How scoring works
Teen Do Panch scoring has one formula and one surprise. The formula takes a sentence. The surprise is that the running total in the scoreboard is not what decides the game. Both are worked through below with real numbers.
The whole formula
Your score for a round is hands won − your target.
That value is called your margin, and it can be negative. Win 4 hands on target 3 and your margin is +1. Win 1 hand on target 3 and it is −2. There is no bonus, no multiplier and no penalty beyond the card exchange — the number is just the subtraction.
Targets are fixed by the role you hold that round: the trump-maker needs 5, the third player 3, the dealer 2. Roles rotate one seat each round, so your target changes.
Why the three margins always sum to zero
Ten hands are played each round, and the three targets add up to 5 + 3 + 2 = 10. So the hands won add to ten and the targets subtracted add to ten, and the three margins must cancel out exactly.
This is worth internalising because it means every trick you take comes out of someone's margin. There is no neutral trick. If you are +2, the other two seats are −2 between them.
It also gives you a free check: if you add up the three round scores and do not get zero, you have misread one of them.
Three rounds, scored
A quiet round.
- Trump-maker, target 5, won 6 hands → margin +1
- Third player, target 3, won 3 hands → margin 0
- Dealer, target 2, won 1 hand → margin −1
Sum: +1 + 0 − 1 = 0. The dealer owes one card at the start of the next round, and the trump-maker is the one who draws it.
The trump-maker misses.
- Trump-maker, target 5, won 3 hands → margin −2
- Third player, target 3, won 4 hands → margin +1
- Dealer, target 2, won 3 hands → margin +1
Sum: −2 + 1 + 1 = 0. The trump-maker owes two cards — one to each of the players who beat their target. Two seats are owed, so the higher target draws first: the target-3 player before the target-2 player.
A clean sweep.
- Trump-maker, target 5, won all 10 hands → margin +5
- Third player, target 3, won 0 hands → margin −3
- Dealer, target 2, won 0 hands → margin −2
Sum: +5 − 3 − 2 = 0. Five cards move in the exchange: three from the third player, two from the dealer. Both owe, so the lower target settles first — the dealer's two cards move before the third player's three.
What a negative score actually costs
A negative margin is not subtracted from anything. It is converted into a debt of one card per missing hand, settled at the start of the next round after trump is chosen and all ten cards are dealt.
You hold your cards face-down and lock their order. The player you owe picks a position in that row, not a card — so it is a blind draw and you cannot shield your best card. They then give one card back from their own hand, which is normally their weakest.
So the real cost of finishing below target is a worse hand next round: you lose something at random and receive something poor. Miss twice in a row and the effect stacks. This is the only way one round influences another.
Debts never survive a game. Targets always add to ten, so credits and debts match exactly and every debt is settled in the round that follows it.
The total column, and what it is for
The scoreboard's total is the running count of hands you have actually won across the whole game. A player who swept a round shows 10 from that round alone.
It is not your score, it is not the sum of your margins, and it does not decide anything. It is there because players like to see it.
Deciding the winner
The winner is the highest margin in the final round — round 3 or round 6, whichever length the table was set to. Nothing else is counted.
The reason is that every earlier round has already been paid for through the card exchange. The last round is the only one with no round after it, so nothing settles it, and it stands as the result.
Here is a three-round game where that matters.
- Rounds 1 and 2, hands won: A takes 7 then 6, B takes 2 then 3, C takes 1 then 1.
- Round 3, the decider — A holds target 5 and wins 4 → −1; B holds target 3 and wins 3 → 0; C holds target 2 and wins 3 → +1.
Final totals are A 17, B 8, C 5. C wins the game on a margin of +1, having won the fewest hands of anyone all game. A's thirteen hands in rounds one and two were not wasted — they bought cards in the exchanges — but they are not the result.
Ties
- Two seats on the same top margin — say +1, +1, −2 — both win, and the remaining seat places second.
- All three exactly on target gives margins of 0, 0, 0, and the game is a tie.
Because the margins sum to zero, a three-way tie is the only way every seat can finish level.
The rules behind all of this are in the guide, the tactics for hitting your target are on the strategy page, and the terms are defined in the glossary. For how this game compares with Spades, Hearts and Bridge, see what is a trick-taking game.
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