Play Escoba online

How multiplayer Escoba works

Playing Escoba online with other people, step by step: the code, the seats, the table rules, and what happens when somebody drops out.

Inviting the table

The host opens the table, which needs a free account, and shares its six-character code or the link from "Copy link". On a phone "Challenge a friend" stands beside it, and hands that invitation straight to Messenger, Instagram, Snapchat or whatever else you chat in. Everyone who follows it picks a name and sits down as a guest; nobody else needs an account.

Escoba here is for two to four players. Everybody should be in the lobby before the first deal, because a game in progress cannot be joined. If the table is short, the host can press "Add an opponent" to seat a bot.

Two, three or four players

Four cards are turned up on the table and everyone gets three. When the hands are empty, three more are dealt, and nothing more is added to the table. With two players that is six rounds of three, with three players four, and with four players three.

At two and three everyone plays for themselves. At four you play in partnerships, first and third to sit down against second and fourth, and partners share one pile. The host chooses a game to 21 or to 30 points, and everyone sees the choice.

Your turn

Tap a card in your hand and the table shows every way it can make fifteen, each one offered as a "Take" button. If it can make fifteen in several ways, you pick. If it makes fifteen with nothing, the only choice is "Leave it on the table".

The site does the arithmetic, so nobody waits while a table of six cards is added up. Everybody can see how many cards each side has taken, how many escobas each has, and how many cards are still to come.

After each deal

The table shows what the deal paid: who had most cards, most coins, the seven of coins and most sevens, with the totals, and everyone's escobas. A point that was tied goes to nobody, and the scoresheet says so.

The next deal starts once everyone has pressed "Ready for the next hand", and the deal passes to the left. If two sides reach the target level, another deal is played.

If somebody drops out

A player whose connection drops is shown as away and waited for twenty-five seconds. After that a bot plays their cards until they return, and opening the table again gives them their seat back. A player who presses Leave mid-game is replaced by a bot for the rest of it.

If the host leaves, hosting passes to whoever has been sitting longest. A table with no activity for six hours is cleared away.