How to play Dehla Pakad
Dehla Pakad means catch the tens, and the four tens are the only cards that count. Two sides of two play thirteen tricks, but winning a trick takes nothing. The cards pile up in the middle until one player wins two tricks running, and then the whole pile goes to that player's side.
- Players
- 4, in two sides
- What you need
- One pack of 52 cards
- How long
- Two kots, about eight hands
What the game is
Four players in two partnerships, partners sitting opposite. One pack of 52 cards, ace high down to two. Each hand is thirteen tricks, and at the end each side counts the tens in the cards it took.
Take all four tens and your side wins a kot. Take more tens than the other side and you win the hand. A match is played to a number of kots, two by default. The game is played across North India and comes out in Nepal at the festivals, as दहलमारा.
The deal
- The dealer gives five cards to each player, one at a time, starting with the player on their right.
- Then the trump is made, in one of the two ways below.
- Once it is, the dealer gives out the other eight each, so everybody ends with thirteen.
Making the trump
In the usual way, play starts with five cards each and no trump. The first player who cannot follow suit throws a card of another suit, and that suit becomes trump for the rest of the hand. That card is already a trump, so it may win the trick, unless a later player who also cannot follow throws a higher trump.
When that trick is over the dealer gives out the rest of the cards. If everybody follows suit through all five tricks, a card is drawn from the tricks played and its suit is trump.
In the other way, a house rule here, the player to the dealer's right looks at their first five cards and names the trump. The rest are dealt and that player leads.
A trick
The player to the dealer's right leads the first trick. You must follow the suit led if you can. If you cannot, you may play anything, including a trump.
The highest trump wins the trick. With no trump in it, the highest card of the suit led wins. The winner leads to the next trick.
The middle, and taking it
Winning a trick does not take it. Its cards go face down into the middle, on top of any tricks already there.
- When the same player wins two tricks in a row, that player takes the whole middle for their side.
- Partners winning one each does not count. It has to be the same player.
- After a take, the next trick starts a new pile, so it cannot count as the first of the next pair with the trick before it.
The player who wins the thirteenth and last trick takes whatever is left in the middle, whoever won the trick before. Everybody saw the tens go in, so the table shows how many cards and how many tens are waiting there.
Who wins the hand
- All four tens: that side wins the hand and a kot.
- Three tens: that side wins the hand.
- Two each: the side that did not deal wins the hand. The dealer's side needs three.
Who deals next depends on it. If the dealer's side wins, the deal passes to the right. If the other side wins with all four tens, it passes to the dealer's partner. If the other side wins with two or three, the same player deals again.
Kots
A kot is won by taking all four tens in a hand, or by one side winning seven hands in a row. Winning a kot starts the count of hands in a row again from nothing.
The first side to the agreed number of kots wins the match. In case a match ever runs very long, it stops after forty hands and the side with more kots has it.
Settings
The defaults are the trump made by the first player who cannot follow, and a match to two kots, which is about eight hands.
| Setting | Standard | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| How the trump is made | The first who cannot follow | Chosen from five cards, the trump is known before the first trick, and the chooser plays the whole hand knowing it suits them. |
| Kots to win | 2 | One kot is a short match of a few hands, three a long one. |
| Difficulty | Medium | Easy bots throw tens anywhere. Hard ones count the cards, feed tens to a partner who is about to take the middle, and fight hardest for a trick that would give the other side two in a row. |
Playing well
- Watch who won the last trick. If an opponent did, the next trick decides whether they take the middle, so beat it with whatever you can.
- If your partner won the last trick and is winning this one, throw your ten on it.
- Keep tens out of tricks the other side may take. A ten in the middle is only safe when your side can win twice running.
- When you have just won a trick, lead your surest winner: a top trump or the highest card left of a suit.
The words
- Dehla (दहला)
- A ten. The only cards that count.
- Kot (कोट)
- All four tens in one hand, or seven hands in a row. Matches are played to a number of them.
- Trump (तुरुप)
- The suit that beats all the others, made in play or chosen from five cards.
- The middle
- The face-down pile of tricks nobody has taken yet.
Every rule on this page is the one the app plays by. Change any of them on the game's own page before you start.