Full Game Instructions

Briscola can be played using either the original Italian cards or the classic French playing cards. The game is the same in either card style and players can switch between the card styles at any time, using the options in the bottom left corner of the game screen. A classic Briscola card pack contains 40 cards, when playing in the French paying car style the 8s, 9s and 10s of all suites have been removed.
In the game of Briscola each player is initially dealt three cards.
The next card is dealt face up on the playing surface, and the remaining deck is placed face down. This face up card is the Trump Suit and is called the Briscola card.
A randomly selected player leads the first hand (or trick) by playing one of their three cards. This is done by clicking on the card you wish to place. The game will indicate who is to play by putting arrows around the player name and by the running game commentary located in the top left hand corner of the game window. Once the first person (the lead) places there card down then the other player will be given their turn to place a card down.
The winner of that trick is determined as follows:

• If any Briscola (trumps) have been played, the player who played the highest valued trump wins. The highest card possible is the Ace of the trumps suit, followed by the 3 of the trumps suite, then the king, queen and jack of the lead suite.
• If no Briscola (trumps) have been played, the player who played the highest card of the lead suit wins. The lead suit is the suit of the first card laid in that trick. So if the lead player plays a 2 of heart then the second player can play any card but to win the hand they must play either a higher ranked heart than the lead card or a trump suited card.

Unlike other trump card games, players are not required to follow suit, that is, to play the same suit as the lead player.
Once the winner of a trick is determined, the card are sent to the winners stack. Each player is then dealt another card from the remaining deck, starting with the player who won the trick. The last player to win a trick then goes first on the next hand. This repeats until all cards have gone or until one player reaches the target score. Note! The last card dealt to the player in the game should be the up-turned Briscola card.

When a player wins a hand any points on those cards are added to that player’s total. The first player to reach the games agreed total points wins the game.
The player who wins a trick then places there card down first on the next trick.
Only 5 cards from each suit carry points in Briscola and the order of the cards goes in the normal playing order apart from the scoring cards which are ranked as follows.

It is important to remember that a 3 ranks higher than all but an Ace of the same suit. The scoring table is available in the game at all times. Also remember that a trump suited card will beat any non trump suited card, even if that card is high in value. So for example if a the trump suite is Diamonds and the lead player puts a Ace of Spades on the table and the second player puts a 2 of Diamonds on the table, the second player will win the trick (hand) and score the 11 points.