3-2-5 Card Game (Teen Do Paanch)
3-2-5 (Teen Do Paanch) rules in brief
Also new: Callbreak
The call-and-trump classic of Nepal and India: 4 players, spades always trump, 5 rounds. Play free in your browser.
The 30-card deck
3-2-5 uses 30 cards: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9 and 8 of every suit, plus the 7 of hearts and the 7 of spades. From a 52-card pack, throw out every 2 to 6 and the 7s of clubs and diamonds. Cards rank ace-high down to 7. Three players, ten cards each, ten tricks in every round.
The deal and the trump pick
Everyone gets 5 cards to start. The player left of the dealer looks at those 5 and names the trump suit for the round. Then 5 more cards are dealt, so all three players hold 10. The trump picker leads the first trick. The deal rotates after every round, and so does the trump pick.
Why it is called 3-2-5
The numbers are the trick quotas. The trump picker must win 5 tricks, the next player 3, and the dealer 2: the 5-3-2 the game is named after. In Hindi the game is Teen Do Paanch, literally three, two, five. Your seat changes every round, so your quota changes with it.
Winning a trick
One card each, in turn. You must follow the suit that was led if you hold it. The highest trump wins the trick; with no trump in play, the highest card of the led suit wins. A card that is neither trump nor the led suit can never take the trick. Winners lead the next trick.
Scoring
After the round, score tricks won minus your quota. Beat your 5 by two tricks and you score +2; fall one short of your 2 and you score -1. Points carry forward between rounds. In our browser game the first player to 5 points takes the match; at a physical table, agree the target first.
Pull and steal
The twist that makes Teen Do Paanch unlike any other trick game. A player who beat their quota pulls a face-down card from a player who missed, then gives one card back. Pulls happen before the next round starts, one pull per trick won above quota, and they can flip a match on its head.
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