Thunee
Thunee , after the Tamil word for water, is a card game well known in South Africa and originating from Durban, South Africa. It was invented by Indian wage laborers who came to South Africa to work in the sugar cane fields. It is believed that there are variations of the game in India and Mauritius.
The game is mainly restricted to the former Indian townships where it is very popular as a family game and in fundraising tournaments. However, to some extent it has spread to other South Africans and to Indians in other countries.
The game Euchre is very closely related.
The first Thunee World Championship took place in Pietermaritzburg in 2003 .
The game is part of the Bézique family, which includes fifty-six , and the much older Jass family card games , which are of German origin.
Game flow
| Precedence | J | 9 | A. | 10 | K | Q |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| value | 30th | 20th | 11 | 10 | 3 | 2 |
Thunee is best suited for four players who are divided into fixed teams of two. The other players sit crosswise. However, it can also be played by 2 (against each other) or 6 people (2 teams with 3 players each). It is played with 24 cards. The sixes, known as the "ball cards", are used to count the points (balls). The very original ranking of the cards and the card point values are shown in the table.
Teams score with the tricks they have won over the cards; Card points can also be won or lost before and during the game by shouting out. The team that loses the last trick must give up 10 points to the team that wins it. The total number of card points in the deck is 304.
Deal and choose the trump suit
The first dealer is conveniently selected. For example, cards can be dealt face up from the shuffled deck, one card to each player in turn, until someone gets a black jack: that player becomes the first dealer. The same player remains the dealer as long as his team is behind in points (balls). As soon as the team behind equalizes or takes the lead, the dealer's role rotates to the right.
The dealer offers the player to his left to withdraw the deck of cards. This can be done by the dealer handing the pile into the other player's hand or placing it on the table. If the cards are handed over, they do not necessarily have to be withdrawn. However, if the stack is passed over the table, the stack on the table must be lifted off.
After the eventual withdrawal, the dealer first deals four cards to each player, starting with the player to their right.
The player to the right of the dealer chooses the suit that is trump, unless another player “buys” the right to determine trump. Trump is usually chosen by placing a card of the desired suit face down on the table. However, if the player to the right of the dealer does not want to make a choice based on his first four cards, for example because he has a card of each suit, there is the option of choosing the “last card” as the trump instead. In this case, the dealer deals the remaining cards and the last card that player is dealt determines the trump suit.
After the player to the right of the dealer has hidden a card or declared the last card as a trump, the dealing team is able to "buy" the choice of the trump by bidding points. The bid starts at 10 points. If the opposing team wants to choose the trump, they can increase the bid by 10 points. This is possible as long as 100 points are reached, the last possible bid is 104 points. The player who makes the last and highest bid has the right to choose the trump suit.
To win a round, the non-Trump determining team needs 105 card points. If the trump has been “bought” through bids, this is reduced by the respective bid.
For example, if a player bids 40 points, the opposing team already has 40 card points and needs 65 from the tricks.
Exclamations before the first stitch
- Thunee : The player who calls Thunee must take all the tricks himself, the first card played becomes the trump card. If the player who called “Thunee” loses a trick to the opposing team or his partner (known as the “partner catch”), the opposing team receives 4 or 8 balls. A player cannot call “Thunee” if he alone has all 6 trump cards, this creates a trumpless situation for the opposing team and the player can be “4 balled”.
- Blind Thunee : The player calling “Blind Thunee” must do so before the remaining 2 cards have been dealt. After the remaining 2 cards have been dealt, all players can see them except the player calling out. That player must win the first 4 tricks, with the first card becoming the trump card in this game. Then the player can see the remaining 2 cards and take the following 2 tricks. If the calling player does not give a trick to the opponent or his partner, 6 balls may be revealed. Shouting “Blind Thunee” is often a last resort to make up for a large deficit of balls.
- Royals : In this case, the values of the cards are swapped, with Q being the highest and J being the lowest. The player who calls out "Royals" must take all the tricks, with the first card in the game becoming the trump card. Calling out “Royals” is one possibility in Thunee to make an unfavorable hand cheap. If the player wins his call, his team receives 4 balls, if he loses, the opposing team receives 4.
- Blind Royals : This exclamation works in the same way as the exclamation "Blind Thunee", only that, as with the aforementioned Royals exclamation, the values of the cards are swapped.
