HOW TO PLAY

1. Four players in two teams, partners opposite. 32 cards: 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A. Play goes anticlockwise (to the right).
2. The deal: 5 cards each, and one card face up. After the bidding, the player who takes the face-up card gets 2 more cards and everyone else 3, so everyone has 8.
3. Bidding, round 1: starting at the dealer's right, each player says Pass, Hokum (the face-up card's suit is trumps) or Sun (no trumps). Sun beats Hokum: after a Hokum, any player may still say Sun. The third player (or the dealer, if everyone passed) may say Ashkal: Sun, but your partner takes the face-up card and plays the hand.
4. Round 2 (if everyone passed): Hokum in a different suit, or Sun. If everyone passes again, the cards are dealt again.
5. Playing: the player at the dealer's right leads. Follow suit if you can. In Sun, if you can't, play anything. In Hokum, if you can't follow you must trump, and you must beat a trump that is winning if you can. You don't have to when your partner is winning, except that the third player must trump the partner's lead unless it was an Ace or "Ekka" (the highest card left in its suit; the game calls it for you).
6. Card order: Sun and side suits: A 10 K Q J 9 8 7 (A = 11 points, 10 = 10, K = 4, Q = 3, J = 2). Hokum trumps: J 9 A 10 K Q 8 7 (J = 20, 9 = 14). The last trick is worth 10 more.
7. Projects (the game finds them): Sira, three in a row; Fifty, four in a row; Hundred, five in a row or four K, Q, J or 10; Four Hundred, four Aces in Sun. Only the team with the best project scores theirs. Baloot is the King and Queen of trumps in one hand, worth 2 in Hokum.
8. Scoring: card points become game points (out of 16 in Hokum, 26 in Sun). The team that bid must score more than the other team, or the other team takes everything. Winning all eight tricks (Kaboot) scores 25 in Hokum, 44 in Sun. First to 152 wins.

LESSON

HAND OVER