Briscola

"Briscola" is the popular Italian card game played with a 40-card deck. After shuffling the deck, 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, sometimes covering half of the face-up card. This card is the Briscola and represents the trump suit for the game. Before starting the game, if a player has two trumps, he/she can call "briscola." This move can only be made at the beginning of the game or during the first hand. Before playing the first hand (in the four-player game), teammates can show each other their cards. The deal and the game itself proceed counterclockwise. The player to the right of the dealer leads the first hand (or trick) by playing a card face up on the playing surface. Each player subsequently plays a card in turn until all players have played a card. The winner of that hand is determined as follows: - if a trump was played, the player who played the highest trump wins - if no trump was played, the player who played the highest card of that hand wins. Unlike other trump card games, players are not required to follow suit, meaning they can play a different suit than the leading player. Once the winner of a trick is determined, that player collects the played cards and places them face down in a pile. Each player keeps their own pile, though variations for four and six players may involve one player collecting all tricks won by their partners. Then, each player draws a card from the remaining deck, starting with the player who won the trick, proceeding counterclockwise. Note that the last card drawn in the game should be the turned-up Briscola. After all cards have been played, players calculate the total value of the points from the cards in their own pile. There is no need for keeping a score.