Welcome to the Ultimate 500 card game. The iOS 500 card game that allows you to tailor the rules of the game to your exact style of play.

Each yellow underlined link will take you to another page that describes the features in more detail.

Here is an index of all of the pages: -

Page	Description
Home Page	The first screen in the game
Setup	Setup options for the game
Create User	Create a new user
Game Selection	Game selection screen
Start Game	How to setup a new game
Join Existing Game	How to join an existing game
Play Game	How to play game
Game Rules	Configurable game rules
Game Summary	Game Summary
Leaderboard	Leaderboard on this device only

Button	Description
Exit	Leave Game
Create User	Allows you to create an additional user to use on this device
User Selection	Scroll between different users to select the user that is currently playing
Purchase No Ads	Remove ads from the game through
Purchase Online Version	Purchase full version that allows online play and Game Center integration
Restore No Ads	Restore a previous remove Ads purchase
Play	Play selection screen
Tutorial	This tutorial screen
Setup	Go to the setup screen

Option	Description
Standard Bidding	Each player bids until the three other players have passed
Newcastle Bidding	Each player gets another chance to bid if they have not passed after all three other players have passed
Indicate Joker	The AI will bid 6 No Trumps to indicate that it has the joker if it also feels that it can take 7 tricks to give its partner the opportunity to use the joker in its partner's bid assessment. If the AI passes after its partner makes a 7 Spades bid then that is because the AI wanted 7 Spades and is happy with the call. The AI will never leave its partner on 6 No Trumps by bidding 7 Spades in the event that it cannot use the joker
Indicate Ace/Bauer	The AI will bid 6 of any suit that it has an Ace or Bauer (Jack) in. The AI will try and indicate in the suit that it has the longest run in if any two suits have the same number of Aces/Bauers. If there are multiple suits with the same number of Aces/Bauers and a similar card run then it will indicate in suit order ie Hearts > Diamonds > Clubs > Spades. If the partner leaves the AI with a 6 bid then it should be expected that they may not have a strong enough hand to win 6 as this bid was only an indication. Obviously the risk is that the bid really was a 6 bid and not an indication - which is why some people do not like using this option
Bid Reentry	Each player can bid again even if they have previously passed and another player bids
Redeal	If all players pass then the game is redealt
Dealer Must Bid	If all players pass then the dealer is forced to bid something
J5	For No Trumps games this option will make the Jack the highest card in each suit rather than the Ace
Joker Offsuit Disable	For No Trumps games set this option if you want to turn off the rule that you cannot use the joker on a suit that you have thrown off on. Throwing off is when you have run out of a particular suit and use a card from another suit
Joker First/Last Disable	For No Trumps games set this option if you want to turn off the rule that you must play the Joker as the first or last card in a suit
Wilkinson	This allows you to bid Closed or Open Misere at any time
8 Spades	This only allows you to bid Closed Misere after there has been at least an 8 Spades bid
Any 7 Bid	This only allows you to bid Closed Misere after there has been any 7 bid
No Misere	This turns off the ability to bid any form of misere
Double Nullo	This is a special form of Misere where the partner plays as well and you both have to lose all tricks. Boths hands are closed
Shields Double	This is a special form of Open Misere where the partner plays as well and you both have to lose all tricks. The bid winner plays the hand open
Patastrophe	This is a special form of Open Misere where the partner plays as well and you both have to lose all tricks. Both hands are played open and the game is worth 1,000 points
Peggings/Scab Points	This allows the losing bid team to earn 10 points for every trick that they win
Undeclared Slam	If a team wins all 10 tricks but did not bid 10 and the points they would have won for their winning bid were under 250 then they will earn 250 points
Walker Ultimate	A different scoring system where the winning team must win exactly 500 points. 1,000 points will lose the game

