Russian Thousand (Тысяча)

The variant treated as canonical throughout this documentation. Russian Thousand is widespread across the former Soviet Union and is the version implemented in most online card platforms (Mail.ru, Yandex Games, etc.).

Defining features

• 3 players, 24-card deck, 7-card hands, 3-card talon.
• Bid increments of 5 below 200, then 10.
• Marriages 100 / 80 / 60 / 40 (♥ / ♦ / ♣ / ♠).
• Must-beat and must-trump rules strictly enforced.
• Barrel at 880, three deals to make 120, fall-back is −120.
• Score rounded to nearest 5.

Canonical defaults (book "common standard")

The reference book lists these rules as part of the standard 1000 ruleset rather than as agreed-in-advance house rules, so the canonical Russian template ships them on. They appear in the deal scoreboard from the first scored deal:

• Marriage requires a captured trick. A K-Q (or four-aces) marriage may only be declared once the seat has captured at least one trick in the current deal. See House Rules — Marriage trick required.
• Misdeal moves the deal clockwise. A penalty during dealing rotates the dealer one seat clockwise so the next player redeals (book: "If a penalty is received during dealing, the redeal is done by the next player"). See House Rules — Misdeal handling.
• Bottom-card guard. The shuffle deterministically swaps a safe partner into the bottom slot when Fisher-Yates would have placed a 9 or J there, so the book's procedural cut-and-recut rule never fires. See House Rules — Bottom-card guard.
• Every-three-sticks (Болт / Палка) penalty. A seat that takes zero tricks in a deal earns a stick; on every third stick a fixed −120 penalty fires and the counter clears. See House Rules — Zero-tricks penalty.
• No-win-streak penalty. A seat that fails to win for three deals (in a row or in total) takes a fixed −120 penalty and the streak counter clears. See House Rules — No-win-streak penalty.
• Write-off / Сдача mid-deal concession. A declarer who sees the contract is unmakeable may write the deal off between tricks: the full bid is subtracted from the declarer and half the bid credited to each opponent. See House Rules — Write-off.
• Every-third-write-off penalty. Cross-deal sibling of the zero-tricks penalty: every third write-off across the game fires a fixed −120 penalty and the counter clears. See House Rules — Every-third-write-off penalty.
• Three-falls barrel reset. A seat that has fallen off the barrel three times has its running total reset to zero on the third fall ("Reset to zero. Occurs … if a player sat on the barrel 3 times and then fell off it"). See House Rules — Three-falls barrel reset.
• Dump truck (Самосвал) ±555 reset. When a running total lands exactly on +555 or −555, that seat's running total is reset to zero. See House Rules — Dump truck.
• Forced dealer 100 (Бовт / Bolt). The dealer is implicitly committed to a 100 contract before the auction starts; if both opponents pass without overcalling, the dealer takes the deal at 100 automatically. The auction can never collapse on all-pass — every deal has play. See House Rules — Forced dealer bid.

Defaults off (agreed-in-advance under Russian play)

The reference book treats these explicitly as agreed by the parties before the start rather than part of the common standard. The canonical template leaves them off; pin them on per-table by cloning the Russian template and editing.

• Four-nine redeal, three-nine redeal, and the weak-hand redeal ("total points of any participant are less than the agreed amount, usually 13–15").
• Bad talon redeal ("sum in the widow is less than 4") and the two-nines-in-the-talon redeal.
• Ace marriage / Тузовый марьяж.
• Golden deal / Золотой кон.
• Dark-game stick doubling (book: stick "may be doubled" in a dark game — a variant rather than part of the common standard).
• Coexist barrel collision (multiple seats on the barrel simultaneously).

Notable Russian conventions

Forehand opens or passes

Forehand is forced to open the auction at 100, OR to pass. Other players may then continue to bid as normal.

"Дать в темную" (blind bidding)

A bidder may bid an extra 10 points without looking at the talon even after winning the auction. This sight-unseen raise multiplies the bid (some tables: ×2 on success, ×2 on failure).

Penalty for revoking

A player who fails to follow suit, fails to overtake, or fails to trump when required typically pays the declarer's full bid to the opposing side. (Some tables: a flat 120 penalty regardless of bid.)

Mizère / 'no tricks' contracts

Some Russian tables include a special "mizère" / "минимум" call: declarer commits to taking zero tricks in a no-trump deal for a fixed score (typically 120). Defenders try to force tricks on declarer.

Differences vs. Polish Tysiąc

The Russian and Polish games are recognisably the same game; the chief differences are:

Feature	Russian	Polish
Marriage ♥	100	100
Marriage ♦	80	80
Marriage ♣	60	60
Marriage ♠	40	40
"Must-trump" rule	Yes	Yes (sometimes called przebijanie)
Talon size	3 cards	2 cards (one each to two opponents)
Bidding minimum	100	100
Mizère contract	Yes (informal)	Rarer

See Polish Tysiąc for full details.