How to Play Baloot: Sun, Hokum, Projects and Scoring

The 32-card deck and the deal

Baloot uses 32 cards: the 7, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king and ace of each suit. Take a normal deck and remove every card from 2 to 6.

Partners sit opposite each other, and play goes counter-clockwise (the traditional direction) unless the host switches it.

1. The dealer gives everyone 5 cards.
2. One more card is turned face up in the middle. This is the up-card.
3. After the bidding, the player who wins it (the buyer) takes the up-card and 2 more cards.
4. Everyone else gets 3 more cards, so all four players hold 8.

Sun and Hokum

Every hand is one of two types. In Hokum (حكم) one suit is trump, and any trump beats any card of another suit. In Sun (صن) there is no trump, so the highest card of the suit led wins every trick.

Sun outranks Hokum in the bidding, and a Sun hand is worth more: 26 game points split between the teams, against 16 for Hokum.

Card ranks and points

Card points are called abnat. The order and values differ between plain suits and the trump suit.

• Sun, and any suit that is not trump, from high to low: ace (11), 10 (10), king (4), queen (3), jack (2), then 9, 8 and 7 (0 each).
• The Hokum trump suit, from high to low: jack (20), 9 (14), ace (11), 10 (10), king (4), queen (3), then 8 and 7 (0 each).
• Winning the last trick adds 10 abnat.

Add it up and a Sun hand holds 130 abnat in total, while a Hokum hand holds 162, because the trump jack and 9 carry extra points.

Bidding in two rounds

In the first round, starting after the dealer, each player calls Hokum, Sun or Pass (بس). A Hokum call in this round makes the up-card's suit trump.

1. If someone calls Hokum, each later player, and anyone who passed before it, gets one chance to call Sun over it.
2. If nobody does, the Hokum caller buys the hand.
3. If all four pass, a second round starts in the same order.
4. In round two, a Hokum caller picks any trump suit except the up-card's. Sun still beats Hokum, but only players who have not yet spoken in this round can call Sun over a round-two Hokum.
5. If all four pass again, the cards are thrown in and the next player deals.

Sun priority is on by default. When a player calls Sun or Ashkal, each player who spoke before them in that round is asked in turn whether they want to take it over with their own Sun. The first to say yes buys the hand. If nobody does, the original call stands.

Ashkal (أشكل) is a special Sun call. Only the dealer or the player before the dealer can make it, and it hands the up-card to their partner instead of keeping it. You cannot call Ashkal when the up-card is an ace. The host can turn both Ashkal and Sun priority off.

Playing the tricks

The player after the dealer leads the first trick, whoever bought. The winner of each trick leads the next.

• You must follow the suit that was led if you can.
• In Sun, if you have none of that suit, you may play any card.
• In Hokum, if you have none of that suit, you must play a trump if you hold one, and beat the best trump on the table if you can.
• When trump is led, you must play a higher trump than the best one already played, if you have one.
• If your partner is already winning the trick, you may play any card instead of trumping.

The host can switch off the must-overtrump rule, or make players trump even when their partner is winning.

Projects and the Baloot bonus

Projects (مشاريع) are bonus combinations in your 8 cards. For sequences, cards run in the order ace, king, queen, jack, 10, 9, 8, 7 in one suit.

• Sira (سرا): 3 cards in a row. Worth 4 in Sun, 2 in Hokum.
• Fifty (خمسين): 4 in a row. Worth 10 in Sun, 5 in Hokum.
• Hundred (مية): 5 or more in a row, or four 10s, kings, queens or jacks. Worth 20 in Sun, 10 in Hokum.
• Four Hundred (أربعمية): four aces in Sun, worth 40. In Hokum, four aces count only as a Hundred.

Each card counts in one project at most, and the game declares your best combination as you play your first card. Only the team holding the single best project scores, but that team then scores all of its projects from both partners.

Baloot (بلوت) itself is holding the king and queen of trump in a Hokum hand. It is worth 2 points and is called when you play the second of the two. It always counts for its holder's team, even when the buyers lose.

Doubling up to Gahwa

Once a hand is bought, and before the last cards are dealt, the defending team can raise the stakes:

1. A defender calls Double (دبل), and the hand is worth twice as much.
2. The buyer may answer Three (ثري), for three times.
3. The doubler may answer Four (فور), for four times.
4. The buyer may answer Gahwa (قهوة). The hand is scored at four times, and the team that wins it wins the whole match.

Anyone asked can decline. A doubled hand is winner takes all: the team that wins it scores the whole hand plus every project, multiplied. Baloot is never multiplied. Sun can only be doubled once, and only while the buyers have more than 100 points and the defenders fewer than 100.

Scoring a hand and reaching 152

After the 8th trick, each team turns its abnat into game points.

• Sun: abnat times 2, divided by 10, rounded to the nearest whole number. Together the teams always make 26. For example, 80 abnat is 16 points and 50 abnat is 10.
• Hokum: abnat divided by 10, where a last digit of 6 or more rounds up and 5 or less rounds down. Together the teams make 16. If both would round up (86 and 76), the buyers round down.

The buyers must take more than half. Their abnat plus projects and Baloot has to beat the defenders' total, and a tie is not enough. If they make it, each team scores its own points and projects. If they fall short, that is khasra (خسارة): the defenders score the whole hand, 16 or 26, plus the projects of both teams, and the buyers keep only their Baloot.

A team that takes all 8 tricks makes kaboot (كبوت) and scores 44 in Sun or 25 in Hokum, plus projects. The host can raise that to 88 and 50, or switch the bonus off.

The first team to 152 wins the match. If both teams pass the target on the same hand, the higher total wins, and a tie goes to the buyers. For a shorter game the host can play to 101 or set a custom target.

Tips for your first games

• Call Hokum when you hold the jack or 9 of the up-card's suit. They are the two strongest trumps and worth 34 abnat between them.
• Call Sun with several aces and 10s. Those two cards carry most of the points in every suit.
• Keep track of the trump jack and 9. Once both have been played, your other trumps are much safer.
• Fight for the last trick. The 10 extra abnat often decide whether the buyers make it.

Tip: The Arabic labels are on by default, so the table shows حكم next to Hokum and صن next to Sun.

Questions people ask