Rung, better known in Pakistan and India as Court Piece, is a four player trump card game played in two teams of partners. One player picks the trump suit, the rung, after seeing just five cards, and the first team to win seven tricks takes the round. You can play Rung online free here with three computer players, or invite friends to take their seats with a room link.
Rung needs exactly four players. Partners sit opposite each other, so you and the player at the top of the table are one team, and the players on your left and right are the other. Play goes round to the right, counter-clockwise, which is the traditional direction.
A round works like this:
- The dealer shuffles a standard 52 card deck and deals five cards to each player, starting with the player on the dealer's right.
- That player is the trump caller. Looking only at those five cards, they name one suit as the rung (trump) for the round.
- The rest of the deck is dealt in two more packets of four, so everyone ends up with thirteen cards.
- The trump caller leads the first trick by playing any card.
- Everyone else must follow the suit that was led if they can. If you have none of that suit, you may play a trump to cut, or throw away any other card.
- The highest trump in the trick wins it. If no trump was played, the highest card of the led suit wins.
- The winner of a trick leads the next one.
- As soon as one team has won seven tricks, the round is over and the remaining cards are not played.
Cards rank in the usual order in every suit: Ace high, then King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9 and so on down to 2. Suits have no ranking of their own. Only two suits matter in a trick: the suit that was led and the trump suit.
Any trump beats any card of another suit, so a lowly 2 of trumps takes an Ace of the led suit. If two players cut with trump, the higher trump wins. A card of a third suit, neither led nor trump, can never win a trick, which is why players throw their weakest cards when they can't follow.
You are never forced to cut. If you can't follow suit you may still choose to throw a small card, for example when your partner is already winning the trick.
Each round is a race to seven of the thirteen tricks. The team that gets there first wins the round and scores 1 point.
If a team wins the first seven tricks in a row, without the other side taking a single one, that is a Court. With the Court bonus house rule switched on, which is the default, a Court scores 2 points instead of 1. You can switch it off in House rules if your family counts every round the same.
A match is played to a target score. Pick Short, first to 5 points, or Long, first to 7 points. The scoreboard after each round shows both teams' points.
Who calls trump next depends on the result. If the team that called trump wins the round, the same dealer deals again and the same player calls trump. If the calling team loses, the deal moves one seat along and the right to call passes to the other team.
Rung rewards counting cards and trusting your partner. A few habits make a big difference:
- When you call trump, pick the suit where you hold the most cards, especially with high cards like the Ace or King. Three cards of one suit in the first five is usually a solid call.
- If you hold several trumps including the top one, lead trumps early to pull them out of the opponents' hands. Your Aces in other suits are much safer once their trumps are gone.
- Count the trumps. There are thirteen in the deck. Once you know they are all played, every high card you hold becomes a sure winner.
- Don't overtake your partner when they are already winning the trick and nobody left can beat them. Play your lowest card and save the high one.
- When you can't follow, throw from a short side suit. Emptying a suit lets you cut with trump the next time it is led.
- Watch who fails to follow suit. Once a player shows out of a suit, you know they can cut it, and lead accordingly.
- Lead into the suit your partner has run out of, if the opponents still hold it. Your partner can cut and win the trick for your team.
- When the opponents are close to seven, play your sure winners first. Holding back an Ace is pointless if the round ends before you use it.
To play alone, choose Play vs computer. Your partner and both opponents are computer players. Easy computers often play a random legal card, which suits beginners. Smart computers count played cards, track who is out of which suit, draw trumps and avoid beating their own partner. You can set the speed to relaxed, normal or fast.
To play with friends, tap Invite friends to open a room. Share the link on WhatsApp or anywhere else, or give friends the six character room code to type on the Rung screen. Friends take computer seats as they join, and the host can move each friend to a seat, so you choose who is your partner and who sits against you. Seats nobody takes stay with the computer, so two, three or four people can play. During the game you can send emojis and short messages.
Court Piece has many local versions. In some families tricks are not collected one by one: they pile up in the middle and a team only takes them after winning two tricks in a row, a style often called Sar or Double Sar. Others give extra points for a Court won by the defending team, or let the caller choose trump without looking at any cards.
Our Rung keeps to the plain, most widely played version described above. The options you can change are the match length (first to 5 or 7) and whether a Court counts double.
Court Piece is closely related to Hokm, a Persian trick-taking game with the same basic idea of a trump chosen from five cards and a race to seven tricks. It spread across the subcontinent and is now a favourite at weddings, family gatherings and late night card sessions in Pakistan and North India, where it is known as Rung, Rang, Court Piece or Coat Piece. The word rang simply means colour, the name for the trump suit.