Partnership Koz Maça (Eşli Koz Maça) is the team form of Koz Maça. There is no bidding and spades are permanently trumps, just as in the solo game, but now two pairs face each other. Your partner sits at the top of the table, directly across from you, and Right and Left play together against you. Every seat other than yours is run by the computer. The scoreboard reads Us and Them.
How to play
All 52 cards go out, 13 each, aces high. Play passes counterclockwise. The dealer, marked D, moves one seat per hand, and the player on the dealer’s right leads the first trick right away; there is no auction phase to wait through.
Following the rules of Batak. Your hand only lifts the cards you are allowed to play:
- With the led suit in hand, follow it and beat the highest card of that suit already played, if you can. If a spade has already ruffed the trick, any card of the led suit will do.
- With no card of the led suit, you must ruff with a spade, and overtake a spade that is already there when possible.
- With neither, throw any card.
- No one may lead a spade until a spade has been played on an earlier trick, unless that player has only spades.
Any spade beats every heart, diamond and club. Among spades, the higher card wins. The winner of each trick leads the next.
What partnership changes. You still cannot see your partner’s hand; it shows as card backs, the same as the opponents’. There are no signals or messages. What you share is the trick pile: a trick taken by your partner is worth exactly as much to you as one you take yourself. That turns many decisions around. Letting your partner win a trick is often the right play, and taking a trick your partner was already winning wastes a high card.
There is a catch. Batak’s overtake rule does not know who your partner is. If your partner’s queen is winning and you hold the king of that suit, you must play the king. You will sometimes be forced to beat your own team’s card.
Scoring
Every trick scores one point for the team that takes it. The 13 tricks of a hand split between the two teams, so the hand totals always add up to 13, and nobody can lose points. The summary after each hand shows each team’s tricks, points and running total.
The Hands buttons at the top set the match to 5 or 10 hands (10 is the default). The team ahead at the end wins; equal totals share the win.
Strategy
Count spades for the pair. Thirteen spades split between four hands. If you hold five, the other three hands share eight, so your partner probably has two or three. Long spades in either partner’s hand mean ruffing tricks late.
Draw spades only when it helps your side. Leading spades pulls trumps from everyone, including your partner. It works when you hold the top spades and want your partner’s side-suit aces to stand up. With a weak spade holding, let the opponents spend their trumps instead.
Throw low when your partner has it. If your partner is winning and you cannot beat the card anyway, follow with your smallest card. When you have no card of the suit and no spades, discard from a suit where you hold nothing important.
Create voids for ruffing. Getting rid of a short side suit early means you can ruff it later. This is just as useful when your partner leads that suit for you to trump.
Avoid forced overtakes. Leading a suit where you hold only a high card and a small one can force your partner to beat you if they have something higher. Leading from a long suit usually avoids the clash.
Steady beats flashy. Ten hands is a long match and each trick is a single point. Winning seven tricks most hands as a team will almost always take the match.
If you enjoy Partnership Koz Maça, try Partnership Pishti or Pis Yedili next.
