BeloZ
A modern family card game based on an old classic

For more than a century, the card game of Belote has been one of the most popular family card games in France, Eastern Europe and the Middle-East.

The BeloZ card game removes many of the complexities of the game of Belote. Everyone around the world can now enjoy the same game that has entertained generations of families in Europe and the Middle-East.

Discover BeloZ

How to play BeloZ™

Set up

32 playing cards (8 animals from each plain)

Four players: Players form two teams. Players from each team sit on opposite sides of the table. Each player must sit between the two players of the opposite team.

Paper and pencil or the BeloZ app for score keeping.

Players deal, bid and play in turn in a counterclockwise rotation.

The territory of BeloZ

The BeloZ river in the African savanna divides the territory of BeloZ in four plains prone to flooding. The plains are home to wild animals with a well-established hierarchy.

The big cats

The big cats dominate the dry land and are the strongest in their plain, unless it has been flooded. The lion is stronger than the leopard.

The pachyderms

The pachyderms are feared by most other animals except the big cats. The elephant is heavier than the rhinoceros.

The aquatic animals

The aquatic animals do not have much power unless their plain is flooded. Once under water, they become the strongest of the entire territory. The crocodile is more dangerous than the water snake.

The playful animals

The playful animals are too busy playing to have time to scare anyone else. The monkey is wiser than the meerkat.

Object

Two teams of two players compete in expeditions to rescue the wild animals of BeloZ. At the start of each play, one team chooses the flooded plain where aquatic animals dominate and disrupt the plain’s power structure: In the flooded plain, the aquatic animals are more powerful than the big cats. In addition, animals from the flooded plain can intercept rescue expeditions.

At the start of each play, players are dealt cards representing the animals from all plains. One team decides which plain is flooded and commits to scoring more points than the other team. A play is made of eight rescue expeditions; during an expedition, each player plays one card and may intercept the expedition with an animal from the flooded plain. At the end of the expedition, the team who has played the most powerful animal collects all the cards. At the end of the play, teams add the value of the animals they have rescued plus any bonus points. The team who chose the flooded plain must have more points than the other team to score points.

Strategy, teamwork and a bit of luck will decide the winning team. The first team to reach 1000 points wins.

Playing Cards

The animals of a plain have a relative power structure which is different between the flooded plain and the dry plains.

The dry plains are dominated by the big cats while the flooded plain is dominated by the aquatic animals.

Dry plains			Flooded plain
		11 pts		20 pts
		10 pts		14 pts
		4 pts		11 pts
		3 pts		10 pts
		2 pts		4 pts
		0 pt		3 pts
		0 pt		0 pt
		0 pt		0 pt

Each rescue expedition targets a plain set by the plain of the card played by the player launching the expedition (the rescue plain). Unless it is intercepted by a card from the flooded plain, the team winning the expedition is the team who played the most powerful card of the rescue plain. If the expedition was intercepted, the team having played the most powerful card of the flooded plain wins the expedition.

Teams may earn extra points with declarations or bonuses either if:

• A player has in their hand a sequence of animals from the same plain.
• A player has in their hand the same animals from all four plains.
• A player has in their hand the pachyderms (elephant + rhinoceros) of the flooded plain.
• The team wins the last expedition of the play.
• The team wins all the expeditions of the play.

Deal & Bid

To decide who deals first, each player draws a card from the pack. The player with the card with the lowest number deals. If there is a tie, players draw another card until a dealer is chosen.

The deck is never shuffled. The player to the dealer's left cuts the deck. At least three cards must be cut.

The cards are always dealt in rotation, beginning with the player on the dealer's right and ending with the dealer.

The dealer either gives a set of three cards to each player, then another set of two cards, or gives a set of two cards, then another set of three cards. The dealer then turns the next card face up.

The plain of the card face up is up for bid to become the flooded plain.

The player to the dealer's right can now "accept" the bid, i.e., commit their team to a rescue contract with this flooded plain, or “pass”. If this player passes, the next player can accept or pass, and so on around the table. If all four players pass, each in turn has a second chance to accept a bid with a plain of their choosing as the flooded plain. If all players pass a second time, the cards are collected, the dealer cuts and the next player in the rotation deals.

As soon as a player accepts a bid, they receive the turn-up card and the deal resumes. Each player except the player accepting the bid is dealt three cards. The player accepting the bid is dealt only two cards.

Each player now has eight cards in their hand and the play can start. The team who accepted the bid is the “contracting team” and the other team is the “defending team”.

The Play

The play consists of eight expeditions, the first expedition is started by the player on the dealer's right.

The player stating an expedition can play any card in their hand, The card played sets the rescue plain for the expedition. Subsequent players must obey the following rules:

• If they have a card from the rescue plain in their hand, they must play it (“to provide”).
• If the rescue plain is the flooded plain, players must play a more powerful card than the card leading expedition (“to rise”). If players do not have a more powerful card in their hands, they must play a less powerful card.
• If they don’t have a card from the rescue plain in their hand:
• If the rescue plain is not the flooded plain and the opposing team has played the card leading the expedition, they must play a card from the flooded plain (“to intercept”).
• If the card leading the expedition is from the flooded plain and was not played by their teammate, they must play a more powerful card from the flooded plain (“to over-intercept”). If they do not have a more powerful card in their hands, they must play a less powerful card (“to leak”).
• If the card leading the expedition was played by the player’s teammate, or if the player doesn’t have a card from the flooded plain in their hand, they may discard any card (“to discard”).

