How to play Barbu.

Barbu is a four-player card game where the objective changes between rounds. You might avoid winning tricks, dodge the king of hearts, or race to empty your hand. Barbu Club lets you play in your browser with three friends or practice against three bots.

The table, the deck, the goal

Every player receives 13 cards from a standard 52-card deck. Aces are high, followed by kings, queens, jacks and numbers down to two. In trick-taking rounds, each player plays one card in turn. Follow the suit of the first card if you can. If you cannot follow suit, your legal options depend on the contract.

The highest card in the suit led takes the trick, unless a trump wins. That player leads the next trick. Scores accumulate across contracts, and the highest total wins the game. A negative score is normal: avoiding penalties is part of the challenge.

The seven contracts

The Barbu Club format

This is a shorter house variant: play each enabled contract once in the order shown above. The starting player rotates after every round. Domino and Trumps are optional, so a match has five, six or seven rounds. Domino always starts from sevens, and spades are always trumps. There is no doubling or contract bidding.

Traditional Barbu has a longer format with contract selection and doubling. If that is the version you know, check the differences before you start. You can read the traditional Barbu rules on Pagat.

Play with friends

Choose “Create a multiplayer table,” enter your name, and select the optional contracts. The host can choose 15, 30, 60 or 120 seconds per action and whether the match is ranked. Public tables appear under “Tables” for anyone to join; private tables require the invitation link or key. Hosts can tap open seats to add bots, or remove a bot before dealing. Any table with bots is unranked. Once all four seats are filled, the host deals the cards.

If a player runs out of time, the game plays a legal move for them. Each player sees only their own hand. If you close the page, return with the same browser and room code to rejoin your seat. A room with no active players resumes when someone returns.

Practice against bots

Choose “Play with bots” for a game with three computer opponents. Solo practice is always unranked, and you can take as long as you need on your turn. Multiplayer tables with bots are also unranked, but keep the host’s chosen action timer. Highlighted cards show your legal moves. The information icon beside the contract name explains the current rules.

How rankings work

Multiplayer players start at 1,000 rating points. Completed ranked games adjust ratings using pairwise Elo, comparing your result with each opponent and accounting for tied scores. Practice games, multiplayer games with bots, and friendly unranked rooms do not change ratings. Your identity is remembered in this browser; clearing its cookies loses access to that identity.

A few moves worth remembering

In negative contracts, keeping low cards can help you avoid unwanted tricks. Watch the suits other players cannot follow: those players may discard penalty cards onto your next lead. In Last Two, think about the cards you will be holding near the end. In Domino, opening a sequence can help opponents as well as you.