DEV Community: khalid ali The latest articles on DEV Community by khalid ali (@khalid_ali_77fe2769690065). https://dev.to/khalid_ali_77fe2769690065 https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4083271%2F581dcb70-0075-4fcc-9437-a2a2b2e8b328.jpg DEV Community: khalid ali https://dev.to/khalid_ali_77fe2769690065 en Baloot Goes Digital: Building Saudi Arabia's Card Game with a Real RL-Trained AI khalid ali Tue, 18 Aug 2026 12:33:07 +0000 https://dev.to/khalid_ali_77fe2769690065/baloot-goes-digital-building-saudi-arabias-card-game-with-a-real-rl-trained-ai-1gbi https://dev.to/khalid_ali_77fe2769690065/baloot-goes-digital-building-saudi-arabias-card-game-with-a-real-rl-trained-ai-1gbi <p>Baloot is Saudi Arabia's national card game — 32 cards, 4 players, 2 teams, and a bidding system (Sun / Hokm) that rewards reading your opponents.</p> <p>Most Baloot apps are either stuffed with ads or built around buying coins. <strong>Arb'a Baloot</strong> takes the opposite approach: completely free, no ads, no in-app purchases.</p> <h2> The interesting part: a real AI </h2> <p>Instead of hard-coded rules, the AI opponent was trained with <strong>reinforcement learning</strong> over millions of self-play rounds — the same family of techniques behind AlphaGo. It bids Sun or Hokm like a strong human, counts cards, punishes mistakes, and works fully offline.</p> <h2> Features </h2> <ul> <li>Online multiplayer with private invite-code rooms</li> <li>Full rule set: projects (Sira, Fifty, Hundred, Four Hundred, Baloot) and doubling up to Qahwa</li> <li>Automatic score counting with correct rounding</li> <li>Weekly tournaments with a public leaderboard</li> <li>Rated 5.0 on the App Store · iPhone, iPad, Mac &amp; Vision Pro</li> </ul> <h2> Links </h2> <ul> <li>Website: <a href="https://baloot.kriyadh.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://baloot.kriyadh.com</a> </li> <li>Full rules (Arabic): <a href="https://baloot.kriyadh.com/rules" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://baloot.kriyadh.com/rules</a> </li> <li>App Store: <a href="https://apps.apple.com/app/id6759184291" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://apps.apple.com/app/id6759184291</a> </li> <li>Source/README: <a href="https://github.com/nrdx/arb3a-baloot" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://github.com/nrdx/arb3a-baloot</a> </li> </ul> gamedevaishowdev