Introduction

This is one of a group of South Asian trick-taking games in which the Jack and the Nine are the highest cards in every suit. It is almost certain that they are descended from the European family of Jass games, which originated in the Netherlands. Probably they were brought to the Indian subcontinent by Dutch traders.

I do not have much information on the geographic distribution of 29, but I have the impression that it is popular across much of the northern part of India, including Bombay and West Bengal, and also in Bangladesh.

The descriptions of this game I have seen disagree with each other in many details. Probably there are many variations: possibly the game is played different ways by players in different parts of India and abroad. I would be very grateful if any experienced 29 players reading this could write to me with more details of these and other variations of this game, and the areas where they are played.