How to play 29, the card game, in ten minutes

29 is a bidding card game played in partnerships. It is common in Bangladesh, Nepal and parts of India, and it moves quickly. A hand takes a few minutes, and a match is decided by who keeps their nerve about the right moments to bid high. If you have played Spades, Euchre or another trick-taking game, the basic shape will feel familiar. The ranking of the cards will not, and that is where most first hands go wrong.

This guide covers the whole game in the order you will meet it: the deck, the ranking, the points, the bid, the trump, the tricks, the scoring and the three optional rules that many tables play.

The deck and the table

You need 32 cards: the 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace of each suit. Put the 2s through 6s back in the box. The two 6s, one red and one black, are not played. They sit on the table as score markers, and each team uses one of them.

Four players sit in two partnerships, with partners opposite each other. Play usually goes counter-clockwise, but the direction changes nothing about the rules.

The card ranking

Within every suit, from strongest to weakest, the order is:

J, 9, A, 10, K, Q, 8, 7

The Jack beats every other card. The 9 beats the Ace, which is the step that trips up almost everyone the first time. The King and the Queen are weak cards, worth nothing on the table. The ranking is the same in every suit, trump or not, and it comes from the Jass family of trick-taking games that 29 grew out of.

The point cards

Only four ranks score anything. The Jack is worth 3 points, the 9 is worth 2, and the Ace and the 10 are worth 1 each. There are four of each rank, so the deck holds 12 points of Jacks, 8 of 9s, 4 of Aces and 4 of 10s. That makes 28. The 29th point goes to the team that wins the last trick, and the name of the game comes from that extra point.

Every other card, the King, Queen, 8 and 7, is worth nothing. A trick full of Kings and Queens is a trick nobody needs to fight over.

The bid

The dealer gives each player four cards. Bidding starts with the player after the dealer, who has seen only half of their eventual hand.

• The lowest bid is 16 and the highest is 28.
• Each bid must be higher than the one before it.
• You can pass at any time. Once you pass, you are out for the hand.
• The last bidder wins the contract. Their team has promised to collect at least that many points from the tricks.

The winning bidder then chooses the trump suit. They take one card from their hand and place it face down on the table. The suit of that card is the trump. Nobody else knows it yet, not even the partner. Only after that do all players receive their remaining four cards.

Playing the tricks

The player after the dealer leads any card. Going around the table, each player must follow suit if they can. If you cannot follow suit, you have two choices. You can discard any card, or you can ask for the trump to be revealed.

Revealing the trump turns the face-down card face up and returns it to the bidder's hand. From that point, trump cards beat every other suit. Any player who cannot follow the suit that was led may play a trump.

A trick is won by the highest card of the suit that was led, unless a trump was played. If trumps were played, the highest trump wins. The winner of each trick leads the next one. There are eight tricks in a hand.

Scoring the hand

At the end of the hand, each team counts the points in the tricks it won, and the team that took the last trick adds one more point.

• If the bidding team reached its bid, it gains one game point.
• If it fell short, it loses one game point.

A team that reaches +6 game points wins the match. A team that drops to −6 loses it. In 29 Royale the score markers are drawn for you, and the result counts toward your trophies as soon as the match ends.

The three optional rules

Once the basics are comfortable, you will meet three rules that change the feel of the game. Tables choose which to use, and 29 Royale lets you switch each one on or off.

1. Marriage. If one player holds the King and Queen of the trump suit, declaring it after the trump is revealed moves the bidding team's target by four points. The marriage rule explained.
2. Double and redouble. A defending team can double the stakes of a hand it expects to fail. The bidding team can redouble in reply. How doubling works.
3. Seventh card. Instead of choosing a trump, the bidder can gamble on the seventh card they are dealt. The seventh-card gamble.

Your first hand, step by step

1. Look at your four cards. Count the Jacks and 9s, and check whether three or more cards share a suit.
2. Bid only if you have something to build on. Two Jacks is a sound opening bid of 16 or 17. A hand with no Jack and no 9 is a pass.
3. If you win the bid, choose the suit you hold most cards of, and prefer one that also has a Jack or a 9.
4. Lead your highest trump early. It pulls the opposing trumps out before they can win your tricks.
5. Keep count of the Jacks and 9s as they fall. There are four of each, and once you know where they went, the rest of the hand becomes easier to read.

The fastest way to make this stick is to play a few hands where nothing is at stake. 29 Royale begins every new player in the Training Grounds, a free practice match with a tutorial that explains the bid, the trump reveal and the scoring as they come up. The Training Grounds, explained shows what you will see. When you are ready for real opponents, 29 Royale is free on Google Play.