Any card is legal. Win the points, then the hands.
Two or four players · best of three hands · anticlockwise
HAND COMPLETE
Waiting for the host to deal.
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Hold your aces.
Save your briscola.
Play Italy's classic trick-taking game free in your browser with no download or sign-up: two players against the computer, or two against two with a computer partner. Forty cards, three in hand, one turned up as the briscola, and 61 of the 120 points to win the hand. Easy, Standard and Expert opponents, best-of-three matches, and a guide with every card value.
Classic Briscola · 2 or 4 seats · Best of 3 hands to 61
Updated
New to Briscola? Learn the rulesHOW TO PLAY
Play Briscola with a 40-card deck and two players, or four players in opposite partnerships. Remove the 8s, 9s and 10s from a normal deck. Here diamonds stand for coins, hearts cups, clubs batons and spades swords. Play goes anticlockwise.
Deal three cards each. Turn the next card face up and put it under the stock: its suit is the briscola, or trump. Any trump beats a card of another suit. The player to the dealer’s right leads.
Spades are briscola: even the two of spades beats a non-spade ace.
You do not have to follow suit or play a trump. The highest trump wins; without one, the highest card of the suit led wins. A three ranks above a king. An off-suit ace loses to a led seven unless the ace is trump.
The three of hearts beats the king of hearts and takes both cards’ points.
The winner takes the trick, draws the next stock card, then the others draw in anticlockwise order. The winner leads again. The face-up briscola is drawn last: after trick 17 with two players or trick 7 with four.
The winner draws first. The last drawer takes the face-up briscola.
When stock empties, three cards remain in each hand. Play the final three tricks without drawing. With two players you can infer the other three cards by remembering everything already played.
Stock empty: play three more tricks, then count the points.
Partners sit opposite, cannot see one another’s cards and pool their points. Four-player hands have ten tricks; two-player hands have twenty. There are no signal buttons. The dealer rotates anticlockwise after each hand, including a draw.
Trump exchange starts off. When enabled, on your lead before a card is played and while face-down stock remains, swap the trump 2 for any face-up card, or the trump 7 for a point card. This table deliberately states that house rule; some tables allow the 2 only for a low card. The swapped card becomes the new last card drawn.
Options offers single-hand, best-of-three or best-of-five matches. Show points taken is a display preference. Cards left shows which faces have been played, never who holds an unplayed card; using it on your turn marks practice as assisted. Hint and Undo also mark assisted play. Undo cannot reveal a card drawn from face-down stock.
ACE, THREE, KING
There are 120 points in the deck, thirty per suit. Take at least 61 to win a hand; 60–60 counts for neither side.
| French card | Italian name | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Ace | Asso | 11 |
| Three | Tre | 10 |
| King | Re | 4 |
| Queen | Cavallo · knight | 3 |
| Jack | Fante | 2 |
| 7, 6, 5, 4, 2 | Lisci · plain cards | 0 |
Best of three means first to two hand wins; best of five means first to three. A drawn hand is replayed and the dealer still rotates. Single hand also replays a draw. The table shows card points separately from the running hands-won score.
If hearts are led with 3♥ and you play A♥, you win 10 + 11 = 21 points. If you play A♣ instead and clubs are not briscola, the heart wins all 21. A low briscola would beat either non-trump card.
SAVE WHAT WINS
A low briscola can capture an ace or three of another suit. Spending your highest trump on a zero-point trick often gives away control without earning points.
If your partner is winning and nobody can trump later, give them your points. An off-suit ace helps the winning side; make sure that side is yours.
Keep track of aces, threes and the top trumps. In two-player endgames the six unplayed cards are the two hands, so public elimination becomes exact. In four-player games, ownership remains uncertain.
QUICK ANSWERS
It is the Italian word for the trump suit, and by extension the trump card turned up at the start of a hand and the game itself. On this table the badge says "Briscola: ♠" when spades are trump.
Ace 11, three 10, king 4, queen (the Italian knight) 3, jack 2; the 7, 6, 5, 4 and 2 are worth nothing. Cards rank in that same order, so a three beats a king and a 7 beats a 2.
120, thirty in each of the four suits. You need 61 to win the hand; 60–60 is a draw. A match is best of three hands by default, with best of five and single-hand options.
No. You may play any of your three cards. Only a briscola or a higher card of the led suit can win the trick; a high card of another suit just gives its points away.
Choose 4 players in Options. Partners sit opposite, play goes counter-clockwise, each hand is ten tricks, and the team's points are counted together. Partners cannot see each other's cards.
In Italian homes, yes, with traditional gestures. This table has no signal buttons: against the computer there is nobody to signal.
Yes: remove the 8s, 9s and 10s to leave 40 cards. That is what this table does, with diamonds standing in for the Italian coins; Italian suit art is planned as a display option.
Brisca is the Spanish version with a Spanish deck and the same rules. Briscola Chiamata is a five-player bidding variant in which the winning bidder calls a card to find a secret partner. Neither is offered here yet.
The player who won the trick, then the others in order of play. The face-up briscola card is the last card drawn, so whoever draws last before the final three tricks gets it.
The hand is a draw and counts for nobody. In a best-of-three match it is simply replayed; the dealer still changes.
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