Rung (Court Piece): the Pakistani card game, rules and all

Also called Coat Piece, Hukam or Rang; رنگ in Urdu. Four players, two teams, thirteen tricks, one pile in the middle.

What it is

Rung is a partnership trick-taking game in the same family as Spades and Whist, played across Pakistan and northern India for as long as anyone can remember. It takes four people and one ordinary 52-card deck, Ace high. Partners sit across from each other and the game moves to the right, anticlockwise. The suit that beats the others is the rung, which is simply the Urdu word for colour.

What sets it apart from its cousins is the pile. In most trick-taking games a trick goes to whoever won it. In Rung the tricks wait in the middle, and the whole pile goes to the player who wins two tricks back to back. That one rule changes everything about when you spend a good card.

How to play

1. The deal and the rung

The dealer shuffles and the player to their right cuts. That same player is the caller. The dealer gives five cards to each player first. The caller looks at their five and names the rung from those five alone, without a word to their partner. Then the dealer gives out the rest, four at a time, until everyone holds thirteen.

Some tables play Hidden Rung: the caller sets a card face down instead of naming a suit, and the rung comes out only when someone cannot follow suit. Until then, nobody knows.

2. The tricks

The caller leads the first trick. Each player in turn must follow suit if they can. If they cannot, they may play a rung card or anything else. The highest card of the suit led wins the trick, unless a rung card was played, in which case the highest rung wins. The winner leads the next trick.

3. The pile

This is the part called Double Sar. A won trick is not picked up. It goes face down into the pile in the middle. When the same player wins two tricks in a row, that player takes the whole pile, including the trick just won, and a new pile starts with the next trick. Two wins in a row by the two partners take nothing; it has to be one seat. A third win in a row does not take anything either, it needs the one after it.

Tables differ on when the pile first opens, usually not before the third or fifth trick. The winner of the thirteenth trick takes whatever is left in the middle, whether or not they won the twelfth. Some tables go further and say the twelfth trick can never take the pile, so everything rides on the last card.

Aces have their own customs. At many tables, an Ace led straight after winning a trick with an Ace counts as a two, so you cannot walk off with the pile on two Aces alone. At others it simply cannot win the trick. The host says which before the deal.

4. Pees, courts and goon courts

The team that takes seven tricks wins the hand. That is pees. Take all thirteen and it is a court, worth double a plain hand. When the dealer's team does that to the team that called the rung, it is a goon court, worth double again, and it is the hand people are still talking about next week.

Families keep different tallies. The old way counts courts across an evening. The app keeps points on the board: five for a hand, ten for a court, twenty for a goon court, and the first team to fifty takes the match. The host can set the match to seventy-five, a hundred or a hundred and twenty.

5. Who deals next

The deal moves to the team that lost. If the dealer's team wins, the player to the dealer's right deals next. If the caller's team wins without a court, the same dealer deals again and the same caller keeps the rung. After a court, the deal passes to the previous dealer's partner.

6. Table words

Rung (رنگ)

The trump suit, called from the first five cards.

Sar

Taking the pile: two tricks in a row by one seat.

Pees

Seven tricks. The hand is won.

Court (کوٹ)

All thirteen tricks to one team.

Goon court

A court by the dealer's team against the team that called the rung. Double.

What the app's usual table plays

Rung Darbar opens every table on the settings most Pakistani tables expect, and the host can change any of them before the deal: Double Sar, the pile taken from the fifth trick, an Ace after an Ace counts as a two, the twelfth trick rolls into the thirteenth, and the match played to fifty. Every seat sees the row of rules on the felt, so there is nothing to argue about afterwards. Well, less.

Is it the same as Court Piece, Hokm or FisKut?

Rung and Court Piece are one game with two names; Coat Piece and Hukam are two more. Hokm is the Iranian cousin, where the hakem chooses the trump. FisKut is the Afghan cousin, with its own five-card call and no pile. If you know any of them, you know most of Rung already. What differs is the pile, the Ace customs and the words shouted across the table.

Play it anywhere

Rung Darbar is a free app that plays Rung the way the table does: bots that know what a pile is worth, private tables with family and friends in any country, and open tables with players worldwide. Ludo is included for the kids. Free on iPhone, with short ad breaks between hands and nothing to buy to play.

رنگ کیا ہے؟

رنگ پاکستان کا تاش کا کھیل ہے: چار کھلاڑی، دو ٹیمیں، تیرہ ہاتھ۔ پہلے پانچ پتوں سے رنگ پکارا جاتا ہے۔ جیتے ہوئے ہاتھ درمیان میں رہتے ہیں اور جو کھلاڑی لگاتار دو ہاتھ جیتے وہ پورا ڈھیر لے جاتا ہے۔ سات ہاتھ جیتنے والی ٹیم جیتتی ہے اور تیرہ کے تیرہ جیتنا کوٹ ہے۔ اب آپ دنیا میں کہیں بھی اپنے گھر والوں کے ساتھ کھیل سکتے ہیں، مفت، آئی فون پر۔

Questions people ask

How many players?

Four, in two fixed partnerships. The app fills empty seats with bots.

How many cards?

A standard 52-card deck, thirteen each, no jokers.

Who calls the rung?

The player to the dealer's right, from the first five cards.

What is Double Sar?

Tricks stay in the middle and the pile goes to whoever wins two in a row. Single Sar, where each trick goes to its winner, is the beginner's version.

What is a goon court?

The dealer's team taking all thirteen tricks from the team that called the rung. The thing you text your cousin about.