory of what cards have been played and their strategies used to choose their plays. If you are finding that the computer is beating you, you will likely benefit from understanding how the computer chooses its next move.
  1. Trick Taking Board Games
  2. Trick Taking In Bridge

Game
Bidding:Generate a maximum willing bid by picking a random number. Increment the bid until it is above the maximum willing bid, then pass.
Declaring Trump:Declare trump suit with whichever suit has the highest sum of card values.
Passing Cards To Declarer:Pass a random set of cards.
Passing Cards As The Declarer:Pass a random set of cards.
Trick-Taking:Play a random legal card.

Example program. The trick taking power of a bridge hand is estimated with Milton Work point count, of which we shall implement a version that is simple enough for beginners of either Python or the game of bridge. Looking at a bridge hand that consists of thirteen cards, first give it 4 points for each ace, 3 points for each king, 2 points for each queen, and 1 point for each jack. A trick-taking card game is one in which players take turns playing cards and the highest card played in each round wins what is known as the trick. Typically, the goal is to win more tricks than other players or teams. There are many different games within the genre, including favorites like euchre, spades, and hearts.


Standard Computer Strategy
Bidding:Simulate many rounds with cards randomly dealt to standard strategy players. Set the maximum willing bid at the round score achieved in more than 83% of the simulations.
Declaring Trump:Simulate many rounds with cards randomly dealt to standard strategy players. Pick the trump suit that resulted in the highest willing bid.
Passing Cards To Declarer:First prefer not to pass any cards that result in a meld score for your hand. Then, prefer to first pass highest trump cards. Then prefer highest non-trump cards.
Passing Cards As The Declarer:First prefer not to pass any cards that result in a meld score for our hand. Then, prefer to first pass non-ace cards that would make us void in a suit, then prefer non-trump kings, then non-trump queens, then jack of diamonds (except if just received from partner), then lowest non-trump cards, then lowest trump cards. Finally, if necessary, we would choose to pass the cards that contribute the least amount of points to our meld score.
Trick-Taking When Leading:Remembering what has been played and what was shown during passing and melding, play the highest trump card that is guaranteed to take the trick. Otherwise, play the highest non trump card.
Trick-Taking When Following Lead:If we don't have a play that can beat what is currently in the trick pile, then if our partner played the current highest trick card then we play our lowest counter. Otherwise we play our lowest card. If we do have play options that could beat what is currently in the trick pile, then we play our highest winning card unless we are playing last. If we are playing last and we can take the trick then we play our lowest card that can take the trick.

Trick Taking Board Games


Trick Taking In Bridge

Bidding:Simulate many rounds with cards randomly dealt to standard strategy players. Set the maximum willing bid at the round score achieved in more than 75% of the simulations.
Declaring Trump:Simulate many rounds with cards randomly dealt to standard strategy players. Pick the trump suit that resulted in the highest willing bid.
Passing Cards To Declarer:First prefer not to pass any cards that result in a meld score for your hand. Then, prefer to pass highest trump cards (except 9's of trump). Then prefer aces. Then prefer 9s of trump. Then prefer queen of spades or jack of diamonds. Then prefer jacks. Then prefer nines. Then pass the cards that contribute the least amount of points to our meld score.
Passing Cards As The Declarer:First prefer not to pass any cards that result in a meld score for our hand. Then prefer non-trump kings, then non-trump queens, then jack of diamonds (except if just received from partner), then lowest non-trump cards, then lowest trump cards. Finally, if necessary, we would choose to pass the cards that contribute the least amount of points to our meld score.
Trick-Taking When Leading:First remove bad options: For each legal play, simulate the rest of the round 200 times with random deals of the unseen cards. If any play results in an average round score that is more than half a point lower than the highest average play, then remove it from the options considered.
Remembering what has been played and what was shown during passing and melding, play the highest trump card that is guaranteed to take the trick. Otherwise, play the highest non trump card that is guaranteed to take the trick. Otherwise, play the lowest card.
Trick-Taking When Following Lead:First remove bad options: For each legal play, simulate the rest of the round 200 times with random deals of the unseen cards. If any play results in an average round score that is more than half a point lower than the highest average play, then remove it from the options considered.
If we don't have a play that can beat what is currently in the trick pile, then if our partner played the current highest trick card then we play our lowest counter. Otherwise we play our lowest card. If we do have play options that could beat what is currently in the trick pile, then we play our highest winning card unless we are playing the last trick card. If we are playing last and we can take the trick then we play our lowest card that can take the trick.