A Framework for General Trick-Taking Card Games

Inspired by recent advances in Computer Skat and Bridge, this paper investigates automated play for several other trick-taking card games like Belote, Tarot, Doppelkopf, Spades, Hearts, Euchre, and Schafkopf. We present a general framework that instantiates all these card games with deals from their respective decks based on a programming interface to play them interactively at a human-adequate speed and level. We have included bidding, team building, and game selection, as well as general and specialized card recommenders applicable for the different stages of trick-taking. We study the impact of expert rules for enhanced play. The AIs are evaluated in different variants and against a general card player that lacks expert rules.