The cards
A 40-card deck in four suits: ♦ (dinari), ♥, ♠ and ♣. Each suit has the ace to 7, the queen, the jack and the king.
- The ace is worth 1, the 2 to 7 their number.
- The queen is worth 8, the jack 9, the king 10.
- The 7♦, sab'a l-hayya, is the most precious card of the deck.
Players
One against one, or two against two with partners sitting across from each other. Play goes counter-clockwise. Each side keeps one pile of the cards it captures.
The deal
The dealer shuffles. The player on the dealer's right (in a one-against-one game, the other player) cuts and draws a card, and chooses:
- Keep it: the dealer gives them two more, then three to each other player, lays four cards on the table, and takes three.
- Put it on the table: the dealer adds three more to the table, then deals three to each player.
- Either way: four cards on the table, three in each hand.
- If three or four of the four table cards have the same value, a player may propose to deal again, and the other side agrees or not (in two against two, one yes or no from either partner answers). This can only happen on the first deal of a round, before the first card is played.
- Whenever every hand is empty, the dealer deals three more cards to each player (none to the table), until the pack runs out.
- The dealer changes every round, going round counter-clockwise. The first dealer is drawn at random.
Playing
The player who cut plays first. On your turn you play one card; you can't pass.
- Capture by value: your card takes a table card of the same value.
- Capture by sum: your card takes several table cards that add up to its value (a queen, 8, takes a 7 and an ace).
- A single card of the same value always comes before any sum. When two table cards match, or several sums are possible, you choose.
- Capturing isn't compulsory: you may lay a card on the table instead, even one that could have captured.
- Captured cards go face down on your side's pile.
A missed capture
If a player lays down a card that could have captured, it stays on the table. The very next player, before playing their own card, may take that card together with what it could have taken, then play their turn as usual. After their turn the chance is gone. If that empties the table, it's a chkobba.
On Dineri, capturing is always your own move: you point at what you take, and the table never captures for you or tells you what you missed.
The chkobba
Whenever a capture empties the table, it's a chkobba: 1 point. The capturing card is kept face up in the pile to count it. There is no chkobba with the very last card of a round; a sweep earlier in the last hand still counts.
End of a round
Cards left on the table after the last turn go to whoever made the last capture (with no chkobba).
Scoring a round
Four points are at stake, plus the chkobbas:
- Karta: 1 point for the most cards.
- Dinari: 1 point for the most ♦.
- Barmila: 1 point for the most 7s; if tied, the most 6s.
- Sab'a l-hayya: 1 point for holding the 7♦.
- Each chkobba: 1 point.
- A tied point (baji) goes to nobody.
Winning
- The first side to reach the target wins: 11, 21 or 31, chosen by the table's owner, as a single game or a best of 3 or 5.
- Points are counted only at the end of a round, so the other side always gets to play the round out.
- If both sides reach the target in the same round, the higher score wins; if they're equal, another round decides.