How to play Mendikot

How the game works

Two teams of two play, partners facing each other. All 52 cards are dealt, 13 tricks are played, and each team then counts the tens in the tricks it took. A ten ranks below the jack, so it is easy to lose: guarding your own tens and catching the other team’s is the whole game.

Players who know Dehla Pakad will find most of Mendikot familiar. The main difference: in Dehla Pakad, tricks pile up in the middle until one player wins two in a row; in Mendikot, whoever wins a trick takes it for their team at once.

The name comes from the cards. Mendi or mindi is a ten (dehla in Hindi), from the Gujarati word for zero, since the 10 is the only card with a zero on it; kot is a clean sweep. In Gujarati the name is written મીંડી કોટ. The short name Mindi is widely used too, sometimes loosely for Dehla Pakad as well.

The cards and the deal

Use one standard 52-card pack without jokers. In every suit, trumps included, the cards rank from high to low:

A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2

Partners and the first dealer are settled by drawing cards, high or low as the table agrees. Dealing and play go clockwise, so the player on the dealer’s left receives cards first and leads first.

The dealer deals out the whole pack in three rounds: five cards each, then four, then four more, for 13 each. The deal never stops part way for anyone to choose trumps.

Choosing trumps (hukum)

Nobody bids for trumps or announces them aloud in Mendikot. Before the session, the table agrees which of three methods to use.

Katte (cut trump)

The hand starts with no trump suit. The first time a player cannot follow the suit led, the card they choose to play sets trumps for the rest of the hand. That card already counts as a trump in the trick being played, so a later player who is also out of the led suit can beat it with a higher card of the new trump suit. If no one is ever out of a suit, the whole hand is played without trumps and every trick goes to the highest card of the suit led.

Katte has nothing hidden, which makes it the easiest method to learn.

Band hukum (hidden trump)

Also called bandh hukum, or hide. After the deal, the player on the dealer’s left lays one card from their hand face down, unseen by the others. Its suit is trumps, and that player plays on with 12 cards until it is turned up.

A player who cannot follow suit may ask for the card to be shown before playing, but need not. Until someone asks there are no trumps: a trick with no request goes to the highest card of the led suit, and cards of the hidden suit played before the reveal never count as trumps, even in the same trick. After the reveal the suit is trumps for the rest of the hand, the player who asked must play a trump to that trick if able, and the hidden card goes back into its chooser’s hand to be played normally.

Open draw

Before the deal, the player on the dealer’s left draws a card at random from the shuffled pack and shows it to everyone. Its suit is trumps. The card goes back into the pack and the deal goes ahead, so trumps are known before anyone sees a hand.

Playing a trick

A trick is also called a haath. The player on the dealer’s left leads any card to the first one, and play continues clockwise.

• Follow the suit led if you can.
• If you cannot, play any card. You never have to trump, overtrump or try to win, except as the player who asks for the hidden card in band hukum.
• The highest trump wins the trick. If no trump is played, the highest card of the suit led wins.
• The winner takes the trick for their team straight away and leads the next one.

All 13 tricks are always played: a whitewash (see below) stays possible until the last card.

Winning the hand

When the last trick is over, each team counts the tens in its tricks.

Tens	Result
4-0	That team wins the hand. Taking all four tens is called a mendikot.
3-1	The team with three tens wins the hand.
2-2	The team that took 7 or more tricks wins the hand.

With 13 tricks one team always has more, so a hand can never be drawn.

The finest result is winning all 13 tricks, and every ten with them: a whitewash, also called a 52-card mendikot.

Who deals next

Dealing counts as a penalty, so the deal stays with the team that lost.

How the hand went	Next dealer
The dealer’s team won	The player on the dealer’s left, from the losing team
The dealer’s team lost, even to a mendikot	The same dealer again
The dealer’s team lost every trick (a whitewash)	The dealer’s partner

Winning the match

Traditional Mendikot has no formal scoring: players count the hands they win and remember every mendikot and whitewash. For a match with a clear finish, give 1 point per hand won; the first team to 5 points wins. A mendikot or a whitewash earns no extra point.

Variants

• Automatic reveal. Some tables turn the band hukum card up the moment anyone cannot follow suit, without being asked. Its suit is trumps from then on, the card goes back to its chooser’s hand, and the player who could not follow may still play any card.
• Anticlockwise play. Some tables deal and play anticlockwise, so everything that falls to the player on the dealer’s left falls to the player on the right.
• After a whitewash. Some tables pass the deal to the next player in turn, not to the dealer’s partner.
• Simple rotation. Some tables pass the deal one place along after every hand, whoever won.
• Six or eight players. Mendikot can also be played by six or eight, in two equal teams seated so that every player has an opponent on each side. Take the four 2s out to leave 48 cards: eight each for six players, six each for eight.

Quick reference

• 4 players in two teams, partners opposite; deal and play clockwise.
• 52 cards, ace high; only the four tens count.
• Deal 5, 4 and 4: 13 cards each.
• Trumps by katte, band hukum or open draw, agreed before play.
• Follow suit if you can; otherwise play anything.
• The trick winner keeps the trick and leads next.
• 3 or 4 tens wins the hand; at 2-2, 7 or more tricks wins.
• All four tens is a mendikot; all 13 tricks is a whitewash.
• The losing team keeps the deal.