Bhabhi Card Game Rules: How to Play Getaway

The loser of the game is traditionally called the Bhabhi, and that's the name most people search for. Pagat notes that using Bhabhi as a jokey insult for the loser is considered offensive in Punjabi culture, so plenty of families call the game Getaway, Laad or Bho instead. The rules are the same.

1. Deal all the cards one at a time. Some players may end up with one card more than others.
2. Whoever holds the Ace of spades leads it face up. Everyone else plays a spade if they have one, or any card if they don't. This first trick always goes on the discard pile, even if someone couldn't follow suit.
3. The player who played the highest spade leads the next trick with any card.
4. Everyone must follow the suit that was led. If all of them do, the trick goes face down on the discard pile, and whoever played the highest card of that suit leads next.
5. If a player can't follow suit, they play any other card (called a thulla or tochoo). That ends the trick immediately. The player who played the highest card of the led suit picks up every card in that trick, adds them to their hand, and leads next.
6. When you play your last card, you've got away and are out of danger. Play carries on until one player is left with cards.

Four players. Ravi leads 9♦, Meera plays K♦, Sam plays 4♦, and Anu has no diamonds, so she plays Q♣. That's a thulla. The trick stops, and Meera, who played the highest diamond (the King), has to take all four cards into her hand and lead the next trick.

That's why high cards are dangerous in Bhabhi. They win tricks, and in this game winning a broken trick is the bad outcome.

If you win the right to lead but have no cards left, Pagat's rule is that you can't simply walk away: you draw a random card from the discard pile and lead it. Some groups instead pass the lead on, or take a card from the next player.

Pagat also describes an optional rule some families use: before any trick, a player may take all the cards from the player on their left, and that player has then got away. It speeds up long games.

• Direction: some groups play anticlockwise.
• Dealing: instead of dealing, split the deck into rough piles and let the youngest player choose first.
• Two decks: with more than eight players, mix in a second deck and mark one Ace of spades to lead first.
• Donkey (Kerala): the first suit a player can't follow becomes trump, and the loser is the "donkey".

Bhabhi is a favourite with children at family gatherings. See more Indian card games, or pair it with Satte Pe Satta, another easy shedding game.

Rules checked against Pagat's Getaway (Bhabhi) reference page.