Omi

Introduction

Omi is a popular card game played in Sri Lanka: in some regions it is known as Oombi. Omi is a straightforward 4-player partnership plain-trick game of the Whist type, somewhat similar to the Indian and Pakistani game Court Piece in that the first player has to choose trumps on the basis of a the first few cards. The game is played using 32 cards of a standard deck, the other cards being used as tokens for scoring.

Play

The player to dealer's right, who announced the trump suit, leads any card to the first trick. The other players play in turn, anticlockwise around the table, and must follow suit if able to; a player who holds no card of the suit led may play any card.

Scoring

After the eighth trick, the tricks won by each team are counted. Depending on the number of tricks, a certain amount of tokens are earned. The winners are the first team to win 10 or more tokens.