Banakil rules | Sahrat

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.

Banakil is a partnership card game: you lay down melds, lay off on your partner's melds, and the cards called «بناكل» (the 2s) stand in for any card.

1Players

Partners: four players; the first team (seats 1 and 3) against the second (seats 2 and 4), your partner across from you.
One against one: a second mode for two players.

2Cards and the deal

Two decks and two jokers: 106 cards.
The eight 2s are the «بناكل»; each one is called a «بنكل».
Each player gets 18 cards; the player on the dealer's right gets 19 and starts by throwing one card.
The rest is the stock (face down), and the thrown cards are the table pile, «الأرض».
Play goes to the right. The first dealer is chosen by a fair draw, then the deal moves to the right each round.

3Your turn

Draw one card: from the stock, or the top card of the table pile.
Lay down melds (no minimum total, as many melds as you like, on any turn), or lay off where allowed.
Throw one card to end your turn. You may throw any card, jokers and «بناكل» included.

If you take from the table pile, you must be able to use the card and it must go down the same turn (in a new meld or laid off).
When the stock runs out, the table pile (except its top card) is shuffled fairly into a new stock.

4Melds

Three cards or more.
A run: one suit in sequence. The Ace goes low (before the 2) or high (after the King); no wrapping.
A set: 3s or Aces only, in different suits, four cards at most.
Jokers and «بناكل» stand for any card. At most one joker and one «بنكل» per meld; never two of either.
Every meld needs at least two real cards.

5Card points

3 to 6: half a point.
7 to King: one point; Ace: one point.
«بنكل»: 2 points. Joker: 4 points.
A joker or «بنكل» counts its own points, not those of the card it replaces.
Totals can show halves, such as 37.5.

6Laying off and swapping jokers

Lay off on your own melds at any time.
On your partner's melds once you have laid down a meld of your own in that round.
Never on the other team's melds.
Joker swap: if you hold the card a joker stands for, put it in the joker's place and take the joker, on your team's melds only. In a set, any real card of that rank in a missing suit will do. You must lay the joker down the same turn.
A «بنكل» is never taken back: if you lay off the real card for its place, the «بنكل» moves to an end of the run.

7Going out and scoring

A round ends when a player has no cards left, by throwing the last card or by laying everything down.
The team that went out: 20 + the points of its melds − the cards left in its partner's hand.
The other team: the points of its melds − the cards left in its hand. It can go below zero.
«نزلة وحدة» (all in one turn): laying down all your cards at once in one turn, without having laid down before and without laying off on your partner that turn. Your team gets 51 instead of the 20, the other team gets 0, and 102 if the other team laid down no meld at all.
If every card runs out (stock and table pile) and nobody has gone out, each team scores its melds minus the cards it has left.

8The match

The first team to reach 222 points wins (in one against one: 150). The game ends at the end of a round, and the higher total wins.
If both teams are level at the top, one more round is played.
At coin tables (table coins are earned by playing, never sold), after the 10% table fee the winner takes it all, and partners split equally.

9Tables

Hints at every table: ready melds, lay-offs on your team's melds, and a joker you can take back.
20 seconds a turn.
An invalid meld is refused: every meld is public and the server checks it.
Bots only at free tables. A bot that takes a seat plays on with the same hand; leaving never re-deals.

10A fair shuffle

Every round has a fair shuffle from a secret fixed before it starts, and you can replay every deal from that secret once it is revealed, on the «تحقق» (Verify) page.