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This page is based on a contribution from Paolo Marino who runs the Italian Game Reference site.
Briscola is a trick taking game - that is, the object of the game is to take cards which gives you (or your team) a high score. It is popular win Italy and it uses the Italian 40 card deck. It is often played with Italian cards, which have suits of coins, cups, batons and swords, but you may play using a standard international 52-card deck, just by removing the Jokers, eights, nines and tens. The same game is played in the coastal regions of Slovenia and Croatia under the name Briškula.
Briscola may be played with two, three, four or six players. There is a special version for five players, which is strongly recommended.
In order to define which card wins a particular trick, we must first define a card ranking, given from highest to lowest:
ace, three, king, queen, jack, 7, 6, 5, 4, 2.
Also, the cards have a point value:
ace: 11 points three: 10 points King: 4 points Queen: 3 points Jack: 2 pointsThe remaining cards have no point value.
As you see, the total value of cards in the deck adds up to 120 points. The player (or team) which scores at least 61 points in a game wins. Games can end in a draw when both reach the same point total (60), and usually Briscola is played to the best of three or five games.
When Italian suited cards are used, the picture cards rank in the order King (4 points), Cavallo (horse) (3 points), Fante (jack) (2 points).
Most books, when describing how to play Briscola with French suited cards (hearts, clubs, diamonds and spades) use the above card order King (4), Queen (3), Jack (2), which is normal in northern Italy. However, many players, especially in the south, reverse the role of the Queen and Jack. The card order is then Ace (11), Three (10), King (4), Jack (3), Queen (2), 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.
This is the easiest version of the game, and will serve as a basis for the multiplayer versions.
One of the two players shuffles the deck and deals three cards to each player. He then takes a card (the seventh, in this case) and puts it face up near the pile of undealt cards, which are placed face down. The face-up card suit defines which will be the Briscola suit for the game. The Briscola suit is the trump suit, i.e. the suit which always takes all other cards, card ranking notwithstanding.
The game starts. The first to play is the player to the right of the dealer. In the two player version, this means that the non-dealer (A) will start.
A leads one of his three cards, face up.
B plays one of his cards, and wins or loses the trick according to these three simple rules:
Example (Briscola is the four of spades):
Note that Briscola is unlike many card games, in that there is no obligation for the second player to play a card of the same suit as the first card or to trump it, just because he can. The second player is free to play any of his cards.
Note that if both players play a briscola, rule 1 dictates that the higher ranking card wins.
After each trick, each player draws a card from the pile of undealt cards, and the game goes on. The player who won the trick will lead to the next one.
Eventually the undealt cards will be used up, and one of the two players will have to draw the face up Briscola card. The game then continues, without drawing cards, until all the cards have been played.
At the end, each player takes the pile of cards he won in tricks during the game, and counts up the points according to the point scale shown above. The player with more points wins, or if each has 60, it is a draw.
Some people play that if the turned-up card, the one that indicates the trump suit, is an ace or a three (the two strongest cards), the card is put back in the middle of the deck and another card is turned up.
The game remains more or less the same, but the two pairs of players sit face to face, and each pair plays as a team, like in Bridge. Playing proceeds counter-clockwise.
When playing the 4 or 6 players versions, players should avoid talking about the cards they have in hand. However, some players use a system of signalling, using facial expressions to indicate what cards they have.
The player to the right of the dealer leads first. The other players may play ANY card (there is no requirement to follow suit). If no one plays a Briscola the trick is won by the highest card of the suit led. If one or more players plays a Briscola, the highest Briscola wins.
Each player in turn, starting with the winner of the trick, then draws a card from the undealt pile. The winner of the trick then leads to the next one.
When the undealt cards are used up, the next player draws the Briscola card, and the game continues without drawing until all the cards have been played.
The players are A, B, C, D, placed around a table like this:
A
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D | | B
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C
A and C play together against B and D. A deals the cards. Briscola (the thirteenth card) comes up as a three of hearts.
