How to Play Pâsur — The Complete Visual Guide

The first time someone explains Pâsur (پاسور) to you, it sounds like every other fishing card game on earth: lay some cards down, capture by sum, score at the end. Then you sit down to play, your opponent slaps a Jack onto a six-card pool, and suddenly your whole table is gone. That moment — the fish-grabbed-the-net moment — is why this game has stuck around Iranian living rooms for more than a century. This is a complete guide to how to play Pâsur, written for someone who has never seen a hand played but expects to be holding their own by the end of the page.

Pâsur is a two-to-four-player game; this guide covers the 2-player rules, which are the ones implemented in our online version and the ones most people learn first. We'll walk through setup, the four ways to capture, the sur bonus, end-of-round scoring, and finish with a full sample deal so you can see every rule in motion.

If you want the cliff-notes version with cards drawn out, the in-app learn-to-play walkthrough is faster. If you want the deeper why behind every rule, read on.

The basics in one paragraph

You and your opponent each get four face-down cards. Four more go face-up to the middle — the pool. On your turn you play one card. If it can capture, it must. You keep dealing fresh four-card hands until the deck runs out (six deals per round in the standard game). Then you score the round, alternate the dealer, and play another round. First to 62 points wins the match.

That's it. The art is in which card to play, which capture to take when there are options, and when to deliberately leave the pool just out of your opponent's reach.

Setup

You need a standard 52-card deck. No jokers. The traditional Persian deck is identical to the Anglo-American one — clubs (Khâj), diamonds, hearts, spades — so any deck on your shelf will do.

Decide who deals first (cut for high card, or just take turns). The dealer:

Deals 4 face-down cards to the opponent.
Deals 4 face-down cards to themselves.
Deals 4 face-up cards to the middle — the pool.
Sets the remaining 36 cards aside as the stock.

There's one wrinkle in the deal worth mentioning, because it shapes the whole opening: the pool can't contain a Jack. If one comes up, tradition says to bury it in the stock and replace it with the next card off the top. If two or more Jacks land in the pool — or if you draw more than two Queens or Kings — most house rules reshuffle and re-deal from scratch. (Our engine does exactly this.)

The reason is structural. A Jack on the table at the moment of the deal would let the first player sweep four cards for free, and that's not a game, that's a coin flip.

Play starts with the non-dealer — the player who didn't deal. You alternate turns from there. When both players have played all four of their cards, the dealer hands out four more from the stock. No new cards go to the pool after the initial deal. After the sixth and final batch of four cards has been played, the round ends and you score.

How to capture

There are four capturing rules. Three are simple. One — the 11-rule — is the heart of the game.

1. Number cards capture by summing to 11

This is the rule that gives Pâsur its Persian nickname Haft-o Chahâr Yâzdah (هفت و چهار، یازده) — "seven and four, eleven." Number cards have their face value, with Aces worth 1. To capture, your played card plus one or more pool cards must add up to exactly 11.

You play the 7♥, the pool has a 4♣. 7 + 4 = 11. You take both cards.
You play a 3♠, the pool has a 6♦ and a 2♣. 3 + 6 + 2 = 11. You take all three.
You play an Ace♥, the pool has a 10♣. 1 + 10 = 11. You take both.
You play an 8♦, the pool has a 6♥ and a 5♠. 8 + 6 = 14, no good. 8 + 5 = 13, no good. 8 + 6 + 5 = 19, no good. You can't capture. You trail the 8 onto the pool.

You can sweep multiple combinations of pool cards as long as each capturing card you play makes its own 11. But you only get to play one card per turn — so if the pool has four different "11-makers" for your hand, you can only resolve one of them.

2. Kings capture Kings, Queens capture Queens

Face cards (other than Jacks) don't play the 11 game at all. They pair by rank. Play a King, take a King; play a Queen, take a Queen. Each play captures one match — if there are two Kings on the table when you play yours, you choose which one to take. The other one stays put for the next person.

