Hokm

Hokm is played by four players in two partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other: here you and North play against West and East. It uses one 52-card deck, with Aces high. Deal and play go anticlockwise, to the right.

At the start of the game, cards are turned up one at a time until someone gets an Ace. That player is the Hâkem, which means "ruler". The player to the Hâkem's left deals, giving everyone five cards first, then four, then four more, with the Hâkem receiving cards first.

The Hâkem must choose the trump suit (the hokm) after seeing only those first five cards, and then leads to the first trick. You must follow suit if you can; if you can't, you may play any card, including a trump. The highest trump wins the trick, or else the highest card of the suit led. The winner of each trick leads to the next.

The first team to take seven tricks wins the hand, and play stops there.

• Winning a hand scores 1 point.
• A Kot, taking the first seven tricks while the other team takes none, scores 2 points for the Hâkem's team, or 3 points if the Hâkem's opponents do it (Hâkem Koti).
• If the Hâkem's team wins the hand, the Hâkem keeps the role. If not, the old Hâkem deals and the player to their right becomes Hâkem.
• The first team to reach 7 points wins the game.

• When you are Hâkem, choose trumps with the four suit buttons in the middle of the table. Your first five cards are shown below.
• On your turn, tap a highlighted card to play it. Cards you can't play are dimmed, and your trumps are outlined in gold.
• The computer players take their turns automatically. The Hâkem is marked with a star.

• Daily: everyone gets the same deals each day.
• New Game: a fresh game with new deals.

• As Hâkem, pick the suit you hold the most of. Three or four cards of a suit are worth more than a single Ace, because the other eight cards are still to come.
• Count trumps. Once the opponents are out of trumps, your high cards in the other suits are safe.
• When you can't follow suit and your partner is already winning the trick, don't waste a trump on it.
• Watch for a Kot. If the other side has won the first few tricks, winning just one trick saves you from losing 2 or 3 points.

Hokm is the most popular card game in Iran. Its name is Persian: hokm literally means "command" or "order", and in card-game language it means the trump suit. Hâkem means "ruler" or "governor", the player who has the privilege of choosing trumps and leading first.

Hokm belongs to a family of trick-taking games related to Whist, which Wikipedia describes under the name Court piece. The game appears to come from Iran or the Indian subcontinent, and it goes by many names. It is Court piece or Rang in India and Pakistan, and Satat in Mauritius, where it is the most popular card game. Immigrants from the Indian subcontinent took it to Suriname, where it is called Troefcall, and from there it reached the Netherlands.

The rules here follow pagat.com's description of the Iranian four-player game, including its scoring for a Kot. Pagat also describes versions for two and three players.

Hokm is a free browser version of the Persian card game, played with a computer partner against two computer opponents, with a daily game and online leaderboards. There's nothing to download and no sign-up.

A free, original browser game on PlayPendium. No download, no install.