World of Card Games

I applied some fixes and updates to the server this morning.

First, it is now possible to store up to 4 extra private table names. I've written a separate blog post about this.

Double Deck Pinochle was recently introduced at World of Card Games. Immediately, I got some reports of performance issues with the game when played on Internet Explorer! I believe I have fixed this. If you had trouble before, give it a try and let me know if you still have trouble.

I also got comments that the cards in DD Pinochle are usually sorted with the high cards to the right. I've changed the game accordingly. I hope it will not be too confusing to beginners who may have become accustomed to the old sort order!

Also for DD Pinochle: if you click the "Show Meld" button, you are now shown the total of your meld:

Show Meld view now displays total meld points

This should speed up the bidding process. Please remember that when clicking the "Show Meld" button, you are only shown melds in your hand that do not require a trump suit to be chosen. This means you will not see "royal marriages" or "runs". It would get confusing showing runs - what if you had a run in two different suits? It's the same for royal marriages.

I've made some elements of the "Meld View" larger. This is what you see once trump has been chosen. Here's an example:
Previously, all types of melds were listed to the left of the "mini-cards", even if you had none of those melds. Now, as you can see, meld types are shown only if you have them. For example, in the screenshot above, Guest #48 has 1 run, 1 clubs marriage, and 1 kings around. Aces around, etc., are not listed because she has none. Please let me know if you have any trouble with this new, larger format.

I've had a few players suggest that it would be nice if more than one private table name could be stored. For example, a player might have one private table name that they share with their family, and another with a group of friends. Wouldn't it be nice if they could see both private tables in the "list of tables"?

Now they can! Caveat: you must be registered for this feature to be available to you.

First, click the Options button to bring up your options settings, and click the  "(more)" link next to your primary private table name:

more link

This brings up a new small panel. You can enter up to 4 different private table names here:

Up to four extra private table names allowed

In the example above, a player has selected private table names 'my family' and 'my friends' for Double Deck Pinochle. If they click directly on the Double Deck Pinochle game panel from the home page, they will go directly to the 'my family' table - because this is their "primary" private table name. But if they click on the "list of tables" link in the lower left corner, they will see any private tables with those two names:

extra private tables show in list of tables

You have some control over who you play with at World of Card Games.

If you are a Registered Player, you can choose to play with other Registered Players only by setting your table option that way. It works like this: Click the "Options" button for the game you are interested in playing - e.g. Hearts:

the Options button

Next, check the "Registered Players Only" checkbox. (You may be less selective, and click the "Exclude New Users" checkbox, too. That way you'll be choosing to play with people who have played a few games at the site - this often keeps out the riff-raff.)

Now you will be seated with Registered Players Only

You can fine-tune your preferences at the level of individual players, too.

Suppose you've found a player whose playing style you really like. You want to be able to remember them very easily, without keeping a huge list of names. In this case, I recommend "liking" them. Click the "like" icon which appears to their right:

How to "like" a player

Liked players always appear as a star in the "list of tables":
When you hover your mouse over the star in the list, you will see the person's name. You can manage your likes by clicking on your user name - you will see a list of liked players, and the date when you "liked" them.

You can also "dislike" a player. Suppose someone has been rude to you, or you dislike the way they play. In this case, click the red/white x icon to their left:
Doing this doesn't immediately kick the player from your table. However, once you leave the table, you will never be seated with them again. They will never show up in your "list of tables", either. It is as if they do not play at the site, from your perspective.

You can manage your "disliked player" list by clicking on your user name, shown in the upper right corner of the screen - scroll down to view your list of liked players, disliked players, and players whose chats are hidden:

Manage Likes and Dislikes list

Currently, you may "like" and "dislike" up to 500 players. If you find you reach the limit, you may want to drop a few older ones off the list. In particular, if you've disliked a lot of Guests, the older ones may no longer even come to the site, and there's no point in keeping them on your list.

Double Deck Pinochle is now available at World of Card Games! It's a 4-player game that combines pattern-matching abilities (think Gin Rummy) with teamwork (think Spades). The rules are described at the Pagat website.

double deck pinochle

As usual, there's a tutorial to get you started (click on the "Tutorial" button to the lower right of the Double Deck Pinochle panel on the main page). You might also want to read my Double Deck Pinochle page for beginners.

If you have not played this game before, you may want to play with robots first, to get comfortable before playing with real live humans.

I've tested the game quite a lot, but there could be bugs. If you try the game and find any problems, please let me know by sending an email to me -  marya@worldofcardgames.com - or leave a comment here.