Baloot
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| Origin | Saudi Arabia |
|---|---|
| Type | Trick-taking |
| Players | 4 |
| Skills required | Skilful |
| Cards | 32 |
| Deck | Piquet deck |
| Play | Counter-clockwise |
| Playing time | Varies. |
| Related games | |
| Belote | |
Baloot (Arabic: بلوت, balōt IPA: [balo̞ːt]), is a popular trick card game played in GCC Countries, which is similar to the French game Belote.
The game is similar to the French Belote. The similarity between the games rules is unknown. Baloot is believed that it was brought to Hijaz by the Indian immigrants during the Ottoman Empire, then it spread to all over the country when it was unified under the Saudi rule. Some suggest that it was brought to the area of Hijaz by the Ottomans themselves when they ruled that area.
There are four players in partnerships of two teams. A standard 32-card set is used. 8 for each player. There are two ways of playing "Judges suit, Arabic: أوراق الحكم / حكم(Hokom)" and the other way call "Sǔn صـن (Sǔn)". the suits ranking are :
Assume the Hokom suit is the Sherya (Clubs) ♣ (for example)
The two members of each team are seated across each other at a table in such a way that no player can see the cards of other players .
The first dealer is chosen at random and after each hand the turn to deal passes to the right. The cards are shuffled by the dealer, and cut by the player on the left. The player on the left of the dealer can either say "go" without cutting the deck, shuffling it (just once), take the first card as the public card, or can give the bottom three cards to the teammate. If the dealer gives a player a card and was mistakenly flipped, the player has no right to refuse it, unless it is an Ace, then the shuffling starts again from the same dealer.
The dealer has 32 cards; he has to deal them to the other players starting from his right three cards at a time, e.g. 3 cards to the right player, 3 cards to the front player, etc., then two cards at a time, then finally one card shown to public . The dealer is now in charge. He calls " First," which means the first round of taking the public card, players "buy" the public card, priority goes to the player on the right of the dealer, then the front player (teammate) and then the player on the left, the person with the least priority to take the card is the dealer. Players should say "no" if they don't want the card; this goes counterclockwise.
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Wikipedia