Both games are called Joker, both use the same 36-card deck, and in both you fight for tricks. Even so, Japanese Joker is not classic Joker for two players. It has a different deal, a different goal and different scoring, and a good classic player will have to drop some habits in the Japanese game. Below the two are compared as they are played on tamashebi.cc.
Players
Classic Joker needs exactly four players, each playing for themselves. Japanese Joker is for exactly two: a head-to-head duel. That difference decides a lot. A four-player table needs four people, and if someone leaves or loses their connection during a match, a bot takes their seat so the others can finish. In the two-player game, an opponent leaving means the match is over: whoever left, or did not come back in time, loses.
The deck and the deal
The deck is the same in both: 34 ordinary cards and two jokers, which take the place of the two black sixes. The deal, though, is completely different. A standard classic match has 24 hands in four pulkas (sections): 1 up to 8 cards, then four hands of 9, then 8 down to 1, and four hands of 9 again. In tskhrianebi (the "nines" mode) there are 16 hands, all of nine cards. In the small hands trumps are set by a card turned up from the deck (if it is a joker, the hand is played in bezi, with no trumps); in a nine-card hand, trumps are declared by the player to the dealer's left after seeing three cards.
In Japanese Joker the whole deck is dealt every hand, 18 cards each. First three each, then the declarer chooses a trump suit or bezi, then five more cards go to each hand and ten are laid on the table in five columns, a face-up card on top of a face-down one. The face-up cards are visible to both players and are part of play. When a face-up card is played, the card beneath it goes into the hand, and each player's first card of the hand is always played from the hand.
Length and bidding
The classic game has a fixed length: 24 or 16 hands, and the match ends when all of them have been played. Japanese Joker has no fixed number of hands: play continues until someone reaches the target score, 11, 15, 21 or 31, with 21 as the default. The heart of classic Joker is bidding: in every hand each player says how many tricks they will take, points come from making the bid exactly, and the last bidder is forbidden the number that would make the total equal the number of tricks. Japanese Joker has no bidding at all: both players simply try to take as many tricks as they can.
The joker in the two games
In classic Joker the joker has two modes. Playing it to someone else's card, you choose mojokvra, which takes the trick and beats trumps too, or gataneba, which gives the trick away. Leading it, you name a suit and choose maghali ("high"), where players holding the suit must play their highest card, or tsaighos ("let it take"), where you hand the trick to someone else.
In Japanese Joker the joker is always played to take the trick. When you lead it you only name a suit, and your opponent, if they have that suit, plays their highest card of it. When you play it in response you choose nothing: the joker takes automatically. There is one important exception: if the joker asks for a non-trump suit and the opponent does not have it, the trump they play takes the trick from the joker. In classic Joker, a trump cannot beat a joker played to take. One thing is shared by both games: of two jokers that both claim the trick, the one played later takes it.
Scoring
- Classic: a made bid scores (bid + 1) × 50; bidding and taking every trick scores bid × 100; a missed bid scores 10 per trick taken; a successful pass scores 50.
- Classic: khishti (the penalty for bidding and taking nothing) is 200, 500 or "special", 100 per card in the hand; premia (the bonus) and moshla (striking off a rival's best hand) come at the end of each pulka, using the best hand's score.
- Japanese: the only number is the difference in tricks. Whoever took more scores the difference: 11 against 7 is +4, and the other player gets zero. Nine each is a draw.
- Japanese: there is no khishti, premia or moshla, which is why they do not even appear when you create the table.
What each game demands strategically
In classic Joker the main skill is judgement: how many tricks this card will bring you, and how that changes after the others bid. Avoiding a trick is often harder than taking one, and a single extra trick can cost a whole pulka, premia included. In Japanese Joker no bid holds you back, so every trick is useful, but information is open: you see your opponent's five face-up cards and know what they can answer with. What decides it here is planning (which face-up card to play when, so that the card beneath reaches your hand at the right moment) and timing the joker for when your opponent holds the named suit and cannot cut with a trump. Another difference is psychological. At a classic table you have three opponents, and their interests often clash with one another: a player who has made their bid runs from tricks, while one who has not is hunting for them. That creates situations where you exploit someone else's mistake or force someone to take a trick instead of you. Japanese Joker has none of that: every trick you take is one your opponent does not, and the score counts exactly that difference. So a player coming from the classic game must forget the habit of running from tricks in Japanese Joker, and a player coming from Japanese Joker must forget, in the classic game, that more tricks are always better.
Which one suits you
- Classic: if you love psychology, keeping a score sheet and a long game with friends. A match lasts a good while and every bid matters.
- Japanese: if there are two of you, or you want a shorter, direct duel. No bidding, open cards, and everything decided by counting and planning.
- For beginners: Japanese Joker is often the easier way in, with one goal and one number on the score sheet. Classic Joker is the "full" Joker experience, with khishti, premia and moshla.
- Is Japanese Joker the two-player version of classic Joker?
- No. The deck is the same, but there is no bidding, part of the cards lie on the table in open columns, and the score is the difference in tricks.
- Is the joker played the same way in both?
- No. In classic Joker you can also play the joker to give the trick away. In Japanese Joker it is always played to take, and a joker led in a non-trump suit can be cut by a trump.
- What do I choose when I create a table?
- Classic: standard or tskhrianebi (nines), free or Domino Coin, the khishti type, premia and moshla, visibility and password, rated or casual, and a move time of 15 to 60 seconds. Japanese: the target score, free or Domino Coin, visibility and password.
- Which one is quicker?
- Usually Japanese Joker: two players and a target score. Classic Joker is 24 or 16 hands with four players.
- Are both free?
- Yes. Both have free tables as well as tables that use the virtual Domino Coin.
Every game on tamashebi.cc is free to play. Coin tables use Domino Coin, 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.