描述

The game has its origin in france andhasrecently found great popularity in the middle east, especiallyinSaudi Arabia and Kuwait. The game is played by 4 players usinganormal deck of cards. All the cards of rank 6 and lower fromallsuits are removed and not used in play. The jokers arealsoremoved, which leaves 32 cards in the game with each playergetting8 cards in his hand.

The two players facing each other work as a team to win asmanyhigh ranking cards as possible. While the goal of games likekoutand spades is to win as many rounds in a single hand, Balotdiffersslightly in that the goal is not to win as many rounds aspossible,but to win the rounds in which high ranking cards areplayed in. Assuch, cards are associated with point value, andwinning as manycards with high values by winning the rounds theyare played inwould win you the game.
Round:
When each player plays a single card, winning the roundfollowsrules similar to spades and kout which are detailed inthisdocument, but the points won in each round depend on the cardsthatare played during the round. This is also referred to asa"Trick"
Hand:
A hand is complete when 12 rounds are played (i.e., all cardsheldby all players are played), the team with the highest numberofcollected points wins the hand and scoring is determined basedonrules that we will explain in the document.
Game:
A game is completed when a team accumulates 151 points intotal,beating the other team.
San:
When the bidding team chooses to play the current hand with notrumpsuit.
Hokom:
When the bidding team chooses a suit to be played as a trump forthecurrent hand. Hokom literally means suit.
Ashkal:
Is a special kind of non-trump bid (San), in which the cardtheplayers are bidding on goes to the team mate instead of thebiddingplayer.
----
Points

Points collected from round win are calculated as followsbasedon the cards won in each round:
For all suits (except a trump suit in Hokom game)

A: 11 points
10: 10 points
K: 4 points
Q: 3 points
J: 2 points
9 & 7 & 8: 0 points
For the trump suit only:

J: 20 points
9: 14 points
A: 11 points
10: 10 points
K: 4 points
Q: 3 points
7 & 8: 0 points