How to play Get Away (Bhaabi)

The deal

• One 52-card deck, no jokers. All cards are dealt, one at a time, so some players may have one card more.
• No suit is trumps. Cards rank from 2 (low) to Ace (high).

The first trick

• Whoever holds the Ace of Spades must lead it.
• Everyone then plays a spade if they have one. If you have none, play any card.
• The first trick is always thrown away, whatever was played, and the Ace of Spades holder leads the second trick.

Every trick after that

1. The leader plays any card. Its suit is the suit for this trick.
2. Each player in turn must play the same suit if they have it.
3. Everyone followed suit: the cards are thrown away. Whoever played the highest card of the suit leads next.
4. Someone can't follow suit: they play any other card. That's a tochoo, and the trick stops there. Whoever played the highest card of the suit picks up every card of the trick and leads next.

Getting away

• When your hand is empty, you get away: you're out, safe, and the others play on.
• The last two: no getting away with power. When only 2 players are left and your last card wins a trick where both followed suit, you don't get away: you draw a card from the thrown-away cards and must lead it. After 3 draws without getting away, you're the Bhaabi.
• The last player still holding cards is the Bhaabi.

Take Cards

When it's your turn to lead, you may ask the next player who still has cards to give you their whole hand. If they agree, you take all their cards and they get away. Online, the host chooses whether Take Cards is allowed in the room.

With two players left, either one can offer to surrender. If the other agrees, the one who surrendered is the Bhaabi.

Hide Ace of Spades

An option, offline and online. Nobody has to show the Ace of Spades:

• a random player leads the first trick, with any spade (or a card of 10 or lower if they have no spades);
• everyone plays a spade if they can; if not, the suit that was led; if not that either, a card of 10 or lower;
• the highest spade of the first trick leads the second.

Online rooms

• Turn timer: none, or 15, 20, 25 or 30 seconds. If your time runs out, you're out of the game and your cards go to the players still in.
• Show card counts: when on, everyone can see how many cards each player holds.
• Someone goes offline: the host hears it once and can remove them by tapping their name at the top, then Remove. There are no pop-ups.

Strategy tips

• Get rid of high cards early while everyone can still follow suit; they're thrown away safely.
• Count the suits. When a suit has been played a lot, a tochoo is close. Don't be the one holding its highest card.
• Play low when a tochoo is likely, so someone else picks up the trick.

Tips for screen reader users

• Every move is spoken: who played what, who picked up, who got away, and whose turn it is.
• Each card says its full name. Cards you can't play are dimmed, and TalkBack says so.
• The list view shows your hand as a simple list, which is easier with TalkBack than the grid.
• Change the speech speed in Settings, Sound and speech.