How to play Card Fishing

Card Fishing is a two-player fishing card game in the tradition of a well-loved Finnish family game. Cards lie face up on the table, and you "fish" them out with cards from your hand: a card takes every table card of the same value, and any group of table cards that adds up to it. Points come from the cards you collect and from clearing the whole table in one play, which is called a sweep.

It is a game of skill because every play changes the table your opponent faces next. A good player thinks about what they leave behind as well as what they take. On skill.games you play one opponent, the Bot, in a match to 16 points.

How to play on skill.games

When the game opens, the settings appear first: choose a difficulty and tap PLAY. Your four cards are at the bottom, the table cards in the middle, and the Bot's hand at the top. Name tags show the match score.

• Your turn: tap a card to lift it. The table cards it would take glow and the rest dim, so you can see exactly what will happen. Tap it again to play it. If it takes nothing, the second tap places it on the table.
• Quick play: drag a card up out of your hand to play it at once, or drag it sideways to reorder your hand.
• Point cards: cards worth points carry a gold dot; in your hand it shows the card's hand value.
• Between rounds: a score sheet ticks off the round's points. Tap NEXT ROUND to deal again.
• Menu: the button in the top-left corner pauses the game. From there you can resume, start a new game or turn the sound on or off.
• Saving: an unfinished match is saved. Next time, tap CONTINUE to carry on where you left off.
• Results: at the end you see the score, rounds and sweeps, plus your wins, losses, win rate and streaks at that difficulty.

Rules

Setup. One 52-card deck. At the start of a round, each player gets four cards and four cards are laid face up on the table. When both hands are empty, each player gets four more cards (no new table cards are added). This repeats until the deck is used up, so a round has six deals. The player who did not deal leads every deal, and the deal alternates between rounds. The Bot deals the first round, so you lead it.

Card values. On the table, cards count at face value: Ace 1, 2 to 10 as numbered, Jack 11, Queen 12, King 13. Three cards are worth more when played from your hand:

• Ace: 14
• 2 of Spades: 15
• 10 of Diamonds: 16

A turn. Play one card from your hand. It takes every table card of the same value, plus every group of table cards that adds up to its value. Several groups can be taken at once, but each table card only once. In our version the capture is chosen for you: it is always the largest possible set (most cards, then most points, then most spades). If your card takes nothing, it is placed face up on the table.

For example, a 9 played onto a table of 9, 5, 4, 3 and 6 takes the 9, the 5 and 4 together, and the 3 and 6 together: the whole table.

Sweeps. Taking every card on the table is a sweep, worth 1 point, except on the very last play of a round. When the round ends, any cards still on the table go to the player who made the last capture.

Scoring a round:

• Most cards: 1 point (nobody scores it on a 26–26 tie)
• Most spades: 2 points
• Each Ace: 1 point
• 2 of Spades: 1 point
• 10 of Diamonds: 2 points
• Each sweep: 1 point

Winning. Rounds continue until someone has 16 points or more. If both pass 16 in the same round, the higher total wins; if the totals are level, another round is played.

Strategy tips

• Don't leave an easy sweep. A sweep is possible whenever the whole table splits into groups that each add up to one card's value. A single card, or two cards adding up to 16 or less, is an open invitation; several unrelated cards are much harder to clear.
• Keep your big hand cards. An Ace (14), the 2 of Spades (15) and the 10 of Diamonds (16) can take large combinations. Saving them for a crowded table often pays off.
• Chase spades. Most spades is worth 2 points, more than most cards. Prefer captures that include spades when the choice is close.
• Grab the point cards. Table Aces, the 2 of Spades and the 10 of Diamonds score on their own. Look out for chances to take them, and avoid placing them where your opponent can.
• Place low, harmless cards. When nothing captures, put down a small card that scores nothing and is hard to combine into a sweep.
• Count the last deal. Once the deck is empty, every card you have not seen is in your opponent's hand. Plan the final plays, and remember the last capture takes the leftovers.

Difficulty levels

• Easy: the Bot often plays a random card; otherwise it grabs whatever takes the most table cards.
• Normal: the Bot values each play by what it gains (points, spades, cards and sweeps) and places low, pointless cards when it cannot capture. It still makes an occasional random play.
• Hard: the Bot plays without randomness, also considers what you could take from the table it leaves you, and keeps its Aces, 2 of Spades and 10 of Diamonds for big captures.
• Crazy: plays like Hard and also counts cards. Once the deck is gone it works out the last deal perfectly, aiming for whatever result wins the match.