Marriage

Marriage is a card game from Nepal.

Whoever gets the most points, wins the game. Which card gives how many points is different each game and determined by the card called Maal. Once the maal is determined, most cards relating to it give points.

Marriage is mostly played for five rounds and points are added from all rounds to determine the winner.

The game is be played in two phases. The first player who advances to Phase 2 will determine the maal. They have a great advantage now because only they know which cards are valuable. The other players try to guess from their actions what might be the maal (which cards do they pick up, which do they throw). Once another player advances to Phase 2, they also get to see the maal and are able to tell which cards will give points in this game.

Getting to the second game is crucial, because ending in the first phase will not give the player any points.

Preparation

Every player is given 21 cards. The rest is made into a stack with the uppermost card flipped so it can be seen.

Phase 1

In the first phase the players take turns exchanging one card from their hand with either:

• the last one thrown by the other player or
• a new one from the stack

The Goal of Phase 1 is to form 3 sequences of 3 cards each from their hands and lay them out in from of them. If they succeed, they will determine the maal for this game and proceed to phase 2.

The sequences can either be a Double Run or a Trial.

Phase 2

Once one player has looked at the Maal, they proceed to phase 2. In this phase, they try to form another 4 3-card sequences with the remaining 13 cards (whereas the one remaining card acts as a wildcard).

This phase will generally be easier, because

• There is an additional sequence that can be used
• Certain cards relating to the Maal can now be used as a joker, see Points.

Sequences

Trial

A 3-card sequence where number and colors are the same, for example:

• ♣️7 ♣️7 ♣️7
• ♥️10 ♥️10 ♥️10
• ♥️4 ♣️4 ♠️4 (only Phase 2)

Double Run

A 3-card sequence where the numbers a consecutive and the colors are the same, for example:

• ♣️4 ♣️5 ♣️6
• ♥️1 ♥️2 ♥️3

Maal

Once a player has formed 3 sequences from his hand, they will place the cards in front of them so that every player can see it. Then they will take a random card from the stack, look at it and put it at the bottom at the stack. This card is the Maal. It determines which cards give points and which are considered jokers this game.

Points

At the end of the game, all players check how many points they got.

• Players who did not advance to Phase 2, get -10 points.
• Players who did advance to Phase 2 but did not end the game, will get -3 points. They also count their cards points according to the rules.

Suppose ♣️5 is the Maal. Then the following card-combinations give points:

Maal

The maal itself can only appear twice in the game since the third card is used to show the maal on the stack.

• ♣️5 = 3pt
• ♣️♣️5 = 8pt

Neighbours

Every maal has two neighbours, even the Ace and Two cards.

• ♣️4 = 2pt
• ♣️6 = 2pt,
• ♣️♣️4 = 5pt
• ♣️♣️6 = 5pt
• ♣️♣️♣️4 = 10pt
• ♣️♣️♣️6 = 10pt

Opposite (of same color)

For clubs ♣️, this would be spades ♠️, for diamond ♦️, the opposite would be hearts ♥️.

• ♠️5 = 5pt
• ♠️♠️5 = 15pt
• ♠️♠️♠️5 = 25pt (if in hand)
• ♠️♠️♠️5 = 25pt (if played)

Marriage

A marriage is a run of the maal and its two neighbours.

• ♣️4 ♣️5 ♣️6 = 10pt (if in hand)
• ♣️4 ♣️5 ♣️6 = 15pt (if played)

Joker

This refers to the “normal” jokers of the playing cards.

• 🃏 = 5 pt
• 🃏🃏 = 15 pt