The game
If no one calls “Thunee”, the player to the right of the player who determined the trump suit starts the first trick. A trick can be started with any card. The trump suit is not known to the starting player at this point. Immediately after the first card is placed, the card that determines the trump suit is revealed so that all players know which suit is trump.
In the case of a trick, all players must follow if they can. A player who does not have a card of the suit led may play any card. If one or more trumps are played, the highest trump wins the trick; A trick without a trump is won by the highest card of the suit played first. The winner of each trick leads the next trick.
If a trick is started with a card that is not a trump, and a trump card is placed in the course of the trick, no lower trump card may be discarded. If you cannot follow the suit, you are only allowed to play a higher trump card or discard any card of the remaining suits.
If it turns out during the game that the team that did not determine the trump suit has no trump, the current game is aborted and the dealer redistributes it. This also applies to a Thunee exclamation.
Exclamations during the game
Jodie / Jorie / Chorie
When a player holds the king and queen of a suit, or the king, queen and jack, this is known as jodie (jorie or chorie) and can be called for extra card points at certain times during the game. The value of the Jod depends on whether the suit of the cards is trump:
| Valences of the Jodhi exclamations | ||
|---|---|---|
| no trump card | Trump card | |
| K, Q | 20th | 40 |
| K, Q, J | 30th | 50 |
The times at which the player may call a Jodie are immediately after the team's first or third trick won. If a player has several jodies in his hand, he can call them all out at these times. The crier of a 20 jodie can also name the color.
At the end of the game, the value of all called Jodies is paid out in card points to the team that called the Jodies. Therefore, the counting team will add the value of each Jodie called by their team and subtract each Jodie called by the trumping team.
Double
Calling a double is an assertion that the crier's team wins all six tricks and the crier wins the last trick. A double is called before the crier plays the card to the final trick.
Most often, doubles are called by a member of the trump team, usually the winner of the fifth trick, before playing the card at the beginning of the sixth trick. However, it is also possible for a member of the scoring team to call a double if they can win all of the tricks. In the rare event that a scoring team member calls a double against a team that bid 10 or more for trump, this is known as a "backward double".
Khanaak / Kunuck
This exclamation, sometimes spelled "Khanuck", is essentially a claim that the opponent's last ball (card point) is less than zero. For a khanaak call to be successful, the opponents must win at least one trick and the khanaak crier must win the last trick. A call of "Khanaak" by a member of the trump-determining team succeeds if the calling team loses at least one trick, the caller wins the last trick and the value of the jodies of the calling team plus the 10 for the last trick is greater than the value is the actual cards won by the other team plus the amount called to make Trump and any Jodie calls by the opponents. Khanaak is called just before the crier alludes to the last trick.
For example, suppose a team called out 20 to determine Trump and called out 50 Jodie. If the trump determining team wins the last trick, the scoring team starts with 40 (+ 20 - 50 - 10), so a "khanaak" exclamation means that the cards in their tricks are worth less than 40 points. If the counting team had also named a 20 Jodie, the Khanak would only be successful if his tricks contained less than 20 points.
Points
When the game is over and there has been no call from Thunee, Double or Khanaak, the opponents of the team determining trump add up the values of all the cards in their tricks. This team is known as the scoring team and needs 105 card points to win the game.
Before the count begins, the losers of the last trick must give the team that won the last trick 10 additional card points. This can also be done by the loser of the last trick physically giving the winners a card (or cards) worth 10 points, but it is easier to just include those 10 points in the count. So if the scoring team lost the last trick, they count from minus 10 and need 115 points in cards to win, while if they have won the last trick they count from 10 and thus only need 95 points from the tricks.
If a player calls to make trump before counting, the amount of the call must be paid to the scoring team before the cards are counted, and any jodies called must be paid. For example, if the call was 30 but the trump determiners called 40 Jodie and won the last trick, the scoring team will win 30 from the call but lose 10 for the last trick and 40 for the Jodies. They will count from −20 and will need 125 card points to win.
