In Georgia, games have always needed a table and good company: nardi in the courtyard, Joker among four friends, domino at the dacha, bura on the road. These games were handed down from one generation to the next, and almost every family had its own little house rule. On tamashebi.cc they are played online — by the Georgian rules most widely used around the table, against live opponents, in the browser and for free. Below is a short description of each: what it is, how many players it needs and where to read more. Five games are available already and one is in the works — and where a game has not opened yet, we say so plainly.
What you can play right now
- Nardi — the most widespread Georgian board game. Two players, fifteen checkers each, two dice and a board with twenty-four points. The site plays short nardi, with hitting and the bar. At the end of a game, an oini (a single win) is worth 1 point, a mars 2 and a koks 3, and a match goes to 1, 3, 5 or 7 points. The server rolls the dice, and both players see the same numbers.
- Joker — the most popular of the Georgian card games. Four players, a 36-card deck with two jokers, and a bid every hand: how many tricks you will take. You play the standard 24 hands or the nines; scoring includes khishti, premia and moshla, and the server keeps the score sheet. The joker can be played two ways: high, when it beats everything, or low, when it declines the trick.
- Japanese Joker — Joker for two players with the same deck. There is no bidding: you hold eight cards, and there are five columns on the table where a face-up card covers a face-down one. Each hand has 18 tricks, the score is written as the difference, and a match goes to 21 points.
- Domino — the tile game, for two players: 28 tiles, seven each, the rest in the bazari (the boneyard). Georgian domino has a single stavka, points are scored in multiples of five, the last two boneyard tiles are protected, and a blocked board is called a riba. A match goes to 75, 175, 255 or 355 points; for practice there is a bot with three difficulty levels.
- Nardi online
- Nardi rules
- Joker online
- Joker rules
- Japanese Joker online
- Japanese Joker rules
- Domino online
- Domino rules
Bura and Seka
Bura can be played on the site now, at /bura. Seka is still being built, and you cannot play it yet — we say so plainly. Its page already describes the rules, the terms and the common questions, so that nothing will be new on opening day. When it opens, a “Play now” button will appear on that page.
- Bura — a fast card game with 36 cards and a trump suit. The site has three modes: three-card and five-card bura for two players, and five-card bura in pairs for four, with partners sitting opposite; a match goes to 1, 3, 7 or 11 points. Cards have point values — ace 11, ten 10, king 4, queen 3, jack 2 — and to win a hand you need to collect enough points and claim them in time with “var” (“I am in”). Three trumps in hand is a bura and wins the hand at once.
- Seka — a three-card game in which you count the points of cards of the same suit: ace 11, picture cards 10, the rest their face value. The strongest combination is the seka itself — three cards of the same rank; three aces make 33 points. Online seka will be played only with the virtual Domino Coin — never with real money.
What all the games have in common
- Georgian rules, not a translation of a foreign variant: the stavka, riba, khishti, premia, mars and koks work just as they do at the table.
- Live opponents — through automatic matchmaking or by inviting a friend with a link.
- Fairness: the server shuffles the tiles and cards and rolls the dice, and your opponent’s hand is never sent to your browser.
- The server keeps the score — no more arguments over the count — and the Joker score sheet and the domino score are always on screen.
- Ratings and tournaments — if you like competition, you will see your results on the leaderboard; rewards are virtual coins only.
- A dropped connection does not ruin the game: the state is kept on the server, and when you come back you continue from the same position.
- It is free. Coin tables use only the virtual Domino Coin, which cannot be exchanged for money.
- It works on a phone and on a computer, with nothing to download and no sign-up needed.
Which game to choose
- Two of you with little time — nardi to 1 point, or domino to 75.
- Two of you who love counting — domino: every move is a hunt for a multiple of five.
- Four of you — Joker, the classic of Georgian card games.
- Two of you who would rather play cards — Japanese Joker.
- On your own and looking for practice — domino against the bot, or quick play against a stranger.
- In the mood for a long, tense evening — nardi to 7 points or domino to 355.
Words you will hear at the table
- Stavka — in domino, the first double of the hand, which opens four ways. It has nothing to do with money.
- Riba — in domino, a blocked board, when no available tile fits anywhere.
- Bazari — the remaining domino tiles (the boneyard), which you draw from when you have no move.
- Mars and koks — in nardi, a double and a triple win; oini is an ordinary, one-point win.
- Khishti — in Joker, taking zero tricks instead of the number you bid; premia and moshla — adding or wiping out the best hand at the end of a pulka (a round of hands).
- Bezi — in Joker, a hand with no trumps.
- Var — in bura, the claim that you have collected the points you need.
- Double — a domino tile with two identical halves, such as 3-3 or 6-6; it is placed crosswise.
- Tsaqvanili (a trick) — in Joker, one round in which each player plays one card and the owner of the strongest card takes all four.
- Bar — the strip down the middle of the nardi board where a hit checker waits until you bring it back into play.
Frequently asked questions
- Which games are available now?
- Nardi, Joker, Japanese Joker, domino and Bura. Seka is in development — for now its page only has the rules.
- Do people play for money?
- No. Every game is free. The only “currency” is the virtual Domino Coin, which cannot be bought or exchanged for money.
- Do I need to register?
- No. You can play as a guest. An account is useful for ranked matches, a friends list and keeping your results.
- Will bura be played with 5 cards?
- Yes. Bura has three modes: 3-card (two players), 5-card (two players) and 5-card in pairs (four players).
- Can I play on my phone?
- Yes, in the browser — on Android and iPhone alike. There is no app to download.
- Which game should I start with if I don’t know the rules well?
- Domino. Its rules fit on one page, you can practise against the bot, and the interactive tutorial shows you all the main rules in a few minutes. Joker and nardi take longer, but their rules are covered in detail in separate articles too.
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.