Pasur (card game)


Pasur or chahar barg is a fishing card game of Persian origin. Played widely in Iran, it is played similarly to the Italian games of Cassino or Scopa and even more similarly to the Egyptian game of Bastra. Pasur is also known by the names Chahâr Barg, Haft Khâj or Haft Va Chahâr, Yâzdah.

Etymology

The name "pasur" entered Persia from the Russian Пacyp during the 19th century along with the playing cards themselves.

Rules

Preliminaries

One standard pack of 52 cards and 2, 3 or 4 players who take turns being dealer. Object of the game is to get the most points based on winning certain cards.

Deal

Four cards face-down to each player and four face-up to form the “pool” in the middle of the table. If one of the cards in the pool is a Jack, it gets cut back into the deck and is replaced with a new card, and if this is a Jack as well or if there are multiple Jacks in pool, dealer reshuffles and deals again.

Play

Beginning at dealer's left, players take turns playing cards to the table until there are no cards left in their hands. Dealer then deals four more cards to each player and play continues until the deck is exhausted. A play consists of playing one card in one of two ways:
  • Adding it to the pool of face-up cards
  • Using that card to pick up one or more cards in the pool.
A player may not add a card to the pool if that card is capable of picking up one or more cards in the pool. The player must pick up the cards or play a different card.

Picking up cards

Cards may be picked up as follows.
  • Number cards pick up one or more other cards with which they combine to form a sum of eleven.
  • A King picks up one King, a Queen picks up one Queen.
  • A Jack picks up all Jacks and number cards on the table, but not Kings and Queens.
  • When a player only has a single card left in the last hand of the deck, all remaining cards in the pool are picked up when the player is able to match: a) a king-king b) queen-queen c) combine to form a sum of 11..

Surs

A Sur occurs when a player clears all remaining cards from the pool. There are two exceptions:
  1. When a Jack is used to pick up all remaining cards from the pool, this is not scored as a Sur.
  2. A Sur may not be scored in the last round of play.
Players keep track of their Surs by turning a card face up in their winnings pile.
Note: It is not possible for a Sur to occur when the pips on the cards in the pool total more than ten. It is also impossible to score a Sur when there are multiple face cards or a mix of number cards and face cards in the pool.

Scoring

Players keep the cards that they pick up face-down in a pile in front of them. The object of the game is to collect the most points, which are tallied by each player once the deck has been exhausted. Scoring varies slightly from place to place, but generally is as follows:
  • Most clubs: 7 points
  • 10 of diamonds: 3 points
  • 2 of clubs: 2 points
  • Each Ace: 1 point
  • Each Jack: 1 point
  • Each Sur: 5 points
Thus there are a total of 20 available points each round, plus a number of 5-point bonuses for each Sur that occurs. If 3 or 4 people are playing and there is a tie for most clubs, then nobody scores for clubs and the base point total is 13 instead of 20.

Ending the game

Once the deck has been exhausted and points have been tallied, deal passes to the left and the pack is dealt out anew. Game continues until someone's score is 62 or more points. If players are tied, play continues until the tie is broken.

Variations

Pasur Ru Baaz

Pasur Ru Baaz is a variant identical to a 2-player game of Pasur, the only difference being that one card in each player's hand is always kept face-up on the table, making it visible to both players. Players may play any of their own open cards, the card beneath the played card, which was previously hidden from both players, is then turned over.

Three Players

This three-player variant follows the rules for the standard game, with one variation in scoring for clubs.: If two players tie for having the same number of clubs, then it is the third player who scores 7 points for clubs, even though they have fewer clubs than the other players.