In a normal game, the winning team records its score by opening the balls as follows (with additional characters revealed on the ball cards):
| Win trump determiners | Scoring team wins | |
|---|---|---|
| No exclamation for Trump | 1 ball | 1 ball |
| Exclamation for Trump | 1 ball | 2 balls |
If a Thunee, Double or Khanaak call is successful, the calling team will open balls as shown in the table below. If he fails, the crier's opponents open a few balls. A “partner catch” occurs when a call fails due to a trick won by the caller's partner. In a double or khanaak, a partner catch occurs when the crier's partner wins the final trick, which can only happen if the crier doesn't remember that a higher card is in play.
| won exclamation | lost exclamation | Partner catch | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thunee | 4th | 4th | 8th |
| Double | 2 | 4th | 4th |
| Backward double | 4th | 4th | 4th |
| Khanaak | 3 | 4th | 4th |
A team that opens 12 or more balls wins the game.
A team that has exactly 11 balls open sits in the so-called “corner house”. A team in the corner house is not allowed to call a double and in fact it would be pointless because only one ball is needed to win. If a player whose team is in the corner house accidentally calls double, the opponents open 4 balls and there is no other point value for the deal.
However, a player whose team is in the corner house may call out Thunee or Khanaak.
Punish
The standard penalty for breaking the rules is for the “cheater ”'s opponents to open four balls and there is no other outcome to the deal. If the 4 balls are not enough to win the opponent's game, the cards are shuffled and a new deal is made. For example, the 4-ball penalty applies in the following cases.
- A player does not follow despite holding a card of the suit led. This is known as "color clipping".
- A player plays a card out of turn.
- Partners communicate illegally by speaking or sign language.
- Jodie is called out by a player who does not have the required cards.
Of course, it is up to the playgroup to determine how severely these penalties are enforced. Occasionally, in a friendly match, random mistakes can be forgiven.
One member of each team is responsible for that team's ball cards and must open the correct number of balls to display the new score before the cards are dealt for the next round. If that player forgets to open the balls to which the team is entitled before cards are dealt for the next game, those points will be forfeited. According to strict rules, the other member of the team is not allowed to remind the partner to open open ball cards and the penalty for this is 4 balls for the opponents.
If a Jodie call comes at the wrong time, that is, after the first or third trick the team has won, opponents can call “Marials” and Jodie cannot be called in that deal.
Variations
As with most traditional games, the rules of Thunee vary from place to place and there is no generally accepted standard. Here are some of the variants that exist:
Rotation of the dealer
If the dealer team loses, the dealer retains his duty, but if the dealer's team wins the round, the dealer's surrender moves to the right. This is independent of the team's scores.
Redistribution
If the first four cards dealt to the player at the dealer's right are worth a total of 10 points or less, then the player has the right to discard the cards and request a re-deal.
Determine the trump card
If both team members call out at the same time, no additional 10 is added. For example, if both members of the donor team shout “10”, the call counts as 10, not 20. However, the opponents then decide which of the two callers may choose the trump.
Thunee partner catch
If a Thunee exclamation is lost because the crier's partner wins a trick, the opponents only open 6 balls. Or the opponent opens four balls in a partner catch.
Khanaak
There are different interpretations of this exclamation.
One is that the trump bid is not counted, so the khanaak caller's opponents must have fewer card points than the crier's Jodie plus 10 for the final trick, minus their own jodies.
Or, neither the trump bid nor the Jodie of the opponent of the khanaak crier is counted, so the card point condition for the success of the khanaak is simply that the total value of the cards won by the opponent of the crier is less than the Jodie of the khanaak crier plus 10.
13 point game
Another variation is to increase the number of balls required to win to 13 after a khanaak exclamation.
A win of 13 balls is represented by closing the two ball cards.
There is also a game variant in which up to 13 balls are always played, regardless of whether Khanaak has been called out or not. In a game with 13 points, the corner house is 12 instead of 11 points.
Two points ahead (two to clear)
There is a possibility, in a 12-point game with a score of 11-11 or in a 13-point game of 12-12, that a team must have a lead of at least two balls over the opponent in order to play to win. Both teams close their ball cards as they did at the beginning of the game and start again with zero. The game ends as soon as a team has two or more balls. However, it should be noted that it is possible to work around this situation. If the score is 11-8 and the team with 8 points gets 4 points for a Thunee, that team wins.
In this variant, calls to double or khanaak are allowed in order to achieve a two-ball lead.
Some only play "Two to Clear" if it is a 13-point game (Khanaak).
Web links
- Best online multiplayer Thunee game at playthunee.com
- Authentic Indian Entertainment at Thunee.com
- Thunee at pagat.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ Work hard, play hard . In: News24 . ( news24.com [accessed May 29, 2018]).