Baloot rules

Baloot is a four-player trick-taking card game played in two opposing partnerships. The aim is to be the first team to reach 152 game points cumulatively over several hands, or to win the whole match at once by winning a Gahwa hand.

Each hand is played in one contract: Sun (no trump) or Hokm (a trump suit). Teams earn points from the cards won in tricks (Abnat) and from projects (Sira, Fifty, Hundred, Four Hundred, Baloot).

These rules are the BALOOT_JAWAKER_SAUDI_V1 profile: it follows the Jawaker style for buying, who leads, the choice of trumping and doubling, and fills the arithmetic details from the specialised Baloot reference. A stricter tournament profile (compulsory cutting, over-trumping or Ekka) would be a separate rule version and is not mixed into this one.

• Exactly 4 players in two opposing teams: seats 0 and 2 against seats 1 and 3 (partners sit opposite each other).
• Dealing, speaking and play go counter-clockwise.
• The first dealer is picked at random by the server; the deal then passes to the next dealer after every completed or cancelled hand.
• A partner never sees his partner's hand.

Baloot uses only 32 cards: 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A of the four suits. There are no Jokers. When the deal is complete each player holds 8 cards.

Sun

Strength from highest to lowest: A > 10 > K > Q > J > 9 > 8 > 7.

Hokm

Inside the trump suit only: J > 9 > A > 10 > K > Q > 8 > 7. Non-trump suits use the Sun order and values.

Total raw points in a hand (including the 10 for the last trick): 162 in Hokm and 130 in Sun.

1. The dealer gives 5 cards to each player in the first stage.
2. One card is turned face up: the mushtara.
3. The first player entitled to buy is the player sitting to the dealer's right.
4. Once the contract is fixed (see Buying) the hands are completed until every player holds exactly 8 cards, with no card missing or duplicated across the 32.

If everyone passes the buying completely (all «Wala» in the second round) the hand is cancelled with no score, the cards are gathered and the next dealer deals.

Play starts with the player to the dealer's right and passes around the table. The available calls depend on the player's seat:

• SUN: fixes the contract immediately; Sun outranks a provisional Hokm.
• HOKM: the trump suit is the suit of the mushtara card. The choice stays provisional because a later player may still call Sun.
• BAS: pass for this round.
• ASHKAL: available only to the dealer and the player on his left. It is Sun, but the mushtara goes to the partner of the player who chose Ashkal instead of to him.

If Sun is called, buying ends at once and overrides any provisional Hokm. If Hokm is called and nobody calls Sun, the decision returns to the Hokm caller to confirm the Hokm or turn it into Sun where the state allows.

If everyone says «Bas» in the first round a second round follows with these calls:

• SUN.
• SECOND HOKM: choose a trump suit different from the suit of the mushtara.
• WALA: pass.

If everyone says «Wala» the hand is cancelled with no score, the cards are gathered and the next dealer deals.

ERAM CARDS implementation note: a Second Hokm needs no confirmation (only the provisional Hokm of the first round goes back to its owner), and a Sun call overrides a standing Hokm in both rounds.

• The buyer (declarer) receives the mushtara plus two further cards.
• In Ashkal the mushtara goes to the partner of the player who chose Ashkal, and the rest is dealt so that every player ends with 8 cards.
• The other players receive the number needed (usually 3 cards) so that each holds exactly 8.
• The server verifies that the final ownership is the full 32 cards with none missing or duplicated.

• The buyer (winner of the buying) leads the first trick. This is a deliberate Jawaker-profile choice, although some traditional tournament rules have the player to the dealer's right lead.
• Following suit is always compulsory: a player holding a card of the suit led must play it.
• Sun: no trump; the highest card of the suit led, by the Sun order, takes the trick.
• Hokm: a player with no card of the suit led may play a trump or discard a card of another suit. Forced cutting, over-trumping and tournament Ekka rules are not enforced.
• If any trump is in the trick, the highest trump by the Hokm order wins; otherwise the highest card of the suit led wins.
• The winner of a trick leads the next one.
• A hand has 8 tricks.
• The team that takes the 8th (last) trick gets +10 raw Abnat (the «ground») before conversion.

Playing an illegal card (failing to follow suit) is refused and nothing in the game state changes.

