How to play Pasur: your first hand, step by step

Set up the table and know what a hand means

Choose a dealer and shuffle a standard deck without Jokers. Each player receives four cards, and four cards form the opening table. In the app, opening table Jacks are replaced. Keep the undealt cards separate from everyone’s capture pile. The player after the dealer takes the first turn. You see your own hand and the shared table; your opponents’ hands remain private. [source]

A deal is one batch of four cards per player. A complete hand continues through successive deals until the deck and all players’ hands are exhausted. When everyone has used their four cards, deal again from the remaining deck. Leave uncollected table cards where they are; do not add four new table cards with every deal. Scores are counted after the complete hand, not after every four-card batch.

Make 11 with the card you play

An Ace has capture value 1. Cards 2 through 10 use their printed values. Add the card you play to the table cards you want to collect: the combined total must be exactly 11. You may collect one table card or several. Suits do not change this arithmetic, although they can matter greatly when you count points.

You choose which card to play from your hand. A capture available with one card does not force you to choose that card instead of another. However, once you choose a card that can capture, you must make a valid capture with it rather than place it on the table. If several combinations work, choose one of them. You do not take every possible combination at once.

Give Jacks, Queens, and Kings their own rules

A Queen cannot capture a King, and face cards are not numbers for an eleven-total capture. If a Jack meets an empty table, or a table containing only Queens and Kings, it captures nothing and remains on the table. Otherwise its sweep collects all eligible cards, not a hand-picked subset. The Jack itself joins the capture pile when it takes cards.

Recognize a Sur without confusing it with any sweep

A Sur is an eligible capture that leaves the entire table empty. In this app it adds five points. It does not count if you use a Jack, if you are playing the final deal of a complete hand, or if your previously counted total is already 50 or more. The final deal means the last four-card batch after the deck has run out, not merely the last card you personally hold. [source]

Finish the hand, count points, and learn one decision at a time

After every player has used all dealt cards and the deck is exhausted, remaining table cards go to the last player who made a capture. That end-of-hand collection is not a new Sur. Count the scoring cards and the clubs category, add eligible Surs, and update the cumulative score. The app evaluates the completed hand’s totals toward its 62-point target.

For your first game, concentrate on three habits: include your played card when adding to 11, move that card into your capture pile, and check whether any table cards remain. Next, learn why 10♦, 2♣, Aces, Jacks, and the clubs category affect your choices. Knowing that a move is legal comes before trying to make it clever.

Pasur is also known as Chahar Barg. Some tables cancel an opponent’s Sur instead of accumulating everyone’s Surs separately. [source]

This app counts eligible Surs independently. Confirm the rules before transferring a physical game’s score into a scorekeeper. [source]

Common questions