Basra rules — how to play

Overview

Basra is played with the full 52-card deck, by two players head to head or by four in two partnerships: partners sit opposite and keep one shared pile, so every card and every Basra either of them takes counts for the side. Each player is dealt 4 cards, then 4 are turned face up in the middle — the floor. A Jack or the 7♦ turned up on that first floor goes back into the stock and is replaced by another card.

When every hand is empty, the dealer deals 4 more cards to each player — none to the floor, which stays as it is — until the stock runs out: a round is 6 deals at two players and 3 at four. The first dealer is drawn at random and the deal passes to the next player each round; the player after the dealer plays first, and the turn then passes to the next player.

Capturing

On your turn you play one card. A number card — the ace counts 1, the others their face value — takes every floor card of its rank and every group of floor numbers adding up to its value, all in one play. Queens and kings count nothing: they are never part of a sum, and a queen or a king takes only the cards of its own rank on the floor. Play a 9 on a floor of 9, 5, 4, king, 6 and 3 and you take the 9, the 5 + 4 and the 6 + 3; the king stays.

There is no choice to make: a card that can take always does, and when the cards can be grouped more than one way, the game takes the largest haul for you. A card that takes nothing stays face up on the floor, and you may play any card at any time — nothing obliges you to capture.

The Jack and the Komi

The Jack takes the whole floor — but that is not a Basra. The 7♦, the Komi, takes the whole floor too, and in Classic its sweep is a Basra when the floor is all numbers adding up to 10 or less; with a Jack, a queen or a king on the floor, it is a sweep without a Basra.

On an empty floor either card simply stays. A 7♦ lying on the floor is an ordinary 7, taken like any other; a Jack lying on the floor goes only with a sweep.

The Basra

Clear the floor with a number card, a queen or a king and it is a Basra: 10 points in Classic — even with the very last card of the round. Every Basra is shown to the whole table the moment it is made.

When the stock and every hand are spent, the cards still on the floor go to the last player who captured — and that is never a Basra.

How to play

1. Deal — Deal 4 cards to each player, then turn 4 face up on the floor. Whenever every hand is empty, deal 4 more to each player, until the stock runs out.
2. Capture — Play one card: a number takes its rank and every group adding up to its value, a queen or a king only its own rank, and the Jack and the Komi the whole floor.
3. Score a Basra — Clear the floor with a number, a queen or a king: a Basra, 10 points — even with the round’s last card. A Jack’s sweep is not one.
4. Count — When the stock is spent, the floor’s last cards go to the last capturer. The side with more cards then scores 30, and each side adds its point cards and its Basras.
5. Win — The first side to reach 101 points wins; if both reach it in the same round, the higher total wins.

Scoring & winning

• Most cards: the side that took more cards — 27 or more of the 52 — scores 30. On a 26–26 tie nobody scores it: the 30 is carried to the next round’s most cards, so the next side to take more cards scores 60 (90 after two ties in a row). A carry still pending when the match ends is lost.
• Point cards: each Jack 1, each ace 1, the 2♣ 2 and the 10♦ 3 — 13 points in every round.
• Basras: 10 points each. A side’s total for the round is its most cards, its point cards and its Basras — so a round hands out 43 points before its Basras (30 + 13), unless the cards tie.
• Example: a side that took 28 cards with the J♠, the A♥, the A♣, the 10♦ and two Basras scores 30 + 6 + 20 = 56 for the round.
• Winning: the first side to 101 wins the match. Scores are checked at the end of each round: if both sides are at or past 101, the higher total wins, and if they are level another round is played. A match still undecided after 30 rounds ends there — the higher total wins, and equal totals are a draw.

Classic — the default rules

Koutchina plays Basra in five rule sets, chosen in the table’s rules. Each changes only what it names; everything else is Classic. Classic, the default, is the game described above: a Basra is worth 10; the point cards — each Jack and each ace 1, the 2♣ 2, the 10♦ 3 — make 13; most cards score 30, and a 26–26 tie carries the 30 to the next round; the Komi’s sweep is a Basra on a floor of numbers adding up to 10 or less; a Jack’s sweep is never a Basra; and the target is 101.

Egyptian

Egyptian: no point cards — a round scores only most cards (30) and Basras, so the side in the example above scores 30 + 20 = 50. A Jack played on a lone Jack is a Jack Basra, worth 20; any other Jack sweep is still no Basra. The match is played to 121. Everything else is Classic, the 26–26 carry and the Komi’s Basra at 10 or less included.

Lebanese (Ashoush)

Lebanese (Ashoush): 6 cards to each player per deal, so a round is 4 deals at two players and 2 at four. The 7♦ has no power — it is a plain 7 — so only a Jack turned up on the first floor goes back into the stock.

A Basra happens only on a lone card, and it is worth 10: either the floor holds a single card and you take it by its rank — a Jack makes one only on a lone Jack — or the floor held a single card, a card that took nothing was trailed beside it, and the very next play takes the two as one sum. Clearing any bigger floor is no Basra, and neither is a Jack’s sweep of those two cards.

Most cards score only 3, and a 26–26 tie scores nothing — nothing is carried. Point cards (13) and the 101 target are Classic’s.

Yemeni

Yemeni: a Jack on a lone Jack is a Jack Basra, worth 20. The Komi’s sweep is a Basra in three cases: the floor is all numbers adding up to less than 10; or it holds only 10s, queens and kings; or it is all numbers that split into two or more groups of equal sum, each under 10 — an ace, a 2, a 7 and an 8 make 1 + 8 = 2 + 7 = 9. Point cards, most cards (30, with the 26–26 carry) and the 101 target are Classic’s.

Jordanian

Jordanian: a Basra is worth twice the value of the card that makes it, pictures counting 10 — 2 for an ace, 14 for a 7, 20 for a 10, a queen or a king — so the Komi’s Basra scores 14. A Jack’s sweep is never a Basra. Point cards, most cards (30, with the 26–26 carry), the Komi’s Basra at 10 or less and the 101 target are Classic’s: a Basra with a 7 and another with a queen make 14 + 20 = 34.

Strategy

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