How to play Seep

Card values

• Ace = 1; 2 to 10 = their number; Jack = 11, Queen = 12, King = 13.
• With 4 players, partners sit opposite each other.

The deal and the bid

1. The player who goes first gets 4 cards and must hold a card from 9 to King; otherwise the cards are dealt again.
2. They bid a value from 9 to 13, from a card they hold. Then 4 cards are laid face up on the floor.
3. Their first move must be one of: build a house of the bid value, capture cards worth the bid value, or throw the bid card on the floor.
4. The rest of the cards are then dealt. The app deals for you.

Your turn

Play one card, to do one of four things.

1. Capture

Take floor cards that match your card's value, alone or adding up to it, and every house of that value. A Jack (11) can take a Jack, or a 4 and a 7 together, or both at once.

2. Build a house

Put your card together with floor cards that add up to 9, 10, 11, 12 or 13. That's a house of that value. You must keep another card of that value in your hand, to capture the house later.

3. Add to a house

• Same value: add cards that make the house's value again. The house is worth more when it's captured.
• Raise it: an open (not pukka) house can be raised to a higher value, up to 13. It becomes yours.
• Either way you need a card of the house's value in hand. In a team, adding to your partner's house needs none.

4. Throw

Put your card on the floor as a loose card.

House rules

• A house becomes pukka (cemented) on the second action on it. A pukka house can't be raised; only its own team can add to it; anyone can capture it.
• At most 2 houses can be on the floor.
• If you own a house, you can't throw away your last card of its value.
• You can't break up your own team's house.
• When you capture or build at a value, you must take every floor card that adds up to that value. You can't throw a card of a value that a house has, or that floor cards add up to.
• A loose card of a house's value joins the house; two houses of the same value become one pukka house.

Sweeps

• Clearing the whole floor, every loose card and every house, in one capture is a sweep, worth 50 points. On the very first move of a deal it's worth 11.
• The sweeping team gains the points and the other team loses them, at once.
• A team two 50-point sweeps ahead of the other in one baazi wins the baazi straight away.

Scoring and winning

• These 17 cards add up to 100. Loose cards left at the end of a deal go to whoever captured last.
• Each deal counts against an even split: a team that captured 70 points scores +20, and the other team -20. Sweeps are added on top.
• A team that is 100 points ahead at the end of a deal wins the baazi.
• The team that scored fewer points in a deal plays first in the next.

Strategy tips

• Keep your backup card. No backup, no house.
• Watch the spades. Most of the points are in them, and the King of Spades alone is 13.
• Don't leave a sweep. Before you throw, check what the floor adds up to.

Tips for screen reader users

• Every move is spoken: what was played, captured or built, whose turn it is, and the score.
• Read Floor speaks every loose card and every house with its value, at any time.
• When a card has more than one move, tapping it opens a list of choices, each read aloud.
• The round summary and the countdown to the next deal are announced.