The Thulla endgame: two players left
Most Thulla games are decided between the last two players. Everyone else is safe, and the two of you are alone with your cards. This is where careful players win games, and it is also where we can say the most with numbers, because with only two hands left a computer can try every possible line of play.
First, check for a shootout
If your two hands share no suit, the shootout ends the game at once: whoever would lead next is the Bhabhi. So the real endgame, the one this page is about, only happens when the two hands share at least one suit. The rest of this page assumes they do.
What a trick looks like with two players
- If the leader leads a suit the other player holds, the other must follow. The higher card wins, both cards leave the game, and the winner leads next. Both hands shrink by one.
- If the leader leads a suit the other player does not hold, the other throws any card as a thulla and the leader, holding the only card of the led suit, picks the pile up. The leader gains a card and the other loses one.
So a clean trick keeps the gap between the two hands the same, and a thulla widens it in the follower's favour. Leading a suit the other player lacks is therefore the worst move you can make when you want to get out first. And if the other player leads into a suit you lack, it is a gift: you shed a card for free and they gain one.
Who is ahead? The solver
We wrote a small program that plays the two-player ending with perfect play for both sides. We gave it about 60,000 random positions in which the two hands share a suit, with hands of one to five cards. For each pair of hand sizes it counted who gets rid of all their cards first, with the leader as the player about to lead. The result:
| Leader holds | Follower holds | Leader out first | Follower out first | Draw |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 0% | 0% | 100% |
| 1 | 2 | 100% | 0% | 0% |
| 2 | 1 | 0% | 100% | 0% |
| 2 | 2 | 35% | 23% | 42% |
| 2 | 3 | 84% | 16% | 0% |
| 3 | 2 | 22% | 78% | 0% |
| 3 | 3 | 48% | 19% | 33% |
| 3 | 4 | 87% | 13% | 0% |
| 4 | 3 | 31% | 69% | 0% |
| 4 | 4 | 52% | 21% | 27% |
| 4 | 5 | 82% | 18% | 0% |
| 5 | 4 | 44% | 56% | 0% |
| 5 | 5 | 53% | 24% | 24% |
The positions used cards from two suits only, so the table shows the shape of the endgame rather than exact odds for a full table. It shows three things clearly.
- Fewer cards wins. With one card fewer you are usually ahead: a leader with 3 cards against 4 goes out first in 87% of positions, and a follower with 2 against a leader's 3 goes out first in 78%.
- Two cards fewer is nearly decisive. A single card against two or more wins every time in this sample, and 2 against 4 wins 91%.
- Equal hands are a coin flip, with draws. With the same number of cards, the leader goes out first about half the time and the follower about a fifth, and a quarter to two-fifths of the games end in a draw, because both players empty their hands in the same trick.
What to do with this
- Count the cards. Before you pick a card, count both hands. If you are ahead, keep the position simple: lead suits the other player holds, win or lose tricks without picking up, and let the gap do the work.
- If you are behind, you need a thulla. The only way to get a card back is to make the other player lead into a suit you lack, or pick up their pile. Keep a suit they must follow, and try not to be the one with the highest card in it.
- Never lead a suit the other player is out of unless the shootout is already certain and you do not care. You pick up your own card plus their thulla.
- Keep one suit in common. If you are behind, a suit you both hold stops a shootout from ending the game against you. If you are ahead, a shootout in your favour is the best outcome of all.
- Do not give up lightly. Giving up loses the entry fee for certain. A hand two cards behind still goes out first in roughly one game in ten in the table above, and more with bigger hands.
A worked example
Ahmed leads with ♥9, ♥4 and ♠K (3 cards). Hina holds ♥10 and ♠2 (2 cards). They share two suits, so the game is not a shootout. Hina has fewer cards, so the solver says she is ahead. If Ahmed leads ♥9, Hina must follow with ♥10, and she wins the trick. Now Ahmed holds ♥4 and ♠K, Hina holds ♠2, and Hina leads. Leading ♠2 makes Ahmed follow with ♠K, which beats it, and the trick is Ahmed's, but Hina is out of cards and is safe. Ahmed still holds ♥4: he is the Bhabhi. Had Ahmed started with ♠K, Hina would have followed with ♠2, leaving Ahmed ♥9 and ♥4 against Hina's ♥10; Ahmed won the trick so he leads, whichever heart he plays Hina must follow with her last card ♥10, and she goes out. Either way Ahmed loses. The card counts told the story before a card was played.
A word about how this was made
The solver is plain code in the project (engine/CardGame.Engine.Sim/endgame), and it uses the current rules: a shootout when no suit is shared, and a draw when both players go out in the same trick. The sample is two suits and up to five cards a hand, so it covers real endgames but not every one. We kept the output next to the code, with the date, so the numbers can be checked.
More: shootout rule · simulation results · play now
Frequently asked questions
Who is ahead when two players are left in Thulla?
Mostly the one with fewer cards. With perfect play, a player with one card fewer than the other usually gets out first, and a player with two or more fewer almost always does.
Is it better to lead or to follow in the last two?
With equal hands, leading is slightly better, but the difference is small. The card counts matter far more than who leads.
When should I give up?
Rarely. Giving up costs you the entry fee for certain. A hand that is two or three cards behind still wins some of the time, and a shootout may settle it for you anyway.
What if the hands share no suit?
Then the game ends at once in a shootout and nobody plays. The player about to lead is the Bhabhi.
More guides
How to play Thulla (Bhabhi)
The full rules, step by step.
A Thulla round, trick by trick
A worked example: a clean trick, a thulla, and how a round ends.
Thulla, Bhabhi or Bhabi? The names and every term
The names of the game, where house rules differ, and every word explained.
Thulla strategy tips
Habits that keep you from being the Bhabhi.