Tervi (तेरहवीं): the 13-card team game explained
Also called Terahvi, तेरहवीं, 13 card game
Tervi is the name many Hindi-speaking players use for Tehri, a partnership card game where you bid for the right to choose trump. If you learned it from a YouTube video or at a family gathering as तेरहवीं, these are the same rules.
Four players, two teams and 13 cards each: win at least as many tricks as your team bid, or pay a penalty.
Where the name Tervi comes from
Tervi and Terahvi come from terah (13), for the 13 cards in each hand and the 13 tricks in each round. In written English the game is more often called Tehri.
How to play Tervi
Players, teams and cards
Four players play in two fixed partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other. A standard 52-card deck is used, with no jokers.
Cards rank from high to low: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. Play passes anti-clockwise round the table, as it traditionally does in India and Pakistan.
Dealing in two stages
- The dealer shuffles and gives every player 5 cards.
- Trump is decided by looking at those 5 cards only, before anyone sees the rest of their hand.
- The dealer then deals the remaining 8 cards each, so everyone holds 13.
Playing a trick
- The player who decided trump leads the first trick. After that, whoever won the last trick leads.
- Everyone must follow suit if they can.
- A player with no card of the led suit may play any card, including a trump. Playing a trump like this is called cutting (katna).
- The highest trump wins the trick. If no trump was played, the highest card of the led suit wins.
Bidding for trump
- After the first 5 cards, bidding goes once round the table, starting with the player after the dealer.
- Each bid is a number of tricks from 7 to 13 together with a suit, for example “8 Hearts”. A bid must be higher than the highest bid so far, or the player can pass.
- A bid of 13 ends the bidding immediately, because nobody can beat it.
- The highest bidder's suit becomes trump, and that player leads the first trick.
- If all four players pass, the first player to bid is forced to take 7 and chooses trump from their 5 cards.
Scoring
All 13 tricks are played. If the bidding team takes at least as many tricks as it bid, it gains its bid: making 8 scores +8.
If it falls short, it loses points. A failed 7 costs 7, and any failed bid above 7 costs double: 8 costs 16, 9 costs 18, and 13 costs 26. The defending team's score never changes.
The two scores are shown as one gap between the teams. When a team falls 52 points behind, it loses the game.
Who deals next
Dealing is seen as a chore, so the deal goes to the losing side. If the dealer's team lost the round, the same dealer deals again; otherwise the deal passes to the next player.
The classic version without bidding
Many families play without any bidding. The player next to the dealer simply names trump from their first 5 cards, and the first team to win 7 tricks wins the round. It counts as a Kot (a whitewash) when the trump-calling team wins the first 7 tricks in a row, and in many houses also when the other team reaches 7 first.
Our version keeps the same deal, trump and trick rules but adds bidding, so every round has a contract to make or break.
Tervi FAQ
- Is Tervi the same game as Tehri?
- Yes. Tervi, Terahvi and Tehri are regional spellings of the same partnership bidding game.
- Why is the trump chosen after only 5 cards?
- It adds risk: you bid and pick trump on part of your hand, then discover the other 8 cards. That makes bidding a real judgement call.
- How much does a failed bid cost in Tervi?
- A failed 7 costs 7 points. Any failed bid above 7 costs double, so a failed 9 costs 18.