Pişti

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Setup
3. Playing a turn
4. Pişti
5. Further deals
6. Scoring
7. Winning the game
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

Pişti (pronounced "pishti", often written Pisti) is a popular Turkish fishing game. Players take turns putting a card on a single face-up pile in the middle. If your card has the same rank as the top card of the pile – or if it is a Jack – you capture the whole pile. Capturing a pile that consists of just one card is a pişti, worth 10 bonus points. At the end of each deal you also score for Aces, Jacks, two special cards and for having the most cards. The first side to reach 151 points wins.

• Players: usually 4, in two teams of two with partners sitting opposite. 2 players, or 3–4 playing alone, use the same rules.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, and paper and pencil for scoring.

Play goes anticlockwise (to the right).

Setup

1. Shuffle and cut: the dealer shuffles. The player to the dealer's left cuts: they lift off part of the deck and look at the bottom card of the part they lifted. If it is a Jack, they look at the next card, and so on, until they find a card that is not a Jack; that card goes to the bottom of the deck. Then the dealer completes the cut.
2. Table cards: the dealer deals the top 4 cards face down in a pile in the middle.
3. Hands: the dealer deals 4 cards to each player, starting with the player to the dealer's right and ending with themselves.
4. Stock: the rest of the deck is placed face down to one side as the stock. Its bottom card (the one the cutter chose) is turned face up and slid crosswise under it, so everybody can see it.
5. Starting the pile: the dealer turns the top card of the four middle cards face up. If it is a Jack, turn up the next one as well, until a card that is not a Jack is showing. (If all four are Jacks, deal again.)

After the deal (two players), the table looks like this:

Playing a turn

The player to the dealer's right starts. On your turn you play one card face up on top of the pile:

• Same rank: if your card has the same rank as the top card of the pile, you capture the whole pile.
• Jack: a Jack captures the whole pile, whatever the top card is.
• Otherwise your card simply stays on top of the pile, and it is the next player's turn.

Captured cards go face down in front of you (in a team game, in front of one of the partners – the team keeps one pile). After a capture the table is empty; the next player starts a new pile with any card (even a Jack – it only captures when there is a pile).

The team that makes the first capture also gets the face-down cards dealt to the middle at the start. Both partners may look at them; the other team may not.

Example: The pile shows 7♠ on top. You play 7♥ and take the whole pile. The next player must now play a card onto the empty table – say the 4♣ – and the pile starts again.

Pişti

If the pile consists of exactly one card and the next player captures it with a card of the same rank, that is a pişti: 10 bonus points. If the single card is a Jack and you capture it with another Jack, it is a double pişti: 20 points. Place the capturing card face up in your pile as a reminder.

• Capturing a single non-Jack card with a Jack is an ordinary capture, not a pişti.
• There is no pişti for the very first card of the deal (the one that takes the middle cards) or for the very last card of the deal.

Example: The table is empty and the player before you starts a new pile with the Q♦. You play the Q♣: pişti, 10 points!

Further deals

When everyone has played their four cards, the dealer deals 4 more cards to each player from the stock – but none to the table. Continue until the stock is used up; the dealer gets the visible bottom card in the last deal. With 4 players there are 3 deals in all, with 3 players 4, with 2 players 6.

When the last cards have been played, any cards still on the table go to the side that made the last capture.

Scoring

Each side counts its captured cards:

Without piştis there are 16 points per deal. If two sides tie for most cards (two teams: 26 each), nobody scores the 3 points.

Example: Team A has 29 cards with 3 Jacks, 1 Ace, the 10♦ and one pişti: 3 + 1 + 3 + 3 (most cards) + 10 = 20. Team B has 23 cards with 1 Jack, 3 Aces and the 2♣: 1 + 3 + 2 = 6.

After each deal the next player to the right deals.

Winning the game

The first side to have 151 points or more at the end of a deal wins. If both sides reach 151 in the same deal, the higher score wins (if equal, play another deal).

Tips for beginners

• Keep your Jacks for a big pile – a Jack on a pile of two cards wastes it.
• Count the cards. Each rank exists four times; remember which ones are gone to know what your opponents can still match.
• Don't give away piştis. When you start a new pile, prefer a rank of which several cards have already been played – the next player is less likely to match it.
• Watch the bottom card of the stock: the dealer will get it in the last deal.
• Mind the last capture – whoever makes it takes all the leftover cards.

Variants

All optional – agree before you play.

• Bluffing: when there is one card on the table, you may play your card face down, claiming a pişti. If the player of the first card believes you, it counts as a pişti (10) and your card is not shown. If they challenge, turn it over: a real match scores 20; a bluff gives the other side 20, and both cards stay on the table. As a house rule, a Jack on the table can double the stakes to 20 and 40.
• Shorter game (house rule): play to 101 points.
• No double pişti: some count a Jack taking a Jack as a normal pişti (10), or as an ordinary capture.