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Hokm

Persian card game · 2 teams

Iran's favourite card game. The Hakem names trumps from five cards; follow suit with your partner and take seven tricks first.

Learn how to play
Game

Play the Hokm card game online for free

Hokm (حکم, "the command", the Persian word for trumps) is the most popular card game in Iran, played at family gatherings and in every Persian community abroad. Play it free in your browser: you and a bot partner against two bots, or a private table for four friends and family. No download, no account.

It is a trick-taking game for two teams of two, partners sitting opposite, with an ordinary 52-card deck and aces high. One player, the Hakem, looks at their first five cards and names trumps. Then every trick counts: the first team to take seven tricks wins the hand.

How to play Hokm

  1. Find the Hakem. Cards are dealt face up, one at a time, until someone gets an ace. That player is the first Hakem.
  2. Name trumps. The Hakem gets five cards first and, looking only at those, names the trump suit (the hokm). Then everyone is dealt up to 13 cards.
  3. Anticlockwise. As in Iran, play goes to the right. The Hakem leads the first trick; whoever wins a trick leads the next.
  4. Play. Follow suit if you can. If you can't, play any card: you don't have to trump. The highest trump wins, else the highest card of the suit led.
  5. Seven tricks. The first team to seven tricks wins the hand at once: 1 point. Seven to none is a kot, 2 points, or 3 if it is against the Hakem's team. If the Hakem's team loses, the Hakem passes to the right.
  6. Win. The first team to 7 points wins. Short on time? Play to 3 or 5.

Play with a bot partner

The bots never see your cards. Easy bots often play any card; Medium bots name the trump suit that is longest and strongest in their five cards, draw trumps with a long trump hand, lead their aces and leave a trick their partner has won alone; Hard bots also count every card played, note who is out of a suit, and lead suits you can trump.

Learn the full Hokm rules

Finding the Hakem with an ace, the 5-4-4 deal, naming trumps from five cards, anticlockwise play, following suit, seven tricks to win a hand, kot and Hakem kot, and the game to 7 points.

Read the full Hokm rules

Rules in other languages: Englishفارسی

Play in other languages: فارسی