Batak: Turkish Spades

Batak is Turkey's favourite card game: four players, thirteen tricks, one trump. Bid how many tricks you will take, name the trump, and make your contract — or go "batak". Four modes — solo (ihaleli), partners (eşli), koz maça and gömmeli — against the regulars or online with friends.

WITH FRIENDS
Open a table and send its five-letter code or an invitation link, or sit down at a random table. The regulars fill any empty chair, and all four modes play online. On the same Wi-Fi no internet is needed: one phone holds the table and nothing passes through our server. If someone's connection drops, they come back to their own seat. A clock keeps the game moving — 15 seconds for a card, 20 to bid — and when it runs out a regular plays that move. Say hello with eight set phrases; there is no free chat. No adverts at an online table, not even when you leave. At an online table your nickname and your moves pass through our server.

READ YOUR HAND BACK
After every hand the game shows it to you again, card by card: what you played, what the engine would have played, and why. It answers the question you faced, from the cards you could see — it does not look at anyone's hand — and it tells you how sure it is: "better in forty deals, worse in none". The first two hands are free.

A TABLE, NOT A SLOT MACHINE
A warm felt under a lamp, decks drawn for this game, and cards that fan, fly and land the way real ones do. No banners, no coins, nothing flashing at you.

THE REGULARS
A cast of twenty-two, each with a face, a temper and a history with you. A different three sit down each game; pin the ones you like. Who makes their contract as your partner, who you take the hand from — it is all kept.

OPPONENTS THAT PLAY THE GAME
Three levels. The hard one samples thousands of possible deals before every card and bids by expected points; it remembers who is out of which suit. Easy is forgiving. Normal is a fair table.

THE RULES YOU PLAY BY
Every house has its own Batak. Minimum bid 4, 5 or 6; what happens when everyone passes; trump in the first trick; leading trump before it is broken; the "must beat the trick" rule; double penalties; the game to 51 or 101 or a fixed number of hands; no-trump (sans) bids. Each has a one-line explanation.

TAUGHT AT THE TABLE
Your first hands explain themselves: when a card cannot be played the game says why — follow suit, beat the trick, play trump. The last trick stays visible, and the score is kept the way it is kept on paper.

HONEST MONEY
Free; an advert only between hands — never during play, and no rewarded video. One purchase (Batak Master) removes them and opens the rest: every hand read back, the full record, four more table looks — deck, card back and cloth together — and any face in the cast as your own. Nothing that wins a trick is for sale — the bots play exactly as hard.

YOUR DATA
Playing alone, everything stays on the phone: settings, statistics, your choice of rules. No account, no sign-in. Online, the nickname you choose and your moves go through our server to run the table, and its logs are kept for 30 days; a same-Wi-Fi table goes from phone to phone. The ad SDK uses the Android advertising ID; the privacy policy says exactly what is used and why.

Plays offline, or online with friends. In Turkish and English.

Recent changes:
Batak goes online. Play with friends — share a five-letter table code or an invitation link — or sit down at a random table; the regulars fill any empty chair, and all four modes play online. On the same Wi-Fi no internet is needed: one phone holds the table. A player whose connection drops comes back to their seat, a clock keeps the game moving, and eight set phrases say hello. No adverts at an online table.