How to Play Mendikot: The Partnership Trick Game About Catching the Tens

Mendikot is a four-player partnership trick-taking game from western India, hugely popular in Gujarat and Maharashtra. Unlike most trick games, you are not trying to win the most tricks or the highest cards. You are hunting four specific cards: the four tens. Whichever team captures three or more of them wins the hand. This guide covers the full rules, how trump (hukum) is chosen, the prized "mendikot," the crushing "whitewash," and a few strategy tips to help you and your partner own the table.

What is Mendikot?

Mendikot (also spelled Mendicot or Mindikot) is a 2-vs-2 partnership card game played with a standard 52-card deck. Four players form two teams, with partners sitting directly opposite each other across the table. The entire game revolves around four cards: the 10 of hearts, the 10 of diamonds, the 10 of clubs, and the 10 of spades. Every trick is just a means to an end, and that end is capturing tens.

In northern India the same game is widely known as Dehla Pakad ("catch the tens"), with one small twist to how captured tricks are gathered. If you enjoy team trick-taking, Mendikot sits in the same family as 29, Court Piece, and Western classics like Spades and Hearts.

Setup, deal, and partnerships

You need exactly four players. Decide partnerships and seat the two teammates opposite one another, so play alternates between the two teams around the table. Use a full 52-card pack with no jokers.

The cards rank, high to low, as A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 in every suit. Notice that the 10 is only a mid-ranking card. It is not powerful on its own, which is exactly what makes it vulnerable and worth fighting over.

Choose a first dealer by drawing cards. The dealer shuffles, the player to the dealer's left cuts, and then all 52 cards are dealt out so each player holds 13. The usual rhythm is a batch of five cards first, then batches of four. Deal and play traditionally move anticlockwise.

Choosing the trump (hukum)

Mendikot has a trump suit called the hukum, which beats all other suits. Groups agree on how to set it before the session starts. There are three common methods:

• Open trump: Before play, one player (usually to the dealer's right) exposes a card from the deck or hand, and its suit becomes trump for the whole deal. Everyone knows it from the start.
• Band hukum (closed trump): That player secretly places one card face down. Its suit is the trump, but it stays hidden and is only revealed later, when a player who cannot follow suit decides to use it.
• Cut hukum (unseen trump): Play begins with no trump at all. The very first time any player is unable to follow the led suit, the suit of the card they choose to play instantly becomes trump for the rest of the deal.

Cut hukum is the most popular and the most dramatic, because the trump can swing the entire hand and nobody knows what it will be until a void appears.

How to play a trick

The player to the dealer's right leads the first trick by playing any card. Going around the table, each player must follow suit if they can, meaning they must play a card of the same suit that was led. If you cannot follow suit, you may play any card, including a trump.

Resolving a trick is simple:

• If no trump was played, the highest card of the led suit wins.
• If any trump was played, the highest trump wins, regardless of the led suit.

The player who wins the trick collects all four cards (which may include one or more tens) and leads the next trick. You keep playing until all 13 tricks are done and every hand is empty.

Winning the hand: capturing the four tens

When the 13 tricks are finished, ignore the trick count for a moment and look only at the tens. Count how many of the four tens each team captured. The result is decided like this:

• 3 or 4 tens captured by one team: that team wins the hand.
• 2 tens each (the tens split evenly): the hand is decided by tricks instead. The team that won seven or more of the thirteen tricks wins.

This is the heart of Mendikot. A team can win the majority of tricks and still lose the hand if the opponents quietly grabbed three tens. It rewards patience and timing over brute force.

Mendikot and whitewash: the two big wins

Two results are special and prized:

• Mendikot: capturing all four tens in a single hand. This is the game's namesake achievement and the cleanest normal win you can score.
• Whitewash (52-card mendikot): winning all thirteen tricks in a hand. This is the most crushing result possible, sweeping every card on the table. Many groups track these as bonus wins or streaks.

Dealer rotation

The deal in Mendikot does not just pass around the table at random. It follows the result of each hand, which is part of the game's flavor. If the dealer's team wins, the deal passes to the next player to the dealer's right. If the dealer's team loses, the same player generally deals again. After a whitewash, the deal passes to the losing dealer's partner. In short, losing keeps you stuck dealing, which adds friendly pressure to keep your team on top.

Strategy tips for capturing tens

• Hunt the tens, not the tricks. A trick full of low cards is worthless unless it carries a ten. Spend your strong cards and trumps on tricks where a ten is likely to appear.
• Protect your own tens. A bare 10 is easy prey. Hold a higher card of the same suit, or lead the suit yourself when your team controls it, so the ten lands safely on your side.
• Watch who is void. Once a player cannot follow a suit, their trumps become a threat to every ten you try to win in that suit. Track the discards.
• Lead through your partner's strength. Letting your partner win a trick is just as good as winning it yourself, so feed suits your partner is strong in.
• In cut hukum, choose your void carefully. The first card you play when you cannot follow suit sets the trump for the whole deal. Break into a suit where your team is strong.

Variants worth knowing

The best-known variant is Dehla Pakad, the northern Indian version. It plays almost identically, but captured tricks are only gathered in when the same player wins two tricks in a row; otherwise cards stack face down in the middle, raising the tension. Some circles play six or eight players in two larger teams by removing the four twos so the deck divides evenly. House rules also vary on the trump method and on whether tens are tracked as running scores ("kots") across many hands.

Once you have the rhythm, Mendikot pairs nicely with other regional favorites on the site. Try Seep for a fishing-style game, Indian Rummy for melds, or branch into Mediterranean trick games like Briscola. For solo play, FreeCell, Spider, and Tien Len are all a click away too.

Play now

Ready to chase your first mendikot? Play Mendikot free online in your browser, with smart bots or friends, no signup and no real money.