Lórum: Hungary’s Multi-Round Compendium Card Game

Introduction to Lórum

Lórum is one of Hungary’s most beloved traditional card games, and it belongs to a special category known as compendium games — a format where several different card games are played in sequence during a single session, with a cumulative score tracked across all of them. Think of it as a card game tournament packed into one sitting, where each round presents a completely different challenge.

The game has been a staple of Hungarian social gatherings for well over a century. Families pass the rules down through generations, and it remains popular in homes, cafes, and clubs across Hungary today. Despite its deep roots in Hungarian culture, Lórum is relatively unknown outside the country — which is a shame, because it offers a richly varied and strategic card-playing experience that fans of Hearts, Barbu, or other trick-avoidance games would thoroughly enjoy.

What makes Lórum special is its structure: a complete game consists of 8 distinct rounds, each with its own rules and penalty conditions. In one round you might be desperately trying to avoid winning tricks, while in the next you are focused on dodging a single specific card. The final round abandons trick-taking entirely in favour of a domino-style sequencing game. This variety means that different skills are tested throughout, and a player who struggles in one round may excel in the next.

The Deck

Lórum is traditionally played with the 32-card Hungarian deck, known as Magyar kártya. This deck is a member of the wider family of German-suited playing cards and features four suits:

• Makk (Acorns)
• Tök (Bells / Pumpkins)
• Piros (Hearts / Red)
• Zöld (Leaves / Green)

Each suit contains 8 cards ranked from lowest to highest: 7, 8, 9, 10, Unter (Untó), Ober (Felső), King (Király), and Ace (Ász). The Unter and Ober are court cards roughly equivalent to the Jack and Queen in a French-suited deck, though they carry their own distinctive artwork depicting figures standing below (unter) and above (ober) the suit symbol.

If you do not have a Hungarian deck, you can use any 32-card German-suited deck (as used in Schnapsen or Schafkopf), or you can create a substitute from a standard 52-card French-suited deck by removing all cards below 7 — strip out the 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, and 6s from each suit. In this case, Jacks replace Unters, Queens replace Obers, and the four suits map to Clubs (Acorns), Diamonds (Bells), Hearts (Hearts), and Spades (Leaves).

Object of the Game

The overall objective across all 8 rounds of Lórum is straightforward: accumulate the fewest penalty points possible. Each round assigns penalties based on different criteria — tricks won, specific cards captured, or finishing position — and all penalties are tallied at the end. The player with the lowest total after a complete set of 8 rounds wins.

Because each round penalises something different, you must constantly adjust your strategy. A hand full of high cards might be a disaster in Round 1 (where every trick hurts) but perfectly manageable in Round 6 (where only one specific card matters). This strategic flexibility is what gives Lórum its depth and replayability.

Setup and Deal

Lórum requires exactly 4 players seated around a table. The 32-card deck divides perfectly into 4 hands of 8 cards each, with no remainder and no stock pile.

To begin, choose a first dealer by any agreed method — drawing the highest card, youngest player, or simply volunteering. The dealer shuffles the deck thoroughly and offers a cut to the player on their left. Cards are then dealt clockwise, typically in two batches of 4, so each player receives all 8 cards.

The player to the dealer’s right (or in some traditions, the player to the dealer’s left) leads the first trick. After all 8 rounds have been completed, the deal passes clockwise to the next player, and a new set of 8 rounds begins. Most groups agree beforehand on whether to play one set, two sets, or four sets (one full rotation of the dealer).

The 8 Rounds of Lórum

Each round is played as a separate trick-taking game (except the final round). At the start of each round, the cards are re-shuffled and re-dealt. There is no trump suit in any round — the highest card of the led suit always takes the trick. Players must follow suit if they can; if they cannot, they may discard any card.

Round 1 — Lórum (No Tricks)

The game’s namesake round is also the most straightforward: avoid winning tricks. Every trick you take scores 1 penalty point. Since each player is dealt 8 cards and there are 8 tricks in a round, the penalties for this round range from 0 to 8, and the total always sums to 8 across all four players.

This round rewards careful hand management. Leading with low cards and ducking under opponents’ leads are the primary tactics. Watch what has been played and try to keep track of which high cards are still out.

Round 2 — Zsírozás Round (No Fat Cards)

In this round, the focus shifts to avoiding Aces and Tens — known as “fat cards” (zsíros lapok) because they carry the most point value in many Hungarian card games. Each Ace or Ten you capture in a trick scores 2 penalty points. Winning a trick that contains no fat cards costs you nothing.

With 4 Aces and 4 Tens in the deck, 16 penalty points are distributed in total. Tricks containing multiple fat cards are especially dangerous. You might safely win several tricks as long as they are “lean” — it is only the Aces and Tens that hurt.

