Play one card each turn to fish cards off the table, either by matching a value or by summing to it. Diloti adds declarations: you can build a pile, announce its value, and promise to take it later. Most points come from the xeri, a capture that sweeps the table bare.
The non-dealer plays first, which is an advantage: they get the first shot at whatever lies on the table. The deal alternates each round. If the four table cards include three or four face cards of the same rank, those cards go back into the pack and four new ones are dealt. The remaining 36 cards wait face down. When both hands run out, each player gets six more, but nothing new goes to the table. Three more deals of six empty the pack.
A full game to 61 against an Easy, Medium or Hard computer, with every rule on this page enforced. It opens full screen and plays like a phone card game: tap a card to see its moves, or drag it onto the table.
Aces count 1 and number cards their face value. Kings, Queens and Jacks have no number. They can only take another face card of the same rank, one at a time, and they can never join a sum or a declaration. Your one card does one of these things.
Face card rule. If a King, Queen or Jack you play matches one already on the table, you must capture exactly one of them. You can’t lay it beside its twin, and you can’t take two.
Captured cards, plus the card that took them, go face down into your capture pile. You can’t look through it again until the round ends.
A number card captures any loose card of equal value and any set of loose cards that adds up to it. If several separate sets each reach the value, one card takes all of them at once. Sets can’t share cards, though, so when combinations overlap you pick one and the rest stay. Choose a scenario or build your own table, then pick the card you play.
A declaration is a face-up pile you build from the card you play plus loose number cards. You announce its value, and from then on the pile can only be captured as a whole, by a card of that value. To declare, raise, or add to a declaration you must already hold a card of its value.
A plain declaration is a sum, such as a 3 laid on a 5 and called “eight.” Your opponent may raise it by adding a card from hand, which makes a new sum they must hold. You can’t raise your own, but you can re-raise after theirs, up to 10. A group (or family) declaration stacks two or more units that each equal the value, such as an 8 together with 5+3. Groups can’t be raised and fall only to a card of the same value. If a pile could be read either way, two 4s for example, say whether it is “eight” or “two fours.”
The declarer’s promise. Until your declaration is captured, raised, or taken over by someone else, you may only capture loose cards, capture your own declaration, or add to it to make a group of the same value. You can’t lay a card or start another declaration, and the card you’re holding for it is reserved for that capture.
Capture every card on the table in one play and you score a xeri (ξερή, “dry”), worth 10 points, almost as much as everything else in the round combined. Tuck one captured card face up and sideways under your pile to keep count. The very first card of a round never counts as a xeri, even if it takes all four. The real skill is avoiding leaving a table your opponent can clear. Try these.
When the pack and both hands are empty, whatever is left on the table goes to the last player who captured anything. That final sweep is not a xeri. The dealer’s last card can still score one if it validly captures everything by itself. Then count up the 11 card points plus 10 for each xeri.
| What | Points | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The cards (most captured) | 4 | At 26–26 the cards are split and nobody scores them |
| Each Ace | 1 × 4 | One point per Ace you captured |
| The good 10 (10♦) | 2 | |
| The good 2 (2♣) | 1 | |
| Each xeri | 10 | No limit on how many |
Four play as two fixed partnerships, partners facing each other. Deal and play go anticlockwise and the deal passes to the right. Each player gets six cards (dealer’s right first, dealer last), four go to the table, and a second round of six empties the pack. A declaration binds only the player who made it. Only opponents may raise a plain declaration, but anyone may add to it to form a group of the same value, and whoever adds takes on the duty of capturing it. Partners pool their captures for scoring.
| Variant | What changes |
|---|---|
| Peek at the bottom | Dealer may look at the bottom card, so they know one card of their final hand. |
| Face-card redeal | A player dealt 5 or 6 face cards (first deal, or any deal) may demand a reshuffle by the same dealer. |
| Three of a kind on the table | Exactly three equal face cards aren’t redealt; whoever plays the fourth takes all three. |
| Forced capture | If your card can capture, you must, and you can’t leave behind any card or set it could have taken. You still choose between overlapping options. |
| Liberal declarations | Plain declarations act like single cards when forming groups, raising, or capturing (a declared 5 plus a loose Ace falls to one 6). |
| Soy | Some call any group a “soy”; one source reserves it for a pair of equal cards that can’t be added to. |
| Xeri timing | Some ban a xeri on the dealer’s very last card; others allow one even on the round’s first card. |
| Longer game | Play to 121, or any agreed target. |