The rules of 28
As implemented here, with every configurable value. The engine, the server and this page read the same ruleset.
The deck
32 cards. 8 ranks in each of 4 suits, ordered strongest first: J 9 A T K Q 8 7 — where T is the Ten.
| Rank | Card points | In the deck |
|---|---|---|
| J | 3 | 12 |
| 9 | 2 | 8 |
| A | 1 | 4 |
| Ten | 1 | 4 |
| K | 0 | 0 |
| Q | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 28 |
Why 32 cards and not 28
The name comes from the 28 card points in the deck — (3 + 2 + 1 + 1) × 4 suits — not from a 28-card deck. No standard 28-card variant exists. The total is derived from the ranks and their values rather than stored as a constant, so a variant deck stays internally consistent.
Seating
Four seats. Seats 0 and 2 are Team A; seats 1 and 3 are Team B, so partners always sit opposite. The database enforces that with a check constraint rather than trusting the caller. Play runs counter-clockwise.
Whatever absolute seat you hold, the client always draws you at the bottom and your partner at the top.
The deal
4 cards to each seat. The rest of the deck stays face down until the contract is settled, after which everybody is dealt up to 8 and 8 tricks are played.
The shuffle is a seeded Fisher–Yates over a splitmix64 stream. Before any card is visible the server publishes a SHA-256 commitment to the seed; at the end of the match it publishes the seeds themselves, and they are shown on the match review screen. Anyone can reproduce the deal and confirm it was fixed before the first card was seen.
The auction
Bids run from 14 to 28 in steps of 1. Each seat in turn either raises or passes; a seat that has passed is out.
The dealer’s side must outbid rather than match, which is what stops the dealer’s partnership taking a contract on equal terms. If everybody passes, the hand is redealt with no score.
A two-stage auction — everyone bids up to 20, then only seats that bid in stage one continue to 28 — is available to private and club tables. It is off for ranked play: it lets a seat that has not yet acted be locked out when an earlier seat jumps straight to the stage-one ceiling, and that asymmetry has no place in a rated match.
The concealed trump
The bidder chooses a trump suit by setting one card of that suit face down on the table. Nobody else is told the suit — not even their partner. While it is concealed the bidder cannot play that card, and every other seat sees a contract with a value and no suit.
That is enforced by the server’s projection, not by the interface: the suit is simply not in the data a non-bidder receives.
The three reveals
- A defender asks. A seat that cannot follow suit may request the reveal — and then must play a trump if they hold one. Asking to see the trump and then discarding is not allowed.
- The bidder exposes it on their own turn, which they may do at any time.
- Automatically, when the bidder cannot follow suit and the concealed card is their only card of the led suit.
Once revealed, the card joins the bidder’s hand and the suit is public for the rest of the deal.
Trick play
- Follow the led suit if you can.
- If you cannot, play anything — except when you owe a trump from a reveal request.
- The highest trump wins the trick; with no trump in it, the highest card of the led suit wins.
- The trick winner leads the next.
Scoring
Each side counts the card points it captured. The bidding side makes its contract when it captured at least the bid. What the hand is worth depends on how high the contract was:
| Contract | Game points |
|---|---|
| 14–19 | 1 |
| 20–24 | 2 |
| 25–27 | 3 |
| 28 | 4 |
If the contract is made, the bidding side takes those game points. If it is set, the defenders take them instead. First side to 5 game points wins the match.
Clocks
Every action is on a clock, and the clock keeps running for a disconnected seat — a disconnect is not a way to think for free.
| Action | Seconds |
|---|---|
| Bid | 15 |
| Choose trump | 15 |
| Play a card | 20 |
| Decide on a reveal | 10 |
On expiry a legal card is played automatically. After 3 consecutive timeouts the seat’s team forfeits. A dropped connection holds the seat for 60 seconds, which is long enough to walk through a tunnel or reload a browser tab.
Ratings
Rated matches move a chess-style Elo rating, with a separate duo rating for each partnership — 28 is a partnership game, so the partnership is rated in its own right. Ten matches leave placement; before that a rating is shown as provisional.
Ratings are computed and written entirely by the server. There is no code path by which a client can influence one.
New to the game? Start with the two-minute guide.