Quick Start Guide

In Briscola each player is dealt three cards. The next card is placed 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 down, followed by the other player.
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.
• 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.

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. This repeats until all cards have gone or one player reaches the target score. Note! – The last card collected 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 the first card down 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 A of the same suit. The scoring table is available in the game at all times.