Option	Description
Name	Your name
Play Speed	The speed at which the game is played. 1 is the fastest and 5 is the slowest. This affects all card animations
Trick Pause	Number of seconds of pause between tricks when AI is next lead. Setting this to a higher setting will allow you to more carefully assess the current hand before the next card is played. Setting it to 0 will mean that you will be prompted before next card is played
Game Pause	Number of seconds before next game is started after all tricks have been played. Setting this to 0 will wait until user has prompted to continue
Intro Music	Turns on/off the intro music
Card Shading	Will show you where your rank is on the leaderboard against all other players
Card Sort On Bid	This will sort the cards in the order of the bid trumps during the bidding round
Kitty Card Drag	This mode allows you to drag the cards out of the kitty and into your hand. The system will swap the cards. You will need to leave discarded cards in the kitty. If this mode is turned off then you just need to choose which cards you would like to discard and they will turn white
AI Bid Aggression	This allows you to adjust the aggression that the AI uses when bidding. With the aggression at 0 the AI will: - Bid 6 if it feels that it can win 3 or 4 tricks in a suit Bid 7 if it feels it can win 5 tricks in a suit Bid 8 if it feels it can win 6 tricks in a suit Bid 9 if it feels it can win 7 tricks in a suit Bid 10 if it feels it can win 8 tricks and has the joker This works to the assumption that it can win 2 more tricks - 1 from its partner and 1 from the kitty. If you set the aggression to -2 then the AI will no longer consider its partner or kitty in baseline bidding and will only bid 6 if it feels it can win 5 or 6 on its own. If the kamikaze option is set in rules then these rules do not apply if the opposing team could win and your bid will not send you out the back door (-500)
Card Front Style	Select from a set of different card frontages. More will be added in the future
Card Back Style	Select from a set of different card backs. You can import from your own album or use your device's camera to capture a unique card back
Table Style	You can import from your own album or use your device's camera to capture a unique table style

Option	Description
Name	Your name

Option	Description
Play Solo	Play a solo game against 3 AI opponents
Reset Solo	Reset the solo game if there are any issues while playing
Setup a New Game With Friends	Allows you to setup a game with any other real player that is setup on this device and fill the other places with AI players. The game will allow you to pass and play between the players
Join Existing Game	Will show you a list of current offline games
View Leaderboards	Allows you to view the offline leaderboards

Option	Description
Partner	Select who you would like to have as your partner in this new game. You can either select the Computer (AI), or any other user created on this device using setup. The game will involve passing the device to your partner when it is their turn. All cards will be hidden
Opponent	Select who you would like to have as your opponent in this new game. You can either select the Computer (AI), or any other user created on this device using setup. The game will involve passing the device to your opponent when it is their turn. All cards will be hidden
Opponent Partner	Select who you would like to have as your opponent's partner in this new game. You can either select the Computer (AI), or any other user created on this device using setup. The game will involve passing the device to your opponent' spartner when it is their turn. All cards will be hidden
Done	You will then be prompted to name the game. This will allow you to uniquely identify the game in the game list when you need to rejoin. The game will then start

Option	Description
My Games	Lists all of the games that you are currently playing
Join	Join the game

Introduction

500 is a card game played in teams of two with the overall goal to be the first team to score at least 500 points with a winning bid.

The way the team scores points is to bid for the number of tricks or hands that they think their team can win. If the team is able to win that number of tricks then they are awarded points based on the bid. If they are unable to win the number of tricks that they bid then the points are deducted from their score. When the game starts there are two choices: -

Option	Description
Deal Cards	This will start the bidding part of the game
Set Rules	This will allow you to set the rules for this game before you deal. Once cards are dealt the rules cannot be changed again until the next time you deal

Bid Play

Once you start the game you enter into a bidding round where each player states how many tricks that they think their team can win. The bidding moves in a clockwise direction from the dealer and each bid must be of a higher point score bid than the previous bid. The following calls can be made: -

Bid	Description
6 to 10 Spades	Number of tricks your team can win with spades as the trump suit
6 to 10 Clubs	Number of tricks your team can win with clubs as the trump suit
6 to 10 Diamonds	Number of tricks your team can win with diamonds as the trump suit
6 to 10 Hearts	Number of tricks your team can win with hearts as the trump suit
6 to 10 No Trumps	Number of tricks your team can win without any trump suit
Closed Misere	There are no trumps and you need to lose all tricks without your partner
Open Misere	There are no trumps and you need to lose all tricks with an open hand
Pass	No longer wish to bid

Kitty

The player that wins the bid then gets presented with three cards from the kitty. The player chooses three cards from either their hand or from the kitty to discard so that they are back to ten cards in their hand. The game will then commence. The bid winner will lead the first card.

