How to Play Donkey (Kazhutha Kali)

Players and cards

• Between 2 and 8 players, human or computer.
• A standard 52-card deck, no jokers.
• No suit is higher than another: spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs are equal.
• Inside a suit the order is 2 (lowest), 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A (highest). The ace is always high.

Dealing

The deck is shuffled and dealt one card at a time, in turn order, until it is gone. There is no dealer: the player who gets the first card is chosen at random. Hands are private; nobody sees another player’s cards.

Hands do not have to be equal. When 52 cards do not divide evenly, the players dealt to first get one extra card. With 8 players everyone gets 6 cards and the first four players dealt to get a 7th.

Turns go to the player on the right, so play runs anti-clockwise. The direction never changes during a game.

Who starts

The player holding the ace of spades (A♠) starts the first round.

• With 2 to 5 players they must play the A♠, so spades are the first active suit.
• With 6 to 8 players they may play any card.

The suit of the first card played in a round is the active suit for that round. Later rounds are started by the player who won the previous round (or who collected the cards in a strike), and the card they play sets the new active suit.

Playing a round

1. If you hold a card of the active suit, you must play one (any card of that suit).
2. If you have no card of the active suit, you may play a card from any other suit. This is called a strike (see below).

In a normal round without a strike, every player plays exactly one card and the cards go to the discard pile. The player who played the highest card of the active suit wins the round and starts the next one.

Strikes

When a player strikes (plays another suit because they have none of the active suit):

1. The player who has played the highest card of the active suit so far is the collector. The striking card does not compete for highest.
2. The collector takes all the cards played in that round (the active-suit cards and the striking card) into their hand.
3. Players who had not played yet in that round lose their turn.
4. The round ends at once. The collector starts the next round and picks the active suit.

A normal round takes one card out of every hand. A strike does not: the collector gains cards while the others end up with fewer.

Getting out and ranking

• If you play your last card you are out once the round is complete: either the cards go to the discard pile, or someone other than you collects them in a strike. If you are the collector, the cards come back to your hand and you are not out.
• The first player to empty their hand wins, then second, third and so on.
• If two or more players empty their hands in the same round, they tie for that rank.
• If the round’s winner has just gone out, the next round is started by the player with the second-highest card of the active suit, then the third-highest, and so on.
• Players who are out keep watching the table until the game ends.

The Donkey

The game goes on until nearly everyone is out. The last player still holding cards is the Donkey. Every game starts fresh: no points or penalties are carried over to the next game.

The turn timer

Each turn has a 45-second timer. If it runs out, you skip that turn (you play no card that round) and you also sit out the following round. The others keep playing, and you keep all your cards and rejoin the round after.

Frequently asked questions