Card game for 2, 3 or 4 players
Twenty-four cards. One bold bid. A race to 1000.
Thousand, or simply 1000, is the trick-taking game played at kitchen tables from Poland to Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Bid for the hidden cards, declare marriages of a king and queen, and be the first to reach 1000 points.
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Learn it in five minutes
How to play, in four steps
Deal 24 cards
Only nines up to aces, in four suits. With three players everyone gets seven cards and three go face down in the middle: the kitty (musik in Polish). The ten ranks just below the ace, above the king.
Bid for the kitty
Bidding starts at 100 and rises in tens. The highest bidder takes the kitty, passes one card to each opponent and must score at least the bid. Without a marriage in hand, no one may bid above 120.
Declare a marriage
A king and queen of one suit are a marriage: hearts 100, diamonds 80, clubs 60, spades 40. Declare it as you lead one of the pair, and that suit becomes trumps.
Race to 1000
Make your bid and it is added to your score; fall short and it is taken away. Defenders keep what they win, rounded to tens. The first to reach 1000 by making their own bid wins.
Why it is worth learning
Small deck, big decisions
Every hand is a bet on yourself
You decide what your cards are worth. Bid too low and someone else takes the kitty; bid too high and the points come off your score.
Three hidden cards change everything
Hold a king without its queen, and the missing card waits in the kitty 17.6% of the time: 3 chances in 17. Is that worth the bid?
Learn it tonight, master it for years
The rules fit on one page. Counting the 120 points in the deck, timing a marriage and knowing when to stop bidding take much longer.
Two, three or four at the table
Three is the classic game. Two players get ten cards each and two kitties to choose from; with four, the dealer sits each hand out.
Go deeper
Everything about the rules
- The rules, step by stepThe three-player game, from the deal to the score sheet.
- 1000 for twoTen cards each and two kitties to choose from.
- 1000 for fourThe dealer sits out: who scores what.
- MarriagesWhat they are worth, when to declare them, and why 100, 80, 60 and 40.
- Bidding and the kittyHow high you may bid, and the odds that the kitty completes a marriage.
- ScoringHow to count a hand and keep the score sheet.
- VariantsLock and barrel, the bomb, house and tournament rules side by side.
- Tips for beginnersThe ten beats the king, and other mistakes everyone makes once.
Exact numbers, not guesses
1000 in numbers
808 billion different deals in a three-player game: 807,723,671,040, to be exact
28.5% chance that a seven-card hand holds a marriage
76% chance that the king and queen of hearts are dealt apart
25.2 deals in an average three-player game of our bots
History
Three centuries of kings and queens
1000 belongs to a family of games that score a king and queen of one suit. Its oldest documented relative is two hundred years older than the oldest description of 1000 itself, and who invented 1000, and when, nobody knows.
- 1715Mariage is first documented, in Leipzig: a king and queen of one suit already score.
- 1834Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz mentions mariasz, the Polish relative, three times. 1000 never.
- c. 1860Sixty-six appears as a variant of Mariage.
- 1974The oldest printed description of 1000 we have found: L. Pijanowski, “Przewodnik gier”, a Polish book of games.
Glossary
Talk like a regular
- Kitty (musik)
- The three face-down cards (with three players) that go to the winner of the bidding. In Polish: musik; where that name comes from, no source we checked says.
- Marriage
- A king and queen of one suit, declared as you lead one of them. It scores and sets trumps.
- Bomb
- A house rule: after seeing the kitty, the declarer gives up the hand instead of risking a minus, and each opponent scores 60.
- Barrel
- From 880 points you sit on the barrel: three deals to make a bid of 120 or more, or you lose 120.
Questions
Before your first game
Is 1000 the same game as Russian Schnapsen?
Yes. In English and German, 1000 is also called Russian Schnapsen (Russisches Schnapsen). It is not the same as 1001, a German game with different marriage values. More in the history of the game.
Why does the ten beat the king?
1000 belongs to the ace–ten family of card games, where the ten ranks right below the ace. It is the most common slip for players who know other games, so it is the first thing to remember. More in the tips for beginners.
Are the rules the same everywhere?
No. Polish tables often play a lock from 800 points and allow the bomb, while descriptions from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine use the barrel from 880. We put the variants side by side instead of picking one.
Can I play with two or four people?
Yes. Two players get ten cards each and choose one of two kitties; with four, the dealer sits each hand out. See the rules for two and four players.
What does the app need?
An Android phone. You play against bots, with no internet connection, no account and no ads, and the game saves after every move. An iPhone version is on the way.