Pişti is a four player partnership game and is played using one standard 52 card deck. Partnerships and the first dealer can be determined in a variety of ways, with drawing for high cards a common method. Thus, each player would draw a card from a shuffled face-down deck and the players drawing the two highest cards would play as partners against the players drawing the two lowest cards. The player drawing the highest card of all would be set as the first dealer. The players should set at the table in such a manner that his partner is directly across from him at the table.
Once the players are seated and the first dealer determined, the dealer should then thoroughly shuffle the deck. After shuffling, he then offers the deck to the player at his immediate left. This player then cuts the deck by removing a portion of the deck and looking at the bottom card of that portion. If this card is a Jack, he then moves it aside to look at the next card, continuing until the card found is not a Jack, and places the non-Jack at the bottom of this cut section of cards he has pulled from the main deck. The dealer then places this cut portion of the deck on the table and places the remainder of the deck on top to complete the cut.
The dealer then deals four face-down cards onto the table, and then a packet of four face-down cards to each player beginning with the player to his immediate right and continuing in a counter-clockwise direction. He then removes the bottom card of the pack (which is the card that the cutting player had viewed when cutting the pack) and places it face-up on the table and then places the remainder of the stock face down partially covering this card, at a ninety degree angle to that card. The dealer completes the deal and setup by turning over any one of the four face-down individual cards in the center of the table to start the discard pile. If this card is a Jack, the dealer then turns over another (leaving the first Jack exposed), continuing until a non-Jack is exposed, with this card becoming the first and bottom card of the discard pile. If, in the extreme rare case all four of the cards turned over on the table are Jacks, the cards are all thrown in and a new shuffle and deal is performed.
The player to the immediate right of the dealer has the first turn, and the turns progress in a counter-clockwise direction around the table from player to player. On a players turn, he must play one card from his hand face-up to the top of the discard pile. If the card played is of the same rank as the current top card of the pile, that player captures the entire pile for his team, placing these captured cards off to the side to be later examined for scoring purposes at the end of the hand. If the card played is a Jack, the player is also entitled to capture the entire pile for his team. If the card is not a Jack and not a card of the same rank as the top card of the discard pile, he simply leaves the card on the pile, which becomes the new top card of the discard pile. After a player captures the pile, the next player in turn must play any card from his hand face-up to the table to start a new discard pile. The team who is first able to capture a pile of one or more cards from the table is also entitled to the other three cards that were originally dealt face-down to the table, adding those cards to his team's capture pile. When taking these cards, the capturing player is allowed to view the value of these face-down cards and may also show them to his partner for the hand.
When each of the players has played the last of his four cards from his hand, the dealer then deals four more face-down cards to each player and replaces the stock pile back on the table. The exposed card which was placed partially under the stock is considered the last card of the deck and will be dealt to the dealer as part of dealing out further cards during the hand.
If the pile consists of exactly one card (of any suit and rank), and a player, on his turn, manages to capture that card by playing a card of the same rank, he not only captures the two cards, but also scores 10 bonus points to be awarded at the end of the hand. This is called a Pişti (translated from Turkish to mean "cooking"). To indicate this and help the team recall having captured a Pişti, one of the cards from the captured cards should be placed face-up in the capture pile. If the card was a Jack, and the player plays another Jack, capturing it, his team scores for a double Pişti instead, which nets his team 20 points. A Pişti can be accomplished by a team at any point in the game except for the second card played in the entire hand and the last card played in the entire hand. In those cases, the pile can still be captured, it simply does not score any bonus points for a Pişti.
The game continues in this manner until the deck is exhausted and the players have played the last of their cards. After this occurs, any remaining cards on the table are given to the team who was last able to make a capture from the table. After all cards have been played, the scoring for the hand occurs. The following shows the potential points that can be scored during the hand:
|
|
If each team captures exactly 26 cards, neither team earns the 3 points for Most Total Cards on this hand. The deal passes in a counter-clockwise direction around the table and the game continues until one team manages, at the end of a hand to accumulate 151 or more points, after which that team is declared the winner of the game. If, at the end of a hand, both teams have earned over 151 points, the partnership with the higher total is declared the winner.
Scoring Mechanism: The traditional method of keeping the score for this game is to record a series of tally marks for each team on a sheet of paper. A form of shorthand is used to keep a running score. Each accumulation of ten points is recorded by drawing a line. The first group of ten is thus drawn as a horizontal line, the second accumulation of ten points is a vertical line connected to the first horizontal line, the third ten a second vertical line and the fourth ten points a third vertical line. The next accumulation of 10 points would then be recorded as second horizontal line creating a crosshatched box or gate. Scores of less then ten are usually recorded at individual numbers at the bottom of the page, and when they equal or exceed ten, the appropriate tally can be added to the players total and the individual numbers adjusted as needed.
After the deal, play of the hand begins, with the dealer's opponent having the first turn, and thereafter the turns alternating amongst the two players. Each turn consists of the player playing exactly one card from his hand, face-up to the top of the play pile. He may play any card from the hand, with the usual goal to capture cards from the play pile by playing certain matching cards. Depending on the current top card of the play pile, this play can have one of various results: