Thunee Scoring Guide

Scoring in Thunee operates on two layers. The first layer is card points — the numerical value of every card won during a round, which determines which team clears the 105-point threshold. The second layer is balls — the actual game currency that accumulates across rounds until one team reaches the winning target of 12 balls (or 13 if Khanack has been called). Every special call in Thunee — Jodie, Thunee, Double, and Khanack — interacts with one or both of these layers, and understanding exactly how each one adds up is what separates casual players from competitive ones.

This guide covers every scoring mechanism in the game with exact values verified from the Thunee.net game engine. If you are new to Thunee, start with our How to Play guide for the basics, then come back here for the complete scoring reference. If you already know the fundamentals, you can jump straight to any section below.

For the full ruleset including dealing, trump calling, the undercut rule, and bluffing, see the Complete Rules page. For tips on leveraging scoring knowledge at the table, visit our Strategy Guide.

Thunee uses a 24-card deck consisting of six cards per suit: Jack, 9, Ace, 10, King, and Queen. Unlike most card games, the Jack is the most valuable card in both rank and point value, followed by the 9. Every card carries a fixed point value that never changes regardless of which suit is trump. These points are the foundation of all scoring in Thunee — after every round, each team totals the point values of all cards in the hands (tricks) they have won.

The per-suit breakdown is 30 + 20 + 11 + 10 + 3 + 2 = 76 points. With four suits in the deck, the total is 76 × 4 = 304 points. This number never changes — every round in Thunee has exactly 304 points distributed among the 24 cards.

Notice the steep drop-off in value. The Jack and 9 alone account for 50 of the 76 points in a suit — nearly two-thirds. Winning a hand that contains an opponent's Jack is worth as much as winning five hands full of Kings and Queens. This is why experienced players obsess over the Jack and 9: they are not just the highest-ranking cards, they carry the most scoring weight by far.

The Ace and 10 form the middle tier at 11 and 10 points respectively. They are important but not decisive on their own. The King (3) and Queen (2) are low-value cards — useful for following suit or sacrificing in hands you expect to lose. Together, a King and Queen are worth just 5 points, but they unlock Jodie declarations that can swing scoring dramatically (more on that below).

After all six hands have been played and all Jodie declarations resolved, the counting team tallies their points. The counting team is always the team that did not call trump — they are “counting” to see whether the trump caller's gamble paid off.

If the counting team's total reaches 105 or more points, they win the round. If their total falls below 105, the trump maker's team wins. The threshold is 105 out of a possible 314 (304 card points plus the 10-point last hand bonus), which means the counting team needs roughly one-third of the available points. That sounds easy, but with Jodies adding bonus points and the trump maker having the advantage of choosing the trump suit, reaching 105 is no guarantee.

When Jodie bonus points are added to a team's total, the overall pool of points in the round increases beyond 314. A trump suit Jodie of K+Q adds 40 points to one team's count, but the threshold remains at 105. This means Jodies can dramatically shift the outcome — a counting team sitting at 90 points can jump to 110 with a single non-trump Jodie declaration (K+Q = 20 bonus points).

The team that wins hand 6 (the final hand of the round) receives a bonus of 10 points added to their point total. This bonus is automatic and applies regardless of which cards were in the hand or who called trump.

The last hand bonus can be the difference between winning and losing a round. Consider a counting team with 96 points from the first five hands. If they win the last hand containing a King (3) and a Queen (2) from the other players, they gain 5 card points plus the 10-point bonus, reaching 111 — well above the 105 threshold. If they had lost that same hand, they would have stayed at 96 and lost the round.

This is why the final hand in Thunee is always tense. Even when one team has a commanding point lead, the 10-point bonus makes the last hand worth fighting for. Experienced players will sometimes sacrifice early hands to save their strongest cards for hand 6, especially when the point totals are close.

Once the point total is calculated and the round winner determined, the winning team receives one or more balls. Balls are the game-level currency in Thunee — they persist across rounds, and the first team to reach 12 balls wins the entire game. Here is how balls are awarded in normal (non-special-call) rounds:

The asymmetry when a call is involved reflects the risk the trump maker took by bidding. By calling (bidding at 10, 20, 30, etc.), the trump maker voluntarily gave the counting team bonus compensation points, making it easier for them to reach 105. In return, the counting team earns double the balls if they still manage to win. From the trump maker's perspective, calling is only worthwhile if they are very confident in their hand.

A game with no special calls typically progresses one ball at a time. At that pace, reaching 12 balls takes a minimum of 12 rounds. Special calls — Thunee, Double, and Khanack — can award multiple balls at once, dramatically accelerating the game.

During the trump calling phase, the player calling trump can bid (also called “calling”) to claim confidence in their hand. Bidding starts at 10 points and increases in increments of 10 (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100), with a final possible bid of 104. The called amount is given directly to the opposing (counting) team as compensation points.

For example, if the trump maker bids 30, the counting team starts the round with 30 free points. They only need to capture 75 more points from card play to reach the 105 threshold (105 − 30 = 75). This makes it significantly easier for the counting team to win — but if the trump maker's team still manages to hold them below 105, the trump maker's team earns 1 ball, and the counting team's reward for winning increases to 2 balls.

The compensation mechanism creates a fascinating tension: calling increases the round's stakes and signals strength, but it also gifts your opponents free points. It is a calculated risk that makes Thunee's bidding phase one of its most strategic moments. For deeper analysis of when to call, see our Strategy Guide.

A Jodie is a bonus declaration made after your team wins hand 1 or hand 3. You declare that you hold specific combinations of cards from the same suit — King + Queen, or King + Queen + Jack. The bonus points are added to your team's point total for the round. There are four possible Jodie values depending on the combination and whether the suit is trump:

Example: Trump is hearts. After your team wins hand 1, you declare a Jodie holding K♥ + Q♥. That's a trump suit K+Q, worth 40 bonus points added to your team's total. Later, after winning hand 3, your partner declares a Jodie holding K♠ + Q♠ + J♠. That's a non-trump K+Q+J, worth 30 bonus points. Your team has gained 70 free points from Jodies alone — nearly enough to clear the 105 threshold without winning a single high-value card.

K+Q Jodies: When declaring a King + Queen Jodie, you may reveal the suit to prove the declaration. Revealing is optional but can build trust with your partner and intimidate opponents.

K+Q+J Jodies: When declaring a King + Queen + Jack Jodie, you must not reveal the suit. The higher value comes with the restriction that opponents cannot verify which suit you are claiming. This opens the door to bluffing.

Bluffing and Marials: You are allowed to declare a Jodie even if you do not hold the required cards. However, opponents can challenge by calling “Marials!”. If the Jodie is proven fake, the bluffing team receives a 4-ball penalty. If the challenge fails and the Jodie is real, the challenging team pays no penalty — but they have revealed important information about their suspicions.

Jodies are one of the richest strategic elements in Thunee. A well-timed Jodie declaration (real or bluffed) can flip a round's outcome entirely. For more on Jodie strategy, see the Strategy Guide and the Glossary for Jodie-related terminology.

A Thunee call is the highest-stakes declaration in the game. It is made before the first card is played. The caller leads hand 1, and the suit they lead automatically becomes the trump suit. The caller must personally win all 6 hands — even their own partner winning a hand counts as failure.

The partner catch penalty of 8 balls is the harshest punishment in Thunee. It exists because when you call Thunee, you are declaring that your hand alone is strong enough to win every trick. If your partner accidentally wins a hand, it means either the caller overestimated their strength or the partner failed to play low enough — both are catastrophic errors that deserve severe punishment.

When a Thunee call is active, normal point counting does not apply. It does not matter whether the counting team reaches 105 or not — the only question is whether the caller personally wins all six hands. Ball scoring from a successful Thunee is 4 balls, which can catapult a team from a trailing position into contention immediately.

A Thunee call requires an exceptionally strong hand — typically the Jack and 9 of trump plus several other high trump cards, or a hand so dominant in one suit that all six hands can be forced. Most games of Thunee go by without a single Thunee call. When one happens, the entire table stops and pays attention.

Double is called just before the last hand (hand 6). The caller claims that their team has won all previous 5 hands and that they will personally win the 6th. Double can be called by any player on the eligible team. The scoring depends on the direction of the Double:

A forward Double is when the trump maker's team calls Double. They have already won 5 hands with the advantage of trump, so the reward is a modest 2 balls. A backward Double is when the counting team calls Double — they have won all 5 hands against the trump caller, which is much harder. The reward for backward Double is therefore doubled to 4 balls.

Failure in either case costs 4 balls to the opponents. This means a forward Double is high risk, moderate reward (risk 4, gain 2), while a backward Double is high risk, high reward (risk 4, gain 4). The backward Double is one of the most exciting moments in Thunee — a counting team that has dominated the round can go for the jugular.

Important restriction: A team on corner house (1 ball away from winning) cannot call Double. This prevents a team from using Double as a safe, guaranteed path to victory. If Double is called on corner house, it results in an automatic 4-ball penalty to the opponents.

Khanack is a special call made before the last hand (hand 6) by a team that declared a Jodie during the current round. To be eligible, the opponents must have won at least 1 hand during the round. The caller must then win the last hand personally.

The most significant side effect of Khanack is that it permanently raises the winning target from 12 to 13 balls for the remainder of the game. This affects both teams, not just the team that called Khanack. Once Khanack has been called in any round, the game becomes a 13-ball game. This means a team at 12 balls has not yet won — they need one more.

Forward Khanack awards 3 balls, while backward Khanack (called by the counting team) awards 6 balls. Failure in either direction gives the opponents 4 balls. The reward structure reflects the difficulty: a backward Khanack means the counting team beat the trump maker on most hands, declared a Jodie, and then committed to winning the final hand on top of it all.

Khanack adds a layer of long-term strategy. Calling Khanack when you are already at 10 balls can backfire — if you succeed, you reach 13 and win (since the target is now 13), but if you fail, your opponents gain 4 balls and you have raised the target, potentially extending the game in their favour. Khanack decisions must account for the current score, the remaining rounds, and the risk tolerance of your team.

A team is on corner house when they are exactly 1 ball away from winning the game. In a standard 12-ball game, that means 11 balls. In a 13-ball game (after Khanack has been called), that means 12 balls. Corner house triggers a specific restriction:

The corner house rule exists to prevent a dominant team from casually closing out the game with a low-risk Double call. It forces teams on the verge of victory to earn their final ball through normal play or by taking on the genuine risk of a Thunee or Khanack call. This keeps the game competitive even when one team has a commanding lead.

When both teams reach 11–11 balls in a 12-ball game (or 12–12 in a 13-ball game), the “two to clear” rule activates. Under this rule, a team cannot simply reach 12 (or 13) to win — they must establish a lead of 2 or more balls over their opponents.

This works similarly to deuce in tennis. If Team A wins a ball to go 12–11, Team B wins the next to go 12–12, and the cycle continues until one team pulls ahead by 2. The game could theoretically go on indefinitely, though in practice the tension usually forces a resolution within a few rounds.

Two to clear creates some of the most intense finishes in Thunee. When both teams are one ball from the target, every round is a sudden-death knife fight. Special calls become extremely tempting — a successful Thunee would instantly give a 4-ball lead, clearing the 2-ball requirement easily. But failure would hand the opponents 4 balls, likely ending the game. These are the moments that define Thunee legends.

The following walkthroughs show exactly how scoring works in complete rounds. We use compass positions (North, South, East, West) with North-South as one team and East-West as the other.

The table below consolidates every ball-scoring outcome in Thunee for quick reference.