Joker, Bura and Seka are the best-known card games in Georgia, but they play completely differently. Joker is a long evening game for four built on exact bidding; Bura is a quick duel of counting points; Seka is a game of three cards and bluff. One thing up front: on tamashebi.cc Joker and Bura can be played right now; Seka is not on the site yet. Below, the three games are compared on five points.
What they have in common
- All three are played with an ordinary French-suited pack, and all three spread by word of mouth at the Georgian table, so the rules vary from family to family.
- Joker and Bura have a kozir (trump): a trump beats a card of any other suit. Seka has no trumping — the combination decides.
- Counting is central to all three: tricks in Joker, points in Bura, the card total in Seka.
- On tamashebi.cc each of them — now or in future — is free or played only for the virtual Domino Coin. There is no real-money play on the site.
The differences
Players
- Joker — exactly four, each for themselves. For two there is a separate game, Japanese Joker.
- Bura — two players, or four in pairs, with partners sitting opposite each other.
- Seka — several players at one table.
Cards
- Joker — 36 cards, with the two black sixes replaced by two jokers. The hand size changes from one card to nine.
- Bura — three-card Bura uses 20 cards (ace, 10, king, queen and jack of each suit), three each; five-card Bura uses 36 cards, five each. Ranks, high to low: ace, 10, king, queen, jack, 9, 8, 7, 6 — the ten ranks above the king.
- Seka — three cards each.
Aim
- Joker — say in advance how many tricks you will take and take exactly that many. An exact bid scores (bid + 1) × 50; a khishti is a penalty.
- Bura — collect points in tricks: ace 11, ten 10, king 4, queen 3, jack 2, the rest 0. In three-card Bura 31 points wins a hand, in five-card Bura 61, and 60:60 is a draw. A hand of all trumps led at once — a "bura" — wins the hand outright.
- Seka — hold the best combination: the points of cards of one suit are added up, and three high cards of one suit give 31. The rest is bluff — who holds their nerve to the end.
Length and difficulty
- Joker — the longest: the standard game is 24 hands, the nines 16 nine-card hands. Difficulty is high: bidding, choosing trump, declaring the joker, and the premia and moshla at the end of each pulka.
- Bura — a hand is a few tricks, a match goes to 1, 3, 7 or 11 points. Difficulty is medium but deep: you count points in your head, and a false claim of "var" (I have enough) loses the hand.
- Seka — the quickest rounds. The rules are simple; the difficulty is in the psychology.
Three-card Bura has one more peculiarity: if you cannot beat the cards led, you give the same number of cards, face down. Whoever takes the trick draws from the stock first and leads next. The trump is shown by the card turned under the stock, and that card is drawn last.
Which is the fastest
Seka and Bura. A round of Seka is over after three cards and a few decisions. A hand of three-card Bura lasts a few tricks, and if someone leads a bura — all trumps at once — the hand ends immediately. Joker is never quick: four players play 24 hands, and it is an evening game. If you are short of time, choose the nines in Joker, or Japanese Joker for two.
Which is the most strategic
All three take thought, but of different kinds. Joker is a game of long-range planning: each bid depends on three other players, the last bidder is barred from one number, and the premia ties the whole pulka together. Bura is a game of memory and counting: you have to remember the points still out and know when to claim "var"; and davi, se, chari, panji and shashi — raising the value of the hand from x2 to x6 — add risk assessment. Seka has the least arithmetic and the most reading of people. If you love exact calculation, choose Joker; if you love a quick duel and counting, choose Bura.
Who suits which
- Four friends and a whole evening — Joker. It lasts longest and starts the most talk: who broke whose bid, who took the premia.
- Two players and little time — Bura, or Joker’s two-player variant, Japanese Joker; both are already on the site.
- If you love counting and memory — Bura: you count your points in your head, because you normally cannot see your own collected points.
- If you love reading people and a game of nerves — Seka.
- If you want to play online right now, from your phone — Joker or Bura, because of the three these are the two on tamashebi.cc today.
Put simply: Joker is a game of planning, Bura of counting, Seka of nerves. Even the card order differs — in Bura the ten ranks above the king, in Joker it does not — so take care in your first hands when switching from one to the other.
Where to play all three
- Joker — right now, at tamashebi.cc/joker, in the browser, free, on a phone too. For two, Japanese Joker. When creating a table you choose the khishti, the premia and moshla, the turn time and whether the table is open, friends-only or password-protected.
- Bura — right now, at tamashebi.cc/bura: three-card and five-card for two, five-card in pairs for four, matches to 1, 3, 7 or 11 points. Read about its rules in our articles: three-card and five-card Bura, playing in pairs, the maliutka (a full hand of one non-trump suit) and the "var" claim.
- Seka — not on the site yet. If it is ever added, it will be played only for virtual coins — this platform does not offer real-money play.
Frequently asked questions
- Which is best for a beginner — Joker, Bura or Seka?
- Seka has the shortest rules, Bura medium, Joker the longest. If you want to play online right now, start with Joker or Bura: both are already on the site, and the server shows you which cards you are allowed to play.
- Can I play Bura and Seka on tamashebi.cc?
- Bura yes, at /bura; Seka is not on the site yet. Available now are Joker, Japanese Joker, nardi, domino and Bura.
- How is the card order in Bura different from Joker?
- In Bura the ten ranks above the king: ace, 10, king, queen, jack. In Joker the order is the usual one: ace, king, queen, jack, 10.
Joker on tamashebi.cc is free and runs in the browser, on a phone too. Domino Coin is only a virtual coin: it is not money, cannot be bought and cannot be exchanged for money.
The games on Tamashebi.cc are played in a Georgian-language interface. They are free and use a virtual coin, never real money.