The project sequence order is A - K - Q - J - 10 - 9 - 8 - 7. Example: A-K-Q is a valid Sira; A-10-K is not a sequence.

Four-of-a-kind of 9s, 8s or 7s is not a project.

Clarification: K-Q-J-10 of the same suit is four consecutive cards, i.e. a «Fifty», not a «Hundred». Two projects are never scored for the same set of cards.

Project values

No overlapping cards

• One card cannot be used in more than one regular project within the same scoring set.
• In practice an 8-card hand cannot score more than two non-overlapping regular projects.
• Baloot has its own interaction rules (see below).

First trick

• When it is a player's turn in the first trick he may declare his single best project.
• The whole hand is not shown; the type is announced, then the rank where needed for comparison.

Which team owns the projects

If both teams declare, the comparison runs in this order:

1. The higher game-point value is better.
2. When the Hundred class ties: four-of-a-kind beats a 5-card sequence.
3. Same kind: the higher top rank in the sequence ranking wins.
4. If type and rank are exactly equal: priority goes to the team owning the player closest to the dealer's left (a deliberate Jawaker-profile choice).

• Only the team with the best project may score regular projects for this hand.
• The other team scores no regular projects whether it declared them or not.

Second trick — reveal

• In the second trick the owner of the best project shows the cards needed to verify it.
• He may then also reveal a second, legal, non-overlapping project if he has one.
• His partner may likewise reveal his legal projects that qualify for the team that won the comparison.
• After verification the cards return to the hand and play continues normally; they are not left exposed longer than necessary.

ERAM CARDS implementation note: the declaration is made at the player's own turn before his card of the first trick, the comparison runs when the first trick ends, and the winning team shows its projects at its own turn in the second trick; a project that is not revealed does not score. The comparison panel shows the kind and value of each team's best declaration; the exact cards appear only when they are revealed.

• Baloot = K + Q of the trump suit held by the same player, in Hokm only, worth 2.
• It is normally announced when the second of the K/Q is played to a trick. (In ERAM CARDS it is called automatically when the second of them is played by a player who held both.)
• Baloot is independent of the regular-project comparison: either team may score it even if its team lost the project comparison.
• If a scoring Sira or Fifty contains the trump K+Q, Baloot is scored automatically (+2) with no separate announcement.
• If a Hundred sequence contains the trump K+Q, no Baloot is added on top of the Hundred.
• If the Hundred is four Kings or four Queens, no Baloot is added because of the trump K/Q inside it.
• Baloot is never multiplied by Double/Triple/Four; it stays 2 wherever it may be scored.

Hokm

The legal levels in order are: NORMAL → DOUBLE → TRIPLE → FOUR → GAHWA. No level may be skipped. The server records which team/seat made the last raise and who has the right to reply.

• Gahwa: no numeric hand score is computed; the team that wins the hand wins the whole match.
• In ERAM CARDS the two seats of the answering team are asked in turn; if both pass, the ladder ends.

Open / Closed

At the levels Jawaker allows it, especially Double and Four:

• CLOSED: the trick leader may not lead a trump if he holds any non-trump card.
• OPEN: no such restriction.

This rule concerns the lead only and adds no forced cutting for the followers.

Sun Double

If the buyer team's cumulative score is above 100 and the opponents are below 100, the team below 100 is given the option to Double. Sun Double is not opened outside that condition. There is no Triple or Four in Sun in this profile.

Step 1 — Raw card points

Count the card points each team took, then add 10 raw Abnat for the winner of the last trick. Expected total: Hokm = 162, Sun = 130.

Step 2 — The Counting Team

• No doubling: the Counting Team = the opponents of the buyer/declarer.
• With Double/Triple/Four/Gahwa: the Counting Team = the opponents of the last team to raise the level.
• Usual practical result: at Double or Four the buyer team is the Counting Team; at Triple or Gahwa the buyer's opponents are, provided the standard raising sequence was not broken.
• Parity alone is not relied on; the team of the last raise is stored and its opponent is computed explicitly.

Step 3 — Convert raw points to game points

Hokm: the Counting Team's raw points are rounded to the nearest 10, with a 5 rounded down, then divided by 10. Boundary examples: 56..65 → 6; 66..75 → 7. The other team's card game points = 16 − the Counting Team's card game points. (Each team is not computed independently because the raw endings could make the total 17; the complement to 16 is the authority.)

