Tysiąc Rules — How to Play and Keep Score
Tysiąc is the Polish national card game: a three-handed auction game where you bid how many points you think you can take, then try to prove it. Marriages, a king and queen of the same suit, are worth far more than the cards themselves and also change trumps mid-hand. Make your bid and you add exactly what you promised; miss it and you lose exactly that much. First to 1000 wins.
Overview
Tysiąc is the Polish national card game: a three-handed auction game where you bid how many points you think you can take, then try to prove it. Marriages, a king and queen of the same suit, are worth far more than the cards themselves and also change trumps mid-hand. Make your bid and you add exactly what you promised; miss it and you lose exactly that much. First to 1000 wins.
Setup
Use a 24-card pack: nine, ten, jack, queen, king and ace in each suit. Deal seven cards to each of the three active players and put three face down as the talon. With four at the table the dealer sits out and scores nothing that hand.
How to play
Bidding starts at 100 and rises in steps of five. You may not bid above 120 unless you hold at least one marriage, because 120 is all the cards are worth. The highest bidder takes the talon, shows it, adds it to their hand and passes one card to each opponent, keeping seven.
The declarer leads first. Follow suit if you can and beat the highest card played if you can; if you cannot follow you must trump if you have a trump. Announcing a marriage when you lead sets that suit as trumps for the rest of the hand and banks its value straight away. There are no trumps until the first marriage is announced.
Scoring
Card values, adding to 120 across the pack:
- Ace: 11
- Ten: 10
- King: 4
- Queen: 3
- Jack: 2
- Nine: 0
Marriages, scored by whoever announces them while leading a trick:
- Hearts: 100
- Diamonds: 80
- Clubs: 60
- Spades: 40
The declarer counts the card points in their tricks plus any marriages they announced. If the total is at least the bid, they add the bid to their score — not what they actually took, the bid. If they fall short, the bid is subtracted instead. A declarer can therefore lose 200 on a hand where they took 195.
Each defender adds their own tricks plus their own marriages, rounded to the nearest five. Round halves upward, so 43 becomes 45, 42 becomes 40, 48 becomes 50.
Once a player reaches the barrel threshold, usually 880, their score sticks there. Defending gains them nothing. They must win the auction and make their contract to move again, and they get three tries. Fail all three and 120 points come off, dropping them to 760, and they start climbing back.
Ending the game
The first player to reach 1000 or more at the end of a hand wins outright. With the barrel in play this always means winning a contract, which is the point of the rule.
Common variations
Some groups play to 1000 exactly, so overshooting means you must try again. Others allow four bombas per player, or none at all. A common simplification for beginners is dropping the barrel entirely and letting anyone cross the line however they manage it.
Scoring at a glance
| Who wins | First to target |
|---|---|
| Played to | 1000 points by default |
| Score sheet | A bid and a result per player per round; the score is derived |
| Typical round score | -300 – 300 |
| Negative scores | Possible |
| Worth knowing | Each hand stores a bid for the declarer only, plus the card points every player actually took. Card points across all players always add up to 120 plus the value of any marriages announced. |
Tysiąc — score sheet
House rules and settings
Every table plays Tysiąc a little differently. These are the 11 rules groups argue about. Each one is a setting in the app — and changing it recalculates a match that is already in progress, which is the thing no other score keeper does.
Play to: what is the default in Tysiąc?
The score that wins the game. A thousand is what the game is named after and is almost always used.
Default: 1000. Adjustable from 500 to 2000 in steps of 100.
In the app: “Play to”.
Minimum opening bid: what is the default in Tysiąc?
The lowest contract anyone may take on. Nobody is forced to bid, but the first bid cannot be under this.
Default: 100. Adjustable from 60 to 120 in steps of 10.
In the app: “Minimum opening bid”.
Bid increment: what are the options in Tysiąc?
How much each new bid must beat the last one by. Fives allow finer judgement, tens keep the auction short.
Default: Steps of 5. Two options:
In the app: “Bid increment”.
Non-declarers score their tricks: on or off in Tysiąc?
Standard play lets the two defenders bank the card points they took, rounded to the nearest five. Switching this off means only the declarer's score ever moves.
Default: on.
In the app: “Non-declarers score their tricks”.
Table size: what are the options in Tysiąc?
Only three people play any given hand. With four at the table the dealer deals, sits out and scores nothing that hand.
Default: Three players, everyone deals in. Two options:
In the app: “Table size”.
Use the barrel: on or off in Tysiąc?
Near the finish line a player is put on the barrel and can only progress by winning their own contract, which stops anyone drifting over the line on defence.
Default: on.
In the app: “Use the barrel”.
Barrel starts at: what is the default in Tysiąc?
The score at which a player goes on the barrel. Reaching or passing this figure freezes their total there.
Default: 880. Adjustable from 500 to 999 in steps of 10.
In the app: “Barrel starts at”.
Attempts on the barrel: what is the default in Tysiąc?
How many hands a player gets to win a contract and escape the barrel before being pushed back down.
Default: 3. Adjustable from 1 to 5 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Attempts on the barrel”.
Cost of falling off the barrel: what is the default in Tysiąc?
How many points are taken off a player who uses up all their attempts on the barrel without winning a contract.
Default: 120. Adjustable from 0 to 300 in steps of 10.
In the app: “Cost of falling off the barrel”.
Allow bomba: on or off in Tysiąc?
A bomba is throwing the hand in and forcing a redeal when your cards are hopeless. Each player only gets a couple per game.
Default: on.
In the app: “Allow bomba”.
Bombas per player: what is the default in Tysiąc?
How many times one player may call a bomba during a whole game.
Default: 2. Adjustable from 0 to 5 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Bombas per player”.
Variants of Tysiąc
Declarer only
Defenders never score. Only the player who wins the auction moves, which makes games far longer but removes all luck from defence.
Four-handed
Four at the table with the dealer sitting out. Everyone gets a rest and the deal rotates, but each hand is still played by three.
Tysiąc is also known as
Thousand, 1000, Tysiacha, Tysiace. These are the same game — the rules and the score sheet above apply to all of them.
Keep score offline
The sheet above works in your browser. Cardzo for iPhone remembers your players, survives a closed tab, and works in a field with no signal.
Coming to the App Store.