Thousand (Tysiąc)

Polish card game – 3 players – 24 cards (nine to ace, French deck)

Cards

• Rank and points: Ace 11, Ten 10, King 4, Queen 3, Jack 2, Nine 0 – 120 in total.
• Seven cards each; three cards form the musik (talon).

Bidding and the musik

• The player left of the dealer must bid 100 (“na musiku”); bids then rise by 10, and whoever passes drops out.
• Without a marriage (meldunek: king + queen of a suit) you may bid at most 120; with marriages, up to 120 + the value of the marriages in your hand.
• The high bidder (the declarer) takes the musik – shown to everyone –, passes one card to each opponent and declares a contract (at least the bid, in steps of 10).
• Bomb: if the hand is hopeless after the musik, the declarer may give up before passing cards (once per game) – the hand is void and the opponents score 60 each.

Play

• The declarer leads. Follow suit and head the trick if you can; if void, you must trump (if trumps exist). At first there are no trumps.
• Marriage: a player who leads the king or queen while holding the other announces it – hearts 100, diamonds 80, clubs 60, spades 40 – and that suit becomes trumps (until the next marriage).

Scoring

• The declarer scores the contract if card points plus marriages reach it, otherwise loses it.
• Defenders score their own points rounded to 10. Above 800 points you only score as declarer.
• The first to reach 1000 points wins.
• Options: free bidding above 120, hidden musik, no obligation to head or trump, marriages only after the first trick, limit 900, “barrel” (stop at 880, get out as declarer within 3 hands or lose 120) or no limit, number of bombs.