Banakil Rules: How to Play Banakil, Melds & Scoring

Updated September 29, 2026

Banakil is a fast Rummy-style card game from the Levant in which you and your partner race to lay down runs and sets. This guide covers the Banakil rules exactly as they are played on Kroot, from the deal to the wild cards, cold hands and exact scoring. Once you know the basics, you can play Banakil free on Kroot with friends or against computer players.

What is Banakil?

Banakil (بناكل) is a draw-and-discard melding game from the Rummy family, popular in Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. It is named after its wild cards: every 2 in the deck is a banakil. Unlike many Rummy games, it rewards the cards your team lays down. If you already play Hand, the rhythm will feel familiar, but Banakil has no minimum for your first meld and lets one meld use two different wild cards.

Players and cards

• Players: 4 players in two fixed teams, partners sitting opposite. There is also a 1v1 version for 2 players.
• Cards: 106, made up of two 52-card decks plus 2 Jokers.
• Wild cards: all eight 2s (the banakils) and both Jokers, 10 wilds in all. Every card from 3 up to Ace is a natural card.
• The deal: the dealer changes each round. Everyone gets 18 cards, and the player on the dealer’s right gets a 19th. The rest of the deck is the face-down stock pile.
• The opening: the player holding 19 cards skips the draw on their first turn, may lay down melds, then discards one card face up. That card starts the discard pile, known as the ground (الأرض). Play then moves counterclockwise.

Objective

Each round, get rid of your cards by laying down melds and adding to your team’s melds, then discard your last card to go out. The more your team has laid down, the bigger your score. The first team to reach 222 points wins the match (150 in 1v1).

How a turn works

1. Draw. Take the top card of the stock, or take from the ground. From the ground you can take just the top card or reach deeper: pick any card in the pile and you take it together with every card discarded on top of it. On Kroot the whole ground pile is face up, so you see exactly what you are taking, and you never have to use it straight away.
2. Meld (optional). Lay down new melds, add cards to your own or your partner’s melds, move a banakil, or take back a Joker. There is no minimum for your first meld.
3. Discard. End your turn by discarding exactly one card onto the ground. You may not discard a card you took from the ground on the same turn.

Going out: the round ends when a player lays down every card but one and discards that last card. If the stock runs out before anyone goes out, the round ends and nobody’s score changes.

Melds and the banakil wild

Banakil allows only two kinds of meld, each with at least three cards:

• Aces are high only and a 2 is never a natural card, so the longest run goes from 3 to Ace.
• Sets are only 3s or Aces. Three 7s or three Kings are not a legal meld, and a set cannot contain two identical cards.
• Wild cards (any 2 or a Joker) stand in for any card you are missing. A meld may hold at most one banakil and one Joker, and both may sit in the same meld. Every meld needs at least one natural card.
• Laying off is for your team only. Add cards to your own melds or your partner’s, never to the opponents’. In 1v1 you can only add to your own.
• Taking back a Joker. If a Joker in one of your team’s melds stands for a card you hold, put the real card in its place and take the Joker into your hand.
• Moving a banakil. A banakil cannot be taken back. Instead, if you hold the card it stands for in a run, your natural card takes its spot and the banakil slides to the open end. For example, 5♥ 6♥ [2 as 7♥] 8♥ plus your 7♥ becomes 5♥ 6♥ 7♥ 8♥ [2 as 9♥]. If the run cannot grow at either end, the move is not available.

A wild card always scores its own value, 2 for a banakil and 4 for a Joker, never the value of the card it represents.

Cold hands vs normal rounds

In a normal round, the player who goes out had already laid cards on earlier turns.

A cold hand is when the player going out had laid nothing earlier in the round and puts their whole hand down in one turn:

• If the opponents had laid down some cards this round, your team scores at least 51.
• If the opponents had laid down nothing, your team scores at least 102.
• If your normal total (20 plus the cards your team laid) is higher, you keep the higher figure.
• The opponents score 0 for the round. They lose nothing for the cards left in their hands.

Scoring

“Cards laid” covers new melds and every card added to a meld this round. The losing side gets no credit for cards it laid down. Half points are rounded for each player in that player’s favour: credits round up, and a penalty drops the extra half, so 2.5 points left in hand costs 2.

Example: your partner goes out after laying 24 points of cards this round, and you laid 9, so your team scores 20 + 24 + 9 = 53. One opponent still holds 6♦, 8♣ and K♠ (2.5, so -2) and the other holds a Joker and 4♥ (4.5, so -4). Their team scores -6.

Winning the match: the game ends after the round in which a team reaches 222 or more (150 in 1v1). The higher total wins, even if both sides pass the target in the same round.

Strategy tips for beginners

• Build on your partner’s melds. Every card you add scores for your team and shrinks your hand.
• Don’t collect pairs of the wrong rank. Only 3s and Aces make sets; everything else belongs in runs.
• Weigh a cold hand carefully. Holding back for one big turn can be worth 51 or 102 and zero out the opponents, but if someone else goes out first, every card in your hand counts against you.
• Don’t sit on Jokers. A Joker earns 4 when laid and costs 4 if you are caught holding it.
• Read the ground pile. A deep pickup can complete several melds, but you cannot throw those cards back that turn, and any you fail to lay become a penalty.

Play Banakil online

On Kroot you can play Banakil in your browser, in Arabic or English, as a 4-player partnership or head to head in 1v1. Tap Quick Play to start instantly against computer players, or create a public or private room and invite friends with a link. Empty seats fill with AI players and the scoreboard does the maths for you. Ready to deal? Play Banakil free on Kroot.