Bura

The quick Russian game of 36 cards. Lead up to three of a suit, beat every card to take the trick, or throw yours face down. 2–4 players.

Who To Play With

or

How to play Bura

  1. 1A quick Russian game for two to four, each playing alone, with 36 cards: 6 up to ace. In every suit the ace is highest, then the ten, king, queen, jack, 9, 8, 7 and 6.
  2. 2Everyone gets three cards. The next card is turned up: its suit is trump for the whole hand. It goes under the stock and is the last card drawn.
  3. 3The leader plays one card, or two or three cards of the same suit. Everyone else in turn plays the same number of cards.
  4. 4To take the trick over, every card you play must beat a different card of the play holding it: a higher card of the same suit, or any trump over a card that isn't trump. If yours don't, they go face down and count for nothing in the fight, so it's a good place to throw away cards you don't need. Three trumps led together are the bura the game is named for, and very hard to beat.
  5. 5Whoever holds the trick at the end takes every card in it, face-down ones included. Then everyone draws back up to three, the winner first, and the winner leads next.
  6. 6Aces count 11, tens 10, kings 4, queens 3 and jacks 2: 120 points in all. Nobody counts their pile until the hand ends. The most points wins the hand and 1 game point, or 2 if everyone else took less than 31.
  7. 7First to 7 game points wins. If 25 hands go by first, the most game points wins.

More trick-taking games

All 225 games, free, in your browser.