Feskot

Overview

Feskot is the classic Tekka ruleset — a traditional Afghan four-player trick-taking card game for two teams.

• Players: 4 (you can play alone with bots, with friends on one device, or fully human)
• Deck: Standard 52 cards (Ace high in each suit)
• Cards dealt: 13 per player
• Teams: Partners sit across from each other — Team A: Bottom and Top; Team B: Left and Right
• Goal: Win more tricks than the other team. The first team to win 7 of 13 tricks wins the game.

Choosing the Prime Suit

One suit is the Prime suit (similar to trump) for the whole game.

• The first-dealt player chooses the Prime suit after seeing only their first 5 cards — they do not know what they will be dealt next.
• A bot in that seat makes the choice from its own 5 cards too.
• Once chosen, the Prime suit is revealed to everyone and dealing finishes.
• Any Prime card beats any non-Prime card in a trick.
• Among Prime cards, the highest rank wins the trick.
• Prime cards are highlighted with a gold border in this app.
• First game: mark the "Deal 1st" seat on the Home seating screen.
• Later games: the previous game's winning team is dealt first (a seat on that team is chosen automatically).

Dealing

All 52 cards are shuffled and dealt in rounds until every player has 13 cards:

• First round: 5 cards to each player (starting from the first-dealt seat, going counter-clockwise). After the first-dealt player receives these 5 cards, they choose the Prime suit.
• Second round: 4 cards each
• Third round: 4 cards each
• In bot games, your hand is face-up; bot hands stay face-down until a bot plays a card.

Playing a Trick

Play moves counter-clockwise: Bottom → Right → Top → Left.

• Leading: The player who won the last trick leads the next one. At the start of the game, the first-dealt player (who chose the Prime suit) leads the first trick. The leader may play any card from their hand.
• Following: Each other player must follow suit if they have a card of the suit that was led. If they cannot follow suit, they may play any card — including a Prime card.
• Winning: Prime beats non-Prime. Among Prime cards, the highest rank wins (Ace is highest). If no Prime was played, the highest card of the led suit wins. Cards that are neither Prime nor the led suit cannot win the trick.
• The player who wins the trick earns 1 trick for their team and leads the next trick.

Scoring and Winning

• Each trick won adds 1 to that team's trick count.
• There are 13 tricks in a full game.
• Default win: the first team to reach 7 tricks has an unbeatable lead and wins.
• When a win is decided early, you may end the game now or keep playing the remaining tricks for practice.
• If all 13 tricks are played, the team with more tricks wins.

Teams and Seats

When you sit at Bottom, your partner is Top. Your opponents are Left and Right.

If multiple humans play on one device (hot-seat), extra human seats are filled clockwise from Bottom:

• Remaining seats are filled by bots. You can assign bots randomly or pick a character for each side.

Playing a Card (This App)

On your turn, legal cards are highlighted. To play:

• Press and hold a legal card to select it (only one card is previewed at a time).
• While holding, you can slide to another legal card to change your choice.
• Push the card toward the center (the court) and release to play it.
• If you release without pushing far enough, the card returns to your hand.

Card-Play Signals

No secret talk is allowed, but you may hint to your partner by how you play a card. Signals are turned on with the Allow signals option when a game is created (on by default); online it is chosen by the game creator and applies to everyone.

On your turn, tap Give a signal, pick a signal, then play a card — all four players see the animation.

• Slam: You slam the card down. This tells your partner you'd like them to lead this suit the next time they lead.
• Drop: You drop the card from a few inches up. This tells everyone you have no more cards of that suit.
• Signals are only a hint from how you play — they never change the rules, scoring, or which card wins.

Between Games

After a game ends you can:

• Next Game — shuffle and deal again (random shuffle, or continue last trick order with one cut if available). The previous winning team is dealt first and chooses the new Prime suit.
• Reset Game — return to the Home screen to choose players, the first-dealt seat, and bots again

Quick Reference

Bots

Bots play by the same rules but do not see hidden hands — only their own cards and what has already been played. Harder bots count cards and play more strategically; easier bots make more mistakes.

Named bots (Easy → Advanced): KADO, POCHAQ, PUCHOQ, SADA, TANA, JANGARA, TANOOR, TIZAB, ZELZELA.