Italy's simplest classic: forty cards, one trump, no need to follow suit.
The card game of Italy, and about as easy to learn as a good game gets. Two, four or six players, and there is no obligation to follow suit at all.
40 cards — the 52-card deck with eights, nines and tens removed, or an Italian pack. Three cards each.
Ace, three, king, queen, jack, seven, six, five, four, two. The three sitting second is the first thing to learn.
Ace 11, three 10, king 4, queen 3, jack 2, everything else nothing. 120 points in the deck, and 61 wins.
After dealing, one card is turned face up and placed half under the remaining deck. Its suit is the briscola — trump for the whole hand — and that card is the last one anybody draws.
The player to the dealer's right leads. You may play absolutely any card. The trick goes to the highest trump, or if none was played, the highest card of the suit led. A card of another suit entirely simply cannot win.
After each trick, the winner draws first from the deck and the others follow, so everyone keeps three cards until it runs out.
The five-player version, and the one worth graduating to. Before play, a player bids to name a card; whoever holds it is their secret partner, and nobody knows until it appears.
In partnership play at four, signalling to your partner with agreed facial gestures is not cheating — it is part of the game, and the opponents are watching for it.