How to Play

Seven of Hearts

also known as Badam 7

3–8 players · 1 standard 52-card deck (no jokers)

Goal

3–8 players, 1 standard 52-card deck (no jokers). Be the first to play every card in your hand. Best cumulative score over 7 rounds wins.

Dealing

The whole deck is dealt out one card at a time, so hands can be uneven by a card or two — that's normal, not a bug.

Opening the Game

Whoever holds the 7 of Hearts plays it first, face up. From then on, every suit's own 7 is what opens that suit — until a suit's 7 is played, nothing else in that suit can be played.

Building Each Suit

Once a suit's 7 is down, two sequences grow outward from it: upward 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, and downward 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, A. A card is only playable once every card between it and the 7 is already down — you can't play the 9 before the 8, or the 4 before the 5.

Taking Your Turn

If you hold any playable card, you must play one. If you hold more than one, you choose which. If you have no legal move at all, you pass, handing the turn to the next player.

Scoring

The round ends the instant someone plays their last card — they score 0. Everyone else totals the point value of whatever's left in their hand: King = 13 down to Ace = 1. Lowest cumulative total after 7 rounds wins the match.

Two-Card Courtesy Warning

Once a player is down to their last 1 or 2 cards, it's customary to give the table a heads-up — “Two Cards Sure,” “Two Cards Unsure,” “One Card Sure,” and so on — so the table knows to stop sitting on high cards that might be blocking them.

Strategy

If you hold a suit's 7 but nothing else in that suit, try not to play it until you're forced to — it opens the door for everyone else. If you hold high cards in a suit that's already open, play them as soon as you can; there's no benefit to sitting on them. Low cards like an Ace are safe to hold longer — they only cost 1 point if you're stuck with them at the end.

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All 11 games in Patte