Baloot in one minute
Baloot is the card game of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. Four players sit in two teams, with partners facing each other. The game uses 32 cards: the seven up to the ace in each of the four suits.
Every hand has a buyer, who chooses the kind of game: Sun, with no trump suit, or Hokom, where one suit is trump. The teams then play eight tricks and count the points in the cards they took, plus any projects. Hands are added up on the score sheet, the Qayd. The first team to reach 152 wins the match.
The cards and the deal
- The dealer gives every player five cards, three and then two.
- One card is then turned face up in the middle. It is the card that is up for buying.
- After the buying is settled, the buyer takes the face-up card. The dealer gives two more cards to the buyer and three more to each of the others, so everyone holds eight.
- Play always starts with the player to the dealer's right, whoever bought.
Buying: Sun, Hokom and Ashkal
Buying starts with the player to the dealer's right and goes round the table.
Round one
- Pass (Bass).
- Hokom: the suit of the face-up card becomes trump.
- Sun: no trump. Sun beats Hokom, so a Sun ends the buying at once.
- Ashkal: a Sun bought for your partner, who takes the face-up card. Only the dealer and the player to the dealer's left may say it.
When a player says Hokom, the others may still say Sun or pass. If nobody says Sun, the question returns to the Hokom buyer, who confirms the Hokom or turns it into Sun.
Round two
If all four pass, there is a second round with the same cards: pass (Wala), Sun, or Hokom Thani, a Hokom in any suit except the suit of the face-up card. Sun still beats it. If all four pass again, the hand is thrown in and the next dealer deals.
Which card beats which
| Game | Strongest to weakest |
|---|---|
| Sun, every suit | A, 10, K, Q, J, 9, 8, 7 |
| Hokom, the trump suit | J, 9, A, 10, K, Q, 8, 7 |
| Hokom, the other suits | A, 10, K, Q, J, 9, 8, 7 |
In Hokom any trump beats any card of another suit.
What the cards are worth
Card points are called abnat.
| Card | Sun, and non-trump suits in Hokom | Trump suit in Hokom |
|---|---|---|
| Ace | 11 | 11 |
| 10 | 10 | 10 |
| King | 4 | 4 |
| Queen | 3 | 3 |
| Jack | 2 | 20 |
| 9 | 0 | 14 |
| 8, 7 | 0 | 0 |
The team that takes the last trick gets 10 more. That makes 130 abnat in a Sun hand and 162 in a Hokom hand.
Playing the tricks
- You must follow the suit that was led if you can.
- In Sun, if you cannot follow, you may play any card.
- In Hokom, if you cannot follow and an opponent is winning the trick, you must play a trump if you have one. If your partner is winning, you may play anything.
- When trump is led and an opponent's trump is winning, you must beat it if you can. The official rulebook is silent here; this is how almost every table and app plays.
- The highest card of the suit led wins the trick, unless a trump was played. The winner leads the next trick.
Projects
A project is a set of cards in your hand that scores extra. You announce it before you play your first card, and show it on the second trick.
| Project | What it is | Hokom | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sira | Three cards in a row in one suit | 2 | 4 |
| Fifty | Four cards in a row in one suit | 5 | 10 |
| Hundred | Five in a row in one suit, or all four 10s, Jacks, Queens or Kings (and the four Aces in Hokom) | 10 | 20 |
| Four hundred | All four Aces, in Sun only | none | 40 |
| Baloot | The King and Queen of trump, in Hokom only | 2 | none |
- Only one team scores its projects: the team that holds the strongest one. A higher kind wins; between two of the same kind, the higher top card wins; if they are still equal, the player nearer the dealer's right wins.
- A card can be used in one project only.
- Baloot is different. You say it when you play the second of the two cards, it always counts 2, and it does not depend on the other projects.
Counting a hand
Card points are turned into game points:
- Sun: round to the nearest ten (a 5 stays as it is), double, then divide by ten. 74 gives 14, 75 gives 15, 76 gives 16. A Sun hand is worth 26 in all.
- Hokom: divide by ten. Up to .5 rounds down and .6 or more rounds up, so 85 gives 8 and 86 gives 9. A Hokom hand is worth 16 in all.
Only one team's cards are counted and rounded; the other team gets what is left of the 26 or 16. Projects and Baloot are then added.
The buyer must make it. The buyer's team needs at least 13 in Sun or 8 in Hokom, and more than the other team. If it falls short, the other team takes the whole hand: the 26 or 16, and every project.
Kaboot
A team that takes all eight tricks scores a Kaboot: 44 in Sun and 25 in Hokom, plus its own projects. The other team scores nothing.
Double, Three, Four and Gahwa
- In Hokom, a defender who thinks the buyer will fall may say Double (the hand counts twice). The buyer may answer Three, the doubler Four, and the buyer Gahwa, which decides the whole match.
- In Sun there is only Double, and only when the buying team has more than 100 points and the doubling team has 100 or less.
- In a doubled hand the winner takes everything, multiplied. Baloot stays 2, and a Kaboot is not multiplied.
Winning the match
The first team to reach 152 points wins. If both teams pass 152 in the same hand, the higher score wins.
Rules that change from table to table
These rules follow the official Saudi rulebook used in the national championships, as we built them into Baloot Dram. Many tables add their own habits, for example "no Ashkal on an ace", or throwing in a hand that holds nothing but sevens, eights and nines. Agree on them before you start.