Four players, two partnerships and a 32-card pack. The taker chooses trumps and, together with their partner, must score more points than the opponents, who do their best to send them “dedans”. The best-loved card game in France.
Goal: Together with your partner, be the first team to reach the target score (501 points, or 301 or 1001 depending on the option) by winning tricks rich in points.
Four people play in two teams of two; partners sit opposite each other. A 32-card French pack is used (seven to ace in each of the four suits).
In each hand one suit is trumps. Trumps rank jack, nine, ace, ten, king, queen, eight, seven and are worth 20, 14, 11, 10, 4, 3, 0 and 0 points. The other suits rank ace, ten, king, queen, jack, nine, eight, seven and are worth 11, 10, 4, 3, 2, 0, 0 and 0.
The cards are worth 152 points in all; whoever wins the last trick adds 10 (the “dix de der”), making 162 points per hand.
The deal passes to the next player after every hand. The dealer gives everyone 3 cards and then 2, and turns up the next card of the pack: the “retourne”.
First round: starting with the player after the dealer, each player may “take”, accepting the suit of the turned-up card as trumps, or pass. If everyone passes there is a second round, in which each player may take by naming one of the other three suits as trumps, or pass. If everyone passes again, the cards are reshuffled and the next player deals.
The taker receives the turned-up card plus 2 more cards, and everyone else receives 3: now everybody holds 8 cards.
The player after the dealer leads to the first trick; after that, the winner of each trick leads to the next. Play goes clockwise (in France it is usually anticlockwise — the rules are the same) and there are 8 tricks. A trick is won by the highest trump or, if no trump was played, by the highest card of the suit led.
You must always follow suit. When trumps are led you must, if you can, beat the highest trump already on the table — even if your partner is winning the trick.
If you cannot follow suit: when your partner is winning the trick you may play any card; otherwise you must trump. If an opponent has already trumped you must overtrump; if you cannot, you must still play a lower trump. Only if you have no trumps may you discard any card you like.
A player holding the king and queen of trumps says “belote” when playing the first of them and “rebelote” when playing the second, and their team earns 20 points. Here the announcements are made automatically. The 20 points stay with the team even if the contract fails.
With the “Declarations” option, combinations held in hand score too: a tierce (3 cards of the same suit in sequence) 20 points, a fifty (4 in sequence) 50, a hundred (5 or more in sequence) 100; four of a kind: jacks 200, nines 150, aces, tens, kings or queens 100 (four sevens or four eights do not count). Sequences follow the order 7, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king, ace. Each card can belong to only one combination (belote apart).
Combinations are announced (their type only) during the first trick and compared as soon as the first card of the second trick is played. Only the team with the best combination scores, but it then scores all of its combinations: the higher value wins, then the higher top card, then the combination in trumps; a four of a kind worth 100 beats a hundred. If they are exactly equal, nobody scores. The winning combinations are shown to everyone.
Each team adds up the points in the cards it has won, the dix de der, any belote and its declarations. The contract is made if the taker's team has more points than the opponents (without bonuses, 82 out of 162 is enough): then each team scores its own points.
If the taker's team has fewer points it goes “dedans”: it scores nothing (except its own belote) and the opponents score 162 points plus all the declarations and their own belote.
If the totals are equal (a “litige”, for example 81–81), the defenders score their points at once, while the taker's points are held over and go to the team that wins the next hand; if that hand is tied as well, they add up.
A team that wins all 8 tricks makes “capot” and scores 252 points (the dix de der is worth 100 instead of 10), plus belote; the declarations of the team without a trick go to the capot team. Points are counted exactly, without rounding.
The first team to reach the target wins: 501 points (or 301 or 1001, as chosen). If both teams pass it in the same hand, the one with more points wins; if they are level, another hand is played. Litige points still held over when the game ends are lost.
Take when you hold at least the jack or nine of trumps with a couple of other trumps and an ace or two. When your partner is winning a trick, load it with a ten or an ace; keep track of the trumps already played, and remember that the last trick is worth 10 points.