3-2-5तीन दुई पाँच

Players and cards

3-2-5 is for three players, each playing alone. It uses 30 cards: ace, king, queen, jack, ten, nine and eight of every suit, plus the seven of hearts and the seven of spades. Aces are high and the sevens are the lowest cards.

Each hand has ten tricks, and each player has a quota of tricks to win. The quotas add up to ten, so whenever someone wins more than their quota, someone else has fallen short.

Quotas and the deal

The player on the dealer's left needs 5 tricks. They choose trumps and lead the first trick. The next player needs 3 tricks, and the dealer needs 2.

The dealer gives everyone five cards. The player who needs 5 looks at their five and names the trump suit. Then the dealer deals three more cards to everyone and then two more, so each player has ten.

After each hand the deal passes one seat to the left, so the quotas move round the table: everyone takes the 5, the 3 and the 2 in turn.

Pulling cards

In the first hand there is no exchange. From the second hand on, last hand's results carry over: when the new deal is complete, each player who won more tricks than their quota last hand takes one card from a player who won fewer, for every trick of difference.

• The player giving up a card holds their cards out face down. The taker picks one blind and keeps it without showing it.
• The taker then gives back one card face down. It cannot be the card just taken, and it must come from a suit the taker holds at least three cards of, so they keep two or more of that suit.
• When there are several cards to take, the player who needs 5 this hand takes first, then the player who needs 3, then the dealer. Cards are taken from the dealer first, then from the player who needs 3, then from the player who needs 5.

If everybody made their quota exactly, nobody pulls and the hand is played as dealt.

Playing the tricks

The player who needs 5 leads the first trick. Everyone in turn plays one card, going to the left, and the winner of each trick leads the next.

• Follow suit: if you have a card of the suit led, you must play one.
• If you cannot follow suit, play any card, a trump or anything else.
• You never have to play a higher card than the ones already down.
• The highest trump in a trick wins it. With no trump in it, the highest card of the suit led wins.

Winning the game

After each hand every player scores their tricks minus their quota: win 6 tricks with a quota of 5 and you score +1; win 1 with a quota of 2 and you score -1.

A match is six hands, so everyone needs 5, 3 and 2 tricks exactly twice. You can also choose three or nine hands. The highest total at the end wins.

Where these rules come from

3-2-5 is played in Nepal, India and Pakistan, and is also known as 2-3-5 or 5-3-2. The rules here follow Pagat's 3-2-5 page (John McLeod), which other written sources such as Cats at Cards and gamerules.com agree with on the pack, the quotas and the play:

• The 30-card pack with the sevens of hearts and spades, and the quotas of 5, 3 and 2 by seat.
• Trumps named after five cards, then batches of three and two.
• Pulling cards blind, one for each trick over or under quota, with the card given back from a suit of three or more, and the order of takers and givers.
• The deal passing on each hand, which takes the quotas round the table.

Pagat gives one point per trick. This table scores tricks minus quota instead, as the 3-2-5 apps do. Over a match of three, six or nine hands both ways give the same winner, and the plus and minus numbers show at a glance who will be pulling cards next.

Length of the match

Three, six or nine hands. Always a multiple of three, so everyone has each quota equally often.

Sevens always trumps

The seven of hearts is the highest trump and the seven of spades the second highest, whichever suit is trumps. They count as trumps for everything: if trumps are led you must play one of them if you have no other trump, and if hearts are led you cannot play the seven of hearts while you still hold another heart.

House rules this table does not use

Some groups turn up the seventh card dealt to decide trumps, let the trump maker use the highest card of the next batch, need only one card kept in the suit given back, hand over a trick instead of a card, give a bonus for winning all ten tricks, or let the biggest loser deal next. This table keeps to the rules above.