One system of signals in use to indicate high Briscola cards is as follows:
Ace stretch the lips over the teeth Three distort the mouth to one side King glance upwards Queen/Knight show the tip of the tongue Jack shrug one shoulder
This works in the same way as the four player version. The two teams are made up of three players each:
A B C ----------- | | ----------- D E FA, C and E play against D, B, F. The deck is reduced to 36 cards by taking away the two's.
It's played the same as the two player version, and the deck is reduced to 39 cards by taking away a 2. All three players try to gain the highest number of points.
Briscola Bastarda (Bastard Briscola), also known as Briscola Chiamata (Call Briscola) is probably the most enjoyable version of this game. The base mechanics remain the same, i.e. object of the game remains to gain the highest number of points, a briscola suit exists and so on, but there are two important twists to the basic game.
All the 40 cards are distributed among the players. Each receives eight cards, so no cards remain on the table, and everyone sees from the start all the cards in his/her hand.
Starting with the player to the right of the dealer, everyone in turn "declares" how many points he will probably score in the game, based on the cards he has in hand. Each bid must be higher than the previous one; a player who does not wish to bid higher can pass. A player who has passed cannot bid again during the auction. The bidding continues, for several rounds if necessary, until all the players except one have passed.
The highest bidder then "calls" the Briscola, i.e. decides which card will act as Briscola for the game. He declares which is the selected card to the other players. (Ace of clubs, for example). The called card identifies the briscola suit, but serves also to define which of the remaining players will team up with the first one: the three remaining players form a team which is opposed to the caller/holder pair.
The problem is that no-one, except the holder, knows which one of the players will team up with the caller.
The actual play is the same as in a "traditional" Briscola game. The play continues until all cards have been played.
The holder should avoid revealing his identity until the time comes to play the called card. The other players should try to deduce which player is playing with the caller, and adjust their strategy accordingly.
At the end of the game, points gained by the caller and by the holder are counted together.
If the total is equal to or more than what the caller declared before the game, he gets 2 points, the holder takes 1 points, and the three other players get -1 (negative) point each. If the total is less than the declared amount, the three players get 1 points each, while the caller loses 2 points and the holder 1 point.
At the start of the game, the players should agree how many points they will play to - usually 10-15 points. Further games are played until someone wins by reaching this total.
The caller can, if he has an exceptionally good hand, call for a card he has in its own hand. This will gain (or lose) him 4 points, while his opponents still gain/lose 1 point each.
The game is extremely funny: players need to decide whose side the others are on, mainly by observing the cards played during a round (it's forbidden to talk about the cards in one's own hand, as usual). The holder should walk a thin line between gaining points for himself and his partner, while avoiding being discovered too soon.
Some people play a different method of bidding. Players state the rank of the Briscola they wish to call (e.g. ace, three, king, ...), the objective being always to win at least 61 points. Each player in turn must pass or bid a lower rank than the previous bidder. So the bidding is won by whoever is prepared to call the lowest card. If someone bids "two", the bidding can continue by other players offering to call a two and win more than 61 points, and then the player who was prepared to call a two and win most points would win the bidding.
The freeware and PRO versions of Gianfranco Marzano's Briscola computer program are available from his Home Page dei giochi di carte italiani.
At the Italian site Tretre you can play Briscola on line against live players or against the computer, and also find rules of Briscola and several variants.
Žan Kafol has developed a Flash web site providing online multiplayer briškula (briscola) for 2, 3 or 4 players.
At Davide Gullo's GDM community site you can play Briscola Chiamata on line.
Don Neeper's freeware four-player Briscola game can be downloaded from http://www.crocker.com/~dneeper/briscola.zip. The author writes: "There are only two files in the .zip file, briscola.exe and briscola.hlp so there really aren't any installation instructions."
Here is Brian Friesen's freeware Briscola program for Windows.
You can download a freeware Briscola program from Thanos Card Games.
With the free Windows program BTM Pro, obtainable from Drazen's homepage, you can play Briscola and some other Italian games against the computer or against other players over a network.
Last updated 5th January 2009
