How Card Sard works

One screen shows the table and every phone holds a hand. Play together in one room or from different places. Nothing to install, and no accounts.

Hosting a game

1. Open cardsard.com on the screen everyone will watch, such as a TV, laptop or tablet, and press Host. You get a room with a code and a QR code.
2. Choose a game. In its lobby you set the rules, seats and teams, and fill empty seats with bots in the games that have them.
3. Play. When a game ends, everyone comes back to its lobby to play again or pick another game. The room lasts the whole evening.

The host’s screen can play a seat too, or just show the table.

Joining

On your phone, open cardsard.com, press Join and type the room code, or scan the QR code with your camera. Type a name and you’re in. Your hand is on your phone, where only you can see it. If your phone locks or the page reloads, it takes you back to your seat.

Putting the table on a TV

• Pair a TV: open cardsard.com/tv in the TV’s web browser and it shows a code. Press Pair TV on the host and type the code in. The TV shows the table, and the host can be a phone with a hand like everyone else.
• Use a laptop: host on a laptop and connect it to the TV with a cable, or cast the browser tab to it.
• No TV: any screen everyone can see will do, and you don’t need one at all. Every phone shows the table along with its hand.

Playing from different places

Rooms run on Card Sard’s server, so anyone with the room code can join from anywhere. Send it in a message and they join the same way. Each phone shows the whole table, so a player far away sees every card played, just like the people in the room.

How you talk while you play is up to you: a phone call, a voice chat, a video call, or nothing at all.

If someone goes quiet, the turn timer pauses the game and the host decides whether to wait, give the seat to a bot, or let someone else take it. If the host drops out, the room waits 10 minutes for them to come back.

Settings and styling

Each device has its own Settings, so everyone sets up their screen their own way:

• Art packs: choose card backs, faces and the table, mix pieces from different packs, and see them on a sample hand before going back to the game.
• Sizes: cards are drawn as big as the screen allows, and you can make them bigger or smaller on top of that.
• Options: how many pips the number cards show, outlines where played cards land, and hints that say what to do on your turn.
• Sound and speed: volume, and for the host, how fast cards move and bots play.

Rules work differently: the host sets them in the lobby before the game starts, and they’re the same for everyone at the table.

The games

Hearts, Euchre, Spades, Texas Hold’em and more. See all the games, each with its rules.