How to Play Briscola

Briscola is Italy's best-loved card game — a fast, sociable trick-taking game for two, three, four or five players. All you need is a 40-card deck and a few minutes to learn the rules. Master it here, then play free in the app with guided practice hands.

Overview

Briscola (sometimes "brisca" outside Italy) is a trick-taking game where one suit is randomly chosen as trump for the hand. Unlike many trick games, the goal isn't to win the most tricks — it's to capture the cards worth the most points. A skilled player will happily let a worthless card go in order to win a trick loaded with Aces and Threes.

How to Play

1. Deal. Each player is dealt three cards. The next card from the deck is turned face up — its suit is trump (briscola) for the round — and set aside under the remaining deck.
2. Lead a card. The player to the dealer's right leads any card from their hand.
3. Follow. Each other player plays one card in turn. There's no obligation to follow suit in Briscola — you can play any card you like.
4. Win the trick. The highest trump played wins the trick. If no trump was played, the highest card of the suit that was led wins.
5. Draw back up. The trick winner takes the cards (and any points on them), then everyone draws one new card from the deck — winner first — to return to three cards each. The trick winner leads next.
6. Keep going until the deck (and the trump card) is used up and all cards have been played.
7. Score. Add up the point value of the cards you captured. Highest total wins.

Card Values & Points

Only five cards in each suit carry points — the rest are worth nothing, but they're still useful for controlling tricks.

• Ace — 11 points (highest card)
• Three — 10 points (second highest)
• King — 4 points
• Queen / Cavallo — 3 points
• Jack / Fante — 2 points
• All other cards (7, 6, 5, 4, 2) — 0 points, ranked in that order

There are 120 points in the deck in total, so with two players the target to win is 61 or more.

Strategy Tips

• Don't lead with your Ace early. Save high trumps to snap up tricks that already contain an opponent's Ace or Three.
• Watch the trump card. Since it sits face-up under the deck until the last draw, you'll know exactly when trumps run out — plan your last few tricks around that.
• Lead low, off-suit cards early when you're unsure what your opponent is holding, to draw out information cheaply.
• Count points, not tricks. Winning five worthless tricks is worse than winning one trick with an Ace and a Three in it.

Frequently Asked Questions

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