Japanese joker (in Georgian iaponuri jokeri) is joker for two players. It uses the same 36-card deck as the classic four-player game — 34 ordinary cards and two jokers in place of the black sixes — but it plays very differently: there is no bidding, part of each player's cards lie face up on the table where both can see them, and the hand goes to whoever takes more tricks. Despite the name, it has nothing to do with Japan; that is simply what Georgians call this two-player version, and the game is Georgian.
How a hand goes
- The whole deck is dealt every hand, 18 cards each, so there are always 18 tricks. First each player gets three cards.
- The declarer, who alternates from hand to hand, looks at those three and chooses trump from five options: spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs or bezi (no trump).
- Each player then receives 15 more cards: five into the hand, ten onto the table in five columns, each an open card lying on a face-down one. The hand now holds eight cards.
- The declarer leads the first trick. Each player's first card must come from the hand; from the second move on, the open cards of your own columns can be played too.
- When you play a column's open card, the face-down card beneath goes into your hand, to be played later. Nobody sees a face-down card, not even its owner, until it reaches the hand. When only two columns are left and you play from one of them, the table is cleared: the face-down card beneath it and both cards of the other column go into your hand, so a single column is never left alone.
Suit, trump and the joker
- You must follow suit if you have it in your hand or among your open cards; if not, you must play a trump if you have one (in bezi there is no trump, so this rule does not apply); otherwise any card.
- A joker is always a legal play. In Japanese joker it is always played to win the trick — there is no "low" joker here.
- Leading a joker, you name a suit, and the opponent must give their highest available card of it; the joker takes the trick. But if the opponent has none of that suit and the named suit is not trump, they must trump — and the trump takes the trick.
- If the joker names the trump suit, or the hand is in bezi, no ordinary card can take a trick led by a joker. Played in answer to a card, the joker simply takes the trick, beating trumps too. If both jokers meet in one trick, the second one takes it.
Scoring and the match
After 18 tricks the counts are compared. The hand is worth the difference, and only the player who took more scores it: 11 against 7 gives the winner 4 and the other 0. Nine all is a draw and nobody scores. The match goes to whoever reaches or passes the target score, chosen by the table's creator: 11, 15, 21 or 31, with 21 as the default. A single hand can be worth up to 18, so passing the target is normal. There is no khishti, premia or moshla in this game.
How to play on tamashebi.cc
- Open tamashebi.cc/iaponuri-jokeri in your browser — on a phone or a computer, nothing to install. You can also find Japanese joker tables in the joker lobby by filtering for them.
- Start as a guest or with your account.
- Join a waiting table or create one, choosing the target score, free or Domino Coin, and visibility with an optional password.
- Your opponent sits down and the deal begins. The server deals, decides which cards may be played and keeps the score.
Because the game is for two, no bot takes an empty seat: resigning or leaving ends the match and the opponent wins. If your connection drops, the server waits for a set time — come back in time and you continue from the same position; otherwise the match counts as lost. If your move time runs out, the system makes one move for you and the next one is yours again.
Frequently asked questions
- Is there bidding in Japanese joker?
- No. All the cards are dealt, every hand has 18 tricks, and the hand goes to the player who takes more of them.
- Can I see my opponent's face-down cards?
- No, and they cannot see yours — a face-down card is hidden even from its owner until it reaches the hand. Both players' open cards are public.
- How is it different from classic joker?
- Classic joker is for four, with a bid every hand and scoring with khishti, premia and moshla. Japanese joker is for two, with no bidding, open columns on the table and a score that is simply the difference in tricks, usually to 21.
- Is it free?
- Yes. There are free tables and Domino Coin tables; the coin is virtual and is never money.
- Play Japanese joker
- Japanese joker: the full rules
- Joker or Japanese joker: the differences
- Classic joker for four players
- Georgian joker card game online
Every game on tamashebi.cc is free to play. Domino Coin is a virtual in-game coin: it is never money, cannot be bought or cashed out, and means nothing outside the site. The site is available in Georgian, English, Russian and Turkish.
The games on Tamashebi.cc are played in a Georgian-language interface. They are free and use a virtual coin, never real money.