How to play Court Piece

Names and versions

Court Piece has many names: Rang or Rung (rang means trump), Coat Piece, Kot Pees (pees means to deal), Chokdi, and Seven Hands in Goa. Two words cause most of the confusion.

Sir (sar, सर, literally “head”) means a trick, and the game’s versions are named after how tricks are taken. In Single Sir each trick goes straight to the team that won it. In Double Sir tricks pile up in the centre until one player wins two in a row. Double Sir is the most played version in India and Pakistan, so this guide treats it as the main game.

Hand often means a trick in India, so “making seven hands” means winning seven tricks. Here a trick is one round of four cards and a deal is all thirteen.

Dehla Pakad shares the deal and the two-in-a-row rule but scores tens, not tricks.

The cards and the deal

Four people play in two fixed partnerships, partners sitting opposite. Use a standard 52-card pack without jokers; all of it is dealt, 13 cards each. Cards rank from ace (high) down to 2 in every suit, trumps included. No card is worth points: only tricks count.

The player on the dealer’s left is the trump caller, and play goes clockwise.

1. Agree who deals first. The dealer shuffles and the caller cuts.
2. Everyone gets five cards, the caller first. Only the caller looks; the others must not see their cards until trumps are named.
3. The caller names trumps.
4. Everyone gets four more cards, then four more.

Calling trumps

The caller names one suit as trumps without consulting their partner. There is no passing, no bidding and no “no trumps”. When the deal is complete, the caller leads to the first trick with any card.

Many tables also let a caller whose first five cards are all below a jack ask for a fresh deal by the same dealer; agree on it before you start.

Playing a trick

• Follow the suit led if you can.
• If you cannot, play any card. You never have to trump, overtrump or try to win.
• The highest trump wins. If no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led wins.

The trick winner leads next, and partners may not signal to each other.

Failing to follow suit when able can be corrected before the trick is turned face down, and anyone who played after it may then change their card. If it is found later, play stops and the other team scores a court.

Double Sir: the centre pile

In Double Sir, winning a trick does not let you keep it. Each finished trick goes face down in the centre, belonging to nobody, until the same player wins two tricks in a row. That player takes the whole pile, the latest trick included, for their team.

• Partners do not count. If you win a trick and your partner wins the next, nothing is taken.
• The count restarts after every sweep. A third win in a row takes nothing on its own; it needs a fourth.
• The 13th trick takes everything left, even if its winner did not win the 12th.

So all 13 tricks are always played, and one late sweep can turn a deal around: a team can win the first six tricks and still lose 5 to 8.

Winning the deal

At the end, each team counts the tricks in its own pile, not those it won at the table. Seven or more wins the deal, and there is never a tie. A deal win scores nothing by itself, but it counts towards a run of seven and decides who deals next.

Courts

A court (kot, the same word Dehla Pakad uses) is a slam that leaves the other side with nothing, and courts are the only score. In Double Sir:

How	Courts
Win all 13 tricks	1
Dealer’s team wins all 13 (a goon court)	3
Win seven deals in a row	1
Opponents revoke and it is found after the trick	1, and play stops

Goon is an insult: the trump-calling team has lost every trick to the dealers. Any court resets both teams’ runs of deal wins to zero.

Who deals next

The dealer always comes from the team that lost the last deal, so the winners call trumps next.

Last deal	Next dealer
Dealer’s team won	The player on the dealer’s left
Caller’s team won, no court	The same dealer again
Caller’s team scored a court	The dealer’s partner

Winning the match

Play for as long as the table agrees. The team with more courts wins; level courts, or none at all, means no winner.

Variants

• Single Sir (Single Sar), the plain form: each trick goes straight to the team that won it, and play stops once a team has seven. Taking the first seven tricks scores a court (a goon court, still worth one, for the dealer’s team), and that team may play on for all thirteen, a bavney (baunie) worth 52 courts, with no penalty for falling short.
• Hidden Rung (Dub Rung, Band Rang): Double Sir with a secret trump. The caller puts a card of the chosen suit face down, and there are no trumps until it is shown. A player who cannot follow suit may ask for it; it is turned up and returned to the caller’s hand, and the asker must play a trump if able. Trump-suit cards played before the reveal do not count as trumps, unless trumps turn out to be the suit led. A pile can be taken only at tricks 3 to 11, with both winning cards played after the reveal, and the 13th trick still sweeps. An unrevealed trump card must be played to the last trick.
• Be-ranga (Blind Rang, Anyone’s Trump): all 13 cards are dealt at once and nobody calls. The first card played by someone who cannot follow suit sets trumps. No pile can be taken before the trick after that one; a player who wins both takes everything so far, and Double Sir rules apply from then on.
• Goon court worth 10 instead of 3.
• Closed pick-ups. A player who wins tricks 1 and 2 cannot take them (winning 2 and 3 takes all three), and nor can a player who wins tricks 11 and 12.
• Ace on ace. Two tricks in a row won with aces do not take the pile.
• Points. The calling team scores 1 for winning a deal and 3 for a court; the dealer’s team scores 2 and 4. First to an agreed total, such as 10.
• Thaap. Some tables in Delhi and North India allow one signal: a tap on the table, asking your partner to play that suit again.
• Anticlockwise. Some tables deal and play to the right, so the caller sits on the dealer’s right.

Quick reference

• Four players, two teams, partners opposite; play goes clockwise.
• 52 cards, ace high; only tricks count.
• The player on the dealer’s left cuts, names trumps after five cards and leads first.
• Follow suit if you can; otherwise play anything.
• Two tricks in a row by one player takes the centre pile; the last trick takes the rest.
• Seven tricks in your pile wins the deal.
• Courts: all 13 tricks (3 for a goon court), seven deals in a row, or an opponent’s revoke.
• Losers deal next; more courts wins the match.