HOW TO DEAL Start with a fifty-two-card deck, and remove all 2s through 6s, for a total of thirty-two cards. Deal four cards to each player in a counterclockwise direction. In each suit, cards rank (high to low): J-9-A-10-K-Q-8-7.28 is hugely popular in India, especially in Kerala, and yet is almost completely unknown anywhere else. This is a shame, because it’s one of the few trump-based partnership games where the trump suit is not exposed immediately.
HOW TO DEAL Start with a fifty-two-card deck, and remove all 2s through 6s, for a total of thirty-two cards. Deal four cards to each player in a counterclockwise direction. In each suit, cards rank (high to low): J-9-A-10-K-Q-8-7.
SCORING Teams compete to be the first to score 15 total points. Points are awarded whether you succeed or fail to make a bid:
Bids of 19 or less, score 1 point if successful or -2 points for failing
Bids of 20 to 24, score 2 points if successful or -3 points for failing
Bids 25 or more, score 3 points if successful or -4 points for failing
HOW TO PLAY The player to the right of the dealer opens the bidding. The minimum bid is 14 points, and bidding continues until three players in a row pass. You’re bidding on how many total points your team thinks it will capture in tricks, based on the following card values: jacks, 3 points each; 9s, 2 points each; aces and 10s, 1 point each. In each hand, 28 total points are at stake, and so the maximum team bid is 28 points.
The bid winner nominates a trump suit by placing one card (of the proposed trump) face down on the table. The card is not shown to any other player until later in the game. The dealer then gives each player four more cards (for a total of eight). At this point the bid winner (or his partner) may increase his bid to a minimum of 24 or higher.
The player to the left of the dealer leads. All other players must follow suit if possible. The trick is won by the highest card in the leading suit, and the trick winner leads the next trick. The bid winner is not allowed to lead trump (the suit of which only he knows) unless he has no other cards in his hand.
If you cannot follow suit, you have two options: play a card from any other suit to the trick (and lose the trick), or, before playing a card, call for the trump suit to be exposed. In this case, the bid winner must expose the trump card, and the card is then added to the bid winner’s hand. You must now play trump to the trick (if you have trump), or play a card from any other suit.
Once the trump suit is exposed, tricks are won by the highest trump or, if none, by the highest card in the leading suit. Players must still follow suit if possible, or play any other card (including trump). Trump, however, is not retroactive—any trump cards played prior to the exposure of the trump suit are given no special status.
If nobody calls for the trump to be exposed during the first seven tricks, the bid winner is required to expose trump in the last trick and then immediately to play it, since this is his last remaining card. Scores are tallied when all eight tricks are played. The deal rotates to the right.
VARIATION: THREE-PLAYER 28
The three-player version of 28 follows the same rules as the basic game, except the thirty-two-card deck is reduced to twenty-four cards total (remove the 7s and 8s), and the minimum opening bid is 12 points (not 14). In each hand, the bid winner plays alone against the other two players.