How to Play 29 (Twenty-Nine): Rules, Ranking, Bidding & Trump

29 (Twenty-Nine) is a fast, deeply strategic trick-taking card game played across India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Four players form two teams, the Jack and Nine outrank the Ace, and you bid in secret for the right to choose trump. This guide covers the complete, accurate rules: the card ranking, point values, bidding, how trump is revealed, the marriage bonus, and scoring.

What is 29?

29 is a partnership trick-taking game for four players, and it belongs to the same family as Spades, Callbreak, and Court Piece. What sets it apart is its unusual ranking and its bidding system: the Jack and the Nine are the two highest cards in every suit, and players bid blind on just four cards for the privilege of naming trump. It is a point-trick game, meaning you do not simply count tricks won — you count the value of the cards you capture, racing toward a total of 29 points.

The deck and the deal

29 uses a stripped 32-card deck. Take a standard pack and remove all the 2s, 3s, 4s, and 5s, leaving the 7 through Ace in each of the four suits. The four players sit in two fixed partnerships, with partners facing each other so play alternates between the teams.

The deal happens in two stages. The dealer first gives four cards to each player, one at a time, going counter-clockwise (the traditional direction). Players look at these four cards and bid. Once bidding is settled, the dealer deals the remaining four cards to each player, so everyone ends up with eight cards and 32 cards are in play.

Jacks-and-Nines: card ranking and points

This is the heart of 29 and the part newcomers get wrong most often. Within each suit, cards rank from highest to lowest as:

• Jack (highest)
• 9
• Ace
• 10
• King
• Queen
• 8
• 7 (lowest)

So a Jack beats a Nine, a Nine beats an Ace, and the lowly 7 is the weakest card. The point values follow the same idea:

• Each Jack = 3 points
• Each Nine = 2 points
• Each Ace = 1 point
• Each Ten = 1 point
• Kings, Queens, 8s, and 7s = 0 points

Add those up across all four suits and you get exactly 28 points in the deck. The final point — the 29th — is awarded to whichever team wins the last trick, which gives the game its name. Memorising "J-9-A-10" as both the ranking and the scoring cards is the single most useful thing you can do as a beginner.

Bidding for trump

After everyone has seen their first four cards, the auction begins with the player to the dealer's right. Going around the table, each player either passes or names a number higher than the current bid. Your bid is a promise: it is the minimum number of points your team will capture if you win the auction and get to set trump.

• The lowest legal bid is 16 (your side must take more than half the points).
• The highest is 28 — or 29 if you are confident of also winning the last trick.
• Bidding continues around the table until three players pass in a row. The remaining player is the bid winner.

The bid winner secretly selects one card from their hand and sets it aside, face down — this card's suit is the trump. Nobody else knows what trump is yet, which is a defining tension of the game.

How trump is revealed

Trump stays hidden until it matters. During play, the first time a player cannot follow the suit that was led, that player may ask the bid winner to reveal trump. The bid winner turns over the set-aside trump card so everyone can see the suit, and from that point trump is known to all. A player who calls for trump in this way must usually then play a trump on that very trick if they can — though common house rules vary on this detail, so agree before you start. The bid winner can also choose to reveal trump voluntarily at any time for strategic reasons.

Playing the tricks

The player to the dealer's right leads the first of the eight tricks. Standard trick-taking rules apply:

• You must follow the led suit if you hold a card in it.
• If you cannot follow suit (and after trump is revealed), you may play any card, including a trump.
• The highest trump played wins the trick. If no trump is played, the highest card of the led suit wins.
• The winner of each trick leads the next one.

Because Jacks and Nines are both high-ranking and worth the most points, capturing the opponents' Jacks and Nines — or protecting your own — drives almost every decision.

The marriage (King-Queen) bonus

If a player holds both the King and Queen of the trump suit in hand, they can declare a "marriage" (also called a pair) immediately after their side wins a trick, once trump has been revealed. The marriage adjusts the bidding team's target by 4 points:

• If the bidding side declares the marriage, their required total drops by 4 (down to a minimum of around 12), making the bid easier to make.
• If the defending side declares it, the bidding team's target rises by 4, making the contract harder.

Marriage is an optional but popular rule — confirm whether your table is using it.

Scoring

After all eight tricks are played, each team counts the point value of the cards it captured, plus the bonus point for taking the last trick. Then:

• If the bidding team meets or beats its bid, it scores a game point (typically +1). The defenders score nothing.
• If the bidding team falls short, it loses a game point (-1).

Game points are tracked across deals, and a match is usually played to a target such as +6 (or until a team falls to -6). The deal then passes to the next player and a fresh auction begins.

Quick strategy tips

• Bid on your Jacks and Nines. A hand with two Jacks plus length in a suit can support a strong bid; a hand of Kings and Queens is weak despite looking "high."
• Hide your trump strength. Since trump is secret, lead side suits early to disguise your plan and force opponents to commit.
• Trap the high cards. Try to capture the opponents' Jacks (3 points) and Nines (2 points) rather than letting them feed yours.
• Mind the last trick. That extra point swings close hands, so plan your final cards to win it.

If you enjoy 29, you will likely also love other trick-takers like Spades, Hearts, Euchre, and the Indian classics Court Piece, Callbreak, and Seep. Fans of point-trick play should try the Italian favourite Briscola, and if you want something different, Indian Rummy or the shedding game Tien Len are great changes of pace.

Play now

Ready to bid? Play 29 (Twenty-Nine) free in your browser on lovecardgames.com — no download, no signup. Practice against smart bots to learn the Jacks-and-Nines ranking, or invite friends for live multiplayer and chase that perfect 29-point deal.