29. The game

There is a card game called '29', which has been one of my favorite pastime. It was so addictive that we used to have night-outs playing the game. And since its 29th I thought of bringing the game to light of those who are not aware of it.

29 is a game that is widely popular in the eastern regions of India. The game is played between two teams of two players each, i.e. 4 players. No team member sits next to the other. In other words team members sit across each other.

The game is played using 32 cards, which are 7, 8, 9, 10, A, K, Q, J of all suits. The other cards also have great significance. The cards 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of all suits and the jokers are used for defining a priority (will explain this later). The four 6's are used for keeping track of scores of each team. One team has 6 clubs and 6 diamonds and the other team has 6 hearts and 6 spades. For keeping track of scores initially the two cards are kept on top of each other and facing each other such that no one can see either of the 6's. This indicates a zero. Initially both the sets of 6's is kept at zero. Further, the choice of the heart and spade set or the clubs and diamonds set is subject to who wins the first bid. This is where the game begins.

After the 32 cards have been shuffled and the party clockwise next has 'cut' (card parlance) , as in removed some cards from top or bottom, the dealer (who is one of the players) distributes the cards. The dealer gives each player 4 cards to begin with starting with the player who 'cut' the cards and ending with himself. Also, the deal gives the 4 cards in one go to one player and not one card at a time. Players bid after that and once the bidding is over, the dealer distributes the remaining cards in the same fashion.
                
                    Dealer (team 1)

Third (team 2)                                First (team 2)

                    Second (team 1)

Thereafter, the bidding starts, with each player having 4 cards with him. The player who was given the first set of 4 cards gets the chance to bid first. The first player may choose to pass the bid. In that case the second player gets the chance to bid first. Similarly if the second player also passes the bid, the third player gets the chance to bid first. If all the three players other than the dealer pass, the dealer shuffles and distributes the cards again.

The minimum bid is of 17 points (some people play with 16 points as well). This means that the player is bidding that he will be making at least 17 points at the end of the round (will be indicated later).

Before I continue explaining, the points for each card are as follows:

• Jack (J): 3 points
• 9: 2 points
• A, 10: 1 points
• King (K), Queen (Q), 8, 7: 0 points

The order of superiority of cards is typically as follows:

• J > 9 > A > 10 > K > Q > 8 > 7

Please note that this relates to all cards being of the same suit.

Getting back to the bidding process. After the first player bids, the second player gets a chance to bid. The second player has to bid at least one point higher than the first player. Say the first player bids 18, the second player has to bid 19 or above. If the second player says 19, the first player can take the bid by bidding 19 (same number). For the second player to win the bid, he will have to raise the bid till the first player passes. Then the third player gets to bid and fight with the first or second player. And finally the dealer gets to fight with the first, second or third player (whoever wins the bid).

The second player may also choose to pass. In that case the third player gets to bid. If the third player also passes the bid, then the dealer gets to bid. The bid can be fought in between the following parties:

• first & second;
• first & third;
• first & dealer;
• second & third;
• second & dealer; and
• third & dealer.

In any event, the first in order gets to stay (or call an equal bid) to claim priority. In total, to win a bid, all the remaining three players should pass the bid placed by one player.

The bid is fought on the 4 cards in hand. The person who wins the bid gets the chance to decide the 'color'. The color can be set from either:

• the cards 1-5 of different suits and jokers, that were kept aside initially; or 
• the seventh card's suit, i.e. the suit of the second/third card (selected by the player) of the next 4 cards, which the dealer would provide the player (the player does not get to see his remaining 4 cards while choosing this option. He may however, see which 'color' has been set)

In the first case, the color can be either of the four suits, i.e. hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades or Joker. When either of hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades is chosen as the color, the cards J, 9, A, 10, K, Q, 8 and 7 of that suit become the strongest cards in the game. When joker is set no suit claim priority.

When the 7th card is set, the suit of the card set as the 7th card becomes the 'color'. The player keeps the card separately from his set of seven remaining cards (and hidden from others.)

The color is supposed to be hidden from every other player, i.e. the remaining three players and has to be set secretly. No player is aware of what the other player has in his hands. Therefore, 'color' becomes important. To reiterate, the color is set based on the first 4 cards received. Alternately, the seventh card is chosen.

After the bid has finished, the other team might place a double (2 points for a win/-2points for a loss). There might be an auto-double set by mutual consensus for the entire game. This can be 21 or 22 or whatever all the four players agree before starting the game. 

Once the color has been set, the round (for which the bid was made) begins...

To be continued