How to win at President: tips that work

What’s the best strategy in President?

Shed your weak cards while it’s cheap, keep a couple of cards that can win a trick, and always know how you’ll play your last two or three cards. Winning a trick matters because you lead the next one, and the leader decides what everyone has to play: singles, pairs or three of a kind.

Passing is a move too. You can pass even when you could play, and it’s often right: don’t break a pair or burn an Ace to stay in a trick you can’t win. The catch is that you sit out until the trick ends, and you can’t pass when you lead.

And keep count. Each rank has four cards, and the card order never changes except during a revolution. Tracking the 2s and the Aces alone tells you when your high cards are safe.

Should you play your low cards first?

Mostly, yes. Every lead is a chance to dump what nobody else wants: open with your lowest single, or better, your lowest pair or three of a kind, which plenty of hands can’t answer. Lead with the shape your hand has the most of.

Keep your sets together. Breaking a pair of Kings to answer a single leaves you with a lone King that’s harder to use later. Only split a set when it wins you the lead or takes you out.

Matching can be a weapon. With the skip rule in Classic mode, answering an 8 with another 8 means the next player must hold an 8 or lose their turn, which is handy when that player is about to go out.

When should you play your 2s?

With the default rules in Classic mode, a 2 closes the trick at once and gives you the next lead, so spend it when you have something to follow up with, like a low pair you want gone. Holding every 2 until the very end is risky, because a revolution turns them into the weakest cards in the game.

Count them: once all four 2s are out, an Ace is the top card. With “Finish with a 2” on, never plan to go out on a 2; play them while you still hold other cards. Here’s how that variant works.

When should you start a revolution?

When your hand is weak. Sitting on 3s, 4s and 5s with four of a kind somewhere? Flipping the order turns your low cards into the best at the table. Just remember that, with the default rules, four of a kind can only go down when you lead: it closes the trick as soon as it lands, so nobody can answer it, and you lead again straight away in the new order.

When your hand is strong, a revolution is the threat. Hang on to a four of a kind of your own if you have one: played on your next lead, it flips the order back. The revolution ends with the round anyway, and exchanges always use the normal order.

What cards should you give back as President?

You receive the Asshole’s two best cards and return any two, even the ones you just got. Give back your two weakest loose cards, the singles you’d struggle to get rid of, and keep your pairs intact. As Vice-president, same idea with one card.

Stuck as the Asshole? You lose your best cards, and the extra card from an uneven deal lands on you first, but you lead the round once the exchanges are done. Use that lead to dump your lowest set.

How do the bots play, and how do you beat them?

Le Président’s bots all play the same simple, predictable way, and they only see their own hand, so they can’t cheat.

• They always answer if they can, with the weakest cards that work. They only pass when nothing in their hand is legal.
• When they lead, they dump their lowest rank, as many cards of it as they can, but they won’t open with four of a kind.
• In exchanges, they give back their weakest cards.
• With “Finish with a 2” on, they play their 2s early so they never go out on one.

Use it. Want to flush out the 2s? Lead a King or an Ace: a bot whose only answer is a 2 will play it. And since a bot never passes when it can play, a mid-value lead makes it spend cards it might have wanted to keep.

Does the strategy change with 3 players or in a rapid game?

At three, hands are big, so four of a kind and revolutions come up far more often, and there’s only the one swap between the President and the Asshole: more on playing with 3. At six, hands are short and you win fewer tricks, so make every lead count.

In Classic mode you get 30 seconds per move, plenty of time to count. A rapid game is a different sport: no turns, the first legal play the server receives counts, and 10 seconds without a play closes the trick. Keep your low cards moving and don’t wait for the perfect moment. See how rapid games work.