Andar bahar rules

A pure guessing game from southern India, and one of the fastest there is. There is no skill in it whatsoever.

The deck

One ordinary 52-card deck, shuffled before every round. Any number of players can bet on the same round.

The joker card

One card is turned face up in the middle. This is the joker, or the game card, and its rank is the only thing that matters for the rest of the round.

The two sides

Two betting areas sit either side of it: andar, meaning inside, and bahar, meaning outside. You bet on one of them.

The deal

Cards are then dealt alternately to the two sides, one at a time. The dealer keeps going until a card appears whose rank matches the joker.

The side that card lands on wins. Everyone who bet on that side is paid.

Which side goes first depends on the joker's colour, and the side that receives the first card wins slightly more often — so it usually pays a little under even money while the other side pays a little more. That difference is the whole of the house edge.

The first card

At most tables a black joker sends the first card to andar and a red one sends it to bahar. Some tables always start with andar. A winning bet on the side dealt to first pays nine to ten; a winning bet on the other side pays even money.

An example

The joker is the seven of diamonds, a red card, so the first card goes to bahar. Bahar gets K♣, andar 2♥, bahar 9♠, andar 7♣. The seven of clubs matches, so andar wins, and because andar was dealt to second it pays even money: a bet of 100 comes back as 200.

The odds

With three cards of the joker's rank left in the deck, the round always ends, sometimes on the first card and sometimes near the bottom of the deck. The side dealt to first is one card ahead the whole way down, which is its entire advantage.

Some tables also offer side bets on how many cards will be dealt before the match appears.

Mangatha

The Tamil version, mangatha, has no joker card: players name the rank they are playing for themselves.