Belote
National card game of France and Saudi Arabia. Declare combos and win point tricks.
Belote is probably the most played game in France, essentially by adults (youngsters will probably play the "coinche" variant or Tarot during high school).
It has been known since around 1930 in France, and is played as a family game or as a gambling game (even if the latter has been prohibited in bistros).
A 32-card deck is needed (that means a poker deck without cards 2 – 6 and without jokers).
Belote is a point-trick taking game for 4 players.
Players forms teams of 2. Partners sit at opposite seats.
The dealer gives everybody 3 cards face down, then 2.
After that, the first card of the deck is turned face up. Its suit will serve as trumps.
Then, each player announces whether they will take this card or not. If a player takes it, they receive the face-up card. Then the dealer deals 3 cards to everyone except the taker, who receives only two. That makes for 8 cards for everyone.
If no player takes the card, we take another round were each player announces if they take the card, but also announce the suit that will serve as trumps if they do (instead of the suit of the face-up card).
Number of players: 4
Game duration: 19 mn
Complexity: 2 / 5
Play Belote and 959 other games online.
No download necessary - play directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Play Belote and 959 other games online.
No download necessary - play directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
Overview
- 32 card deck 78910JQKA.
- 2playersvs2players trick-taking game.
- Teammates cannot communicate during the game.
- First team to score ≥ 1000 points wins.
- Counter-clockwise turn order.
- Taker adds the card values to their team's score in each hand.
Rebelote: the 2nd Q or K of the trump suit.
Dix de Der: take the last trick of a hand (+10 points).
Capot: take all tricks of a hand (+90 points).
Attacking team: team with the player who took the bidding card.
Defending team: team without the player who took the bidding card.
Contract: scoring of the hand.
Contention: points tie at the end of a hand. Winner of the next hand gains the attacking team's points.
Taker: the player who wins the trick.
Trump: a suit that wins against any other suit.Scoring
| Rank | J | 9 | A | 10 | K | Q | 8 | 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trump value | 20 | 14 | 11 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 0 | |
| All trump value | 13 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 2 | ||
| Rank | A | 10 | K | Q | J | 9 | 8 | 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-trump value | 11 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 | ||
| No trump value | 19 | |||||||
Bidding
- 5cards in hand/players
- 1 card (of the remaining 12) is turned face-up.
- Bidding ends when a player takes the face-up card.
- Player to the right of the dealer leads.
- Players take turns to pass or take the face-up card:
- 1st round: face-up card suit is the trump suit.
- 2nd round: choose the trump suit.
- All / No Trumps: 3rd round: choose all trumps or no trumps.
- If all players pass, the cards are re-dealt and the dealer changes.
- The remaining deck is dealt: +3 ⇨ 8cards in hand/players.
Playing
- 8 tricks/hand.
- Player to the right of the dealer leads 1st trick.
- Players take turns to play a card:
- Must follow suit, else
- must play a higher trump if their team has not played the strongest trump, else
- must discard.
- Taker gains points for every card.
- Taker leads the next trick.
Bonus points
- Dix de Der: take the last trick of a hand (+10 points).
- Capot: take all tricks of a hand (+90 points, total 252 points).
- Belote-Rebelote: A single player who plays both Q and K of a trump suit gains 20 points for their team.
- All trumps: a hand can have up to 4 belote-rebelote pairs (+20 points each).
- If the attacking team has fewer points than the defending team, they lose the contract.
- Attacking team: +0 points.
- Defending team: +162 points.
- If the teams are tied on points, there is a Contention:
- Defending team immediately gains their points.
- Winner of the next hand gains the attacking team's points.
- Excludes Belote-Rebelote points.
