Cards Night 2025 – PROGRAM RULES
The GAMA Cards Night is only open for Austin Malayali community (either parents or spouse of a player need to be a Malayali). GAMA reserves the right to disqualify a player, if this rule is not adhered to.
Player should be 18 years or above to participate.
Only limited spots are available for these games and hence GAMA will close the registration as soon as the limit is reached or by the deadline date of Oct 28, whichever is earlier.
If any matches that could not be completed on the given day, an alternative date/venue will be announced by GAMA.
GAMA or board of directors will not responsible for any damages/injuries caused by the participants.
GAMA Sports Team will decide the game formats and draws based on the number of registrations received.
GAMA reserves the right to close the registrations without prior notice if needed.
GAMA Board/Sports Team reserve the right to change any rules if needed.
The Competition judge may disqualify a competitor or issue a warning for any of the following reasons
- Competitor fails to comply with GAMA Policy, competition rules or the rules of the venue.
- Competitor is disruptive and/or interferes with other competitors.
- Any warning may result in a 5 second Competition penalty per incident.
- In the event of any dispute, competitors must accept the final ruling of the Competition Judge.
Please reach out to sports@gama.ngo for any issues/concern
Poker Rules ( Tournament Style )
- Each round will be for 15 mins with big blinds double every round. Blind structure provided below.
- Each player will start the tournament with the same number of chips. would be provided with a starting stack of 3000 chips. No rebuys or add-ons allowed. It would be a freezeout tournament format.
- The latest a player can register is by end of 3nd round ( 45 minutes after start of tournament )
- Players are dealt 2 hole cards, then 5 community Cards are dealt in the middle.
- There are rounds of betting after each set of Cards is dealt.
- Use the best 5 Card poker hand using any combination of your hole cards & the community cards.
- Appropriate actions include:
- Check = passing (Can’t check if there’s a bet in play)
- Fold = mucking your cards, you’re out of the hand
- Call = someone has bet, you are matching the bet
- Bet/Raise = putting more money in the middle
- Raises must be at least greater than small blind than the previous bet.
- Verbal is binding. If you say “Call’, you’ve called
- If you win because everyone folds, you may muck your hole cards without showing.
You don’t have to show a bluff. - If you fold, you should muck your cards without showing.
However, if you show one person, you should show it to all. - Mucked cards (in the middle) are dead.
- You may not look at mucked cards.
- No talking about the hand until a winner is decided
- Players are supposed to play the whole tournament to be eligible for getting the prize. Prize would be for the final 3 remaining players only.
- Players who have to leave would basically forfeit their chips. The chips of the player leaving would be put into the pot for the next hand dealt and played on the same table
- A player has to be present within reach of their cards in order to play the hand by the time the cards are dealt to the last player in the table. If they are not present cards dealt would be folded after paying SB/BB
- Combining tables would be done when the number of players in a table reaches less than 5. They would be allocated into other tables.
- Time is the same for all the tables irrespective of whether players are present or not.
- When needed lower denomination chips like 10$ would be colored up to higher denomination chip like 25$
- No Food or Beverages are allowed ON the poker table.
- Please take note of the level timings and the big blinds associated with it.There will be a penalty in the starting stack for players not coming on time. Penalties are mentioned in the table below
- Each action will be given 30 secs, this will make sure the game is not held up a lot.
| Level | Small Blind ($) | Big Blind ($) | Round End Time | |
| 1 | 5 | 10 | 0:15:00 | |
| 2 | 10 | 20 | 0:30:00 | -100 from starting stack |
| 3 | 20 | 40 | 0:45:00 | – 300 from starting stack |
| 4 | 40 | 80 | 1:00:00 | Last Entry Before this level starts ( -500 from starting stack) |
| 5 | 100 | 150 | 1:30:00 | |
| 6 | 150 | 250 | 1:45:00 | |
| 7 | 250 | 500 | 2:00:00 | Optional Color up to 500s and 1000s |
| 8 | 500 | 1000 | 2:15:00 | Should end by this level |
| 9 | 1000 | 1500 | 2:30:00 |
Rummy card game is played in slightly different ways from region to region. The game for the GAMA Cards Night 2025 will be played under the format described here below.
Players and Cards
The number of players in each bracket will be determined based on the number of registrations.