This is also the only way Kings and Queens ever leave the pool: by being paired. A King sitting alone on the table is a small wager — your opponent might dump theirs on top to deny you, but the moment someone holds a matching King in hand, it's gone.

3. Jacks are wild — they sweep everything

This is the rule that makes Pâsur dramatic. A Jack captures every non-K/Q card on the table, all at once. Number cards, Aces, other Jacks — everything that isn't a face card above Jack. Kings and Queens stay where they are.

Imagine the pool: 2♣, 8♥, K♠, 5♦, Q♣. You play the J♦. You take the 2, the 8, and the 5. The King of Spades and Queen of Clubs stay on the table. Your opponent's chance to capture those just shrank dramatically — and you've added a Jack (1 point) to your pile.

There's a beautiful catch, and it's the most-forgotten rule in Pâsur: a Jack sweep never counts as a sur. No 5-point bonus, even when the Jack empties the table. The reason will be obvious once you understand surs, in the next section.

4. Mandatory capture

You can't trail a card that could capture. If the 7♥ in your hand can pair with the 4♣ in the pool, you have to make that capture — you can't choose to dump the 7 onto the table to bait your opponent later. The only choice you get is which legal capture to take when more than one exists.

This is the rule that separates Pâsur from games where you can shape the pool freely. It punishes a sloppy hand and rewards thinking three plays ahead.

Sur — the sweep bonus

A sur (سور, "sweep" or, more loosely, "feast") happens when you empty the pool with a single non-Jack capture. The pool goes to zero. You add five extra points to your round score on top of the cards you took.

Situation	Sur?
You play a 7, take a 4 — pool was just the 4 → now empty	Yes
You play a 6, take a 3 and a 2 — pool had only those → now empty	Yes
You play a Q, take the Q — pool had only that Q → now empty	Yes
You play a Jack and sweep three cards → pool now empty	No (Jacks don't sur)
You make a capture but other cards remain in the pool	No
You sweep the pool on the very last batch of cards in the round	No

That last one is the trickiest house rule. Most traditions hold that surs cannot be scored on the final deal of the round — the sixth four-card batch in a standard game. The reason is practical: at the very end of the round, the last capturer also sweeps any leftover pool cards, no matter what. If that final sweep counted as a sur, the last-capture rule would hand out 5 free points every round to whoever happened to grab the last trick. So the tradition is: clean the table at the end, take the cards, no bonus.

Sur cancellation

This is the part that makes the sur tally a tense, running scoreboard. You don't accumulate surs on top of your opponent's surs. If they've already scored one, and you score yours, yours cancels one of theirs instead of adding to your own pile. Only one player can ever carry net surs into scoring.

That changes the calculus of the whole game. If your opponent steals an early sur, your next sur isn't worth 5 points — it's worth 10, because it erases theirs and keeps you neutral. A two-sur swing is a 15-point margin. People play whole rounds for that one swap.

The 50-point sur cap (contested)

Pagat.com and a few older Iranian sources note a third sur restriction: a player already at 50+ cumulative points cannot score a sur. The thinking is that sur bonuses shouldn't be the thing that pushes you across the 62-point finish line — you should have to earn it through card play. Other traditions don't observe this rule. Our online version doesn't (we wanted the sur drama to stay live until the final hand). If you're playing at a table, ask before round one and write down the house rule.

Scoring a round

After the sixth deal, both players are out of cards and the round is over. Whoever made the last capture also takes any cards still sitting in the pool (no sur for it, even if the table was empty afterward — that's already a built-in sweep). Then you count.

What you take	Points
Most Clubs (≥7 of the 13 — Haft Khâj)	7
10 of Diamonds	3
2 of Clubs	2
Each Ace	1
Each Jack	1
Each net Sur (after cancellation)	5

Add those up for each player. The two scores plus the surs always sum to exactly 20 + 5×(net surs) for the round, which is a useful sanity check when you're learning.

