Maharaja’s Joker: Andar or Bahar, and follow the Joker

Andar Bahar has one of the simplest rules in cards. A Joker is turned face up, cards are dealt to two sides one at a time, and whichever side receives the next card of the same rank wins. Maharaja’s Joker keeps that rule untouched and builds a palace evening around it, with a moonlit pool, peacock fans for the wins and, on the poster, a green parrot in a jester’s cap clutching the Joker card. You can play Maharaja’s Joker free right here, with virtual credits, no download and no sign-up.

How a round plays out

The game uses a single 52-card deck, shuffled for each round. The first card becomes the Joker and sits in the middle. While the timer runs you place chips on the board; when it ends, bets close. Cards are then dealt one by one, Andar first, then Bahar, alternating until a card matching the Joker’s rank appears. That side wins.

Because Andar always receives the first card, it wins slightly more often, and it pays slightly less to balance that out. The paytable shows each bet as winnings per one unit staked, with your stake returned on top.

The side bets

The board offers two families of extra bets, and they are where the game becomes more interesting than a coin toss.

• Cards dealt. You bet on how many cards will be dealt before the round ends, matching card included. The ranges run 1–5, 6–10, 11–15, 16–25, 26–30, 31–35, 36–40 and 41 or more. Each pays according to how rare it is, and the 41-plus range carries the longest odds on the table.
• Joker bets. These are settled on the Joker itself, the moment it is turned: Ace to 6, exactly 7, 8 to King, red or black.

Bets can be combined freely, so a round might carry a main bet on Bahar, a small chip on 11–15 and another on the Joker being black.

Chips and the history beads

Choose a chip value and tap the bets you want. Undo removes the last chip, Clear empties the board, Double doubles everything and Repeat places last round’s bets again, which saves a lot of tapping once you have a layout you like. Along the edge, beads record recent rounds: red for Andar, blue for Bahar, each with the number of cards dealt.

Practising in the demo

Spend the first twenty rounds on Andar or Bahar only, with a £1 chip, to get used to the pace of the deal. Then add one cards-dealt range and one Joker bet each round and watch which of them land. It is a good way to see why the long ranges pay so much: most rounds finish long before forty cards. The beads do not predict anything, since every round uses a fresh shuffle, but they make a handy record of your session.

Maharaja’s Joker is a Nocturn Play table game and fits a phone screen well. Demo credits have no value. The same game runs for real money at the casinos listed below.