played with a French-suited or German-suited playing cards and is particularly popular in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Arabia. It is still played in some states of the former Soviet Union (e.g. Russia or Ukraine) and by communities of the Armenian diaspora and Jewish communities around the world. In this game, however, there are relatively different interpretations of the rules, so that one cannot speak of a fixed, uniform ruleset. The rules are almost identical to the French national card game Belote and it is thus an Eastern European variant of the large Jass Jass family. The rules of Belot are close to those of Belote, and its ancestor, Klaberjass, but with a few significant differences in each. The game is played by 2, 3 or 4 players. The 4-player version is considered the standard game, and other two are truncated versions played only if there aren't enough players available. The 4 players are 2 teams of two. The other variations each player is alone. 2 player and 3 players use the 24-card deck (9 to Ace). Note that these rules are slightly different among countries. Each round of Belot (no matter how many players) consists of these steps: dealing, bidding, declaration, playing and scoring: Dealing and bidding The game is played with a 32-card (A K Q J 10 9 8 7) German-suited pack which is first shuffled by dealer and then offered to the person sitting to the left of the dealer to cut. The cutter may cut or just tap on the top of the pack in which case no cutting is done. Cards are dealt three at a time, counter-clockwise beginning to the right of dealer. Initially only 6 cards are dealt. The possible bidding or contracts are: Clubs ♣ Diamonds ♦ Hearts ♥ Spades ♠ No trumps All trumps Every player must either suggest a higher contract, or bid: Pass Double (Coinchée, or Contré), but only if the current highest contract was not bid by the partner. Re-double (Re-contra), if the other team have doubled bidder's or bidder partner's contract. Usually two levels of doubling are allowed. In some areas of Bulgaria a third level is also used. It is called "сюр-контра" (Sur-Contre - derived from French; over-double), "чаршаф-контра" (bed sheet-double) or "излез-контра" (go out-double) and the aim is to win the whole match in a single game (26 MP x 8,