Combinations in Blot

What combinations are worth

• The score table is written in tens: tierce — 2, fifty — 5, hundred — 10, blot — 2.
• No trump: four aces — 190; jacks, tens, kings and queens — 100 each; four nines don’t count; no blot.
• Four sevens or eights don’t count.

Combinations

• A combination is a special set of cards in one player’s hand. It gives points on top of the cards.
• Tierce — three cards in a row of one suit: 20 points, 2 in the table. Fifty — four in a row: 50, 5 in the table. Hundred — five in a row: 100, 10 in the table.
• In a row means in the order 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A. Example: 9 10 J — tierce; 10 J Q K — fifty.
• More than five in a row — the player splits them: 6 — hundred, two tierces or just fifty; 7 — hundred, or fifty and tierce; 8 — two fifties, or tierce and hundred.
• Carré — four cards of a kind: jacks 200, nines 140, aces 110, tens, kings and queens 100 each. With no trump: aces 190; jacks, tens, kings and queens 100 each; nines don’t count. Four sevens or eights don’t count.
• Blot — the king and queen of trumps in one hand: 20, 2 in the table. The game says “blot” and “reblot” for you when you play these cards. No trump — no blot.
• One card goes into only one combination. Blot is the exception, it counts inside another one too: hearts trump, you hold Q K A — tierce 20 and blot 20, 40 in all.
• You can declare only what you hold: no bluffing. Less is allowed (a tierce instead of a carré), but once you said tierce you can’t show the carré. You may also stay silent.

Declare and show

• Combinations are declared on the first trick, when you play your card. The first one says only the kind: “tierce”, “fifty”, “hundred”, “carré”. Not declared on the first trick — too late on the second.
• If an opponent declares the same kind after you, he names its height: the top card without the suit, “tierce to K”; “trump” is up to him, only if true. You answer: “Yours passes” (you don’t name yours, your tierce doesn’t count) or “Mine — to A” (the real height — no lying). The game decides by the real cards: top card, then trump, then the order.
• An opponent declared a higher kind (fifty, hundred, carré against a tierce) — nothing to compare, no heights: his passes.
• On the second trick, on your turn, a combination that passed has two buttons: “Show” and “Don’t show”. Shown — everyone sees its cards and it counts. Not shown — nobody sees the cards and it doesn’t count. If time runs out or you play a card without pressing, the game shows it. One that didn’t pass is not shown.
• If the player with the highest combination doesn’t show, the right passes on in turn. An opponent who plays after them shows on the second trick; one who has already played shows on the third, on their turn, with the same buttons. The third trick is the last one for showing. An opponent can show only a combination higher than the one shown by the partner of the player who didn’t show. Then it counts, even after “Yours passed”, and the partner’s does not.

Example: you have a tierce to A, your partner to 9, the opponent after you to 10. Your partner showed, you didn’t, the opponent did: your pair gets 0, the opponents 20.

• Blot counts even if the deal ended before its second card.

Whose combination is higher

• The highest shown combination of one pair is compared with the highest of the other. Only the pair holding the highest one scores its combinations — yours and your partner’s. The other pair scores none, except blot: it is never compared.
• A carré beats any sequence; hundred beats fifty, fifty beats tierce.
• Same length — the top card decides: a tierce to K beats a tierce to Q. Trump doesn’t help here: 7 8 9 with hearts trump against Q K A — the tierce to the ace wins.
• Same top card too: trump beats non-trump; both non-trump — whoever plays earlier on the first trick; with no trump — whoever declared first.
• Carrés with a trump, from low to high: queens, kings, tens, aces, nines, jacks. With no trump: jacks, queens, kings, tens, aces.

Example: an opponent has fifty, you have four queens — the carré wins, the fifty doesn’t count. Hearts trump: your partner has 7 8 9, an opponent 7 8 9 — your partner’s tierce wins, it is trump.

Capot with a combination

• Only “capot + combination” beats capot, and the combination must be in your own hand. You can’t count on your partner’s: no bluffing — without your own combination the game won’t offer this bid.
• The number after the plus is the combination’s value in the score table: tierce — “capot + 2”, tierce and blot — “capot + 4”, four kings — “capot + 10”. There is no “+1” or “+3”.

1 on 1 and Open Blot

In Blot 1 on 1 combinations work as in Bazar Blot: they are declared on the first trick and the higher one counts. In Open Blot combinations grow as new cards open, and every step counts. Blot 1 on 1 rules.