How to play Briscola

Everything you need for your first game: the cards, the points, how a trick is won and how a match is decided. It takes ten minutes to learn and a lifetime to play well.

What you need

A forty-card deck. There are four suits: cups (coppe), coins (denari), swords (spade) and clubs (bastoni). Each suit has an ace, the cards from two to seven, and three court cards: the jack (fante), the knight (cavallo) and the king (re). With a French-suited deck, take out the eights, nines and tens; the queen stands in for the knight.

Briscola is played by two, by three, or by four in two pairs. Nothing else is needed: points are counted at the end from the cards each side has taken.

What each card is worth

Only five cards in each suit score. Everything else is worth nothing.

Each suit holds thirty points, so the whole deck holds 120. Aces and threes are called carichi, “loads”: between them they are worth 84 of the 120 points. The blank cards are called lisci, “smooth” cards, or scartine.

The order of the cards

Within a suit the ace is highest. Then comes the three, then the king, knight and jack, and last the 7, 6, 5, 4 and 2.

The three is what catches new players out: it is worth ten points and beats the king, but loses to the ace. The two is the weakest card in every suit.

Trumps and the deal

Shuffle and deal three cards to each player, one at a time. Turn the next card face up and slide it crosswise under the stock so everyone can see it. Its suit is the briscola, the trump suit, for the whole game.

Any trump beats any card of another suit. Even the two of trumps, worth nothing, takes the ace of a plain suit.

The face-up card stays where it is until the end, and it is the very last card to be drawn. In the game, who leads first against the computer is decided at random; when you play several games at the same online table, the first lead passes from player to player.

Who wins the trick

The player on lead plays one card face up, then everyone else plays one in turn. There is no obligation to follow suit in Briscola: you may always play any card you like.

The trick is won like this:

• If any trump has been played, the highest trump wins.
• If there are no trumps, the highest card of the suit led wins.
• A card of any other suit never wins, however many points it carries.

The winner gathers every card on the table and keeps them face down in a personal pile.

Drawing after each trick

After every trick each player draws one card from the stock, so that everyone is back to three. The winner of the trick draws first, then the others in playing order. The winner also leads to the next trick.

The last player to draw is always the one who will play last in the next trick. When only the face-up card is left, it goes to that player. Because it is a known trump, the whole table knows who has it.

When the stock runs out

Once the stock is gone nobody draws, and you play out the cards left in your hand. These are the tense tricks: whoever held on to aces and threes plays them here.

Counting the points and winning

When all the cards are played, everyone counts the points in their pile. In pairs, the two partners add theirs together.

• With two players or two pairs you need at least 61 points. A 60 to 60 finish is a draw.
• With three players, whoever has the most points wins. If the top two are level, it is a draw between them.

During play nobody announces points or looks back through the tricks. In the game, too, the score only appears at the end.

Briscola for two players

This is the most common form. All forty cards are used. After the deal there are thirty-four cards to draw, the face-up card included, so there are seventeen rounds of drawing. Three more tricks follow without drawing, twenty tricks in all.

With two players the face-up card goes to whoever loses the seventeenth trick. The winner of that trick draws the last face-down card.

Briscola for three players

With three players the two of cups comes out of the deck. That leaves thirty-nine cards, thirteen for each player, and since the two scores nothing the deck still holds 120 points. With the French-suited deck in the game, the card removed is the two of hearts, which takes the place of cups.

Everyone plays for themselves. Three cards each, a trump turned up, and a draw after every trick, just as with two. Here you do not need 61: you win by outscoring the other two, which can happen with fewer than fifty.

Briscola in pairs

Four players in two partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other. All forty cards are used and each player plays ten.

At the end partners add their points together: the pair that reaches 61 wins, and 60 each is a draw.

While there are cards to draw, your partner’s hand is as secret as your opponents'. There are no signals between partners in the game: you work out what your partner holds from what they play. When you set up a table for pairs with friends, though, you can switch on the traditional endgame rule: once the stock is empty, partners see each other’s cards and play the last tricks together.

A worked example

The face-up card is the five of cups, so cups are trumps. Two players.

1. You lead the four of clubs, worth nothing. Your opponent plays the three of clubs: same suit and higher, so they win it. They take 10 points, draw first and lead next.
2. They lead the king of swords. You have no higher sword and do not want to spend a trump on 4 points. You also hold the ace of coins, but you must not throw it: coins are not the suit led and not trumps, so the ace would not win and your opponent would collect 15 points. You play a blank card, the six of clubs, and give up just 4.
3. Now your opponent leads the ace of swords. You hold the two of cups. It is a trump, worth nothing, and it takes 11 points.

Three tricks, most of the game: the suit led rules, a third suit never wins, and a tiny trump can carry off an ace.

Common beginner mistakes

• Sitting on a three for too long. Waiting for the perfect moment often ends with throwing it away on a lost trick.
• Throwing a high card of the wrong suit. An ace that is neither trumps nor the suit led cannot win: that is eleven points handed over.
• Trumping a trick worth nothing. Spending a trump on a blank card wastes a strong card for zero points.
• Using a big trump when a small one will do. If the two of trumps wins the trick, keep the ace.
• Forgetting the face-up card. It is a trump that will come back into play, and you already know who will draw it.

A short glossary

• Briscola: the trump suit set by the face-up card; also any card of that suit.
• Carico: an ace or a three. Caricare means putting one on a trick.
• Liscio: a card worth no points; also scartina.
• Mano: one round in which everyone plays a card. Essere di mano means to lead.
• Presa: the cards you collect by winning a trick.
• Mazzetto: your pile of won cards, kept face down until the end.
• Tagliare: to trump, winning a trick of another suit with a trump.
• Strozzo: winning with the ace or three of the suit led, taking every point on the table.
• Carta padrona: the highest card still in play in its suit, which only a trump can beat.
• Cappotto: taking all 120 points.

Variants you may meet

Briscola changes from town to town. These rules exist, but the game does not use them.

• In some areas the seven replaces the three as the second-highest card.
• In some places a player holding the two of trumps may swap it for the face-up card.
• Briscola chiamata is for five: all the cards are dealt, the winner of the bidding calls a card, its suit becomes trumps, and whoever holds that card becomes their secret partner.
• In briscola scoperta the cards are played face up and memory decides the game.