Trump Play

The suit of the winning bid is known as the "Trump" suit for this round. Each player must follow the suit of the card that is led unless they do not have any cards left in the lead suit. If they do not have any cards in the lead suit then they can play a card from any other suit.

If the player has no card in the lead suit and plays a card from the "Trump" suit then the trick has been "Trumped" and this card will beat any card from any other suit.

There are some special cards in the trump suit that represent the three most powerful cards in any trump suit. They are the Joker, Right Bauer (Jack of Suit) and Left Bauer (Jack of other suit with same colour).

Therefore in a game where the winning bid is 7 hearts - the order of the most powerful cards is as follows: -

• Joker
• Jack of Hearts (Right Bauer)
• Jack of Diamonds (Left Bauer)
• Ace of Hearts - Four of Hearts

The team that won the bid needs to win 7 tricks in order to win the game.

In a game where the winning bid is 6 diamonds - the order of the most powerful cards is as follows: -

• Joker
• Jack of Diamonds (Right Bauer)
• Jack of Hearts (Left Bauer)
• Ace of Diamonds - Four of Diamonds

The team that won the bid needs to win 6 tricks in order to win the game.

In a game where the winning bid is 8 clubs - the order of the most powerful cards is as follows: -

• Joker
• Jack of Clubs (Right Bauer)
• Jack of Spades (Left Bauer)
• Ace of Clubs - Five of Clubs

The team that won the bid needs to win 8 tricks in order to win the game.

In a game where the winning bid is 10 spades - the order of the most powerful cards is as follows: -

• Joker
• Jack of Spades (Right Bauer)
• Jack of Clubs (Left Bauer)
• Ace of Spades - Five of Spades

The team that won the bid needs to win all 10 tricks in order to win the game.

No Trump Play

Each player must follow the suit of the card that is led unless they do not have any cards left in the lead suit. The difference in No Trump play is that there are no trumps and so the order of power is the natural order of the cards in each suit with Ace being the most powerful.

The one exception is the Joker - which can be used as the most powerful card in any suit of the player's choosing.

If the player wishes to lead with the Joker then they must nominate the suit that the Joker will represent.

There are some specific rules that apply to when the joker can be played. These can be customised.

Default rules are that the Joker must be led as the first or last card of any suit. This means that you can only play the joker as a Heart if you have not already played a Heart card or if you no longer have a Heart card in your hand.

Closed/Open Misere Play

Misere is no longer team play. The bid winner now plays against the opponent team only and the bid winner's partner is not involved.

Misere follows the same logic as No Trumps in terms of suit power and Joker restrictions - the only difference is that instead of winning the number of tricks that a player bids - the player must now lose all tricks.

The difference between Closed and Open is that in Open the player must show the opponents all their cards after leading the first.

Interface

Option	Description
Exit	Leave the game
Playing Label	The current winning bid
View Rules	The rules of the current game
Tricks	Number of tricks your team and opponent team have won this game
Score	The top row shows the current round scores for your team and opponent team. The bottom row shows the current number matches won by your team and opponent team
Center Label	Shows the status of the current game
Reset	Abandons the current game and resets all scores
	Allows you to access game setup features
	Allows you to see the last hand played
	Shows this tutorial
Tip	During the bidding round this will give you a recommendation for bidding based on current rules. During the game this will highlight the recommended ard to play in the current situation
Undo	Undo the current play - all the way back to the first trick in this game

At the end of each game you can display a summary screen that will detail everything that happened in that game

Option	Description
Final Bid	Shows the final bid made by each player
Kitty Summary	Shows which cards were in the kitty for this game
Trick Summary	Shows each card that was played for each trick. The asterisk denotes which card was led. The Blue Highlight denotes the winner for that trick

Option	Description
Group Rankings	Lists the ranking of the groups you have formed against the AI and others on this device
Individual Rankings	Lists your personal rankings against the AI and others on this device
Tricks/Rounds/Matches	By clicking the heading you can switch the scores between Tricks, Rounds and Matches to see how you are tracking against other groups and individuals
Rank	The rank is calculated based on the number of games you have played as well as your win/lose ratio