Briscola strategy

Do not lead your aces and threes

The aces and threes are almost three quarters of the points in the pack. Lead one and your opponent can take it with any trump, or with the ace if you led a three, and that trick alone can settle the deal.

Lead a card worth nothing instead — a two, a four, a seven of a plain suit. Your opponent then has to decide whether to spend something to take it, and most of the time it is not worth it.

Take their points with a trump

The best trick in the game is a small trump on top of an opponent's ace or three: one card that costs nothing takes ten or eleven points. Keep a low trump in hand for exactly that moment.

And the reverse: if you are second to play and the trick holds nothing, do not throw a point onto it. Give away a card worth nothing and let it go.

Count the trumps

There are ten trumps, and the ace and three of them are worth more than anything else you can hold. Keep track of which have gone. Once the ace of trumps has shown, your three of trumps is safe; until then, leading it is a gamble.

The turned card counts too. You know where it is going: the player who draws last, which you can work out from who is winning the tricks as the stock runs down.

Play the end with your eyes open

When the stock is empty there are three tricks left and nothing more to draw. A player who has watched every card can name the other hand at two players, and plays those three tricks perfectly.

Save something for them. A trump kept until the end is a trick you can choose; an ace kept until the end, with its three already gone, is eleven points nobody can take from you.

With a partner, feed the trick

At four, once your partner is winning a trick, throw your points onto it — an ace or a three you could not have played safely by leading. That is how partnerships score.

The last player into a trick knows exactly what it is worth, so let them do the deciding. When you play before your partner, play cheaply and leave the choice to them.