Baloot needs four players, and sometimes the hardest part is getting all four in one room. One is travelling, another lives in a different city, a third cannot go out tonight. That is where playing Baloot online with friends comes in: the table comes to you instead of you going to it.
This guide walks you through setting up your table in Koutchina, step by step: opening a private room, sending the invite, sharing a link to a specific seat, joining the voice majlis, choosing the match length, and what happens when a seat stays empty. We finish with a few manners that make the evening good for everyone. Koutchina is free and for entertainment only.
How do you open a private room and invite friends?
The simplest way is to open a private room for the game you want. Every room has a short code and a link you can share in any chat app, and the share message itself spells out the room code.
If your friend has the app, the link opens straight in Koutchina. If not, they land on a page that points them to the store: they install the app for free, then open the link again to join. If the link fails for any reason, they can type the code into “Join Room” in the app.
There is also the invite link, which invites a friend to Koutchina itself. It works the same way: install the app, then open the link again to activate the invite. Treat invite and Diwan links like keys, and send them only to the people you want at your table.
What is a seat link?
A seat link is the fastest way to fill a short table. Instead of a general invite, you share one specific empty seat from your table. When you paste the link into a chat, a preview shows your name and the game, such as “Salem needs a Baloot partner”, with the promise underneath: “One tap and you’re seated, no sign-up. The seat is held for 5 minutes.”
Your friend opens the link and sees who is at the table, which seat is theirs and, in partnership games like Baloot and Tarneeb, who their partner will be. While the seat is held, a countdown shows how long is left. No sign-up and no forms: one tap and they are seated.
If they do not have the app, they install it for free, and after installing, the app opens straight at their seat. On iPhone, the page also copies the link as a backup, so they can paste it if the app asks. The seat code can also be typed on the app’s welcome screen.
If the hold runs out, the seat may still be free and the link can still work. If someone has taken the seat or the table has closed, the page says so, and all it takes is a new link from the host. And if the game has already started, a bot plays the seat until your friend sits down.
How do you join the voice majlis?
Baloot without talk is incomplete, which is why Koutchina is built around the majlis: a live voice room where you talk with your friends while you play, as if you were all at one table. Koutchina’s majlis rooms are persistent, so your group can have a majlis to come back to every week.
For close friends there is the Diwan: a private room for friends, with card games, chat and voice. Friends are invited with a link, and anyone who has not installed the app yet does so, then opens the link again to join.
Inside the majlis, the mic is open for those in speaker seats, so you can talk freely while you play your cards, with no button to hold. Listeners who want to speak raise a hand, and the host promotes them in order. You can also send an animated dallah gift, a nod to majlis hospitality. The microphone is only active when you choose to speak.
The host has real moderation tools, mute, kick, ban and report, so the room stays kind.
The game and the match length
Koutchina has nine games: Baloot, Tarneeb, Hand, Trix, Estimation, Basra, Hez2, Quinza and Ronda. Agree on the game before you sit down, then on the table rules, because some games come in more than one version.
In Baloot, the tables where you gather your friends, in a Diwan or by invitation, play a full match to 152 points. Against the bots and in Quick Match the match is short, to 52 points, and over in minutes. In Saudi Baloot, Sun can be called from the first round.
If you prefer the French original, pick Belote classique in the table rules: the same deck and the same card values, without Sun or projects. It plays to 501 points in the short match and to 1000 at Diwan and invitation tables.
In Estimation, you choose the length in the table rules. Micro is the default, five rounds without an auction, and the quickest way into the game. Mini is ten rounds, and Full is eighteen, for a long evening. In Quinza, the room chooses the target: 101, 151 or 301 points.
Our advice: if time is short, start with the shorter format. If the evening is long, the full match is the one whose stories get told afterwards.
What if a seat stays empty?
You do not have to wait for all four. If the game starts before your friend arrives through a seat link, a bot plays their seat until they sit down, and then they take it over.
Bots also cover anyone who goes missing. Every turn is timed by a ticking ring, and if a player is away or loses their connection, a bot steps in so the game never stalls. When they come back, they reconnect smoothly and their seat is held.
And if nobody can make it tonight, the bots are a ready partner for practice. You can choose the difficulty, and a Baloot match against them is short, to 52 points: enough to try an idea or review your projects before the evening with friends.
Majlis manners
Agree before you start. Settle the game, the table rules and the match length before the first deal; the worst argument is the one that starts mid-round over a rule nobody agreed on. If one of your friends is new to the game, send them our Baloot rules guide beforehand.
Greet people and smile. A majlis is about hospitality before competition. Welcome whoever walks in, and keep the teasing light enough that nobody gets hurt.
Don’t talk about your hand. In a voice majlis everyone hears everything, but revealing your cards to your partner, or hinting at them, is cheating, at a real table and in the app alike. Let the cards do the talking.
Respect the timer. Play on your turn and don’t keep others waiting. If you need to step away, tell your friends; a bot will cover you, but your partner deserves to know.
Use the mic with care. If it is noisy around you, turn your mic off when you are not speaking. Listeners who want to talk raise a hand and wait their turn. And if you are the host, use mute, kick, ban and report to protect the majlis, never to get back at an opponent.
And remember it is a game. Chips in Koutchina are for entertainment only, have no monetary value and cannot be cashed out. Take a break between matches, and leave the table with everyone smiling. A good game of Baloot is measured by the laughter afterwards, not only by the score.