The goal of the game
There are exactly four 10s in the deck. Everything in Delha Pakkad revolves around them: your team wins a hand by capturing more tens than your opponents. High cards matter only because they let you win the tricks that contain tens.
What you need
- Four players in two fixed partnerships.
- One standard 52-card deck (no jokers).
- A way to keep score across several hands.
Teams and seating
Partners sit across the table from one another, so play alternates between the two teams. If the seats are numbered 1–4 clockwise, then 1 & 3 are partners and 2 & 4 are partners. You never see your partner’s hand — good partnership play comes from watching which cards they choose to play.
The deal
Shuffle and deal the entire deck one card at a time, 13 to each player. In the traditional game the first five cards are dealt before trump is chosen; most online versions (this one included) deal all 13 first and then ask the first player to name trump.
Card ranking
Within every suit the order from highest to lowest is:
A > K > Q > J > 10 > 9 > 8 > 7 > 6 > 5 > 4 > 3 > 2
Note that the 10 is not promoted — it sits in its natural place between the Jack and the 9. It is valuable to capture, not powerful to play. An opponent’s Jack, Queen, King or Ace will beat your 10 in a trick.
Choosing trump
The first player picks one suit as trump. A trump card beats any card of a non-trump suit, no matter the rank. Choose the suit where you are long (many cards) and strong (high cards) — see the strategy guide for how to weigh this.
Playing a trick
- The player to lead plays any card face up. Its suit is the “led suit”.
- Going around the table, each player must follow suit — play a card of the led suit — if they hold one.
- A player with no card of the led suit may play a trump or discard any other card.
- The trick is won by the highest trump played. If nobody played a trump, it is won by the highest card of the led suit.
- The winner of the trick leads the next one.
Capturing tens and winning the hand
Each trick a team wins is placed in front of that team. When all 13 tricks are done, count the tens: whichever team captured more 10s wins the hand. Capturing all four tens is a clean sweep and is usually worth extra in the match score.
How scoring works in this version
- Each ten is worth one point — four points in play.
- The team with more tens after 13 tricks wins the hand.
- A 2–2 split is a draw.
- Play repeated hands and track hand-wins to decide the match.
A quick worked example
Trump is spades. The lead is the 4♥. The next player follows with the 10♥ (they want that ten to end up with their side), the third player is void in hearts and cuts with the 2♠, and the fourth plays the K♥. The lone trump — the 2♠ — wins the trick, so that ten is captured by the third player’s team, not by the player who actually played it.
Common variations
- Trick minimum: some house rules require a team to win at least 7 of the 13 tricks in addition to holding more tens.
- Five-card trump call: the traditional two-stage deal, where trump is named from the first five cards only.
- Sweep bonus (“kot”): taking all four tens counts as a double hand-win or ends the match immediately.
Once the rules click, the depth is all in the decisions — when to spend a high card, when to hold trump, and how to read your partner. Head to the strategy guide next.