BRISCOLA – Rules

 

Suits:


The four suits in the Italian deck are Cups, Coins, Batons and Swords.
 

Ranks:


The rank of each card in Briscola is as follows: Ace, Three, King, Knight, Page, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Two.
 

Points:


Five cards have point values associated with them as follows, the remaining cards are worth no points. There are therefore 120 total points in a deck – 30 points in each suit times four suits.

Ace    11 points
Three  10 points
King   4 points
Knight 3 points
Page   2 points
 

Object:


The object of Briscola is for you to collect more points than your opponent. Therefore you need more than 60 points to win the game.
 

Game Play:


At the start of the game each player is dealt three cards face down. The top card on the stack is then turned over, placed next to the stack and becomes the trump (Briscola) suit.
Each player in turn throws a card from his or her hand, and there is no obligation to follow suit. In order to win the trick you must have thrown the highest ranking card in the suit led, or have thrown the highest ranking trump card. When both players have thrown a card the winner is determined and any points in the trick are added to his or her score.

The winner of the trick then picks up the top card off the stack and adds it to his or her hand, and the other player does the same. When the stack is exhausted the last player picks up the original trump card which was left on the table. The winner of the previous trick then leads the first card of the next trick, and play continues as before. The game is over when all the cards have been played and the score determines the winner.