Up to 6 players use two decks of cards. 3 decks are used for more players. Each deck consists of the standard 52 cards plus wild cards (with “joker” printed on it)
Deal
To begin the session, each player picks a card at random from the shuffled deck. Seating is as per card value: whoever draws the highest card chooses his seat, to his right the next highest and so on. The lowest, thus, sits to the left of the highest. The lowest deals first and shuffles the cards.
The player to the left of the dealer draws a card unseen from the shuffled deck and places it on the table face up, visible to all. This card is known as the ‘joker’: all cards of the same rank as this turned up card as well as the printed jokers are used as wild cards, and all these cards are referred to as ‘jokers’. If the card turned up is a printed joker then Ace (A) becomes the joker.
The player to the dealer’s left then cuts the remaining cards and the dealer distributes them anti-clockwise one at a time, the player to the dealer’s right getting the first card. 13 cards are dealt to each player. One card is dealt face up to begin the discard pile and the remaining stack is placed face down in the center crosswise on top of the turned up joker, so that the rank of the joker remains visible – see diagram.
For the next hand the turn to deal passes to the right, and this continues until everyone has dealt once, completing a “round”.
Runs and sets
The objective is to form one’s 13 cards into sequences (runs) and sets (also known as trails or trios).
A run (or sequence) consists of three or more consecutive cards of the same suit, the order being A-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q-K-A. The ace can be next to the two (in A-2-3) or next to the king (in Q-K-A), but not both at once, so K-A-2 is not a legal run.
A set (trail, trio) consists of three cards of the same rank in different suits: 5-5-5 is a valid set but 7-7-7 is not.
Combinations must not overlap – for example 7-8-9-9-9 is either a run of diamonds with two spare 9’s or a set of 9’s with two spare diamonds. If a second 9 or a 9 or a 6 is added, the six cards form a run and a set.
Wild cards can be used to substitute for any desired card in a set or run. For example if the turned up card is a 8 then 3-8-5 is a valid run, and J-J-8 is a valid set since all 8’s are wild.
A straight run is a run formed without the use of wild cards as substitutes for other cards. At least one straight run is required in one’s hand in order for any combinations to become valid. Note that if 8’s are wild, 7-8-9 counts as a straight run, since the 8 is used as itself, not as a wild card, but J-Q-8 is not a straight run – just an ordinary run.
When three decks are used it is customary also to allow an additional type of combination consisting of three identical cards – such as 10-10-10. This is known as a tanala, and is treated as equivalent to a straight run.
In order to declare Rummy and win it is necessary to hold at least two runs, and at least one of these runs must be straight. The remainder of one’s 13 cards must also be formed into combinations, which may be runs or sets, with or without wild cards. The first “straight” run (or tanala) is sometimes known as the “original life” and the second run as the “second life”.
Usually, a winning hand consists of four combinations: one of four cards and three of three cards, but it is also possible to win with just three combinations of 5, 4 and 4 or 5, 5 and 3 cards, always provided that they include at least two runs, one of which must be straight.
The play
The player to the dealer’s right plays first, and play continues counter-clockwise. Each player’s turn consists of picking up either the top card of the face up discard pile or the top card of the face down stack. Having taken this card into hand the player must discard one card from hand face up on top of the discard pile.
If the player chooses to take the top card of the discard pile, that card cannot be discarded in the same turn – the player must discard a different card.
It sometimes happens that the card turned up by the dealer to start the discard pile is a joker, which can then be picked up by the first player in the normal way. Since this clearly gives the first player an advantage, it may encourage several other players to pack (see below).
The play continues until a player, after picking up a card, has 13 cards that form valid combinations (including at least one straight run and at least one other run as explained above). In this case the player discards the 14th card and declares ‘Rummy’, placing the 13 cards face up to show that they form the required runs and sets, and winning the game.
Note that no runs or sets are laid out during the play. In this form of Rummy players keep all their cards concealed from the other players until a player is able to win.
If there are no face down cards remaining in the stack and no one has declared Rummy by the end of the turn in which the last stock card was taken, the game is void and no one wins.
All the initial rounds will be played for 150 points with a limit on the number of hands (12). For example, say there are 6 players in a table. Lower the points, the better (see Scoring section below). If a player crosses the 150 points mark, they get eliminated and the remaining players keep playing. At the end of several rounds, if all players except one have crossed 150 points, the last man standing (who has not crossed 150) wins. Even after playing 12 hands, if there are multiple players left on the table with points lesser than 150, the player with the lowest points wins.
