Pasur with two, three, or four players: formats and house rules

Keep the same capture rules as the player count changes

Use a standard 52-card deck without Jokers. Each player starts a deal with four cards, and the opening table has four face-up cards. Number-card captures total 11 including the card played. Jacks take all eligible number cards and Jacks; Kings and Queens capture one matching rank. Adding players does not let a Queen capture a King or change an Ace’s capture value from one. [source]

Continue dealing four-card batches until the deck is exhausted. The four opening table cards are shared, so 48 cards are dealt to players over a complete hand. That means 24 dealt cards per player with two players, 16 with three, and 12 with four. These are totals across the whole hand, not the number each player holds at once.

Two players: a direct contest for 13 clubs

With two individual players, every capture changes a two-way contest. All 13 clubs are eventually assigned between two capture piles, so the clubs count cannot finish tied. A split of seven clubs to six gives the seven-point award to the player with seven. Taking a low club may therefore have value even when it carries no direct card points.

The next player after every move is your sole opponent. It is relatively straightforward to examine a remaining table and ask what that opponent could take. You still cannot see their hand. Keep track of scoring cards already captured, follow the current deal, and distinguish banked score from uncounted cards when checking whether a Sur would be eligible.

Three players: settle the clubs exception explicitly

Pagat also documents this three-player exception. It is a useful example of why players should agree on scoring before dealing rather than assume that the two-player explanation covers every format. [source]

There are two other players’ turns between your own. A card you leave may be taken or combined with another placed card before play returns to you. Evaluate the immediate next player’s possibilities without forgetting the player after them. If your table uses Sur cancellation, the order of Surs matters; the app instead adds each player’s eligible Surs independently.

Four individual players are different from two partnerships

In the app, four players compete as individuals with separate scores and capture ownership. A single leader in clubs receives seven points. If the leading counts tie, nobody receives the clubs category. For example, counts of 5, 5, 2, and 1 account for all 13 clubs but produce no seven-point winner. The remaining direct-card points are still counted normally. [source]

Pagat describes four-player partnerships as another format, with partners sitting opposite each other. Do not assume that seating two people opposite one another creates a team in this app. If you play partners with physical cards, agree how shared captures, scores, and Surs will work before starting. [source]

The shorter number of deals per complete hand does not make each capture unimportant. More separate capture piles compete for the same 13 clubs and special scoring cards. Recheck which player made the last capture before assigning the leftover table cards at the end. In an individual game, those cards belong to that player’s pile, not to an informal partner.

Agree on house rules before keeping a physical score

• Individual players or partnerships: identify who owns each capture and score.
• Winning target: the app uses 62; a physical table should agree on its own target.
• Sur treatment: independent accumulation, as in this app, or an agreed cancellation variation.
• Sur exclusions: clarify the final deal, Jack captures, and the banked-score threshold.
• Clubs ties: state the three-player exception or four-player individual tie rule clearly.
• Hand terminology: distinguish a four-card deal from a complete hand before entering totals.

A useful scorekeeping habit is to announce the rules once, then keep them unchanged for the match. If a disagreement appears, resolve it from the shared table state and the agreed format rather than retroactively choosing the rule that favors one score. A scorekeeper is most useful when everyone understands the categories being recorded.

Common questions