Court Piece (Rang) Rules: How to Play Step by Step

1. The dealer gives five cards to each player.
2. The trump maker, usually the player next to the dealer, looks only at their five cards and names the trump suit. The other players wait until trump is called before looking.
3. The dealer deals the remaining cards in batches until everyone has 13. Groups batch them differently (4 and 4, or 4, 2 and 2); it doesn't change the game.

You pick trump from only five cards, so it's partly a guess. Two or three cards of one suit with an Ace or King among them is usually enough to call it.

The trump maker leads the first trick. Everyone must follow suit if they can; if you can't, play any card, including a trump. The highest trump wins the trick, or if there's no trump in it, the highest card of the suit that was led. The winner leads next.

As soon as one team reaches seven tricks, the hand is won. Many groups stop there, but play on if a kot is still possible.

A kot (or court) is Court Piece's big win, and it's also where groups disagree. The common versions: one team wins the first seven tricks in a row, or one team takes all 13 tricks. Some families also call it a kot when a team wins seven hands in a row. Pagat describes kot as a kind of slam, where one team wins all the tricks or a long unbroken run while the other team takes none.

Example: your partner calls spades and your team wins tricks 1 to 7 without dropping one. That's a kot under the most common rule, and it scores as a bigger win than an ordinary hand.

The next dealer normally comes from the team that lost the hand, which also means the winning team usually gets to pick trump again. If the trump maker's team loses, the deal moves round so the other side gets to choose.

• Double Sar (Do Sar): a trick isn't collected when it's won. Tricks pile up in the middle until one player wins two in a row, then that player's team takes the whole pile.
• Kot rules: first seven in a row, all thirteen, or seven hands running. Agree which one you're playing.
• Satat and other local rules change trump details. If you're joining a new table, ask.

Court Piece is close to Mendicot, where the tens matter more than the trick count, and to 29, where you bid for points. All three are popular Diwali card games.

Rules checked against Pagat's Court Piece / Rang reference page. Pagat also documents Hokm, the Persian version, on its own separate page — close to Court Piece but not identical in every detail.