Thousand is played by three people with a 24-card deck. The winner of the bidding takes the kitty (musik in Polish, also called the talon: three cards set aside at the deal) and must score as many points as they declared — from cards in tricks and from marriages. The first player to reach 1000 points by making their own contract wins the game.
This page describes the Polish rules our game plays by. Where other homes differ (for example bids in steps of 5, the barrel, the bolt, rospisat’), we say so separately and collect all the differences in the table of variants.
At a glance
- 3 players; the deck has 24 cards: 9, J, Q, K, 10 and A in four suits.
- Everyone gets 7 cards, and 3 cards go to the kitty.
- Bidding starts at 100.
- The winner of the bidding takes the kitty, passes a card to each opponent and plays 8 tricks.
- Points come from cards in tricks and from marriages.
- The first player to reach 1000 by making their own contract wins.
Cards and their values
| Card | Points |
|---|---|
| Ace (A) | 11 |
| Ten (10) | 10 |
| King (K) | 4 |
| Queen (Q) | 3 |
| Jack (J) | 2 |
| Nine (9) | 0 |
Each suit is worth 30 points, the whole deck — 120. The order of strength in a suit is A, 10, K, Q, J, 9. Note: the ten outranks the king — the most common mistake of people who know other games.
The deal
The dealer gives each player 7 cards and sets 3 cards aside face down as the kitty. Cards are dealt clockwise, and the dealer changes every deal — the next deal is made by the player to the previous dealer’s left.
Bidding
The player to the dealer’s left has a forced 100 — in Polish they are “on the musik” (na musiku), that is, on the kitty. From there the bidding goes round in turn: each player either raises by 10 or passes. A pass is final — a player who has passed does not return to the bidding. The bidding ends when one player is left.
Without a marriage in hand you cannot bid above 120. With a marriage the limit is 120 plus the value of the marriages you hold: with a spades marriage you may bid up to 160, clubs up to 180, diamonds up to 200, hearts up to 220, and with two marriages, hearts and diamonds, up to 300. That is how Polish Wikipedia and Kurnik count it. The table of limits and other variants: bidding and the kitty; where the marriage values come from: marriages.
Example — Cara deals, so Ann opens the bidding:
| Player | Move |
|---|---|
| Ann | 100 (forced) |
| Ben | 110 |
| Cara | pass |
| Ann | 120 |
| Ben | pass |
Ann wins the bidding and plays for at least 120.
The kitty and passing cards
The winner of the bidding takes the 3 cards from the kitty and now holds 10. Whether the kitty is shown to the others depends on the rules: under the tournament rules it is shown to everyone when the bidding reached 130; under house rules — always.
Then the declarer passes one card face down to each opponent, so that everyone has 8 cards. Finally they announce what they are playing for: no less than the winning bid. They may raise the contract, but only up to the limit set by the marriages they hold at that moment — in our game a marriage completed with a card from the kitty counts too.
The bomb
Play
Play is 8 tricks. The declarer leads to the first trick, and each next trick is led by the player who took the previous one. Your duties when playing cards:
- You must follow suit — play a card of the suit that the first player led.
- You must beat, if you can — play a higher card in that suit than the one currently winning the trick; if a trump is already winning, following suit is enough.
- A player with no card of the suit must play a trump, if a trump has been set and they have one. If someone has already trumped — you must play a higher trump, if you have one.
- A player with neither the suit nor a trump plays any card.
At the start of the deal there is no trump — it is set only by a marriage. You may not declare a marriage in the first trick. The trick is taken by the highest card of the suit led or the highest trump.
Scoring after the deal
- The declarer counts the cards from their tricks and their marriages. If they have at least what they declared, they write +contract; if fewer — −contract.
- The defenders write down their own cards and marriages, rounded to tens.
Details, rounding and a sample score sheet: scoring.
End of the game
The game ends when the declarer makes their contract and reaches 1000 or more. A defender cannot reach 1000 from defending — under house rules a defender stops at 990. From 800 points defending stops counting: under house rules, as long as a player has fewer than 800, defending counts in full (780 + 40 = 820); under the tournament rules it is capped at 800. More: scoring and variants — also about the barrel, the second family of rules.