A trick-taking card game widely played in Turkey: win the auction, name trumps, and take the tricks you bid, while everyone else fights to take at least one so they don't sink.
This is İhaleli Batak (auction Batak) for four players, each playing for themselves. It uses a standard 52-card pack, Aces high, with 13 cards each. Play goes anticlockwise.
Starting from the dealer's right, each player bids how many of the 13 tricks they will take, at least 5 and more than the last bid, or passes. A pass is final. If everyone passes, the dealer must play for 4. The highest bidder names the trump suit and leads to the first trick. Trumps can't be led until one has been played, unless you hold nothing else.
Batak is played in many ways, and there is no single standard rule book. Pagat.com, our usual source, doesn't describe it. These are our chosen rules for auction Batak, following the Turkish Wikipedia article where it is clear and the rules most Batak games agree on otherwise. The article describes the auction, the minimum bid of 5, the dealer's forced 4, the play and the scoring formula. One difference: the article only says the first card led can't be a trump (unless the leader holds and leads the Ace, King and Queen of trumps); we use the common rule that trumps can't be led until one has been played. Other well-known versions include Koz Maça (spades always trumps), Eşli Batak (partnerships) and Kanlı Batak (bidding before looking at your cards). They aren't offered here.
Batak is widely played in Turkey, usually by four players (Turkish Wikipedia). Like Spades, a descendant of the Whist family, it's a trick-taking game in which players commit in advance to the number of tricks they'll take. A player who misses their commitment is said to sink (batmak), which is why everyone fights for at least one trick.
The Turkish Wikipedia article gives no history of the game. It lists several forms: İhaleli Batak with an auction, Koz Maça with spades always trumps, and partnership and three-player versions.
Batak is a free browser version of the Turkish card game, played against three computer players, with a daily game and online leaderboards. There's nothing to download and no sign-up.