Game Rules

Quartets is a dedicated deck card game consisting of 32 cards, divided into eight suites of four cards each. In the case of our implementation, we chose to use a simplified version of the game, with 6 different colours for the cards, namely:

• Red
• Yellow
• Green
• Blue
• Purple
• Pink

The game is played with three or more players, and the objective is to collect as many full suites of four cards as possible. In the current game, there are 3 players out of which two of them are the automated agents following a certain strategy. These strategies are further discussed on the Experiment page.

At the beginning of the game, the deck of cards is shuffled, and each player is dealt an equal number of cards. Players should keep their cards hidden from other players. To start the game, a player is randomly chosen to make the first move.

1. Players can ask another player for a specific card from a suite, provided that they already have a card from that suite in their hand.
2. Players can not ask for a card that they already have in their hand.
3. If a player has no more cards, they can ask for any card they want.
4. If the player being asked has the requested card, they must give it to the asking player, who then gets another turn to ask for a card.
5. If the player being asked does not have the requested card, it becomes their turn to ask for a card.
6. Whenever a player collects a full suite of four cards, known as a "Quartet," they must place the suite face-up in front of them.
7. The game continues until all the quartets have been formed. Once all the quartets have been created, the game ends, and the player with the most quartets is declared the winner.

For example, if a player has a blue card in their hand with the number 1, then they can ask another player for the card blue 2. If the player being asked has the requested card, they must give it to the asking player, who then gets another turn to ask for a card. If the player being asked does not have the requested card, it becomes their turn to ask for a card. Whenever a player collects a full suite of four cards, known as a "Quartet," they must place the suite face-up in front of them. The game continues until all the quartets have been formed. Once all the quartets have been created, the game ends, and the player with the most quartets is declared the winner. It's important to note that Quartets has many variations to its rules, so the aforementioned rules are our interpretation of the game.

• In total, there are 24 cards which are divided into 6 different colours. For each colour, the cards are numbered from 0 to 3, and a player can have a quartet when all of those 4 numbers of the same colour are collected.
• It is common knowledge that when a card is not present in the player's own hand, then it means that one of the other players must have this card.
• If a player does not place on the table four cards of the same colour, forming a quartet, then it means that the specific player does not have a quartet in hand.
• It is common knowledge that a player can only ask for a colour that is already present in the player's hand.