A hand of cards. A hidden trump. And one Jack that outranks everything else on the table — the Gulan. Learn how Kerala's most-played card game works, 4-player or 6-player, or jump straight in and play it online, free, right now.
If you grew up in Kerala, you probably know this game by a name your neighbours don't use. That's not a coincidence — it's the same trick-taking card game, carried across generations and regions under half a dozen different names.
28 is played two ways in Kerala: the traditional 4-player game, and a 6-player variant with a slightly bigger deck. The core idea — bid, hide a trump, win tricks — is the same in both. The deal and the bidding are where they differ.
The 4-player game uses 32 cards — ranks 7 through Ace in all four suits. The 6-player game adds a 6 of each suit on top of that, for 36 cards total, so the deck divides evenly six ways.
4 players: everyone is dealt 4 cards first, and a first round of bidding happens right away, before anyone sees their full hand. Bids run 14 to 28.
6 players: all 6 cards go out to every player at once, then a single round of bidding follows — no split deal.
The highest bidder names a trump suit and sets aside one trump card, face-down, unseen by anyone else. That hidden card can be called into play once, later in the hand — the well-timed reveal is where 28 gets tactical. This works the same way in both the 4-player and 6-player game.
In the 4-player game specifically, everyone is then dealt 4 more cards — 8 total — and a second round of bidding follows before play begins. The 6-player game skips this: with all 6 cards already dealt up front, there's only ever the one bidding round.
Play proceeds trick by trick — follow suit if you can, and the Jack of trump, the Gulan, beats every other card in the game, including the Nine and Ace of the same suit. A 4-player hand runs 8 tricks (8 cards each); a 6-player hand runs 6 tricks (6 cards each).
The bidding team needs to win at least as many points as they bid. Fail, and the round goes to the other side.
| Card | Points |
|---|---|
| Jack (Gulan) | 3 |
| Nine | 2 |
| Ace | 1 |
| Ten | 1 |
Win a hand, gain game points. First team to 12 game points takes the championship — and win ten championships in a row to be crowned King of the Table.
28 is a trick-taking card game from Kerala, India, played with 32 cards across 4 suits. Teams of two (or three, in the 6-player version) bid for the right to choose trump, and the Jack — the Gulan — is the highest card in every suit.
The Jack of trump is the single most powerful card in the game, and it's known as the Gulan. "Thuruppu" means trump in Malayalam — so "Thuruppu Gulan" literally means "the trump Jack," and the name became shorthand for the whole game.
Yes — all the same game. 28, Twenty Eight, Kerala 28, Eripathettu, Thuruppu Gulan and Irupathiyettu (the Malayalam word for "twenty-eight") are different names for one card game, used across different regions and generations of players.
The traditional game is 4-handed, two teams of two, with a 32-card deck (7 through Ace) dealt in two stages — 8 cards each, two rounds of bidding. A popular variant, often called Kerala 6, is played 6-handed, two teams of three, with a 36-card deck (adding a 6 of each suit) dealt all at once — 6 cards each, one round of bidding.
Yes. Play 28 online free in 4-player or 6-player rooms with live voice chat, or play offline against AI bots that learn your strategy over time — no download, no signup.
Free, instant, and built for exactly how the game is actually played — bid, hide your trump, and see who really knows their Gulan from their Nine.
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