Bura terms are learned at the table: you hear "var", "davi" or "maliutka" from childhood and work out what they mean as you go. Some words came from nardi, some from Russian, and some grew up in Georgian courtyards. Below are the main words of bura with short explanations, in the forms tamashebi.cc uses. Georgian words are given in Latin letters. In different towns and families some of them are said a little differently; here we give the most common forms.
Bura is live on tamashebi.cc: open /bura and play three-card, five-card or five-card bura in pairs, against live opponents or against bots for practice.
Why the terms matter
Bura is a fast game with few words, but each one carries weight. Say "var" and the hand ends. Say "davi" and the stake doubles and an answer is due. If you do not know the terms, half of any explanation of the game stays a mystery. And in the online game these are the words on the buttons, so once you have learned them the interface explains itself.
Cards and suits
- Suit (masti): one of the four groups of cards, hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades.
- Ace (tuzi): the strongest card, 11 points.
- Ten (atiani): second in strength, 10 points. In bura it ranks above the king.
- King (mepe, also karoli): 4 points.
- Queen (kali, also dama): 3 points.
- Jack (valeti): 2 points.
- Zero cards: nine, eight, seven and six. Found only in five-card bura, worth nothing.
- Koziri (trump): the suit that beats every other suit, fixed by the card turned face up after the deal.
- The turned trump: the turned card itself. It lies at the bottom of the stock and is drawn last.
Terms of play
- Dasta (stock): the undealt cards, from which hands are refilled after every trick.
- Hand (kheli): two meanings, the cards you hold, and one deal played to the end.
- Lead: playing one or more cards of one suit to start a trick.
- Beating (chra, literally "cutting"): covering each led card with a higher card of the same suit or a trump. All of them or none.
- Giving (mitsema): playing the same number of cards without beating. Face down in three-card bura.
- Trick (tsagheba, literally "taking"): the cards of one round, which go to the strongest play; also the round itself.
- Refilling: drawing from the stock after a trick, the trick winner first.
- Var: the declaration that you have reached the target (31 or 61). Only straight after winning a trick. A false one loses the hand.
- Bura: a full hand of nothing but trumps, led all at once. It wins the hand on the spot.
- Maliutka (moliutka): a full hand of one non-trump suit. Some tables let it be led out of turn.
- Partner: in five-card bura in pairs, your teammate, sitting opposite.
Scoring terms
- 31 points: the line that wins a hand of three-card bura.
- 61 points: the same in five-card bura. 60:60 is a draw (nichia).
- 120: the total points in the deck, in both the 20-card and the 36-card deck.
- Stake: how many match points the winner of a hand gets. Usually 1.
- Davi: raising the stake to 2. The next steps are se (3), chari (4), panji (5) and shashi (6), names taken from the numbers on nardi dice.
- Accepting and declining: the answers to a raise. Decline and you lose the hand at the stake before the raise.
- Match: a series of hands to 1, 3, 7 or 11 points.
- The hand without raises: near the end of a match, the one hand played when a side is a point from winning. Nobody may raise in it.
The terms at work: one hand in words
Take one hand of three-card bura and name the term at work at every step. After the deal the turned trump is the jack of diamonds, so diamonds are koziri this hand. It is your lead and you say "davi": the stake goes to 2, and your opponent accepts. You lead two cards of one suit, the ace and queen of hearts. Your opponent cannot beat them and gives two cards face down; that is giving. The trick is yours, and you refill from the dasta, you first, then him.
Next you lead the ten of clubs, and your opponent beats it with the queen of diamonds, a trump: the trick is his. Now the lead is his and only he can raise: "se", 3. You accept. He leads the king of spades, and you beat it with the ace of spades. The trick is yours again, and you count: ace and queen from the first trick, 14, now king and ace, 15. That is 29 seen, plus two face-down cards. You cannot see them, but in three-card bura even the cheapest card is a jack worth 2, so the two of them are at least 4 and you have at least 33. You say "var", the points are counted, and the hand is yours for 3. Seven terms in one hand: koziri, davi, se, giving, trick, refilling and var.
Terms in five-card bura and in pairs
Five-card bura adds a few words. The zero cards, nine down to six, appear only here. The line is 61, and 60:60 is a draw: the hand goes to nobody. In pairs you get a partner and a team: points belong to the team, "var" is said by whoever has just won a trick, and beating always refers to whatever card is strongest at that moment. In five-card bura giving is done face up, so "face down" belongs to three-card bura alone.
Russian equivalents
- Koziri: kozyr.
- Masti (suit): mast.
- Dasta (stock): koloda, or the rest of the deck.
- Tsagheba (trick): vzyatka.
- Chra (beating): bit, pobit.
- Bura: bura, both the game and the three trumps.
- Maliutka: malyutka.
- Raising the stake: povyshenie stavki.
Words people often get wrong
- "Bura" is both the name of the game and the name of the hand. "I had a bura" means three (or five) trumps, not just a good hand.
- "Maliutka" is sometimes said "moliutka" or called something else, and some tables play it differently. On tamashebi.cc it does not win the hand by itself.
- "Beating" and "giving" get mixed up: beating takes the trick, giving surrenders the cards.
- "Thirty-one" and "var" are the same declaration at different tables. On the site the button says "var".
- People call both the turned card and the whole suit "koziri". Strictly, the koziri is the suit; the turned card only shows it, and is itself an ordinary card drawn last from the stock.
- Some think "davi" can be said at any time. In fact it can only be said on your own lead, before you play a card.
Frequently asked questions
- What does "var" mean in bura?
- "Var" means you have collected the points needed to win the hand. It can only be said straight after winning a trick; if you are short, you lose the hand.
- Where do davi, se, chari, panji and shashi come from?
- They are the names of the numbers on nardi dice, of Persian origin: se is three, chari four, panji five, shashi six. In bura they mark the steps of the stake.
- How is a bura different from a maliutka?
- A bura is made only of trumps and wins the hand on the spot. A maliutka is one non-trump suit: a strong lead, but not an automatic win.
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