The great Italian classic: every trick can be worth an Ace or a Three. One face-up card sets the trump suit, the suit that beats all the others. Play one-on-one, three-handed or in pairs, and collect more than 60 of the 120 points.
Goal: Win more than 60 of the 120 points in the deck with the cards you capture in tricks.
Briscola uses the 40-card Italian deck: four suits (coins, cups, swords and clubs) of ten cards each, from the Ace to the 7, then the Jack (Fante), the Knight (Cavallo) and the King (Re). Cards beat each other in this order, from highest to lowest: Ace, Three, King, Knight, Jack, 7, 6, 5, 4, 2.
Only five cards score points: Ace 11, Three 10, King 4, Knight 3, Jack 2. All the others are worth nothing (the Italians call them “lisce”, plain cards; the Ace and the Three are the “carichi”, the heavy cards). The whole deck holds 120 points.
The dealer shuffles and gives three cards to each player, then turns the next card face up and slides it sideways under the stock. Its suit is the trump suit (the briscola), which beats every other suit. That card stays there until the end and is the very last one drawn.
The player after the dealer leads the first trick. The first dealer is chosen at random, then the deal passes to the next player after every hand.
With 3 players the 2 of coins is removed (39 cards left) and everyone plays for themselves. With 4 players you play in two partnerships, partners sitting opposite each other; signals between partners are not allowed.
The leader plays any card, then the other players each play one card in turn, clockwise. There are no obligations: you do not have to follow suit, win the trick or play a trump.
The highest trump wins the trick; if no trump was played, the highest card of the suit that was led wins. A card of any other suit can never win.
The winner collects all the cards played and leads the next trick.
After each trick every player draws one card from the stock, starting with the winner and continuing in order of play, so that everyone is back to three cards. The last card drawn is the face-up trump: the last player in the drawing order takes it (with two players, whoever lost the last trick before the stock ran out).
Once the stock is gone, the last three tricks are played with the cards left in hand, with no more drawing. The hand ends when all the cards have been played (20 tricks with two players, 13 with three, 10 with four).
At the end each player (or pair) adds up the points of the cards they captured. With two or four players, more than 60 points wins; 60–60 is a draw.
With three players, the highest score wins; if two or three players tie for the top spot, the hand is a draw.
As at a real table, the running score is not shown during the hand: you keep count in your head. The points appear when the hand is over.
You can play a single hand or a series: best of 3 (first to win 2 hands) or best of 5 (first to win 3). After each hand the deal passes to the next player and a fresh hand begins.
A drawn hand counts for nobody and is simply replayed.
With this variant, a player who has just won a trick and holds the 7 of trumps may swap it for the face-up trump card, but only if that card is higher than the 7 (Ace, Three, King, Knight or Jack). It is not allowed on the first trick of a hand.
The 7 goes under the stock in place of the face-up card, and the card taken goes into the swapper’s hand: everyone sees it, so everyone knows who holds it. Swapping does not use up your turn: you then play a card as usual.
Don’t give away your Aces and Threes: playing one on a trick that a trump can beat just hands your opponent 10 or 11 points.
Win tricks with the lowest card that does the job and keep your high trumps for rich tricks; throw away plain cards when winning is not worth it.
Keep track of the trumps already played: knowing whether the Ace and the Three of trumps are still out changes every decision. In a partnership, if your partner is safely winning the trick, “load” it with an Ace or a Three.