Baloot rules

These are Sahrat’s default rules. Where tables differ from one majlis to another, the difference is a table option, and every option is free.

Sahrat plays Baloot by the General Entertainment Authority’s Baloot rulebook (the Riyadh Season tournament), labelled “KSA Tournament”. Where the rulebook is silent, what we chose is written out below. Saudi terms are kept in Arabic, with a translation.

1Table and cards

• Four players in two teams; your partner sits across from you.
• 32 cards: Ace down to seven in each suit.
• The first team to 152 wins.
• Dealing, bidding and play all go from right to left.
• The dealer’s right speaks first and leads first.

2The deal

• The first dealer is chosen by a fair draw.
• The dealer deals three then two cards to each player, starting on the right, then turns up a card for bidding.
• After the bid the buyer takes the turned card and two more; everyone else gets three.

3Bidding (الشراء)

Round one («الأول»): from the dealer’s right, each player says «بس» (pass), «حكم» (Hokm, trump in the turned card’s suit) or «صن» (Sun, no trump).

• Sun beats Hokm: a later player may say Sun over your Hokm.
• In round one only, a player before the Sun buyer (partner or opponent) may take Sun from him by saying it.
• If the turned card is an Ace, Hokm turns into Sun only from the dealer’s right.

Round two («الثاني»), if everyone passed: «ولا» (pass), Hokm in another suit (you must name it), or Sun.

• There is never a third round. If everyone passes twice there is no score and the deal moves on.

Ashkal («أشكل»):

• Only the dealer or the player on his left, and only after the other team has bought Hokm.
• The player who says Ashkal is the buyer (for scoring and doubling); his partner takes the turned card.
• A player who said «ولا» in round two cannot say Ashkal.

4Doubling (الدبل)

• Sun: double only, and only when the doubling team has 100 or less and the other team more than 100.
• Hokm: double (×2), three (×3), four (×4), and Gahwa («قهوة»): whoever wins the hand wins the game.
• A double is open unless the doubler says «مقفل» (locked). The buyer may answer three (open); the doubler four (locked or open; silence means open); the buyer Gahwa (open). Only the buyer and the doubler raise; the buyer has the last word.
• Locked: no trump lead unless you hold only trumps.
• Doubling happens after the bid and before the first card.

5Projects (المشاريع)

• Sequence order: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7.
• Four hundred is the top Sun project. A hundred in sequence beats a hundred of equal cards.
• In Hokm, hundreds of equal cards rank: Aces, Kings, Queens, Jacks, tens.
• Equal projects: the player nearer the dealer’s right takes it.
• Declare your project as you play your first card; after the first trick the best team’s projects are shown to all.
• Only the team with the best project scores, and it scores all its projects.
• Baloot: say it as you play the second of the King and Queen. Said later, it does not count. A Baloot inside a shown Sira, Fifty or Hundred counts even unsaid. No Baloot with a shown hundred of Kings or Queens.
• Projects are doubled by a double and not multiplied by three or four. Baloot is always 2.

6Play

• The dealer’s right leads the first trick; the winner of each trick leads the next. Eight tricks.
• Follow suit if you can. Playing another suit while holding the led suit is «القطع» (a renege).
• In Hokm: if you cannot follow suit you must trump; if a trump is already down you must play a higher trump if you can; on a trump lead, play a higher trump if you have one. This holds even when your partner is winning the trick.
• Akka («أكه»): lead a card and announce it is the highest card left in its suit.
• Sawa («سوا»): claim every remaining trick.

Card values:

• The last trick is worth 10. Totals: 162 in Hokm, 130 in Sun.

7Scoring

• Kaboot («كبوت») (one team takes all eight tricks): 44 in Sun, 25 in Hokm, plus its projects. A Kaboot is not multiplied by a double.
• Reverse Kaboot: if the dealer’s right bought Sun holding an Ace and took no trick, the other team scores 88 plus its projects.
• Made or lost: compare the buyer’s card points plus projects and Baloot with the defenders’ card points plus projects and Baloot.
  • Defenders higher: the buyer loses. The defenders score 16 (Hokm) or 26 (Sun) plus every counted project; a Baloot stays with its holder.
  • Equal, in an undoubled hand: scored as made.
  • Buyer higher: made. The defenders score their own points; the buyer gets the rest, plus projects.
• Rounding card points:
  • Sun: if the units digit is 5, divide by 5 (65 = 13); otherwise round to the nearest ten and divide by 5 (63 = 12, 67 = 14).
  • Hokm: a units digit of 5 or less rounds down, above 5 rounds up; divide by 10 (85 = 8, 86 = 9).
• Doubled hands: the higher total takes the total × the multiplier, plus projects. A tie goes against the doubler. Under three, four and Gahwa, whoever made the last call counts as the buyer.
• End of the game: the first team to 152. If both pass it in the same hand, the higher total wins; equal totals above 152 play another hand.

8«سهل» and «قيد» tables

Both are free. No rule is locked behind money.

«سهل» (easy): the game blocks every illegal move. No redeal penalty, no Boshat.

«قيد» (Qaid) is real Baloot: a mistake is accepted as at a real table, and the other team may call Qaid on any of your team’s actions in the hand, until 5 seconds after the last trick. The server referees.

• The Qaid sheet: open it at any time in the hand, at most twice. While it is open the hand waits up to 10 seconds and everyone sees «يقيّد…» (calling Qaid…).
• The sheet flags suspect moves proven by public play only: a suit skipped and later played, no trump and then a trump played later, and so on. It never reads anyone’s hand. A mistake with no public proof yet is yours to spot.

• Registered («تسجيل»): the hand ends; the other team scores the total × the multiplier plus its own projects and Baloot; the offending team scores nothing.
• Redeal («تكويش»): the hand ends with no score, and the next dealer deals.
• Boshat («بوشات»): a player whose first five cards are all nines, eights and sevens may call a redeal (at Qaid tables, before the first card).
• At Qaid tables team chat is closed from the deal to the score, and open between hands. Chat to the whole table stays open.

9Timers

• 12 seconds to bid or double, 15 seconds per card, 5 seconds after the last trick to call Qaid.
• After every hand the «الجولة الجاية» (next hand) screen shows; the next hand is dealt when all four are ready, or after 10 seconds.
• Bots only at free tables.

10A fair shuffle

Every shuffle comes from a secret fixed before the first hand. When the game ends it is revealed, and you can replay every deal yourself on the «تحقق» (Verify) page.