How to play Thunee: rules, calling and scoring

Everyone at the table is calling “Jodi” and slapping down Jacks, and you’re still working out why a 9 just beat an Ace. Thunee looks chaotic from the outside. Once you know the card order and the magic number, 105, it’s one of the most satisfying card games you’ll play.

Where Thunee comes from

Thunee is a Durban game. It’s most closely linked to KwaZulu-Natal’s Indian community and is usually traced back to the indentured labourers who came to work on the sugar-cane estates from 1860. Families tell different stories about who first played it and when, and nobody can say for certain.

What is certain is how loved it is. Thunee is played at family lunches, weddings and long nights after functions, and there are tournaments and fundraising competitions too. It belongs to a family of European card games where the Jack and 9 are the top cards, which is why the order feels upside down at first.

What you need

• 4 players, in two teams of two. Partners sit opposite each other
• A normal pack of cards. Keep the 9s, 10s, Jacks, Queens, Kings and Aces: 24 cards
• The four 6s, used as score markers
• About 30 to 60 minutes for a full game

Each team keeps its score with two of the 6s, one placed over the other so it shows how many balls (game points) the team has won.

The cards: order and points

Thunee is a trick-taking game. Each player plays one card in turn, and the highest card wins all four. That set of four cards is a trick. Trumps are one suit chosen each round that beats every other suit.

The order of the cards, from highest to lowest, is the part that trips people up:

The cards you win are worth points. Each suit adds up to 76, so the whole pack is worth 304. The team that wins the last trick also gets 10 bonus points.

How a round works

Play goes to the right (anticlockwise), which is the opposite of many card games.

1. Deal four cards each

   The dealer shuffles, offers the cut, and deals four cards to each player, starting with the player on their right.

2. Choose trumps

   The player on the dealer’s right looks at their four cards and places one face down. Its suit is trumps, kept secret for now. Other players can “call” to take over this choice (see below).

3. Deal two more

   Everyone gets two more cards, so each player holds six.

4. Play six tricks

   The player to the right of whoever chose trumps leads the first card. Everyone must follow suit if they can. If you can’t, you may play any card, including a trump. The winner of each trick leads the next.

5. Count the points

   The team that didn’t choose trumps adds up the points in the tricks they won, plus 10 if they won the last trick.

Following suit is the golden rule. Playing a trump when you still had a card of the suit that was led is called “colour cutting”, and it’s the most common way beginners give away a penalty.

Scoring: the magic 105

The team that didn’t choose trumps is the counting team. Their target is 105 points.

105

points the counting team needs to win the round

Out of 314: the 304 in the pack plus 10 for the last trick.

• If the counting team reaches 105, they win the round and open 1 ball.
• If they fall short, the team that chose trumps opens 1 ball.
• The first team to 12 balls wins the game.

Calling: paying for trumps

Before trumps are set, any player can call to win the right to choose trumps. Calls go up in tens: 10, 20, 30 and so on up to 100, then a final call of 104. The highest call wins.

A call is a head start you give the other team. If you call 30 and choose trumps, the counting team only needs 75 instead of 105. You’d only do that with a strong hand, such as the Jack and 9 of the same suit. And if you call and still lose the round, the other team opens 2 balls instead of 1.

Jodi, Thunee and the other calls

Jodi (also spelt Jodhi) is a bonus for holding the King and Queen of the same suit. You claim it straight after your team wins its first or third trick:

• King and Queen: 20, or 40 in trumps
• Jack, King and Queen: 30, or 50 in trumps

A Jodi moves the target. If the counting team claims one, they need that much less. If the team that chose trumps claims one, the counting team needs that much more.

Thunee is the big one. After all six cards are dealt, a player who thinks they can win all six tricks alone calls “Thunee”. If they do, their team opens 4 balls. If anyone takes a trick off them, the other team opens 4 balls instead.

Experienced players also use Double and Khanaak, two calls made on the last trick. Learn the basic game first; they’re easier once the rest is second nature.

House rules you’ll come across

Thunee rules vary between families and tournaments, so ask before the first deal. Common differences:

• 13 balls instead of 12 to win, or needing to win by two clear when the score is close.
• A team on 11 balls (one away from winning) is on “corner house” and can’t call Double.
• Royals: like Thunee, but the card order flips, so the Queen is highest and the Jack lowest.
• Blind calls, made before seeing your cards, for extra balls.
• Thunee for 6 players, in two teams of three.

Tips for your first games

• Count Jacks and 9s. There are only eight cards worth 20 or more. Keep track of which have gone.
• Don’t waste trumps early. Cutting a trick that only holds Kings and Queens spends a strong card on a handful of points.
• Give your partner points. If your partner is winning a trick, throw your 10 or Ace on it.
• Watch the last trick. Those 10 points decide a lot of close rounds.

Try this today: take the 9s up to the Aces out of a pack, deal four hands face up, and play one round slowly with someone who knows the game, saying the points out loud as each trick is won.