Twenty-Nine

29 · the Jack-and-Nine game

No coins, no chips, no betting. Earn XP, badges and new tables just by playing. Private online tables come later.

Play with bots

Bots

Easy Normal Hard

Match

Short ±4 Standard ±6 Long ±10

A team wins at +6, or loses if it falls to −6.

House rules

Bidding

Bids start at 16 Start at 15

Everyone passes: redealOff: if the first three pass, the dealer must bid. On: all four may pass and the next player deals (Bangladesh). Redeal a pointless startNew deal if either of the first two bidders has no J, 9, A or 10 in their first four. Last trick is worth 129 points in play; bids go up to 29.

Trumps

Must ask May ask

Must ask: the first player out of the led suit asks for trumps, then plays anything. May ask: you can discard without asking; if you ask, you must trump if you can.

Pair (King + Queen of trumps)After trumps are shown: −4 to the bidders’ target if they hold it, +4 if the other side does. Seventh cardThe bidder may let their 7th card set trumps, face down.

Extras Double and redoubleThe other side may double (2 game points); the bidder may redouble (4). Single handAfter the deal a player may go alone with no trumps for all 8 tricks: ±3. Under half loses doubleBidders who score under half their bid lose 2 (eastern India).

Clockwise Anticlockwise

How to play

Four players in two teams; partners sit opposite. 32 cards: 7 up to Ace in each suit. Play goes clockwise.

The cards

Card	J	9	A	10	K	Q	8	7
Points	3	2	1	1	0	0	0	0

That is the order in every suit: the Jack is highest, then the Nine. There are 28 points in the pack.

Bidding

Everyone gets four cards. Starting left of the dealer, each player bids how many points their team will win (16 to 28), going higher each time, or passes. Once you pass you are out. If the first three pass, the dealer must bid 16.

Hidden trumps

The highest bidder chooses trumps and keeps them face down. Then everyone gets four more cards.

Tricks

The player left of the dealer leads. Follow the led suit if you can. If you can’t, ask for trumps: the bidder shows them, and from then on a trump beats every other suit. Before that, the highest card of the led suit wins.

The pair

Holding the King and Queen of trumps is a pair. Show it after trumps are known and your team wins a trick: your team’s target drops by 4, or, if you are against the bidder, theirs goes up by 4.

Scoring

The bidding team makes its bid: +1 game point. Falls short: −1. The other team’s score doesn’t move. A team reaching +6 wins; a team falling to −6 loses. The other team needs 29 minus the bid to stop them, which is where the name comes from.

Playing on a phone

Slide along your hand to pick a card, then tap it again (or flick it up) to play. Small gold dots show each card’s points.

House rules (seventh card, doubling, single hand, last-trick point and more) are under “House rules” when you set up a game.