Russian Bank

Your cards

Each player has a full 52-card pack. You start with a reserve of 13 cards (only the top one face up), four cards face up in the houses, and the other 35 face down as your hand. The player whose reserve card is lower goes first.

The table

Eight houses sit at the sides and eight foundations between them. Both players can use every house and every foundation.

• Foundations start with an ace and build up in the same suit to the king.
• Houses build down in alternating colours, like a red 6 on a black 7. Any card can go into an empty house. Cards move one at a time.

Your turn

Play cards from your reserve, from the houses and from your turned hand card. When you have nothing more to do, turn up the next card of your hand. Play it if you can; otherwise put it on your waste pile, which ends your turn.

• You can never play from your own waste pile.
• When your hand runs out, your waste is turned over to become your new hand.

Must-do moves

• If your reserve card can go to a foundation, it must go there first.
• If any other card can go to a foundation, play it there before anything else.
• While you still have reserve cards, fill an empty house from your reserve before turning a hand card.

The game only offers the moves that are allowed, so it tells you when a must-do move comes first.

Loading your opponent

You can get rid of a card by putting it on your opponent's reserve or waste pile, if it is the same suit and one higher or one lower than their top card. You can never play onto your own reserve or waste.

Winning and scoring

• Empty your reserve, hand and waste to win. You score 30, plus 1 for every card left in your opponent's hand and waste, and 2 for every card left in their reserve.
• If both players go through their whole hand without anyone playing to a foundation or from a reserve, the game is blocked and ends. The player with fewer cards left (reserve cards counting double) scores the difference.
• Points add up across games as your match score.

Playing online

Choose Play Online to join the lobby, then challenge any player waiting there, or accept a challenge sent to you. Web and Android app players share the same lobby. Both tables are dealt from the same shuffle and every move is checked on both sides; points add up as your online match score, and you can ask for a rematch at the end of each game.

Controls

Tap a card, then tap where it should go, or drag it. Double-tap a card to send it to the best place. Tap your hand to turn a card. Stuck? Press Hint.

Tips

• Empty your reserve early: each reserve card left at the end counts double against you.
• Load your opponent whenever you can.
• Keep an empty house ready for your reserve card.