Thousand Glossary — Kitty, Marriage, Bomb, Barrel and More

The kitty (musik in Polish) is the three cards lying on the table (pagat.com also calls it the talon), a marriage is a king and queen of one suit, and the bomb is giving up a deal. Below are all the words of the game of Thousand in alphabetical order; most have a link to the page with the rules. The Polish words stand in brackets next to the English ones, because that is what you meet in Polish sources and at Polish tables, and the Russian words too, because in the East the game is played with other extras (the barrel, the bolt, the golden kon).

Ace (A)

The highest card in a suit, worth 11 points. There are four aces, and together with the four tens they make up 84 of the 120 points in the deck. Card values →

Barrel (beczka)

A rule described by pagat.com for Russia, Belarus and Ukraine and by the Russian CycloWiki: from 880 points a player “sits on the barrel” and has three deals to make a contract of at least 120 as declarer; if they fail, they lose 120 points. The Polish sources we checked usually have the lock instead. More →

Bidding (licytacja)

The auction that decides who plays: it starts at 100, goes up in steps of 10, and without a marriage in hand you may not go above 120. Bidding and the kitty →

Bolt (болт)

The Russian name (also “палка”) for a deal in which a player took no trick; a horizontal dash is written in the score table. In some Russian and Ukrainian rules three bolts cost 120 points (CycloWiki, Ukrainian Wikipedia). The Polish variant described by pagat.com has no such penalty. Differences in one table →

Bomb (bomba)

The declarer giving up the deal after looking at the kitty: instead of risking a minus, they drop the deal and the opponents get 60 points each. Not every home knows it, and the tournament rules do not describe it at all. More →

Contract (deklaracja)

The number of points the declarer announces after taking the kitty and passing cards. It cannot be lower than the winning bid, and the declarer must make that many points. Bidding and the kitty →

Dealer (rozdający)

The player who shuffles and deals the cards. For each deal the next player to the left deals. The deal →

Declarer (grający, rozgrywający)

The player who won the bidding: takes the kitty and must make as many points as they declared. Polish players say grający or rozgrywający; English-language sources such as pagat.com say declarer. Rules →

Defender (obrońca)

A player who did not win the bidding. Defenders play against the declarer and write down their own points for the cards taken and marriages, rounded to tens. Scoring →

Four nines (cztery dziewiątki)

A hand with four nines, that is no points at all in those cards. In some homes it gives the right to a redeal; it happens to a given player about once in 304 deals. More →

Golden kon (золотой кон)

An option described by CycloWiki and pagat.com (“gold set”): at the start of a game there are as many deals as there are players (three with three players), each player in turn plays for at least 120, and the points count double. The Russian “кон” (a deal or a game; Russian Wiktionary) is a different word from “конь”, a horse. The Polish sources we checked do not have this option. Differences in one table →

Jack (J)

A card worth 2 points.

King (K)

A card worth 4 points. With the queen of the same suit it forms a marriage. Marriages →

Kitty (musik)

The cards set aside at the deal (three with three players), which the winner of the bidding takes after the auction. pagat.com calls them the talon (and, in the two-player game, the kitty); English Wikipedia calls them the stock. In Polish they are called musik; we found no source for where that word comes from. See also “on the kitty”. Bidding and the kitty →

Lead (wyjście)

Playing the first card of a trick. The player who took the previous trick leads, and a marriage can be declared only when leading (not in the first trick of the deal). How to declare a marriage →

Lock (blokada)

The Polish counterpart of the barrel: from 800 points (in some homes from 900) a player scores only for their own successful contract, and points from defending no longer bring them closer to 1000. More →

Mariasz

An old card game known in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzeczpospolita), said to be the ancestor of Thousand (that is a hypothesis). The word also meant the pair itself: the king and queen of one suit, which in Thousand we call a marriage. History →

Marriage (meldunek)

A king and queen of the same suit, declared when you lead: hearts 100, diamonds 80, clubs 60, spades 40 points. A declared marriage sets the trump. pagat.com calls it a marriage (“meld” is the general English card-game word for a declared combination); the Polish word meldunek comes from the German Meldung, a report or announcement. Marriages →

Nine (9)

The lowest card in the 24-card deck, worth 0 points.

On the kitty (na musiku)

Said of the player to the dealer’s left who opens the bidding with the forced 100: if nobody outbids them, they take the kitty for 100 and play (so say the tournament rules from Siedliszcze). In Russian this is “sitting on the hundred” (сидящий на сотне). With four players Polish Wikipedia uses the phrase for the player sitting out, and Kurnik says “na musie”. Bidding →

Pamfil

The old name of the trump queen in mariasz: worth 11 points and the highest card in that game. There is no pamfil in Thousand. History →

Pass (pas)

Giving up the bidding. It is final: a player who has passed does not return to the bidding in that deal. Bidding →

Passing cards (oddanie kart)

After taking the kitty the declarer gives one card face down to each opponent, so that everyone has 8 cards. The kitty and passing cards →

Queen (Q)

A card worth 3 points. With the king of the same suit it forms a marriage. Marriages →

Rospisat’ (расписать)

The Russian counterpart of the bomb: the declarer gives up the deal and the opponents get 60 points each; in some rules the third rospisat’ costs 120. The bomb and rospisat’ →

Score sheet (zapis punktów)

A sheet of paper (or a screen) with every player’s points after each deal. The Siedliszcze tournament rules call it a protocol (protokół) and the person who keeps it the protokolant. On this site: a worked example on the scoring page. Scoring and the score sheet →

Sitting-out player (pauzujący)

With four players, the dealer: they do not play the deal, they wait. In the sources we checked they get points for the cards lying in the kitty (a marriage and usually the aces or all the cards); in our house rules only the marriage counts. Rules for 4 players →

Ten (10)

A card worth 10 points, higher than the king (the order is ace, ten, king, queen, jack, nine). Rules →

Trick (lewa)

One round of play: each player puts down a card, and the trick is taken by the highest card of the suit led or the highest trump. The winner collects the cards and leads to the next trick. With three players, 8 tricks are played. Play →

Trump (atut)

A suit whose cards beat the cards of all other suits. In Thousand there is no trump at the start of a deal: it is set only by the first marriage declared, and every later marriage changes the trump to its own suit. Marriages →

Missing a word that you use at the table? We will add it, saying where we know it from.

Deals, bidding and scoring step by step: the rules of Thousand, and the differences between homes are described in the table of variants.