Playcard games

Briscola: questions and answers

Short answers to the questions people ask most about Briscola. Everything else is in the full rules.

How many cards and players does Briscola need?
Forty cards: an Italian pack, or a standard 52-card deck with the eights, nines and tens taken out. Everyone holds three. It is a game for two, or four in partnerships, and six can play in three pairs at a real table; here the table deals to two or four, never three, because forty cards will not divide evenly.
What order do the cards rank in?
Ace, three, king, queen, jack, then seven, six, five, four and two. The three sitting second, above the king, is the first thing to learn and the first thing forgotten.
How many points are the cards worth?
Ace 11, three 10, king 4, queen 3, jack 2, and everything else nothing. That makes 120 points in the pack, so 61 wins the deal. Sixty each is a draw, and that deal counts for nobody.
Do you have to follow suit in Briscola?
No, never. You may play any card you hold. The trick goes to the highest trump, or if no trump was played, to the highest card of the suit led. A card of any other suit cannot win, however high it is.
How is the trump chosen?
After the deal one card is turned face up and laid half under the stock. Its suit is trump — the briscola — for the whole deal, and that card is the last one anybody draws, so everyone knows all game who will end up with it.
Who leads, and who draws first?
The player to the dealer's right leads, and play goes round to the right, the Italian way. After each trick the winner draws first and leads the next one, so everybody keeps three cards until the stock is gone. The last three tricks are played with nothing left to draw.
How long is a game of Briscola?
A deal is over when every card has been played, which is twenty tricks for two players and ten for four. Players agree whether a game is one deal or best of three; here the host picks one deal, first to two or first to three. A deal that ends sixty each does not count.
Is Briscola the same as Spanish Brisca and Portuguese Bisca?
Spanish brisca is the same game with a Spanish pack — the jack is the sota and the queen the caballo — and many Spanish tables let the player holding the two or seven of trumps swap it for the turned card. Portuguese bisca usually puts the seven second, worth ten, where briscola has the three. This table plays the Italian rules, without the swap.