Players and time
Best with 3 to 7 players and a single standard 52-card deck. A match of several rounds runs about 20 to 40 minutes. It is quick to learn but rewards judgement, so it stays interesting over many rounds.
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Kachuful — widely known as Judgement — is an Indian trick-taking card game of prediction. Each round you predict exactly how many tricks you will win, the trump suit rotates, and you only score when your prediction is spot on. Play now against the computer, or learn the rules first.
Best with 3 to 7 players and a single standard 52-card deck. A match of several rounds runs about 20 to 40 minutes. It is quick to learn but rewards judgement, so it stays interesting over many rounds.
Each round every player is dealt the same number of cards, and the hand size changes from round to round. A trump suit is chosen for the round, rotating through spades, diamonds, clubs, hearts and a no-trump round. There are no fixed teams — every player scores for themselves.
Predict exactly how many tricks you will win, then win precisely that many — no more, no fewer. You score points only when your prediction matches your tricks. The player with the highest total when the match ends wins.
Predictions go clockwise before play. The player to the dealer's left leads the first trick; everyone must follow the led suit if they can, otherwise they may play any card, including a trump. The highest trump wins the trick, or if none is played, the highest card of the led suit. The winner of each trick leads the next.
Lazy Patta never lets an illegal move through. Every action is checked against the rules before anything on the table moves: you can act only on your own turn, only a card the rules allow can be played, and in the games that let you pass, you may pass only when you genuinely have nothing playable. Your hand shows you this — the cards you can play lift towards you, and one you cannot use yet says so. If an action is refused, because it was not your turn, because the card was not legal, or because it arrived after the table had already moved on, nothing is lost: your hand and the table stay exactly as they were, and the turn is still yours.
The round ends when all tricks are played and each player is scored against their prediction. Play the agreed number of rounds — a common family format counts down from seven cards to one. Add every round's points; the highest total after the final round wins the match.
Households differ on how many rounds to play, whether the hand size counts up, down, or both, and whether a no-trump round is included. Many use the dealer 'hook' rule so the predictions cannot add up to the number of tricks. Lazy Patta keeps the friendly names — Kachuful and Judgement — over a single official ruleset.
The most common mistake is predicting too many tricks on the strength of high cards without counting how the trump and led suits will actually fall. Another is forgetting that overshooting your prediction scores zero just like falling short — winning an extra trick can be as costly as missing one.
Count your sure tricks — top trumps and off-suit aces — before you predict, and shade your prediction down when the trump is short in your hand. Late in a round, you sometimes need to lose tricks on purpose to land exactly on your prediction, so keep a low card in reserve.
Each round every player is dealt the same number of cards and a trump suit is set. Going clockwise, players predict how many tricks they expect to win. Then play begins: follow the led suit if you can, otherwise play anything, and the highest trump — or the highest card of the led suit — wins each trick.
Look at your hand and the trump suit, then predict the number of tricks you think you can win. The dealer predicts last under the 'hook' rule: the predictions are not allowed to add up to the exact number of tricks in the round, so at least one player is guaranteed to miss.
You score only if you win exactly the number of tricks you predicted — usually a bonus plus one point per trick. Win one trick too few or too many and you score zero for the round. After the final round the highest total wins, so judgement matters more than raw card strength.
Play Kachuful against the computer anytime, or start a private family room and invite family from their own phones.