How to play Bazar-Blot

The objective

Four players form two teams of two, partners across from each other. The game is played over multiple rounds and the score is cumulative. The first team to reach the agreed target score (101, 151, 201 or 301 points) wins the match.

The deck and the deal

Play uses a 32-card deck — 7 through Ace (A) in each of the four suits (♠ ♥ ♦ ♣). Before the bazar, the dealer gives each player all 8 cards at once.

Key terms

Trick

Four cards played in one round — one from each player. A hand has 8 tricks.

Trump

The suit declared by the team that wins the bazar. Any trump beats any non-trump card.

Boy

A no-trump contract — no suit outranks the others.

Over-trump

Playing a trump when you can't follow suit.

Blot-Reblot

K + Q of trump in one hand. Adds +20 points.

Kaput

Winning all 8 tricks. Comes with a large bonus.

Kontra

Challenging the opposing bid — the stake increases.

Rekontra

Responding to a Kontra — the stake increases further.

Last trick

The team that takes the final trick earns +10 extra points.

The Bazar

After the deal, players take turns either naming a trump suit or passing. A bid takes the form of "X of suit", where X is a number starting from 8 and the suit is hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades, or Boy (no-trump).

The bid means: "our team will score at least X × 10 points." For example, "10 of hearts" makes hearts trump and sets a target of 100 points.

A player may also declare "kaput" — committing to take all 8 tricks. After a kaput bid, any subsequent bid must also be a kaput with a higher number.

The opposing team may declare Kontra to raise the stake. After Kontra the bazar stops: no more bids are allowed, and only the bidding team may respond with Rekontra.

The bazar ends after 4 consecutive passes. The highest bid becomes the contract, and the team that takes the bazar must fulfil their bid.

Playing tricks

The player to the dealer's left leads the first trick. Every other player must follow the led suit if they can.

• If they have a card of the led suit — play any one of them (does not have to be the highest).
• If not — they must play a trump (over-trump), and if possible a higher one than any trump already in the trick. Exception: if their partner's card is already the highest on the table, they are not required to over-trump.
• If they have neither the led suit nor a trump — they may play any card.

The trick goes to the highest card of the led suit, or the highest trump if any was played. The winner leads the next trick.

Card values

Card values depend on the contract type. A round has 152 + 10 = 162 points on offer (10 is the last-trick bonus).

Trump contract

Boy (no-trump)

Bonus combinations

Certain card sets earn extra points. A player announces the bonus before their first trick (saying what they hold: Terz, 50, 100, four of a kind) and shows it before the second trick. If a player forgets to show, the opponent may show their own (even weaker) bonus on the next trick and take priority.

• Terz — 3 consecutive cards of the same suit — 20 points
• 50 — 4 consecutive of the same suit — 50 points
• 100 — 5 or more consecutive of the same suit — 100 points
• Blot-Reblot — K + Q of trump in one hand — 20 points. Declared as each of the pair is played; counts independently of other combinations
• Four of a kind — all 4 cards of one rank (see table below)

Four-of-a-kind values

Four-of-a-kind ranking

When both teams have declared a four-of-a-kind, the one whose card is higher by this order wins:

• Trump contract: J > 9 > A > 10 > K > Q
• Boy contract: A > 10 > K > Q > J

Any four-of-a-kind outranks the “100” bonus (5+ consecutive same-suit cards), even when both are worth 100 points.

Combination priority

Both teams may hold bonus combinations, but only each team's strongest combination competes. All of the winning team's declared bonuses are counted; the losing team's are not. The priority is:

1. Higher value — the combination worth more points takes precedence.
2. Higher "boy" — if values are equal, the combination with the higher top card wins.
3. Trump suit — if the top cards are also equal, the combination in the trump suit wins.
4. Everything equal — the first player holding a combination, counting clockwise from the dealer's left, wins.

Blot-Reblot is always counted, regardless of these rules.

Scoring

At the end of a round, each team's captured trick points are summed and divided by 10 to give "sai". Each team's combination bonuses are then added on top. Multipliers are explained below — they depend on Kontra/Rekontra and on the contract type.

Contract made (no Kontra)

• Bidding team: bid × multiplier + 16 − opponents' sai + their own combos
• Defenders: their captured sai + their own combos

Contract made — with Kontra or Rekontra

• Bidding team: bid × multiplier + 16 + both teams' combos
• Defenders: 0

Contract failed

• Bidding team: 0
• Defenders: bid × multiplier + 16 + both teams' combos (their captured sai are not counted)

Kontra and Rekontra multipliers

Kaput and Reverse kaput

Kaput — the bidding team wins all 8 tricks. The 16 in the base formula is replaced by 25 (+90 point bonus).

Reverse kaput (“t’ars kaput”) — the bidding team wins 0 tricks. The defenders receive the +90 kaput bonus for the round, and more importantly — the team that suffered the reverse kaput automatically loses the whole match, regardless of the current score.

Winning the match

The match ends as soon as a team reaches the target score set at the table — 101, 151, 201 or 301 points.

The exception is a reverse kaput: in that case the match ends immediately, regardless of the current score, and the team that suffered it automatically loses.

A leading team cannot clinch the match by losing the last round. If the team that has already reached the target takes the bazar and fails their bid, that round on its own doesn't end the match. After the round is scored: if the opposing team has now overtaken the leader on points, they win the match; otherwise play continues.

The match does not end on a kaput, unless the kaput was Kontra'd and successfully made.