How to play Bhabhi

Names

Bhabhi (भाभी), or Bhabhi Thulla, is the most common name. Many call it simply Thulla, and you may also hear Tochoo, Laad, Bhabho or Dhamaal. In English it is Get Away, or Getaway, which describes the aim.

The cards and the deal

Three to eight people can play with one pack, each playing alone; four to six make the best game. Use a standard 52-card pack without jokers. Cards rank from Ace, the highest, down to 2, and there are no trumps.

Deal and play go clockwise, and anyone may deal first. The dealer deals out the whole pack one card at a time, starting with the player on their left, so the first players dealt to may get one card more:

Players	Cards each
3	18, 17, 17
4	13 each
5	11, 11, 10, 10, 10
6	9, 9, 9, 9, 8, 8
7	8, 8, 8, 7, 7, 7, 7
8	7, 7, 7, 7, 6, 6, 6, 6

The deal moves one seat clockwise after each hand, so nobody is always stuck with an extra card. Picking up adds cards, so a hand can grow well beyond what was dealt.

The first trick: the Ace of Spades

1. Whoever holds the Ace of Spades leads it, face up, wherever they sit.
2. Everyone else plays one card in turn. If you hold a spade, you must play one, any you like. If you have none, play any card.
3. On this trick only, a card of another suit does not stop play and nobody picks up. When everyone has played, all the cards go face down onto a discard pile.
4. The Ace is the highest spade, so the player who led it leads the second trick.

Following suit and the thulla

From the second trick on, the lead belongs to whoever has the power: the player who played the highest card of the suit led in the previous trick. The power is a risk, not a reward, because that player is the one who picks up when someone cuts.

• The leader may lead any card.
• Each player in turn must follow suit if they can, with any card of that suit. There is no need to play high.
• A player with no card of the suit led plays any card. That card is the thulla (also called the tochoo, or a cut). It ends the trick at once: nobody after them plays to it.

The trick then ends in one of two ways:

• Everyone followed suit. The cards go face down onto the discard pile and nobody picks up.
• Someone played a thulla. The player who played the highest card of the suit led picks up every card in the trick, the thulla included.

Either way, that player now has the power and leads next.

An example. West leads the 2 of Hearts, North plays the 6 of Hearts, and East, who has no hearts, plays the King of Diamonds. The trick stops, so South does not play. North’s 6 is the highest heart, so North picks up all three cards and leads next.

If the player right after the leader cuts, the leader picks up their own card and the thulla, and leads again.

Breaking the rules. Anyone who plays after a thulla, plays out of turn or cuts while holding the suit led picks up the whole trick and leads next.

Getting away

Play your last card and you have got away: you are out of the hand and safe from losing.

The catch: you cannot get away while you hold the power. If your last card was the highest of the suit led and everyone followed suit, you must lead but have nothing to lead. Then:

1. Shuffle the discard pile, without the trick just played, and draw one card at random.
2. Lead that card.
3. If someone plays a higher card of that suit, you are out and safe. If not, you have the power again: draw again if nobody cut, or pick up the trick if someone did.

When only two players are left

Play goes on as before, but the hand ends as soon as either player is out.

• If your last card is a thulla, or is lower than your opponent’s card in the suit led, you are out and your opponent loses at once.
• If you lead your last card and your opponent plays a lower card of that suit as their last card too, you lose, because you still hold the power.
• If they play lower but still have cards, draw one at random from the discard pile (leaving out the two cards just played) and lead it. Then:
  • if they play higher in that suit, you are out and they lose, even if it was their last card;
  • if they play lower and it was their last card, you lose; if they still have cards, you draw and lead again;
  • if they have none of that suit and cut, you lose at once. This saves time: from there they could always avoid losing by playing their highest card.

Who loses

There are no points in the basic game. The hand ends when every player but one has got away, or when a two-player rule above settles it, and the player left loses. Over a session, count how often each player loses.

Variants

Rules vary, so settle these before the first deal.

• Anticlockwise. In some places the whole game goes anticlockwise.
• Choosing piles. Instead of dealing singly, the dealer splits the shuffled pack into one face-down pile per player, roughly equal and uncounted. Each player takes one, traditionally the youngest first.
• Other ways out. If your last card leaves you with the power, some tables have you draw at random from the hand of the next player who still has cards. Others let you get away anyway while three or more players remain, and the next player with cards leads. With two left, you draw from the discard pile as usual.
• Taking a neighbour’s cards. Some let any player, before any trick, take every card held by the player on their left (or, if that player has none, by the next player round who does). Whoever lost their cards has got away and cannot lose. Agree in advance who goes first if two players want to take at once.
• Two packs. With seven or more players, some shuffle two packs together. One Ace of Spades is marked and its holder leads first. When both copies of a card tie for highest in the suit led, the one played first counts as higher.
• Penalty points. Some score each hand: 0 for the first player out, 1 for the second, 2 for anyone else who gets away and 3 for the loser. The match ends when someone reaches 6 points, and the lowest total wins. Others charge the loser a point for each card left in hand.
• Donkey. In Kasaragod, Kerala, a related game called Donkey adds a trump suit, fixed by the first card played by someone who cannot follow suit.

Quick reference

• 3 to 8 players, the whole pack dealt out, no trumps, Ace high.
• The Ace of Spades leads the first trick: a spade if you have one, anything if not, and every card is discarded.
• The highest card of the suit led takes the power and leads next.
• Follow suit if you can, with any card of that suit.
• Cannot follow? Play any card: the thulla. The trick stops, and the highest card of the suit led picks it all up.
• Your last card gets you away, unless it leaves you with the power. Then draw from the discard pile and lead.
• The last player who cannot get away loses.