The final round will be played for 230 points.
Packing
A player whose hand is unpromising may prefer to withdraw from the game to limit the amount lost. This is called packing or dropping. It can only be done at the start of a player’s turn, instead of picking up a card.
A player who packs at the start of his first turn, before drawing any card from the stack or discard pile, gets assigned 25 points (lower the points, the better). The player’s 13 cards are shuffled and placed at the bottom of the face down stack, so that they are eventually available for drawing by the other players if the game continues that long. The remaining players continue to play.
A player who packs at a later turn gets assigned 50 points. This player’s cards are not added to the stack – they are set aside face down out of the game.
If all players except one have packed, the last remaining player automatically wins, and the winner will be assigned 0 points for this round.
If the game is void because the stack is used up and no one is able to declare Rummy, the packed players do not get assigned any points.
Scoring
After the winner declares rummy, all other players who have not packed count their hands to calculate the points. The values of the cards are as follows:
- A, K, Q, J, 10 count 10 points each
- 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 count face value
- all jokers – both the printed jokers and the cards of the same rank as the turned up joker – have a value of zero
If a hand does not contain a straight run (original life) and a second run (second life), the player gets assigned 100 points (maximum value).
If the hand contains a second run (second life) as well as a straight run, cards in these runs and any additional runs and trails (sets) are not counted.
The values of all remaining cards are totaled and the points are assigned to the player. Packed players gets assigned either 25 or 50 points, depending on when they packed. The lower the points, the better for a player (with winner getting 0 points).
Example: five is the joker (wild card) and a player holds 10-J-Q-K-7-8-8-4-4-4-4-2-2 when another player wins. This player has an original life (straight run in hearts) but no second life, so gets assigned 100 points. If the player had a wild card in place of the 8, the assigned points would be only 8 points for a 4 and the two 2’s, since the spade run would be a second life, making the trail of 4’s also valid.
If a player declares Rummy after picking a card for his first turn, any other players who have not yet had an opportunity to pack or pick a card are assigned points for their unmatched cards at half rate – that is the total value of their cards that are not in valid combinations is divided by two.
In the rare event that a player is dealt a hand of 13 cards that are all connected in compliance with the rules, the player can declare ‘Hand-Rummy’. Hand-Rummy is declared at the player’s first turn, instead of picking a card. Any players who have already taken their turns and have chosen to play will be assigned twice the total value of their unmatched cards. Those who have already packed gets assigned 25 points as usual, and any players who have not yet had a turn are assigned points for their unmatched cards at the normal (single) rate.
The card game 28 (Irupathiyettu) is played under slightly different ways from region to region. The game for the GAMA 2025 Game Day will be played under the format described here below.
Players and Cards
28 is played by two teams of three players each in each team. It is being played in fixed partnerships of 3 players each.
36 cards from a standard 52-card pack are used for play. There are nine cards in each of the usual “French” suits. The cards in every suit rank from high to low: J-9-A-10-K Q-8-7-6. The aim of the game is to win tricks containing valuable cards. The values of the cards are:
● Jacks – 3 points each
● Nine – 2 points each
● Aces – 1 point each
● Tens – 1 point each
● Other cards (K, Q, 8, 7,6) – no point
This gives a total of 28 points for cards.
Deal and Bidding
Deal and play are counter-clockwise; the cards are shuffled by the dealer and cut by the player to the dealer’s left. Three cards are then dealt to each player, one each or a set of three cards at a time, until all the 36 cards are dealt.
Based on these six cards, players bid for the right to choose trumps. Each bid is a number, and the highest bidder undertakes that his or her side will win in tricks at least the number of points bid. The player to the dealer’s right speaks first and must bid at least 16. The next chance for bidding goes first to the person in the opposite team in the counterclockwise order. If the opposite team bid for a higher number than the next player (the one sitting to the right of the player who opened the bid) from the team that opened the bid can bid for a higher value. Subsequent players, in counter clockwise order, may either bid higher or pass. If a team member bids a higher value before his/her team mate who is line to bid says ‘pass’ that higher bid will be taken by the player whose turn is to bid. There is one restriction during the bidding: if you wish to bid over your partner’s bid, your left-hand opponent having passed, you must bid at least 20. One player can only make one bid in a play.
