Strategy

Up to 9 looks like a game of luck for the first few rounds — right up until you meet someone who plays it well. That's when you discover that every draw, every discard and every joker is a decision. This guide collects the strategy that separates the players who "try again next round" from the ones who win. It assumes you know the rules — they're on the rules page.

The joker economy: the game's currency

The jokers (2s and 3s) are the game's currency, and like any currency they can be invested — or squandered.

• Know your budget. Every level has a joker cap — level 1 allows none, level 9 allows four. Before you plan your hand, know exactly how many jokers your lay-down can carry, and therefore the minimum number of real cards you need.
• A joker in your hand is a double-edged sword. It can complete almost anything — but if you're still holding it when the round ends, it costs you 20 penalty points, the same as an ace. The closer the round gets to ending (watch how few cards your opponents have left!), the more you should lean towards using or shedding your jokers.
• Don't spend a joker where a real card could turn up. If you need a ♠7 and hold both a joker and decent odds of a real ♠7 (several decks in play!), wait a couple of turns. The joker you save now is your lay-down on the next level.
• Remember the double identity. A ♥3 sitting in the three-spot of a hearts straight is free — it doesn't count against your budget. "Locking in" a 2 or 3 as a real card in the right suit is often the most valuable thing you can do with it.

Drawing and discarding: the information game

The deck gives you an unknown card; the discard pile gives you a known one. It sounds like a simple choice, but this is where the game is really played:

• Take from the discard pile only when the card actually fits your plan. Every pick from it tells the table what you're collecting. Against attentive opponents (and against the Hard bots, which remember the discards), the information you leak is often worth more than the card.
• Discard what your opponents can use the least. If your neighbour has picked up two nines from the discard pile, your nine is the last thing you should throw. Discard ranks and suits nobody has shown any interest in instead.
• Count what's out. If six queens are already on the table in lay-downs and donations, a "6 of a kind" of queens is a dead project. Treat the table as a ledger of what's left in circulation, and switch plans early when the ledger turns against you.
• Late discards are the most dangerous. Towards the end of the round, your opponents are sitting on nearly finished hands. A "safe" discard early in the round can be a gift late in it. When someone is down to two or three cards, discard the most expensive card they can't use.

Donating: the weapon people forget

Laying down is what moves you up a level — but donating is what wins rounds. From the moment you've laid down, you can dump cards onto anything on the table, your own melds and everyone else's alike.

• Plan your exit before you lay down. Look at what your hand is left with after the lay-down: where is it going? A hand whose leftovers fit the melds on the table is a hand that goes out. A hand with three orphaned cards is three turns of discarding — and three chances for your opponents.
• Other players' lay-downs are your dumping ground. Your king is worthless to you, but on an opponent's set of kings it's a donation that empties your hand. Keep track of everything on the table — every meld is a potential way out.
• Timing your lay-down is a trade-off. Laying down early gives you plenty of turns to donate the rest away — but it also gives your opponents more places to donate their cards. Waiting saves everything for one big finish (lay down + donate + discard = out in a single turn), but risks someone else ending the round before you. Against fast players: lay down early. Against passive ones: wait and go out in one go.
• The ace ends are valuable. A straight on the table can grow all the way down to a low ace and up to a high ace — but never past them. If you're holding the ace that "corks" one end, you know nobody else will be dumping cards there afterwards.

Level by level: where the plans change

• Level 1 (straight of 4, 0 jokers): The only contract without joker help. Chase two suits in parallel until one of them takes shape — going all in on a single suit from the first draw is the most common way to get stuck.
• Levels 2–3: Three of a kind is cheap (the suit doesn't matter) and one joker is allowed. You can often lay down quickly here — spend the surplus turns dumping expensive cards before someone goes out.
• Level 4 (3× three of a kind): Remember the special rule: at least one set must be completely clean. Build the clean one first; the jokers rescue the other two.
• Levels 5–6 ("many of a kind"): Now it pays to think in ranks, not suits. With several decks in play there are eight copies of every rank for every two players — but check the table: every donated eight is one fewer for your "6 of a kind".
• Levels 7–9 (long straights): Suits are king again. Pick your suit by what the discard pile and the table tell you is still available, not by what your hand happens to start with. With four jokers on level 9 you "only" need five real cards in sequence — but those five must share a suit, so every real hit counts double.

The long game: penalty points and the bots

• Penalty points are silent until they suddenly decide everything. They only count as a tiebreaker when several players reach level 9 in the same round — but in close games that's exactly what happens. Shedding an ace and a joker (40 points!) in a round you weren't going to win anyway can be what wins you game number three.
• Know when the round is lost. When someone is obviously about to go out and your lay-down isn't going to make it: stop building. Switch modes — discard and donate away your most expensive cards (aces, jokers, face cards) and take a cheap 15-point exit instead of an expensive 60-point one.
• How to beat the Hard bots: they draw purposefully towards their contract, remember what's been discarded, and avoid feeding you. But they're predictable in one way — they play "correctly". Use the discard pile as bait: a discard in a rank you don't need more of can coax out information about what the bot is collecting. And donate aggressively: the bots punish you for every card you're left holding.