How to keep score at 29

Every deal of 29 is one contract. The side that won the bid scores a game point for making it and loses one for falling short, and the first side to six wins, or the first down to minus six loses. The pair, the king and queen of trumps, moves the target four points, which is easy to forget when the cards are being counted.

It needs no account and no signal. The score is kept on this phone, so it survives the screen going dark between deals, and the page opens again where you left it.

1. Write in the four names in the order you sit. Partners sit opposite, so the first and the third are one side and the second and the fourth the other.
2. Tap Deals beside whoever deals first, or press Pick a dealer and let the phone choose.
3. Set the house rules your table plays, then press Start. The phone remembers the names and the rules for next time.

Partners sit opposite. Write the names in the order you sit, and the first and third names are one side.

When the deal is over, choose the side that won the bid and write in the bid and the card points that side took in its tricks: jacks 3, nines 2, aces and tens 1.

Say who showed the pair, if anybody did, and untick The trump was shown for a deal where it never was, which scores nothing.

The bidding side makes it by taking at least the target: the bid, four less if it showed the pair, four more if the other side did. Making it is a game point, falling short loses one.

Only the bidding side’s score moves. The first side to the target wins, and a side that falls to minus the target loses.

The arithmetic is the code the 29 tables in this app score with, so the scorekeeper and the game always agree.

Game points to win

Six is usual. Four is quick, eight long.

Lowest bid

Sixteen is usual. Some tables let the bidding open at fifteen.

The pair (king and queen of trumps)

On by default. Turn it off for a table that does not play the pair.

A point for the last trick

Off by default. On, the last trick is worth a point and twenty-nine points are in play.

Double for under half

Off by default. On, a side that takes less than half its bid loses two game points.

Share board makes a link and a QR code. Everybody who opens it watches the board change as you save each deal, with no account on either side. With no signal it gives a link that carries the board inside it instead, which shows the score as it stood when the link was made.

Send a picture of the board draws the standings and every deal as an image for the family group, with the address in the corner. It needs no signal.

If you have to leave before the game ends, Hand over scoring shows a second code. Whoever scans it keeps score on their own phone from then on.

Pick a dealer chooses who deals first, and from then on the scorekeeper says whose deal it is above every deal. Draw partners shuffles the names, and partners are whoever ends up opposite each other.

Both draw from the phone’s own random number generator, the one the dice roller uses, so every seat is equally likely.