Sun: the Counting Team's raw points are rounded to the nearest 10 except that units of 5 are not rounded, then divided by 5. Examples: 56..64 → 60 → 12; 65 → 13; 66..74 → 70 → 14. The other team's card game points = 26 − the Counting Team's card game points.

Step 4 — Add projects and Baloot

• Add regular projects only for the team that won the project comparison.
• Add Baloot (2) for the team that owns it if it qualifies under the Baloot rules, even if the other team owns the regular projects.
• These totals (before any multiplier) decide the winner of the hand.

Step 5 — Breaking a tie

If the totals after cards + projects + Baloot differ, the higher total wins the hand. If they are equal, use the units digit of the Counting Team's raw card points:

There is no coin flip and no «tied hand».

Note

The comparison is made after adding cards, projects and Baloot, and before any multiplication.

No doubling

• If the buyer team wins: each team adds its own points (cards + the projects/Baloot it deserves) to its cumulative score. A buyer win does not automatically make the opponent's hand score zero.
• If the buyer team loses: the buyer team scores 0 and its opponent scores: in Hokm 16 card game points + all the regular-project points scoring in the hand + any scoring Baloot, whichever team originally held the project/Baloot. In Sun 26 + all the regular-project points scoring.

Double / Triple / Four

• The team that wins the hand takes all the points; the loser gets 0.
• Regular projects scoring in the hand are multiplied ×2 only, even in a Triple or Four hand.
• Baloot stays 2 only and is not multiplied.
• If a project/Baloot originally belonged to the losing team but qualifies to score, its value moves into the winner's all-points award.

If one team takes all eight tricks, Kaboot is scored instead of the normal card scoring, and the other team gets 0.

• Projects of a team that took 0 tricks do not score.
• Baloot is never multiplied.
• In ERAM CARDS: the team that wins Kaboot scores projects only if it also won the project comparison.

• The cumulative score starts at 0 / 0.
• After a normally scored hand, if a team has reached 152 or more the match ends and the higher total wins.
• If both teams are at 152 or more with exactly the same total, an extra hand is played until the tie is broken.
• Gahwa ends the match immediately for the team that wins the hand, without waiting for 152.
• A cancelled hand (everyone «Wala») is not scored and does not change the score.

• Remember that following suit is compulsory: if you hold the suit led you must play it.
• In Hokm the trump J and 9 are the highest (20 and 14 raw points); in Sun the A and 10 are the highest.
• In this profile the buyer leads the first trick.
• The last trick gives +10 raw points, so do not neglect it.
• Regular projects are scored by only one team (the comparison winner), but Baloot can be scored by either team.
• With a Double the hand becomes winner-takes-all, and Baloot is never multiplied.
• Keep in mind that tied totals are settled by the units digit of the Counting Team's raw points, not by a coin flip.

• Abnat — raw points of the cards won in tricks.
• Sun — a contract with no trump suit.
• Hokm — a contract with a trump suit that beats the other suits.
• Mushtara — the face-up card after the first deal; its suit is the trump suit in the first round.
• Bas / Wala — pass in the first / second round.
• Ashkal — a Sun call allowed to the dealer and his left-hand player; the mushtara goes to the caller's partner.
• Sira — 3 consecutive cards of one suit.
• Fifty — 4 consecutive cards of one suit.
• Hundred — a sequence of 5+ cards or four-of-a-kind of A/K/Q/J/10.
• Four Hundred — four Aces in Sun.
• Baloot — the trump K + Q held by one player in Hokm.
• Kaboot — one team takes all eight tricks.
• Double / Triple / Four / Gahwa — the stake-raising levels, in order.
• Open / Closed — a restriction on leading trump.
• Counting Team — the team whose raw points are rounded and converted into game points; the other team receives the complement.

Can more than two projects score?

No: one card cannot be used in more than one regular project, so an 8-card hand cannot score more than two non-overlapping regular projects.

Is four 9s, 8s or 7s a project?

No, they have no project.

Who leads the first trick?

The buyer (the winner of the buying).

Must I trump if I cannot follow suit in Hokm?

No, you may play a trump or discard another suit.

What happens if everyone says «Wala»?

The hand is cancelled with no score and the next dealer deals.

Is Baloot multiplied by a Double?

No, it always stays 2.