Briscola Rules — How to Play and Keep Score
Briscola is the everyday Italian trick game — three cards in hand, a trump suit fixed at the start, and 120 points hiding in the deck. It is a point-trick game rather than a trick-count game, so winning many tricks means nothing if your opponents took the aces and threes.
Overview
Briscola is the everyday Italian trick game — three cards in hand, a trump suit fixed at the start, and 120 points hiding in the deck. It is a point-trick game rather than a trick-count game, so winning many tricks means nothing if your opponents took the aces and threes.
Setup
Use a 40-card Italian pack, or a standard pack with eights, nines and tens removed. With three or six players, remove the twos as well so the deck divides evenly, leaving 36 cards — twos are worth nothing, so all 120 points are still in play. Deal three cards each, then turn one card face up and slide it half under the remaining stock — its suit is the briscola, the trump suit, for the whole deal. Four and six player games are partnerships, seated so that no two partners sit next to each other.
How to play
The player to the dealer's right leads. There is no obligation to follow suit — you may play anything. A trick is won by the highest trump played, or, if no trump was played, by the highest card of the suit that was led. Ranking within a suit follows the point values below, so a three beats a king. The winner of a trick leads the next one, and each player draws one card from the stock, winner first. The face-up trump card is the last card drawn.
Scoring
Card points, counted from the tricks each side captured:
| Card | Points |
|---|---|
| Ace | 11 |
| Three | 10 |
| King | 4 |
| Horse (Queen) | 3 |
| Jack | 2 |
| Seven, six, five, four, two | 0 |
That is 33 per suit and 120 in the pack. Whichever side reaches the target — 61 by default — wins the deal. An exact 60-60 is a draw, and by default the draw carries so that the next deal is worth two.
Enter both sides' card points; they must always total 120, in every player count. If the sheet is set to record wins only, enter 1 for the winning side and 0 for the other — and drop the points to win a deal to 1 as well, because in that mode a single entry settles the deal instead of 120 card points.
Briscola Chiamata scores differently: if the caller's side reaches 61, the caller scores +2, the called partner +1, and each of the other three −1. If they fall short, the caller scores −2, the partner −1, and the others +1 each. If the caller ends up calling a card in their own hand they play alone, and the same numbers double. Taking every trick doubles the deal's result when that setting is on.
Ending the game
In match mode the first side to win two deals takes a best of three, or three deals a best of five. A carried draw means the next deal counts double towards that. In Chiamata, play an agreed number of deals and the highest plus-minus total wins.
Common variations
Briscolone drops trumps entirely and deals ten cards each. Some tables allow signalling between partners, which is a recognised part of the four-player game rather than cheating.
Scoring at a glance
| Who wins | First to target |
|---|---|
| Played to | 61 points by default |
| Score sheet | One number per player per round, with a running total |
| Typical round score | 0 – 120 |
| Negative scores | Never — scores only go up |
| Worth knowing | One number per side per deal — the card points captured in tricks. The two sides' entries for a deal must always add up to exactly 120. |
Briscola — score sheet
House rules and settings
Every table plays Briscola a little differently. These are the 6 rules groups argue about. Each one is a setting in the app — and changing it recalculates a match that is already in progress, which is the thing no other score keeper does.
Points to win a deal: what is the default in Briscola?
There are 120 card points in the pack, so 61 is more than half and wins the deal. Raising it makes deals harder to win outright and draws more likely.
Default: 61. Adjustable from 41 to 120 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Points to win a deal”.
Match length: what are the options in Briscola?
How many deals decide the match. Best of three is the usual bar game; best of five is played when there is more at stake.
Default: Best of three. Three options:
In the app: “Match length”.
What the sheet records: what are the options in Briscola?
Recording the full card points shows how close each deal was and catches counting mistakes, because both sides must add to 120. Recording only wins is quicker. Switching to wins means dropping the points to win a deal to 1, because a single entry then settles the deal instead of 120 card points.
Default: Card points each deal. Two options:
In the app: “What the sheet records”.
A 60-60 draw: what are the options in Briscola?
Splitting the pack exactly 60-60 is a genuine draw. Most groups let it ride so the next deal decides two games at once.
Default: Carries into the next deal. Three options:
In the app: “A 60-60 draw”.
Briscola Chiamata: on or off in Briscola?
The five-player calling game. One player bids for the right to name trumps and calls a card; whoever holds that card is their secret partner until it appears. Scoring switches to plus and minus points per player.
Default: off.
In the app: “Briscola Chiamata”.
Taking every trick doubles: on or off in Briscola?
A cappotto is capturing all 120 points. With this on, the result of that deal counts twice.
Default: off.
In the app: “Taking every trick doubles”.
Variants of Briscola
Briscola Chiamata
Five players, an auction for trumps, and a called card that creates a hidden partnership. Scored plus or minus per player rather than in card points.
Briscolone
No trump suit at all and ten cards each, so every trick is decided on rank within the suit led.
Brisca
The Spanish form, played with a Spanish deck and usually to a single deal rather than a match.
Briscola is also known as
Brisca, Briscas, Briscola Chiamata, Briscolone, Bisca. These are the same game — the rules and the score sheet above apply to all of them.
Keep score offline
The sheet above works in your browser. Cardzo for iPhone remembers your players, survives a closed tab, and works in a field with no signal.
Coming to the App Store.