How to play Briscola

Objective

Capture cards worth at least 61 points to win a hand. Briscola has 120 card points in total; 60 each is a draw. The number of tricks you win is not your score.

This page teaches two-player Briscola, using the French-suited court order king, queen, jack. Four-player partnership Briscola is a separate format.

Setup

Use a 40-card Italian deck, or remove the jokers, eights, nines and tens from an ordinary deck. Each suit then has ace, 2–7, jack, queen and king.

Shuffle and deal three cards each. Turn the next card face up: its suit is trump, also called briscola, for the whole hand. Put the remaining stock face down across it, leaving its suit visible. The exposed card is the last card to be drawn, not a discard.

The non-dealer leads the first trick. A trick consists of one card from each player; its winner captures both.

Card ranking and points

Highest to lowest in every suit: A, 3, K, Q, J, 7, 6, 5, 4, 2.

Card	Captured points
Ace	11
Three	10
King	4
Queen	3
Jack	2
Seven, six, five, four or two	0

With Italian-suited cards, the cavallo (knight) takes the queen’s place and the fante (knave) the jack’s. Keep the same ranking and points. This page does not swap queen and jack as some regional French-suited versions do.

Turns

The leader plays a card face up. The other player answers with any card: there is no obligation to follow suit, trump, or beat the lead.

Resolve the trick in this order:

1. If either card is trump, the highest trump wins.
2. Otherwise, the higher-ranked card of the suit led wins. An off-suit card cannot win, however valuable it is.

The winner puts both cards face down in their captured pile, draws the top stock card, and then the loser draws. The winner leads the next trick.

Worked tricks

Suppose hearts are trump:

• K♣ led, 3♣ answered: the three wins because it ranks above the king. The winner captures 10 + 4 = 14 points.
• A♦ led, 2♥ answered: the two wins because it is trump, despite scoring zero itself. Its player captures the ace’s 11 points.
• 7♠ led, A♣ answered: the seven wins. Neither card is trump, and clubs do not match the spade lead. The leader captures 11 points.

You may choose any of these answers even when you could follow the led suit with a different card.

The final draws

On the last refill, the trick winner takes the last face-down stock card and the loser takes the exposed trump card. Both still have three cards.

Play those final three tricks without drawing. The trump suit, ranking and freedom to play any card remain unchanged. Do not introduce a follow-suit requirement when the stock empties.

Winning

After all 40 cards have been played, count only the point values in your captured pile. For example, 64–56 uses all 120 points and the player with 64 wins. 60–60 is a draw.

Each suit contains 11 + 10 + 4 + 3 + 2 = 30 points, giving 120 across four suits. If the scores do not total 120, recheck your captured piles and the card-value table.

This page scores one completed hand. Agree any multi-hand match format separately; do not stop drawing or playing simply because a player believes they have reached 61.

Common mistakes

• Treating a three as lower than a king.
• Keeping eights, nines or tens in the French-suited deck.
• Following suit because you assume every trick-taking game requires it.
• Drawing the loser’s card before the winner’s.
• Leaving the exposed trump card out of the last refill.
• Counting tricks instead of captured card points.

Variants

Pagat records a regional French-suited order where jack scores 3 and queen scores 2; this page uses queen 3 and jack 2 throughout. Some tables replace an exposed ace or three before starting. Here, any exposed card sets trump and stays in the deck.

Four-player Briscola uses partnerships. Briscola Chiamata and Briscola Scoperta have their own rules and are not covered by this two-player page.

For a partnership trump game with a follow-suit requirement, try Euchre.

Common questions

Can you play Briscola with a normal deck?

Yes. Remove jokers and every eight, nine and ten to leave 40 cards. Use the king–queen–jack court order shown here.

Is the three higher than the king in Briscola?

Yes. Only the ace ranks above the three within a suit. Trump still beats every non-trump card.

Do you have to follow suit in Briscola?

No, even after the stock is empty. You may play any card from your hand.

Who draws first after a trick?

The trick winner, then the loser. The winner also leads next.

Who takes the face-up trump card?

The loser of the trick before the last refill. The winner takes the final face-down card first.

What happens if both players score 60?

The hand is a draw. Neither player has the 61 points needed to win.