How to play Marriage

The basics

• 2 to 5 players and three standard decks of 52 cards, shuffled together (156 cards). Most tables play without printed jokers.
• Each player gets 21 cards. One card is turned face up to start the discard pile, and the rest is the stock.
• On your turn, take the top card of the stock or the last discard, then discard one card.
• The goal is to arrange all 21 cards into seven groups of three, or to collect pairs (see Dublee below).

Card groups

An ace can be high or low in a sequence (Q K A or A 2 3), but not in the middle (K A 2).

Seeing the joker (tiplu)

• First, show three pure groups: pure sequences or tunnelas. Then you may look at the tiplu, a card picked at random and kept face down under the stock.
• Players who have done this are seen. Everyone else is unseen.
• Once you are seen, the tiplu and the cards linked to it work as jokers for you.
• A seen player can’t pick up a joker from the discard pile.

Maal: the point cards

• Tiplu: the chosen card.
• Poplu: same suit, one rank above the tiplu. Jhiplu: same suit, one rank below. The ace sits above the king and below the two.
• Alter: same rank as the tiplu, in the other suit of the same color. Many tables score it.
• Other cards of the tiplu’s rank are jokers with no points.

Two or three copies of the same maal card score more. Point charts differ from table to table, so agree on yours before you start.

Dublee

• Instead of groups of three, you can collect pairs of identical cards (same rank and same suit). Jokers can’t be used in a dublee.
• Seven dublees let you see the tiplu. Eight dublees finish the game.
• Many tables give a bonus, often 5 points from each player, to a winner who finishes on dublee. Our calculator offers dublee when 4 or more players are in the game.

Finishing a game

Once you are seen, you finish when every card in your hand is in a valid group. Show your groups and make your last discard. Everyone then counts their maal.

How points are settled

1. Game point. Each player pays the winner 3 points if seen or 10 if unseen (the common amounts). If the winner finished on dublee, add the dublee bonus.
2. Maal. Each player’s result is their maal × the number of players − the total maal at the table − their game point. The winner receives the total of everyone else’s results.
3. Unseen players’ maal. With murder, it counts for nothing. With kidnap, it goes to the winner. Agree which one you play.

Example. Four players, murder rules. A wins seen with 10 maal. B is seen with 5. C is unseen, so C’s maal doesn’t count. D is seen through dublee with 3 maal and, by a common house rule, pays no game point. The total maal is 18.

Every game adds up to zero.

House rules to agree before you deal

• Murder or kidnap for unseen players’ maal
• The foul penalty (often 15 points) and whether it goes to the winner or to every player
• Less point: a player skips the game point for one game
• Better games that count double

The free calculator lets you set all of these, keeps the hisab for every game and shows the settle-up at the end.

नेपालीमा छोटकरीमा

म्यारिज तीन प्याकेट तासले २ देखि ५ जनासम्म खेलिन्छ। हरेक खेलाडीलाई २१ पत्ती बाँडिन्छ। पहिले तीनवटा प्युअर सिक्वेन्स वा टनेला देखाएपछि टिप्लु हेर्न पाइन्छ (सिन)। टिप्लु, पोप्लु, झिप्लु र अल्टरलाई माल भनिन्छ। जित्ने खेलाडीलाई सिन भएकाले ३ र अनसिनले १० अंक दिन्छन्, अनि मालको हिसाब मिलाइन्छ। मर्डर वा किडन्याप जस्ता नियम खेल सुरु गर्नुअघि नै मिलाउनुहोस्।

Further reading: Marriage rules on Pagat, a long-running card game rules site.