How Bura works
Two players, a short deck, and one rule that makes the game: you can lead several cards at once as long as they're the same suit. To win the trick, your opponent has to beat every one of them, each with its own card.
Card values
Rank runs A, 10, K, Q, J, then 9 down to 6 in the 36-card deck. The 10 outranks the king. The 6 to 9 are worth nothing, so both decks hold 120 points in total.
A hand, step by step
- Deal. Each player gets 3 (or 5) cards. The next card is turned face up: its suit is trump. It goes under the stock and is the last card drawn.
- Lead. Play 1 card, or several of one suit.
- Respond. Play the same number of cards. A card is beaten by a higher card of its suit, or by any trump if it isn't a trump. Beat every led card and you take the trick. If you can't, or you'd rather not, you throw the same number of cards and the leader takes everything.
- Draw. Refill from the stock, trick winner first, one card at a time. The trick winner leads next.
- Declare (3-card only). When you think your tricks hold 31 points, say "enough". Right, you win. Wrong, you lose. If nobody declares, most points after the last card wins.
ბურა and მალიუტკა: a full hand of one suit (3 cards in 3-card, 5 in 5-card) is put down on your turn: when you lead, or right after the other player leads, whatever they led.
- ბურა (Bura): all trumps. It wins the hand on the spot.
- მალიუტკა (malyutka): any other suit. It doesn't win the hand. Put down in answer to a lead, it becomes the lead: the cards they already led stay in play and they add the rest of their hand, so their whole hand goes against your suit, card for card. That answer is their turn, so they can raise (დავი, სე...) before they put it down. Unless every one of your cards is beaten, you take all of it.
Watch the end of the stock: if you're one trump short of ბურა, throwing on purpose can get you the face-up trump, which goes to the trick's loser in the stock's last round. Against that, lead several cards at once: the other player has to throw several, and the stock can't refill them.
Raising the stakes
A match is played to 11 points, or to 7 in short Bura. Many people also play სუხოი (sukhoi): reach 7 while your opponent still has 0 and the match ends right there. Both are options in the top bar. A hand is normally worth 1. On your turn, before you play, you can raise:
Your opponent either accepts, and the hand is worth the new amount, or folds and loses the hand at the old amount, or answers straight away with the next call: დავი with სე, სე with ჩარი, and so on up to შაში. Then it's your turn to answer. After you raise, only your opponent can raise next.
When to accept: folding loses the current stake for sure. Playing on wins or loses the new one. Against დავი (1 to 2) you should accept if you win at least 25% of the time from here. Against სე (2 to 3) the bar drops to about 17%, and it keeps falling. The coach shows your chance to win the hand and does this sum for you.
When to raise: when you're clearly ahead. The computer raises at about 70%. In self-play, raising at anywhere from 60 to 80% earned about the same, and far more than never raising.
Variants in this trainer
- Georgian, 3 cards. 20-card deck, target 31. Thrown cards go face down, so the leader can't see what they got. You have to estimate.
- Georgian, 5 cards. Full 36-card deck, 6 to A. No declaring: every card is played face up and the hand is played to the end. Most points wins and 60–60 is a draw, so 61 clinches it. A sharp player can count both piles exactly.
- 2 vs 2 online (5 cards). Four players, partners opposite each other. Everyone answers a lead in turn with the same number of cards, and to take the trick you must beat whatever is winning it so far, even if that's your partner. The hand is played to the last card and the team with more points wins it. ბურა wins the hand for your team; მალიუტკა in answer to a lead becomes the lead, and the other three answer it with their whole hands. Either opponent can accept or fold a raise for their team. One table chat for all four: no telling your partner what to play.
House rules differ a lot (molodka, three aces, betting with davi/se/chari, who draws first). This trainer uses the most common core.
Computed live by the same engine the coach uses, for the first trick, when you hold no trumps yourself.