Round 3 — Felső / Obers (No Queens)

This round penalises capturing Obers (or Queens, in a French-suited deck). Each Ober taken scores 4 penalty points, for a total of 16 points distributed across all four players. Tricks without an Ober are completely safe.

Because there are only 4 Obers in the deck, this round often comes down to a few critical tricks. If you hold an Ober, your goal is to play it when someone else will win the trick. If you don’t hold any Obers, you can play more aggressively.

Round 4 — Alsó / Unters (No Jacks)

The mirror image of Round 3: avoid capturing Unters (Jacks). Each Unter taken costs 4 penalty points, again totalling 16 points. The strategy is nearly identical to the Obers round but targets different cards, which may sit in completely different hands.

Round 5 — Király / Kings (No Kings)

Completing the court card trilogy, this round penalises capturing Kings. Each King scores 4 penalty points, totalling 16 points. By this stage of the game, experienced players will have noticed that Rounds 3 through 5 collectively penalise all 12 court cards, making them a trio that rewards tracking which courts have already appeared.

Round 6 — Piros Király (Red King)

One of the most dramatic rounds in Lórum. The only penalty card is the King of Hearts (Piros Király), and it carries a massive 16 penalty points. Every other card is harmless. This makes the round feel like a tense game of hot potato: whoever ends up winning the trick that contains the King of Hearts absorbs all 16 points.

If you hold the King of Hearts, you must time its release carefully — play it when another player is forced to win the trick. If you do not hold it, you need to be wary of being forced to win a trick in the Hearts suit when the King might appear. This round produces the most memorable moments in Lórum, with gasps and groans around the table when the dreaded card lands.

Round 7 — Utolsó (Last Trick)

Another high-stakes round: the only thing that matters is the final trick. Whoever wins the 8th and last trick of the round receives 16 penalty points. The first 7 tricks are entirely free of consequence — you can win all of them without any penalty.

This creates a fascinating dynamic where the first part of the round is a strategic setup for the finale. Players jockey to control what happens in the last trick, trying to ensure they hold low cards at the end while forcing opponents to hold high ones. Experienced players think several tricks ahead, carefully managing which cards they retain for the endgame.

Round 8 — Lórum Dominó

The final round breaks away from trick-taking entirely. Instead, it uses a domino-style sequencing mechanism. The player who holds a designated starting card (traditionally the 7 of Acorns or the 7 of Hearts, depending on house rules) places it face-up on the table. Play then proceeds clockwise.

On your turn, you may play a card that extends any of the sequences on the table — either one rank higher or one rank lower in the same suit. For example, if the Acorns sequence shows 7-8-9, you could add the 10 of Acorns above it or the 6 of Acorns below it (if 6s are used; in a 32-card deck the 7 is the lowest, so sequences only extend upward from 7). New sequences start when a player places a 7 of a suit not yet on the table.

If you cannot play a card, you pass. The first player to empty their hand entirely wins the round and scores 0 penalty points. All remaining players receive penalty points equal to the number of cards left in their hand. This round rewards a completely different skill set: reading the table, timing your plays, and sometimes strategically blocking opponents by holding key sequence cards.

Scoring System

The penalty points for each round are summarised below. Keep a written score sheet — the totals add up quickly.

The maximum possible penalty in a single set is 112 points (if one unlucky player took every penalty in every round), but in practice scores are distributed among all four players. A typical winning score after one set might be anywhere from 15 to 35 points, while a poor performance might reach 50 or more.

Strategy Tips

Similarities to Hearts and Barbu

If you have played the popular American card game Hearts, many aspects of Lórum will feel familiar. Both are trick-avoidance games where penalty points are bad, and both feature rounds (or aspects) where specific cards carry heavy penalties — the Queen of Spades in Hearts is conceptually similar to the King of Hearts in Lórum’s Round 6.

However, Lórum is far more varied than Hearts because it changes the rules every round. Hearts uses the same penalty structure throughout (avoid Hearts and the Queen of Spades), while Lórum cycles through 8 completely different challenges.

The closer comparison is to the French game Barbu (also known as Le Barbu or Tafferan), which is also a compendium game with multiple rounds of different trick-avoidance challenges. Barbu typically features 7 contracts including “no tricks,” “no hearts,” “no queens,” “no last trick,” and others. The structure is strikingly similar to Lórum, and it is likely that both games share a common Central European ancestor. The key differences are that Barbu is usually played with a French-suited deck, allows the dealer to choose which contract to play, and sometimes includes “positive” contracts where you want to win tricks.

Another related Hungarian game is Ulti, Hungary’s national card game, which also uses the 32-card Magyar kártya deck. While Ulti is a different style of game (a three-player trick-taking game with bidding), players who enjoy one often enjoy the other, and Lórum is sometimes played as a lighter warm-up before an Ulti session.

Frequently Asked Questions