Anyone who sits down at a Joker table for the first time often feels the game is being played in a language they do not know: "bezi", "khishti", "moshla", "tsaglejva". This glossary collects the words you will hear in Joker (or jokri, as many people say) and see at a tamashebi.cc table. Some words are used with slightly different meanings in different groups; here they are defined the way the site’s game uses them. The words are grouped by topic: cards, the structure of the game, trumps, bidding, play, scoring, and finally the site’s table. If you do not know the rules yet, it is best to read the full guide first and keep this page as a reference: when you hear an unfamiliar word during a game, you will find its meaning here in one sentence. The language of Joker is alive: some words came in from Russian, some were born at Georgian tables, and the same action often has two or three names.
Cards and the deck
- Jokeri (jokri): the Georgian card game for four players; also the two special cards in the deck. In everyday speech "jokri", and "jokris" for "of Joker".
- Banqo, karti: a playing card; both words are used for a single card and for card games in general: "kartis tamashi", "banqos tamashi" (a card game).
- Dasta: the deck, the full set of cards. Joker uses 36 cards: 34 ordinary and 2 jokers.
- Masti, peri: the suit. The suits are yvavi (spades, ♠), jvari (clubs, ♣), aguri (diamonds, ♦) and guli (hearts, ♥).
- The black sixes: the 6 of spades and the 6 of clubs; they are taken out of the deck and replaced by the jokers.
- Tuzi, mepe, kali, valeti: ace, king, queen, jack, the high cards in that order; after them come 10, 9, 8, 7, 6.
The structure of the game and trumps
- Damrigebeli: the dealer for this hand; the deal passes clockwise after every hand.
- Kheli: a hand, one deal, from dealing the cards to writing down the scores. A standard game has 24 hands.
- Pulka: a block of hands at the end of which the total, the premia and the moshla are counted. A game has four pulkas.
- Standard: the variant with 24 hands: 1 to 8 cards, four nine-card hands, 8 down to 1, four nine-card hands.
- Tskhrianebi (the "nines"): the variant with 16 hands, all of nine cards, in four pulkas.
- The turned-up card: in a 1- to 8-card hand, the card turned face up after the deal that decides trumps.
- Koziri: trumps, the senior suit of the hand: any trump beats any card of another suit.
- Bezi: a no-trump hand. This happens when a joker is turned up for trumps, or when, in a nine-card hand, the player choosing trumps declares bezi.
- Naming trumps: in a nine-card hand, the player to the dealer’s left names a suit or bezi after seeing their first three cards.
Bidding
- Tkma: the bidding; at the start of a hand everyone says how many tricks they will take.
- Ganatskhadi: the number bid; on the site this is the name of the bid buttons and of the bid column on the sheet.
- Zviatka: a colloquial word for the bid; on the site it appears above a player’s seat when they make their bid.
- Pasi: a pass, bidding zero, a promise not to take a single trick. A made pass is worth 50 points.
- The last bidder: the fourth player, who is barred from the number that would make the bids add up to the number of tricks.
- Shetenva: when the bids add up to fewer than the number of tricks: the spare trick gets "stuffed" onto somebody.
- Tsaglejva: when the bids add up to more than the number of tricks: there are not enough to go round, and the tricks are fought over.
Play and the joker
- Tsayvanili: a trick, one round in which each of the four plays one card; it goes to the owner of the strongest card.
- Tsagheba: taking a trick. "How many did you take?" means how many tricks you won.
- Svla: a lead, starting a trick with the first card.
- Following suit (peris mitsema): playing a card of the suit led; required if you have that suit.
- Chra: trumping, taking a trick of another suit with a trump or a joker. If you have no card of the suit led but do have a trump, trumping is required.
- Gadayra: throwing off, playing a non-trump card of another suit when you have neither the suit led nor a trump; such a card cannot win the trick.
- Mojokvra: playing the joker so that it takes the trick; it beats everything, trumps included. Older notes call it "maghla" (high).
- Gataneba: playing the joker so that it gives up the trick. Older notes call it "dabla" (low).
- Maghali ("high"): the demand of a joker led high: whoever holds the named suit must play their highest card of it.
- Tsaighos ("let it take"): the demand of a joker led low: you must follow with the named suit, any card of it.
- The last trick: the previous completed trick; on the site you can always look at its four cards, the order they were played, the joker’s call and who took it.
Scoring and the sheet
- Purceli, tskhrili: the score sheet, the record of points: a column with the number of cards, and two columns for each player, bid and score.
- Jokris tsera ("writing the Joker"): keeping the sheet during the game. On the site the server does it.
- Khishti: the penalty when you bid one or more and took none.
- Khishti 200, khishti 500: tables where every khishti costs −200 or −500 respectively.
- Special khishti: a penalty of 100 for every card dealt: −100 in a one-card hand, −900 in a nine-card hand.
- Premia: the bonus for making every hand of a pulka exactly: the score of the best hand in the pulka is added once more.
- Moshla: when someone in the pulka earned the premia, the others lose the score of their best hand.
- Pulka total: the sum of the pulka’s hands, khishtis and premia or moshla; marked with Σ on the site’s sheet.
- Sul ("all"): the total for the whole game, on the last line of the sheet.
- 7.5: how 750 points is written; on a Joker sheet scores are shown divided by a hundred.
At the site’s table
- Lobby: the page showing open tables; each table card shows the variant and the khishti type.
- Creating a table: choosing the variant, khishti, premia and moshla; these rules do not change until the end of the match.
- Ready: once all four seats are filled and everyone confirms they are ready, the deal starts by itself.
- Move timer: a limited time for every move, set by whoever created the table.
- Bot: if a player’s time runs out, a bot takes over their seat for the time being; the player can take the seat back.
- Domino Coin: the site’s virtual coin. It is not money and cannot be exchanged for money.
Frequently asked questions
- Jokeri or jokri: which is correct?
- Both are used. "Jokeri" is the standard literary form, "jokri" and "jokris" are colloquial. It is the same game.
- What is the difference between mojokvra and gataneba?
- With mojokvra the joker takes the trick; with gataneba it gives the trick up. Either way, a player who leads a joker names a suit.
- What is bezi in Joker?
- A no-trump hand: all suits are equal, and the trick goes to the highest card of the suit led, unless a joker was played high.
- What do tsaglejva and shetenva mean?
- They compare the total of the bids with the number of tricks: more is tsaglejva, fewer is shetenva. The two can never be equal; the last-bidder rule forbids it.
- What is the difference between tsayvanili and tsagheba?
- Tsayvanili is the trick itself, one round of four cards, one from each player. Tsagheba is taking it. "He bid three tricks and took two" means he meant to take three and took two.
- Are khishti and moshla the same thing?
- No. Khishti is the penalty for one hand: you bid one or more and took zero. The moshla is written at the end of a pulka and means someone else earned the premia, so you lose the score of your best hand in that pulka.
Joker on tamashebi.cc is free and plays in the browser, on a phone too. 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.