The premia and the moshla are what make Joker a serious game. A single hand is worth a few hundred points, but the premia adds or takes away hundreds in one go, and sometimes it alone decides who finishes first. These two words cause more arguments at home tables than any others, because the rules differ from family to family. Below is how they are counted on tamashebi.cc, and where house rules differ, that is noted too.
Premia and moshla belong to the pulka
Both are counted when a pulka, a block of hands, comes to an end. A standard game has four pulkas: the first has eight hands (1 to 8 cards), the second four nine-card hands, the third eight again (8 down to 1), and the fourth four nine-card hands. In tskhrianebi (the "nines" variant) all four pulkas are four nine-card hands. Every pulka starts fresh: the result of the previous pulka does not carry over, and a missed hand only costs you the premia of the pulka it was in. Pulkas also differ in value: the first and third pulkas of a standard game have eight hands, including one- and two-card hands where big scores are rare, while the second and fourth consist only of nine-card hands. There the best hand is usually higher, so the premia and the moshla are bigger too.
When a player earns the premia
The premia goes to whoever made every hand of the pulka exactly, taking exactly as many tricks as they bid in each one. A single missed hand, over or under, or a single khishti (the penalty for bidding and taking nothing), is enough to lose that pulka’s premia. The premia is worth the score of the best hand in that pulka, added once more. If the hands were 100, 150, 200 and 250, the premia is +250. If the best score came up twice, say 250 and 250, the premia is still +250, not +500: it is a score that is added, and it is added once. A khishti penalty never counts as the "best hand"; only ordinary hand scores do.
The pass: on tamashebi.cc a made pass (bid zero, took zero) counts as an ordinary made hand. It scores 50 points and does not cost you the premia. If you passed and then took a trick, the hand is missed and the premia for that pulka is gone. At some home tables a pass does not count towards the premia, so even one pass loses it; with that rule, it is best to agree beforehand.
Moshla: whose score is wiped
The moshla is the opposite of the premia. A player who gets a moshla loses the score of their best hand in the pulka. If their hands were 100, 150, 30 and 250, the moshla is −250. The 250-point hand itself stays on the sheet: the moshla is a separate entry, and on the site’s sheet the wiped hand is struck through, as on paper. The moshla is what one player’s premia costs the others, so it is only written when someone in the pulka earned the premia:
- Nobody has the premia: nobody gets a moshla, and everyone keeps their score.
- One player has the premia: the other three get a moshla.
- Two or three players have the premia: it depends on the table rule. By default ("the rest are docked"), the moshla goes to those without the premia. If the table is set to "the rest are not docked", nobody gets a moshla.
- All four have the premia: nobody gets a moshla, since there is nobody left.
Examples
One premia. In the second pulka Giorgi made all four hands: 150, 200, 100, 250. The total is 700, the premia +250, and the pulka 950, written 9.5. Nika’s hands: 100, 20, 300, 50. The 20 is a missed hand, so he has no premia, and since Giorgi earned one, Nika gets a moshla: −300. His pulka is 470 − 300 = 170, or 1.7. Ana and Levan, who also missed one hand each, lose their own best hands. Notice that Nika’s best hand, the 300, is exactly what he lost.
Two premias. In the same pulka Ana also made every hand. Both Giorgi and Ana get their own premia. At a default table Levan and Nika get a moshla; at a table set to "the rest are not docked" they keep their scores. Nobody has the premia: everyone missed at least once. Each player’s pulka total is simply the sum of their hands, khishti included, with nothing added and nothing wiped.
How it looks on the site
- A player’s score on the table is green while they are on course for the premia in the current pulka, and turns red as soon as they miss a hand. In a new pulka everyone starts green again.
- On the last line of the sheet, each player’s total uses the same colours, and the name of a player who has lost the premia turns red.
- At the end of a pulka, the Σ line shows the premia with a plus or the moshla with a minus beside the pulka total.
- The server works out the premia and moshla and writes them once: a dropped connection or a rejoin cannot create a second entry.
- When creating a table, the premia and the moshla are switched on or off separately, and with the premia on you choose what happens to the others when several players earn it. By default both are on.
The premia during play: what it means in practice
Being on course for the premia changes the way you bid. As long as you have made every hand of the pulka, each new hand decides two things: that hand’s score and the fate of the premia. So many players at that point prefer a bid they can make exactly over a bold but doubtful one, even if it scores less. On the other hand, you can see everyone else’s colours: if one player is the only one still green, their premia will cost everyone else a moshla, and breaking their bid is in everyone’s interest. It is one of the most interesting moments in Joker: three players against one, without anyone having agreed to it. And if you have lost the premia yourself, there is still plenty you can do: every made bid scores, and if nobody keeps the premia to the end of the pulka, nobody gets a moshla. If two or more keep it, your table’s rule decides whether the rest are docked, and that is shown in the table description before you sit down.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does the premia give me?
- The score of your best hand in that pulka, once more. If your best hand was 250, the premia is +250.
- Does a pass cost me the premia?
- Not on tamashebi.cc: a made pass is a made hand. A pass only costs you the premia if you take a trick.
- Is there a moshla if nobody earns the premia?
- No. A moshla is only written in a pulka where someone earned the premia.
- Does the moshla erase the hand’s score from the sheet?
- No. The hand keeps its score and is shown struck through, while the moshla is added as a separate negative entry.
- Can a khishti be the best hand?
- No. The premia and the moshla only look at ordinary hand scores, never at the khishti penalty.
- Why did my score turn red in the middle of the game?
- The colour shows the premia: green means you have made every hand of the current pulka so far, red means at least one was missed and this pulka’s premia is lost. In the next pulka your score turns green again.
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.