Feskot (Fis Kut): the Afghan card game, rules and all

Also written Fiskot, Fis Kot or Fiskut; فیس کوت in Dari; Peskot in the north. Four players, two teams, thirteen tricks, one rang.

What it is

Feskot is the card game Afghan families play after dinner: a partnership trick-taking game in the same family as Court Piece, Hokm and Spades, but with its own deal, its own way of choosing the trump suit, and table words you will not find anywhere else. It was never written down. Everyone learned it from an uncle, and every table argues about one rule or another.

It takes four people and one ordinary 52-card deck. Partners sit across from each other. The suit that beats the others is the rang (رنگ, "colour"); the Dari names of the suits are Qara ♠, Laal ♥, Khesht ♦ and Pasha ♣.

How to play

1. The deal and the rang

The dealer shuffles and the player to their right cuts. The dealer gives five cards to each player first. The player to the dealer's right looks at their five and calls the rang: they name the trump suit for the whole hand from those five cards alone. Then the dealer deals the rest, four at a time, until everyone holds thirteen.

A caller who likes none of their five may call blind: the rang is whatever suit the next card turns out to be. Bold, and the table remembers it either way.

2. The tricks

The caller leads the first trick. Each player in turn, counter-clockwise, must follow suit if they can. If they cannot, they may play a rang card or any other card. The highest card of the suit led wins the trick unless a rang card was played, in which case the highest rang wins. Ace is high. The winner of a trick leads the next.

3. Winning the hand, and the kot

There are thirteen tricks. The team that takes seven wins the hand. Take all thirteen and it is a kot (کوت), the result that gets talked about for a week. Families keep different tallies; the common one counts hands won across an evening, with a kot worth bragging rights and, at some tables, a double.

4. Table words

I got it

What you tell your partner before they play, when the trick is already yours: play your lowest card, do not waste a good one.

Tapkee (تپکی)

"Come that suit again." A partner's call for the same suit to be led back, because they hold the winner. Said with a slap of the card.

Bawand

The player who called the rang and leads the hand.

Rang (رنگ)

The trump suit, called from the first five cards.

Is it the same as Court Piece or Hokm?

Cousins, not twins. Court Piece (Coat, Rang) is played in Pakistan and northern India and shares the five-card call; Hokm is the Iranian version where the hakem chooses the trump. If you know either, you know most of Feskot already. What differs is the pace, the blind call, and the words shouted across the table.

Play it anywhere

FisKut is a free app that plays Feskot the way the table does: bots that say "I got it" and "tapkee" at the right moment, private tables with family and friends in any country, and open tables with players worldwide. Ludo is included for the kids. Free on iPhone and Android, with short ad breaks between hands and nothing to buy to play.

فیس کوت چیست؟

فیس کوت بازی کارت افغانی است: چهار نفر، دو تیم، سیزده دست. از پنج کارت اول رنگ انتخاب می‌شود. تیمی که هفت دست را ببرد برنده است و بردن هر سیزده دست «کوت» است. حالا می‌توانید با فامیل در هر جای دنیا بازی کنید — رایگان، برای آیفون و اندروید.

Questions people ask

How many players?

Four, in two fixed partnerships. The app fills empty seats with bots.

How many cards?

A standard 52-card deck, thirteen each, no jokers.

Who calls the rang?

The player to the dealer's right, from the first five cards. It rotates with the deal.

What is a kot?

All thirteen tricks to one team. The thing you text your cousin about.