Thousand

The objective of Thousand is to be the first player to score exactly 1,000 points by winning tricks and declaring trump marriages. It is an Eastern European game traditionally played with three players. The scoring relies heavily on both captured card values and bonuses for holding the king and queen of the trump suit.

In Thousand, a player can declare a marriage by playing the king followed by the queen of the trump suit. This action instantly changes the trump suit and awards the player a bonus of 20, 50, or 100 points, depending on the suit declared. This mechanic is central to forming a strategy to reach the 1,000 point goal.

Because the target score is exactly 1,000 points, scoring more than 1,000 typically results in dropping your score down, often back to a lower threshold depending on the regional house rules. Players must carefully bid and track their points to avoid busting. Some variations require players to hit exactly 1,000 on a specific trick without going over.

Thousand is played with a standard 24-card deck, which removes all cards below the nine. This leaves only the nines, tens, jacks, queens, kings, and aces in play. The aces and tens are the highest-scoring cards during trick-taking.