29ट्वान्टी नाइन

Players, cards and points

29 is for four players in two fixed teams. Partners sit opposite each other, so the players either side of you are your opponents.

It uses 32 cards: jack, nine, ace, ten, king, queen, eight and seven of each suit, in that order from highest to lowest. The jack and the nine are the two strongest cards in every suit.

Only four ranks carry points:

• Jack: 3 points
• Nine: 2 points
• Ace: 1 point
• Ten: 1 point
• King, queen, eight and seven: nothing

That makes 28 points in the pack. The name comes from an older way of playing where the last trick was worth one more point, for 29 in all. You can switch that on as an option.

The deal and the bidding

The dealer gives everyone four cards. Looking only at those four, players bid for the right to choose trumps. A bid is the number of card points your team promises to win in the hand.

The player on the dealer's left speaks first, and bidding goes round the table to the left. Each player either bids higher than the last bid or passes. Once you pass you are out of the auction for this hand.

• Bids start at 16 and go up to 28.
• You may raise your own partner's bid, but only to 20 or more. Against the other team, any higher number will do.
• The bidding ends when everyone else has passed, or when somebody bids 28.
• If the first three players all pass, the dealer must bid 16.

Choosing the trump

The highest bidder chooses trumps by putting one of their four cards face down on the table. Nobody else knows what it is. The suit of that card is trumps for the hand, and the card itself comes back into the bidder's hand when it is shown.

Instead of choosing, the bidder may call for the seventh card. Then the seventh card they are dealt (the third of their next four) is set aside face down as the trump card, and the bidder plays the hand without knowing in advance what it will be.

Double and redouble

Once the trump card is down, the bidder's opponents may say double if they think the bid will fail: first the player on the bidder's left, then the other opponent. A double makes the hand worth 2 game points instead of 1.

If they double, the bidding team may answer with a redouble, which makes it worth 4. Then the dealer deals four more cards to everyone, so each player has eight.

Playing the tricks

The player on the dealer's left leads the first trick. Everyone in turn plays one card, 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, you may play any card, or ask to see the trump first.
• If you ask, the bidder turns the trump card face up and takes it back into their hand. You must then play a trump to this trick if you have one.
• If the bidder cannot follow suit, they may show the trump themselves, and must then play a trump.

Until the trump is shown, cards of the trump suit are ordinary cards, so the highest card of the suit led wins every trick. From the trick in which the trump is shown, the highest trump wins, including any trump-suit card already played to that trick.

If nobody has asked for the trump by the end of the seventh trick, the deal does not count. Nobody scores and the next player deals.

The pair

Once the trump is shown, a player who holds both the king and queen of trumps can show them as a pair. They must still have both cards, and their team must have won a trick since the trump was shown, counting the trick in which it was shown.

If the bidding team shows the pair, the points they need drop by 4, but never below 16. If the other team shows it, the bidding team needs 4 more, up to 28 (or 29 when the last trick earns a point). Only one pair can be shown in a hand.

Winning the game

After eight tricks, each team adds up the card points in the tricks it won. The bidding team wins a game point if it reached its bid (after any pair), and loses one if it did not. The other team's score does not change.

The first team to reach +6 game points wins. A team that falls to -6 loses. You can instead play a fixed match of eight hands, where the higher score wins. The deal passes one seat to the left after every hand.

Where these rules come from

29 is played in different ways across Nepal, India and Bangladesh, and no two written sources agree on every detail. This table uses the rules most players will recognise, and here is where each choice comes from:

• Card order, card points, six game points to win and -6 to lose: Pagat's 29 page (John McLeod), which all the other sources agree with.
• Bids from 16 to 28: Z Level Labs' rules. Pagat's main rules start at 15.
• Raising your partner only to 20 or more: from Pagat's description of 28, the parent game, where it stops partners bidding each other up a point at a time.
• A trump card chosen from your own hand, with asking optional and the asker then forced to trump: the way Z Level Labs and Wikipedia's account of 28 describe it. Pagat lists optional asking as a variation.
• Seventh card, double and redouble, single hand and the point for the last trick: variations described by Pagat and Z Level Labs.
• The pair needing a trick won after the trump is shown: Wikipedia. Z Level Labs only asks that the team has won a trick, and Pagat that the pair is shown straight after the team wins one. Some groups let it be shown at any time once the trump is open.
• Cancelling the deal when nobody has asked for the trump after seven tricks: Wikipedia's account of 28. Pagat cancels it only if the trump is never shown at all.

Length of the game

Play to six game points (the usual game), or a fixed match of eight hands where the higher score wins.

Last trick

The winners of the last trick get one extra card point, making 29 in the pack. Bids then go up to 29.

Single hand

After all eight cards are dealt, any player may announce single hand before the first lead. They play alone with no trumps, lead the first trick, and their partner sits out. Winning all eight tricks scores 3 game points; losing any trick costs 3.

House rules this table does not use

Some groups start the bidding at 15, make asking for the trump compulsory, allow a ditto bid that equals the last one, double the loss when the bidder makes less than half, or play no-trump and reverse bids. This table keeps to the rules above.