Twenty-Eight (28)

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. Bidding
5. Hiding the trump
6. Playing – before trumps are revealed
7. Playing – after trumps are revealed
8. Redeal
9. Scoring
10. Winning the game
11. Tips for beginners
12. Variants

Overview

Twenty-Eight is a partnership card game from Kerala in South India. It is a trick-taking game: each player plays one card, and the best card wins all four – together they form a trick. Some cards are worth card points, 28 in all – hence the name. After seeing half their cards, players bid how many points their team will win; the highest bidder secretly chooses the trump suit and places one card of it face down. Nobody else knows which suit is trumps until someone asks for it to be revealed.

• Players: exactly 4, in two fixed teams; partners sit opposite each other.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck, and paper and pencil for the score.
• Direction: dealing and play go anticlockwise (to the right).

The cards

Take out the 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K and A of every suit – 32 cards. The 2s to 6s are not used.

In every suit the cards rank, from high to low: J 9 A 10 K Q 8 7. The Jack is the highest card, and the Nine is second!

All cards together are worth 28 card points.

Setup

1. Dealer: choose the first dealer at random; afterwards the deal passes to the right.
2. The dealer shuffles and the player on the left cuts.
3. Going anticlockwise, the dealer deals 4 cards to each player, one at a time. The other 16 cards are put aside for now.

Bidding

A bid is a number: the minimum number of card points your team promises to win. The player on the dealer's right speaks first and must bid at least 14. Then, anticlockwise, each player either bids higher or passes. The bidding goes round as often as needed and ends when three players in a row have passed.

• Bidding over your partner: if you want to raise your partner's bid, and the opponent on your left passed in between, your bid must be at least 20.
• Worthless hand: if the first player holds no point cards at all (only K, Q, 8, 7), they may ask for a redeal instead of bidding 14. Nobody else may do this.

Hiding the trump

The highest bidder – the bidder – looks at their four cards, chooses a suit as trumps, and places one card of that suit face down in front of them. This is the trump card. It stays hidden until someone asks to see it.

Then the dealer deals 4 more cards to each player, so everyone has 8 (the bidder has 7 in hand plus the hidden card).

Now the bidder or the bidder's partner may raise the bid once more; the new bid must be at least 24 and higher than the current bid.

Playing – before trumps are revealed

The player on the dealer's right leads to the first trick. Going anticlockwise, everyone plays one card:

• Follow suit: if you have a card of the suit that was led, you must play one.
• The trick is won by the highest card of the suit led. Cards of the hidden trump suit have no special power yet.
• The winner of a trick leads to the next one.

If you cannot follow suit, you have two choices:

1. Discard any card. It cannot win the trick.
2. Ask for trumps. Say so before you play. The bidder must turn the trump card face up for everyone to see and take it back into their hand. From this moment trumps are known, and you must play a trump to this trick if you have one (if you have none, play any card).

Special rules for the bidder while trumps are hidden:

• The bidder may not lead a card of the trump suit unless they hold nothing else. If they must, it counts as an ordinary card. (If the bidder leads to the last trick and trumps are still hidden, they reveal the trump card and lead it.)
• If someone else leads the trump suit, the bidder follows suit from their hand (or discards if they can't) – but may not reveal the trump card on that trick.
• If the bidder cannot follow another suit, they may not trump from their hand. Instead they either discard a non-trump card or reveal the trump card and play it – this also reveals trumps.

Playing – after trumps are revealed

Now the chosen suit is trumps: a trump beats every card of the other suits. A trick is won by the highest trump in it, or, without trumps, by the highest card of the suit led. You must still follow suit if you can; if you can't, you may trump or discard, as you like. The bidder has no special restrictions any more.

Careful: cards of the trump suit played to a trick before trumps were revealed do not count as trumps.

Example: South leads 8♥. East has no hearts and discards A♣ without asking, hoping partner West wins. North has no hearts and asks for trumps: the bidder reveals a club, so clubs are trumps. North plays Q♣. West follows with A♥. North wins the trick – the Q♣ is a trump, but East's A♣ is not, because it was played before trumps were revealed.

Redeal

The cards are thrown in and the same dealer deals again if:

• a player's 8-card hand contains all four Jacks (they must show them), or
• it turns out, once trumps are revealed, that the bidder's team holds all 8 trumps.

Scoring

After 8 tricks each team counts the card points in its tricks. The bidder's team wins if it has at least as many points as it bid; otherwise it loses. Only the bidder's team scores; how many game points depends on the bid:

Example: North bid 16 and his team takes 17 card points: +1. Next deal East raises to 24 after the full deal, but her team takes only 22: −3.

Keep a running total for each team; scores can go below zero.

Winning the game

Play an agreed number of deals, or up to an agreed target. The team with the higher total wins.

Tips for beginners

• Bid on Jacks and Nines. A Jack with the Nine of the same suit is a strong trump holding.
• Hide your trump well. Choose a trump card the opponents won't expect – but remember that once it is revealed, it goes back into your hand.
• Don't ask too early. Asking for trumps forces you to trump; if you have no trumps, it only helps the bidder.
• Count the points: only 28 are in play, and the Jacks and Nines decide most deals.

Variants

All optional – agree on them beforehand.

• Cot: a team that wins all 8 tricks scores double. The opponents may surrender before the end; if the winners play on anyway, they win or lose double.
• Thani (alone): after the full deal the bidder may announce to win every trick alone, without the partner's help. The bidder leads. Success: +4, failure: −5.
• Worthless hand: any player whose 8 cards contain no points may show them and ask for a redeal.
• No Jack discards: you may not discard the Jack of a suit that hasn't been led yet.
• Scoring with Sixes: each team shows its score with a red and a black 6: a won bid adds 1 point, a lost bid costs 1. The first team to +6 wins; a team at −6 loses.
• Three players: remove the 7s and 8s (24 cards); the minimum bid is 12, and the bidder plays alone against the other two.