Mendicot Card Game: How To Play, Rules, Tips & Tricks

When you have a deck of 52 cards, you can play so many card games with it, e.g. mendicot, online rummy, poker, etc. all vary in time duration, fun, stakes, rules, tricks, and many other factors. How many of them do you know and have played? Among these playing card games, mendicot is truly a fun and engaging game which you must play if you haven’t yet. Well, in this article, you will get to know everything about this mendikot game, right from how to play, mendicot rules, and tips & tricks.

General Info

Mendikot is a traditional Indian game, having originated in western India, esp. in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. It is similar to ‘Dehla Pakad’ card game predominantly played in North India. The word ‘mendicot’ in English loosely means, collecting tens. Many other spellings are also used in India: Mindicot, mindikot, mindi, mendi coat, mendhi coat, etc. The word ‘mendi’ is taken from a Gujarati word ‘mindum’, whose meaning is ‘zero’. In the game, it means 10, as it is the only number card having ‘0’. The word ‘kot’, or ‘cot’, in south Indian languages, means a victory in which the rival scored a ‘zero’.

How to Play

There isn’t much difference in how mendicot is played whether you play mendicot online or offline. Let us know how to play mendikot before going on to the mendicot rules. This game is played using the standard deck of 52 cards. At a time, 4 players can play mendicot, and they will be forming 2 teams of 2 players and sitting opposite each other. Although, this game can be played by even 2 or 3 players. The play is conducted in the anticlockwise direction in mendicot online, and also in the offline version.

The ranking of the cards is generally different from most other card games: in mendikot, the Ace card gets the highest ranking, then comes the King card, this goes all the way up to the 2 numbered card. So the ranking from high to low is: A-K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2. Putting in a simple way, the aim of the players in mendicot, is to collect as many 10s cards as possible. The objective of the mendikot card game is to win 2 or more tricks of tens, having the highest number of tens from all 4 suits in play. The team that wins the most Tens and most tricks, wins the hand in mendicot.

One way to determine the partners, seating positions, and the 1^st dealer, is to draw 4 cards, 1 to each player in a mendicot card game. 2 players with the 2 highest ranking cards become partners against the other 2 players and the one with the highest card of all will be the dealer. He/she now shuffles and deals a total of 13 cards to each player in mendi coat game (that includes himself/herself); a batch of 5 cards is dealt first, and then the other cards are given in batches of 4, whether in mendicot online or offline.

Selection of Trump Suit

The trump suit (hukum) can be selected in 3 ways. The player should decide which of the following way should be used:

1. Open Trump: Player to the right of the dealer randomly takes a card and displays it to all, it becomes the trump for this deal. It is then returned to the pack for the dealer to deal the cards in mendikot.
2. Closed Trump (band hukum): in this method, the same player takes a random card, but instead of displaying it to everyone, he/she places it face down on the table. This card’s suit will become the trump suit.
3. Cut hukum: The mendikot game starts without a trump suit. When a player is unable to follow suit for the 1^st time, the suit of the card he/she selects to play becomes trump for the deal.

The Gameplay

The player to the right side of the dealer, begins the mendikot game by playing the 1^st trick’s 1^st card. He can play any one from his 13 cards. The other 3 players play their card in counter-clockwise. If a player is unable to follow suit, then the above 3rd point is practised. After this, the highest card of the trump suit, wins that trick in mendicot. When no trump card is played, the player with the highest value card of the suit led, wins that trick. The winner of one trick starts the next trick.

After completing all the 13 tricks, the cards are examined to declare the winner. Following are the conditions to win:

1. If a team captures 3 or all 4 of the tens, they win the hand. If all the 4 Tens are taken by one team, then it is called as ‘Mendikot’. When a team wins all the 13 tricks, it is called as a ‘Whitewash’.
2. If both the teams get 2 Tens each, then the team that has won the majority of tricks, win the hand.

The winning team of each hand gets a game point. The 1^st team to get 5 game points, is declared as the overall & final game winner. Of course, you can customize this to 3, 7, 10 or any game points you wish. Now, who will be the dealer of the next hand? That is determined by the following:

1. When the dealer’s team loses, the same player will continue to deal.
2. When the dealer’s team loses by all 13 tricks (whitewash), his/her teammate becomes the dealer for the next hand.
3. When the dealer’s team wins, the player to the right of the dealer, becomes the new dealer.

Rules

After knowing in detail how the mendikot card game is played, let’s move on to the next part of this article. Here you will get to know all the mendicot game rules.

1. A total of 13 mendicot card game tricks are played in a hand.
2. Once the hand is completed, the dealer examines the cards to declare the winner of the hand.
3. Every player is required to play a card from the suit that is leading the trick. This is the simplest of the mendicot game rules.
4. If the game has a predetermined trump, then a player can play a trump card to win that trick.
5. If a trump suit is not declared yet, a player is allowed to play a card from the suit which is dominating their hand. This suit will then become the trump suit, giving that player an advantage. Among all the mendicot rules, remember this one.
6. If both the teams have won 2 Tens each, then the winner of the hand is the one who has won more tricks.
7. If a team loses all the 13 tricks to their opponents, then it is called as a ‘Fifty-two card Mendikot’.

These rules are more or less similar in the offline version and also in mendikot online.

Tips and Tricks

Well, just now we went through some of the mendicot rules, now let’s have a look at the mendicot game tricks. These are the ones you just shouldn’t only read, but also learn, if you want to win matches and be a top player in this game. Following are some of the tricks:

1. You should focus on getting 10s cards. Either 3 or all 4.
2. Your second focus should be on winning the maximum number of tricks. These two mendicot tricks are simple, easy, and obvious.
3. Save your high-ranking cards for those tricks in which your opponent team will play their Tens cards.
4. Similarly, play your Tens cards only when the opposing team have placed their low-ranking cards. These 2 (3^rd and 4^th) mendikot tricks are crucial, remember them always.
5. Keep a watch on the cards thrown by your opposing team. When you are certain that they have used their high-ranking cards, only then do you play your Tens cards.
6. If your team has already lost 2 Tens cards to the opponents, focus on winning the remaining tricks. In all, you should win at least 7 tricks in such a scenario.
7. When you want your opponents to play their high-ranking cards and you know that they want to win tricks, you can do so by playing your high-ranking cards.
8. Always keep a count of the number of Tens and tricks won by your opponents.

Did you know? These mendicot tricks can be of great help for you to win many other card games like the Spades game and Poker. There are some more mendicot game tricks, but they are for professional players. Besides the above mendikot tricks, you can even create your own tricks to be used in the game.

Conclusion

Whether you play mendikot online or offline with your friends, one thing is guaranteed for you: a lot of fun with them! It is truly an engaging card game with which you will never get bored as you use your brains and some mendicot game tricks to outwit your opponents in collecting Tens. It is significantly different from Indian rummy, but nevertheless, if you haven’t played mendikot card game, you ought to try it at least once. From this article, hopefully, you understood how to play this game, mendicot rules, some info, and some mendicot game tricks.