Baloot - Starting The Game

Starting The Game

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.

If someone takes the card, as (for example) Hokom, any player has the right to refuse and take it as Sun. But if the person took the public card as Sun, then only the person with the higher priority can take the card.

"Ashkal", it is said when a player doesn't want the public card, but wants it for their teammate, just to receive 3 cards instead of 2. note: only the dealer and the player to the left of the dealer have the right to call Ashkal. If a player calls Ashkal where they do not have the privilege, the player is forced to take the public card as Sun. If the card was an ace, the player has no right to say Ashkal, if they do, they are forced to buy it as Sun.

If a player has only zero cards - 7, 8 or 9 of any suit, he may choose to force everyone to abandon this turn with no points to any team (Kawesh/Saneen), where he buys the public card as Sun, and lies his cards face up (If he feels he has an advantage he may still buy the card normally). However, in "Second" the player may not ask for this turn to be abandoned.

If all the players choose to not take the card, then the dealer calls, "Second", which means there is another chance in taking the card. If someone takes it as Sun, then no one else can buy it over him even if they were of a higher priority. That is a significant advantage of buying Sun in the second round over the first; that no one else can take it from you even if they were of a higher priority. They lose that right by saying no in the second round. But if someone takes it as Hokom, then the Hokom must be something different from the suit of the public card because it is on the second mode. Other players can take the card as Sun. The player that takes it as Hokom, has the option to choose between three suits before lifting up the two cards that the dealer just gave. Or it is Sun if the player lifts up the two cards before naming a suit for Hokom. There is not "Ashkal" in the second round.

After someone takes the public card. The dealer continues giving other cards to the players,again starting to the right, counter clock-wise, 3 cards to each but 2 cards to the player who has taken the public card.