Cumulative scores carry across rounds. The first player to 62 or more wins the match. If both cross 62 in the same round, the higher score wins; if they tie, you play another round.

There's a delightful Iranian tradition called per shodam (پر شدم — "I'm full") where, if you're confident you've already crossed 62, you can call the game before the round officially ends. If you're right, you win. If you're wrong — if your count was off — you've made a fool of yourself in front of your grandmother. We don't enforce per shodam in the online game, but it's a wonderful piece of the table tradition.

A full sample deal

Let's play through the first batch of a real opening hand so you can see all four capture rules in motion. Suit symbols: ♣ clubs, ♦ diamonds, ♥ hearts, ♠ spades.

Setup

Pool: 4♣, 9♦, 3♥, K♠
Your hand: 7♥, A♣, J♦, 5♠
Opponent's hand: hidden
You go first (you're the non-dealer)

Turn 1 — You play 7♥. 7 + 4 = 11. You capture the 4♣. Pool is now 9♦, 3♥, K♠.

Turn 2 — Opponent plays 2♣. 2 + 9 = 11. They capture the 9♦. Pool is now 3♥, K♠. (You note they grabbed a club — the Haft Khâj race is on.)

Turn 3 — You play A♣. Could you capture? You need a pool card worth 10 (since 1 + 10 = 11). The pool has 3♥ and K♠. The 3 won't do it, and the King doesn't count for sum captures. So you can't capture — you trail. Pool is now 3♥, K♠, A♣.

Turn 4 — Opponent plays K♥. King takes King. They capture the K♠. Pool is now 3♥, A♣.

Turn 5 — You play J♦. Jack sweeps every non-K/Q card. You capture the 3♥ and the A♣. Pool is now empty. But this was a Jack sweep — no sur. Still, you took two cards, including an Ace (worth 1 point at round-end) and a club for the Haft Khâj race. And the next player must trail to a wide-open empty pool, which is a huge gift to you.

Turn 6 — Opponent plays 5♣. Pool was empty, so no capture possible. They trail. Pool is now 5♣.

You and your opponent each have one card left. Turn 7 — You play 5♠. 5 + 5 = 10, not 11. No capture. You trail. Pool is now 5♣, 5♠.

Turn 8 — Opponent plays 6♦. 6 + 5 = 11. They sweep one of the 5s. Which one? Their choice — and a smart opponent takes your 5♠ to leave the 5♣ on the table for themselves to defend. Pool is now 5♣.

The first batch is done. The dealer hands out four more cards to each player. The 5♣ stays on the table; whoever captures it eventually adds to their club count and is one step closer to Haft Khâj.

You've already seen every major rule: sum-to-11, face-card pairing, Jack sweep, mandatory capture, trailing, and the silent ongoing race for clubs.

Quick-reference cheat sheet

Goal: 62 points across multiple rounds.
Capture: number cards sum to 11; Kings/Queens pair by rank; Jacks sweep all non-K/Q.
You must capture if you can.
Sur: 5 bonus points for emptying the pool with a non-Jack capture. Never on the last deal. Opponent's surs cancel yours.
Round scoring: Haft Khâj 7, 10♦ 3, 2♣ 2, each A 1, each J 1, each net sur 5.

That's the whole game. The depth comes from anticipation: which clubs has your opponent locked up, which cards remain in the stock, whether to risk leaving a pool that sums to 11. For that next layer, jump to our deeper guide on Pâsur strategy or the specialized breakdown of how to win the Haft Khâj. If you want to skip ahead to what beginners get wrong, 8 Common Pâsur Mistakes is a fast read. For the etymology and history of why this oddly specific game ever became the household card game of Iran, see The History of Pâsur.

If you'd rather just play right now, you have two options: test these rules against the computer (no sign-in, three difficulty levels, takes 10 seconds) or sign in and either invite a friend or pick a bot. Either way, the in-app learn walkthrough is one click away if you need a rules refresher mid-game.