Satte Pe Satta Rules: How to Play the Sevens Card Game

1. Shuffle and deal out the whole deck one card at a time. With anything other than four players, some hands end up a card longer. It hardly matters.
2. The player holding the 7 of hearts puts it face up in the middle. That starts the hearts row.
3. Play moves round the table. On your turn, play one card: any other seven (it starts a new row for its suit), or a card that sits directly next to the end of an existing row. With 7♥ down, the only hearts you can play are 8♥ or 6♥.
4. Rows grow upwards from the seven to the King and downwards to the Ace. So 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K on one side and 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, A on the other.
5. If no card in your hand fits, say pass (many people knock on the table) and the turn moves on.
6. The first player to play their last card wins the hand.

The rule that decides most games: you can't pass if you have a playable card. Holding back a seven or a card that would open a run for others is part of the strategy, but only when you have another legal card to play instead.

On the table: hearts from 5♥ to 9♥, and 7♠ on its own. Your hand is 4♥, 10♥, 8♠, 3♣ and K♦. You can play 4♥, 10♥ or 8♠. You can't play 3♣ or K♦, because clubs and diamonds haven't been opened with a seven yet.

Which one should you play? 8♠ only helps players who hold spades. 10♥ opens the way for anyone with J♥. If you're holding the J♥ yourself, play the 10♥ now and the Jack next turn; if not, the 8♠ gives away less.

• Hold on to sevens while you have other legal moves. Until a seven is played, nobody can play any card of that suit.
• Play cards that only open things up for you. If you hold 8, 9 and 10 of a suit, playing them in order costs you nothing.
• Watch who passes. A player who passes when hearts are open probably has no card next to the hearts row.
• Aces and Kings come last. They're the ends of each row, so they're the cards most likely to leave you stuck.

• Who starts: in India it's usually the 7 of hearts. Pagat's write-up of Sevens has the player to the dealer's left start, with the 7 of diamonds as a common variation. Agree before the first deal.
• Scoring: the basic game has none, just a winner. Some groups count the cards left in each losing hand as penalty points (Ace 1, picture cards 10) and play several hands.
• Chips: in the betting version, everyone puts a chip in the pot, a player who passes adds one more, and the winner takes the pot.
• Ace low or high: some play the Ace below the 2, so rows end at the Ace on the low side only.

Satte Pe Satta is one of the easiest Indian card games to teach children, and works well alongside Bhabhi at a Diwali card night.

Rules checked against Pagat's Sevens / Fan Tan reference page. Pagat doesn't use the name Satte Pe Satta; the 7-of-hearts start is how the game is usually played in India.