How to keep score at Dhumbal

In Dhumbal the lightest hand wins. A player may call once their hand is light enough, and wins the round unless somebody is as light, when they pay the penalty instead. The winner collects every other hand’s points. That is a different sum every round, and this does it.

It needs no account and no signal. The score is kept on this phone, so it survives the screen going dark between deals, and the page opens again where you left it.

1. Write in everybody’s name in the order you sit, going the way the deal passes.
2. Tap Deals beside whoever deals first, or press Pick a dealer and let the phone choose.
3. Set the house rules your table plays, then press Start. The phone remembers the names and the rules for next time.

Any number from two to eight. Somebody who steps away for a round can be marked as sitting out, and stays out until you mark them back.

When somebody calls and the hands are shown, tap the crown beside whoever called and write in what every hand came to.

A call heavier than the limit is refused, the way the table would refuse it.

If nobody else is as light as the caller, the caller wins the round and collects everybody’s hand. If somebody is as light or lighter, the call is caught: the caller pays the penalty instead of their hand, and the lightest other hand wins, a tie going to whoever plays first after the dealer.

Everybody but the winner pays what they took, so a round always adds up to nought, and the highest total is ahead.

The arithmetic is the code the Dhumbal tables in this app score with, so the scorekeeper and the game always agree.

Rounds in a game

No set end is how most tables play. Choose a number for a game with an end.

Call at or under

Five is usual: a hand of five or under may call.

A caught call costs

Twenty-five is usual for a caught call.

Share board makes a link and a QR code. Everybody who opens it watches the board change as you save each deal, with no account on either side. With no signal it gives a link that carries the board inside it instead, which shows the score as it stood when the link was made.

Send a picture of the board draws the standings and every deal as an image for the family group, with the address in the corner. It needs no signal.

If you have to leave before the game ends, Hand over scoring shows a second code. Whoever scans it keeps score on their own phone from then on.

Pick a dealer chooses who deals first, and from then on the scorekeeper says whose deal it is above every deal. Shuffle seats puts the names in a new order to sit in.

Both draw from the phone’s own random number generator, the one the dice roller uses, so every seat is equally likely.