Jutpattiजुटपत्ती

Players and cards

Two to six people play with one 52-card pack and no printed jokers. Cards rank from ace (low) up to king.

A pair, or jut, is two cards of the same rank. Suits do not matter: the 7 of hearts pairs with the 7 of clubs. Four of a kind counts as two pairs.

The deal and the joker

The dealer gives seven cards to each player, one at a time, starting with the player on their right. The rest of the pack is the deck, face down.

The top card of the deck is turned face up beside it and stays out of play. Every card one rank above it is a joker for this hand: if a 5 is turned up, all four 6s are jokers. A king turned up makes the aces jokers.

A joker pairs with any card, and two jokers make a pair together.

Your turn

The player to the dealer's right starts, and play passes to the right (anticlockwise).

• First take one card: the top card of the deck, or the card the previous player has just thrown. At the very start nothing has been thrown, so the first player draws from the deck.
• If every card in your hand is now in a pair, you have won the hand. The table spots it for you and lays your pairs out.
• Otherwise throw one card face up on the thrown pile. You may not throw back the card you have just taken from the pile.

Because you always take one card and throw one, you keep seven cards between turns and need eight in pairs to win.

When the deck runs out

The thrown cards, all but the top one, are shuffled to make a new deck, and play carries on.

Winning

The first player to have every card in pairs wins the hand. Usually each hand is a game of its own. If you choose to play to three or five hands, the winner of each hand deals the next one, and the first to win that many hands wins.

How this table plays, and why

Jutpatti has many house rules, so here is what this version uses and where each rule comes from.

• Two to six players, one pack, seven cards each, the winner dealing next: the Bhoos guide to Jut Patti. The Online Khabar guide to Dashain card games also says seven cards.
• Five or nine cards as options: the listing for Hamro Patro's Call Break and Jut Patti app describes the game with 5, 7, 9 or 11 cards, and Cats at Cards gives nine cards as its standard for two to four players.
• The joker is every card one rank above the turned-up card, in all four suits, and a king makes the aces jokers: Cats at Cards. The Bhoos guide says 'the same suit' in one line but its own example makes 6s of any suit jokers, so this table uses all four.
• Dealing and playing to the right, and the turned-up card staying out of play under the deck: Cats at Cards and Bhoos.
• Taking the top of the deck or the previous player's throw, winning the moment your hand pairs up, and shuffling the thrown cards when the deck runs out: Cats at Cards and Online Khabar.
• Each hand is a game, with an optional tally of hands won: Cats at Cards.
• Not throwing back the card you just took from the pile is our choice: none of the sources mention it, and without it a player could take the card and throw it straight back to skip their turn.

Five or nine cards

Five cards make quick, lucky hands. Nine cards is the standard in some families and takes longer; it needs five players or fewer, so with six this table deals seven.

Three or five hands

Keep a tally instead of starting afresh after every hand. The winner of each hand deals the next, and the first to win three (or five) hands wins.