मेंडिकोट · दहला पकड़

Mendicot rules◈

Say how many tricks you will win. Then win exactly that many — because missing by one costs you all of them.

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Mendikot, Mendicot, and what the name means

The game is played across India, most of all in Maharashtra and Gujarat. "Mendi" comes from the Gujarati મીંડું (mindum), meaning zero — a reference to the ten, the only card with a zero in it. "Kot" means a win where the opponents score nothing.

Other spellings follow the same sounds: Mendicot, Mendhi Coat, even Mendhi Goat, where mendhi is read as the Marathi word for sheep.

Four players in two teams, partners opposite. A standard 52-card pack, ranking A-K-Q-J-10 down to 2. Deal and play run anticlockwise. Thirteen cards each: a batch of five first, then the rest in batches of four.

Three ways to choose the trump

The trump suit is the hukum, and there are three recognised methods. Agree which one before the session starts.

Random draw. After the shuffle, the player to the dealer's right draws a card at random and shows everyone. That suit is trump. The card goes back in the pack and the deal begins.

Band hukum — closed trump. The player to the dealer's right picks a card from their hand and puts it face down on the table. Its suit will be the trump, but nobody else knows which.

Cut hukum. Play starts with no trump. The first time a player cannot follow suit, whatever suit they choose to play becomes trump for the deal. Playing a trump on a plain lead is called cutting, which is where the name comes from.

Playing for the tens

The player to the dealer's right leads. Follow suit if you can; if not, play anything. A trick with no trump in it goes to the highest card of the suit led. With a trump in it, the highest trump takes it. The winner gathers the cards and leads to the next trick.

A ten ranks below jack, queen, king and ace, so leading a suit where you hold the ten tends to give it away. The skill is forcing the tens out while a partner holds something above them.

All thirteen tricks are played. The tens are counted at the end, not as they fall.

Band hukum has two versions

With a closed trump, agree which version applies before the first card.

Version A. The moment a player cannot follow suit, the set-aside card is revealed and its suit is trump. The card returns to its owner's hand. The player who could not follow suit may play anything; there is no obligation to trump.

Version B. A player who cannot follow suit may ask for the trump to be revealed, but need not. If nobody asks, there are no trumps in that trick and the highest card of the suit led wins it. Whoever asks must then trump if they can. Cards of the trump suit played before the reveal do not count as trumps, even in the same trick.

Dehla Pakad, the northern version

Northern India plays a close relative called Dehla Pakad, Hindi for "collect the tens". The rules match Mendikot with one change: tricks are gathered in only when the same player wins two consecutive tricks, exactly as in Double Sir in Court Piece.

Until then the tricks pile up face down in the centre. That pile is what the game turns on, because a ten sitting in it belongs to nobody yet.

Who deals next

There is no formal scoring. The aim is simply to win as often as possible, with a mendikot counting better than an ordinary win. What the result does decide is the deal.

If the dealer's team loses, the same player deals again — unless they lose a whitewash, in which case the deal passes to the dealer's partner. If the dealer's team wins, the deal passes to the right.

Six and eight players

Six or eight can play as two equal teams, each player sitting between two opponents. The four twos come out of the deck so the remaining 48 cards divide evenly.

Two-player Mendikot is not a documented form. The partnership and the hidden information are the game; without them the tens stop mattering.

Common questions