The final bidder chooses a trump suit based on his or her six cards and places a card of this suit face down. The card is not shown to the other players, who therefore will not know at first what suit is the trump: it remains face down in front of the bidder until at some point during the play someone calls for the trump suit to be exposed. Please note once the trump card is placed down, players, including the bidder, are not allowed to open it until during the play someone calls for the trump.
The Play
The player to the dealer’s right always (except if the final bid is a ‘thani’) leads to the first trick; players must follow suit if possible, the highest card of the suit led wins the trick, and the winner of each trick leads to the next. During this first phase it is illegal for the bidder to lead a card of the trump suit.
Subsequently, if he has only the cards from the trump suit, he can play the cards belonging to the trump suit. None of the players can play a game with all the cards (6) of the same suit. If the opponent team does not have any card from the trump suit the game is invalidated and the deal goes to the next player. In each round the players must play the cards of their choice from the same suit if they have it. If they do not have any cards of the suit that is on the play, they have the freedom to call for trump or play any cards (including Jacks) from their hand without calling for the trump. But once a player asks for the trump card to open, he must play a trump card if he has any in his hand. During this first phase of the game, the face down trump is not considered as belonging to the bidder’s hand. If the bidder holds no card of the suit that was led, the bidder has essentially the same options as the other players: to discard any card without declaring trumps, or to expose the face down trump card and play a trump to the trick (not necessarily the one that was face down). Before opening the trump card, if a player from his own team or the opposite team leads a trick with a card from the trump suit, the bidder must just continue the game by playing a card from any other suit if the only trump card he has is placed face down. During the first phase, cards of the (concealed) trump suit have no special effect: each trick is won by the highest card of the suit led, even if it also contains cards of the suit that is subsequently revealed as trumps. If a player bides ‘thani’ or thani pidutham’ the other two players from his team shall put their cards face down immediately. The player who bid it should win all six rounds of the play.
Beginning with the rounds in which the trump card is exposed, each trick is won by the highest trump in it. Tricks that contain no trumps are won by the highest card of the suit led. Players must follow suit if possible: if unable to follow, they may play a trump or discard a card of another suit, as they like. As before, the winner of each trick leads to the next. The bidder is now free to lead any suit, including trumps.
During the first five rounds if no one called to open the trump, the bidder will be forced to expose the trump in the last trick and play it, this being the bidder’s only remaining card.
Any one person from each team will collect the cards from each trick that they won after each round and will place them face down on the table in front of the player.
Once the cards are placed down no players can open them until all the six rounds are played.
General Rules during the Game
The referee/judge can disqualify a team instantly if the team violates any of these rules.
- Once the game starts, talks or gestures of any sorts are not allowed.
- Players are not allowed to move away from their chairs until all the 2 rounds are finished.
- No electronic devices, pens, papers etc. are allowed in the game table.
- If any foul/fraud play is found the opposite team would be granted double the points of losing that game. (For example, during a play with a lead of 16, if a foul/fraud play is proved the opposite team would be granted 4 points).
Scoring
When all six tricks have been played, each side counts the card points in the tricks it has won. The bidding team needs at least as many card points as the bid to win; otherwise they lose.
The cumulative scores of the two teams are recorded on a piece of paper. The number of game points scored depends on the bid, not on the exact number of points taken in tricks.
If the bid was 19 or less, the bidding team wins 1 game point if successful, but loses 2 game points if they fail.
For bids from 20 to 24, the bidding team wins 2 game points or loses 3 game points.
For bids of 25 or more, the bidding team wins 3 game points or loses 4 game points.
For ‘thani’ the winning team wins 4 points or loses 5 points.
Cot/Counter Cot
On a game with highest bid 19 or less, if the winning team wins all the tricks before the last two cards who has the highest open card on the play announce loudly ‘the game is COT’ or the ‘the game is COUNTER COT’ and if they win that round they get twice the usual number of game points. To prevent this, their opponents can offer to surrender before the end of the play. If the winning side accepts the surrender, play ends and they just score the single amount for the bid; if the winning side insists on playing on and wins all the tricks, they win a double game, but if they lose any tricks at all, they lose double points for that game. Cot can be asked or declared at any point, but the player who asks or declare ‘cot’ must have minimum two cards left in his/her hand at the time of declaration.
Each match consists of 2 rounds of play. At the end of 2nd round if both teams are scored equally one additional round will be played. If the third round ends in draw, winner will be decided by coin toss.