At any point in time the card leading the expedition is:

• The most powerful card from the flooded plain, if one or more were played, or,
• The most powerful card from the rescue plain, otherwise.

The player leading the expedition when all four players have played wins the expedition and their team collects all the cards that have been played. The winner of the expedition starts the next expedition.

Example

The flooded plain is blue (North). Player1 and Player3 are on Team1. Player2 and Player4 are on Team2.

Player1 starts the expedition, the rescue plain is set to red (South).

Player2 has no red card. If they had a card from the flooded plain, they must play it to intercept the expedition since the opposing team leads the expedition. But they do not have a blue card in their hand, so they discard a yellow card.

Player3 has a red card, they must provide. Player4 wins the expedition with the lion. This expedition is worth 11 points for team2.

Note that if the flooded plain had been red (South), Player1 would have won the expedition and scored 25 points for team1.

Declarations

Players with certain combinations of cards in their hand when the play starts may earn additional points.

A "Straight Flush" is a sequence of three or more cards of the same plain with consecutive numbers:

• A Three-Card Straigh Flush is worth 20 points.
• A Four-Card Straight Flush is worth 50 points.
• A Staight Flush with five or more cards is worth 100 points.

“Quads” are made of four cards of the same animals from each of the four plains:

• Quads of crocodiles are worth 200 points.
• Quads of water snakes are worth 150 points.
• Quads of lions, leopards, elephants and rhinoceros are worth 100 points.

Quads of monkeys and meerkats are not valid declarations.

A card may not be involved in two declarations (except in BeloZ and Re-BeloZ).

Quads and straight flushes must be announced during the first expedition. Quads win over straight flushes.

Between two straight flushes of the same value, the one containing the card with the highest number prevails. If they have the same highest card, the straight flush from the flooded plain wins. If none are from the flooded plain, all declarations are canceled.

All the declarations from the team with the highest declaration are valid. The declarations from the other team will not count.

To be considered for scoring, valid declarations must be displayed during the second expedition, after the first card has been played but before the cards have been collected.

In addition, players holding the pachyderms (elephant and rhinoceros) from the flooded plain in their hand can declare “BeloZ and Re-BeloZ” and will earn 20 extra points irrespective of the issue of the play or other declarations.

To be valid, “BeloZ” and “Re-BeloZ” must be declared by the player at the time they play the card.

Example

A player has a Four-Card Straight Flush with the highest card being a #7:

Their teammate has a Three-Card Straight Flush with the highest card being a #4:

A player from the other team also has a Three-Card Straight Flush with the highest card being a #8:

The Four-Card Straight Flush is the highest declaration and will prevail. The Three-Card Straight Flush from the same team will also prevail, even if the other Three-Card Straight Flush is higher. If displayed during the second expedition, the team may earn an additional 70 points from these declarations.

Scoring

Before declarations, each play represents a total value of 162 points. The cards in a game of BeloZ have a total value of 152 points. Each team scores the points representing the value of the cards they have collected in the expeditions they won. In addition, the team who wins the last expedition (“ten last”) scores 10 extra points.

If a team wins all eight expeditions, the play is a “golden” play, and the team scores an additional 90 pts (a total of 252 points before declarations). On a golden play, the losing team cannot score declaration points, except the points from a “BeloZ and Re-BeloZ” declaration.

Each team then adds the points from their valid declaration.

If the contracting team scores more than the defending team, the contract is won, and each team scores the points they earned.

If the contracting team scores less than the defending team, the contracting team is “broken”. The contracting team transfers all their points, except the points from “BeloZ and Re-BeloZ” declaration to the defending team.

If both teams score the exact same number of points before rounding (“dispute”), the defending team scores their points and the contracting team does not score any point. The points of the contracting team will be awarded to the team winning the next play.

The first team to reach 1000 points wins the game. When both teams score 1000 points or more, the team with the highest score wins.

Example

The contracting team has collected cards representing a total value of 78 points, has won the last expedition (ten last), and has a Three-Card Straight Flush. The defending team a BeloZ and Re-BeloZ.

The contracting team scores 10 additional points for the 10 last: 88 points.

The defending team scores 162 - 88 = 74 points.

The contracting team scores 20 additional points for the Three-Card Straight Flush: 108 points.

The defending team scores 20 additional points for BeloZ and Re-BeloZ: 94 points.

If the contracting team did not have a Three-Card Straight Flush, they would have scored 20 fewer points to be at 88 points. The defending team would have scored more points (94) and would have broken the contracting team. The contracting team would have scored 0 point and the defending team would have scored 182 points (162 points and 20 points for BeloZ and Re-BeloZ).

Score

BeloZ Privacy Policy

Last updated: January 2024

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Should you have any questions about our privacy practices or this Privacy Policy, or if you would like to exercise any of the rights available to you, please email us at info @ beloz.app.

Install BeloZ app

Android: Open the options of your Internet browser (button on the top right in Google Chrome), and select ]"Install application". Validate by clicking on "Install".

iPhone our iPad: Click on the share button at the bottom of Safari . In the proposed options, select "Add to home screen". When a window pops up, validate by clicking "Add".

Settings

BeloZ™ app

• Rules Learn the rules of BeloZ
• BeloZ Makes the card game of Belote easy
• Score Keep the score of your Belote plays
• Helpers Helpers for beginners
• Helpers Helpers for beginners
• Install App Download the BeloZ app on your smart phone
• Settings Customize your BeloZ app
• Privacy policy We do not track you, we do not share your information